Slashdot Mirror
New Ad Technology Tracks Consumer Movement
mingrassia writes "Over at CNN: New technology tracks consumer movement, flashes messages and calls out to passersby. Meet the Human Locator. It's a new technology developed by Canadian ad agency Freeset Interactive that purports to detect when humans are near, track their movement, and then broadcast messages directed at them on a nearby screen. Conspiracy theorists can relax, however. The Human Locator can't yet identify, say, obese pedestrians and then bombard them with images of a cheeseburger and fries."
In Minority Report. Next thing you know I'll have to change my eyes.
I guess it was only a matter of time. Now I need some kind of pop-up blocker!
Hmm...maybe a tinfoil hat will work??
I don't see why this is revolutionary technology. This could have been done for years, with basic motion-detector technology. I also don't see why this would make ads any more "localized" than any other print billboards. I don't see why people would mind a billboard talking to them either, it's not as if they haven't heard any other recorded voices being played back.
Anyways, this technology seems redundant and pointless. Researchers should spend their time working on something useful than coming up with a billboard that lights up when you pass.
YOU DO NOT KNOW BE MUT PLEASE TO INTRODUCE myself. i mean know harm to , and god willing, only good shall come from this video screen. i am alandra seko seso, of the african republic of....
I'd imagine they'd start with `identification' of the sort of "average color on the moving blob/person", then (in a few years) move to female/male recognition (to better target ads), then to possibly scanning various chips embeded in your teeth for a positive match of who you are, and how often you pass by that ad.
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Uh, wasn't it just three articles ago we were talking about a GPS stalker, and it was a bad thing that one person was tracking one other person? Does many to many, instead of one to one, make it okay?
Sigs are like bumper stickers.
I will just make sure I go that extra mile to avoid buying their products, and make sure I inform people of why.
So to all /.ers who will get up in arms over this...don't. It is inevitable that this technology will be developed. They will use it to intrude on our lives. But remember, ultimately you have a choice (until the law states otherwise) about whether or not they get your dollars. And if they don't, they just wasted all that cash on something that will just lose them customers.
If you really want to do something about it, write to the company (and the ad agency they use) and let them know that you will be buying the product of a competitor who uses less intrusive, annoying advertising. Its as simple as that, and you don't have to stress about anything.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
"Hello, Sir. You look like a man who nees a larger penis!"
If companies (walmart for example) are willing to sell data such as who bought which product containing rfid tag x then the advertisers just need to scan for certain rfid ids and figure out what to try and sell the person. Just remember its your duty to make sure these sorts of databases are filled with the most useless crap you can think of!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
In Capitalist America, adds watch YOU!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
I'm seeing either funny posts or angry posts about this. So to those who are angry, who gives a shit?
Does this technology identify who I am yet? No. Does it identify where I go yet? No. Does it identify what I have brought yet? No. Then what's the big deal? These advertisements don't intrude upon you anymore then current adverts do. They just pop up when they see a person as opposed to always being shown.
Most likely people feel it WILL do a lot of the things I just said. But I have to ask, are they such a bad thing? The biggest problem is most likely won't get to decide if the ad does a lot of the stuff I just said, but what if you could opt-in. Would you care then? They aren't going to show more ads JUST because of this technology, so why not opt-in to have them target the ads to you? I know I wouldn't mind on one proviso, I could fill out a form saying "I don't wish it to take into consideration anything involving sex that I buy" (condoms, porno, etc). If the advertising companies allowed for that sort of control on our part, I think many people would use it.
Imagine instead of having to watch yet another viagra advertisement or another herpes ad or another car ad, you got to see ads about the latest video game, some special on ram. Now wouldn't you much prefer that to a toyota ad. And if you don't, don't opt-in. But people are forgetting advertisements aren't a bad thing, it's just a lot of the time they're not interesting to us and therefore a waste of time. If they could stop being useless, they'd be useful.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I went to the grocery store the other day, and as I was walking up close to the door the darned thing opened for me. It was the weirdest thing ever. Then, when I got to the other side... It closed.
Creepy.
The ______ Agenda