New adverts could know what you're thinking

 

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By Stuart Turton in Hannover

Posted on 6 Mar 2008 at 12:45

New facial recognition technology from a German company could let advertisers know exactly what you're feeling about its advertisement, at the same instant you do.

The technology on display at CeBIT 2008, analyses the expressions of everyone who walks past the booth, assessing the curve of their mouth, the shape of their eyes and dozens of other minute alterations before making a determination on whether that person is angry, happy, sad, surprised or simply not paying attention.

It can even make a determination on the gender of the person it's scanning, relaying all this information in realtime back to the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits, the company who created it.

Currently all the information is being displayed on a monitor to amuse the crowds passing by, but eventually the institute hopes to integrate tiny cameras running the software into advertising posters on public high streets, giving advertisers second by second analysis on how their poster is affecting people, with the results adjustable by gender, age, date and time.

It's creators also believe it could have applications in motoring, monitoring for boredom in the driver or drooping eyes indicating they're not paying attention.

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