Long Range Eye Tracking for Advertisers

holy_calamity writes "A Canadian firm has launched a device that can track the gaze of multiple people from up to 10 metres away. Originally developed at Queen's University, Ontario, they hope to sell it to advertisers to allow them to monitor how many people look at their ads. Admittedly they are trying more benign stuff too like better hearing aids, but I doubt that will make up for movie posters that make a song and dance whenever you glance their way."

Comments

So all my paranoid fantasies will come true?

[Nursie]

They will be able to tell where I'm looking. Advertisers, Law Enforcement, that hot chick on the underground...

Damn

Re:So all my paranoid fantasies will come true?

[malsdavis]

A pair of dark glasses and a 70's style trenchcoat will fix that. The hot chick will never suspect a thing.

Re:So all my paranoid fantasies will come true?

[tomhudson]

"A pair of dark glasses"

s/dark/mirrored/;

... and uv/ir blocking ...

Or just walk around with a few laser pointers strapped to your head, lik a shark, and randomly zap the cameras as you stroll along. Just don't look at any airplains or helicopters, or you'll be arrested as a "terr'rist."

(yes, I tested blinding a security camera with a laser pointer. You can easily do it from 10 meters if you can rest your hand on something, like a desk or counter, and "walk" the beam to the camera. It was fun watching the resulting image "bloom").

Re:So all my paranoid fantasies will come true?

[not-enough-info]

Hello Mr. Yukkamoto and welcome back to the GAP!

Re:So all my paranoid fantasies will come true?

[wizzahd]

HAHA!
"You can't see through them," they said!
"Who would wear those?!" they said!

The best move I ever made was patenting tin foil glasses!

RTS

[MorpheousMarty]

This needs to replace the mouse. Give me this and Supreme Commander and I will... have fun.

Re:RTS

[panaceaa]

Using your eyes as a mouse has been tried before, but I've heard from user researchers that the eye jiggles around too much to make a reliable pointing device. If you've ever been at a usability study where there's an eye tracking device, you know what I mean -- the eye tracking dot dances all over the text, and even when a user's focusing on a button the eye dances around the corners of the button, and to the nearby buttons, while the user processes the button's meaning and makes sure he's clicking the right thing. One thing I can't explain is how the military uses eye tracking to aim missiles -- it seems like that system would run into the same problems.

My basic feeling towards your idea is that it's absolutely great for disabled people, but personally I like being able to look at one thing but have my mouse hovering over something else.

Re:RTS

[mleugh]

My god, you're right! Nostril flaring (à la fluffy bunnies) would be a much better control method.

What could go wrong?

[Anonymous Coward]

1. "Honestly honey, I was not looking at her breasts and that camera is a lying snitch".
2. "Hey Bob, couldn't help to notice that you were staring at your crotch. Could I interest you in a Corvette?"
3. "PLEASE PULL UP YOUR PANTS".

It's a Phillip K. Dick Future,

[justsomecomputerguy]

we'll just be living in it.

Privacy

[ZDRuX]

I hope some privacy groups outlaw this. I understand that being in public means you're open to any prying eyes about how you're dressed, which direction you're heading in or even the things to say to other people in the open. But tracking eye movement? I`m not sure if that feels "ok" with me... It's common understanding that even in public your "thoughts" are private and your own.. wouldn't it also apply to what your mind decides to look at?..

If I decide to sneak a peak at an ad that shows a gay couple.. or shows an ad on how to deal with drug addiction.. will I be labeled as a gay drug addict to that/those companies?

Maybe I should take off my tin foil hat for a bit and get some fresh air.. hopefully I`m just over reacting.

Re:Privacy

[Watson Ladd]

That's before you hook it up to a face recognition system. The correct time to legislate is before foreseeable abuses happen, not after.

Are you looking at me?

[tinrobot]

Are you looking at me?

I'm sure Travis Bickle would have something to say about this...

Oh no...

[MrSteveSD]

I hope they don't start building these devices into women's clothing.

Um, sunglasses anyone?

[justsomecomputerguy]

just a low-tech thought... But where will I find a pair that don't clash with my tinfoil hat?

Re:Um, sunglasses anyone?

[corsec67]

Almost all sunglasses are transparent in near-ir, which this uses. Glasses tend to be opaque in far-ir, but unless you get some really expensive, special sunglasses, they will be transparent in near-ir.

The near-ir blocking glass found in digital cameras has a very blue tint, so I don't know how feasable it would be to make sunglasses that didn't have that blue tint and still blocked near-ir.

Better uses

[bender647]

I'd rather see this technology used to track my focus on the desktop.

Re:Better uses

[Yenya]

I'd rather not.

I often need to read something from one window (an example in the manpage, maybe), and write without looking into another window. This is why auto-raising the focused window is plain wrong (it can obscure the window you want to read from) and this is why using the device from TFA for focus tracking would not be usable.

If I were them

[Who235]

. . .movie posters that make a song and dance whenever you glance their way

If I were them, I'd make it so they moved more when you looked away - causing you to look back.

In all seriousness though, this technology is a little creepy. Not only that, but tracking eye movement has to have better applications than simply refining the process of ad targeting.

Ad space boom at titsandass.com

[EmbeddedJanitor]

One way this technology could be used is to pay per view. ie. Freelance advertisers put up display ads and get paid per view. A bit like Google ads in the physical world.

Beat the system ...

[Tribbin]

... cross your eyes.

Advertisements kill everything

[mangu]

Advertisers need to end their delusions, they must realize that they nearly killed the internet, and are in the process of killing TV

Marketing is one of the most obnoxious influences in modern history, perhaps only lawyers and religion are as destructive.

There are people like engineers, programmers, farmers, teachers, machinists, etc, who do productive work. These people *create* goods and services. They *generate* stuff that people enjoy, the result of their work is more than the input.

What marketing does to their customer is, if everything goes well, to increase market share, which means another corporation loses an equivalent market share. Marketing generates nothing. The result of marketing is always less than the input.

Re:Advertisements kill everything

[mpcooke3]

There are people like engineers, programmers, farmers, teachers, machinists, etc, who do productive work. These people *create* goods and services. They *generate* stuff that people enjoy, the result of their work is more than the input.

Unfortunately a lot of those fantastic selfless engineers and programmers are paid for their work by that evil advertising revenue.
The majority of software developed for the interweb is one small example.

Re:Advertisements kill everything

[shakuni]

Your understanding of marketing is, i must say, very limited and mostly wrong. Marketing is often used synonymously with advertising, which is wrong. A good marketer understands the consumer needs at an individual level and is able to aggregate it at multiple levels. A good marketer, based on this knowledge, is able to provide product definition. A good marketer is then able to provide critical inputs on what is the best way to communicate this to the customer and best way to make it available to the customer, while ensuring that the company makes money. Now each of these require a lifetime of experience and study and hence often are sub-functions called product management, brand management, pricing manager, distribution/channel manager etc. Without all this thought and its execution through operations, no R&D will have the legs to get the right products to paying customers. There is a lot of BS that happens in the name of marketing but that happens even with engineering.... I have seen terrible marketers and worse engineers.

Somebody's gotta say it, might as well be me...

[Crazyscottie]

In Soviet Russia, movie posters watch YOU!

Already here

[PPH]

A Canadian firm has launched a device that can track the gaze of multiple people from up to 10 metres away.

Such devices already exist. They're called tits.

Tried a research prototype a few months ago...

[Telcontar]

In Japan, there is a similar project studying whether eye tracking can be used to see how well people follow a virtual reality presentation. The idea is that if your gaze wanders off, then you lost track, and the presentation backtracks a bit to gain your attention again.

The tool needed extensive calibration and only works reliably for people who do not wear glasses. So I think the technology is still a bit away from everyday commercial use.

Even when not wearing glasses, the tool is not very precise. The demo had a male and female speaker. When I tried it, the male presenter complained that I was distracted by looking at the window next to the girl. Of course I was not distracted by the view of the landscape, but by the girl ;-)

I will smash or destroy every one I come across

[DragonTHC]

This sort of device will not be tolerated by me or my species.

I firmly believe that advertisers should be put on a secluded island so they can fight to the death.

A killer app (and partner)

[can56]

for this technology: Apple Computer announced today that it has developed a computer chip that can store and play music in women's breast implants. The iBreast will cost $499 to $599. This is considered to be a major breakthrough because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them. Imagine if, everytime you looked at a breast, it played music!