At Immersive Labs, Ads Watch Who Looks At Them (VIDEO)

Next time you look at a billboard, it might be looking back. It'll know your age, gender and how long you've been staring at it.

Targeted advertising is the golden goose of the online economy: ads keyed to a user's unique interests have been shown to double the effectiveness of traditional ads. But those ads have been restricted to the Internet--until now.

New York City startup Immersive Labs's outdoor ads use artificial intelligence to target the individuals or groups looking at them. Our video of Immersive Lab's ads below shows how they increase engagement and bring the Web's interactivity and customization out into the real world.

The facial recognition software can determine the gender and age of whoever is walking by, and, if there's more than one person looking, can detect the makeup of the crowd. That's nothing new. Billboards have been able to identify these characteristics for years. But unlike past technology, Immersive uses this information to deliver the ad with the best calculated chance of getting your attention at that moment. Alongside the consumer's information, the software customizes ads by pulling in local data including the weather and social media updates from sites like Twitter.

So if a fifty-year-old man strolls by an ad for tampons, the ad will morph seamlessly into an ad for running shoes before he gets there. If a crowd of men and women of all ages come by on a cold morning, the display might transform into an ad for hot coffee: a gender-neutral, time and weather appropriate solution. And if hundreds of people are tweeting about the Knicks game, the software might realize a sports game is unfolding nearby, and display a nicely appropriate Gatorade ad.

The display's built-in camera uses an artificial intelligence that learns as it measures just how long people view specific ads. "Successful" ads draw viewers' sustained attention, while unsuccessful ones are ignored or merely glanced at. Over time, the AI uses this data to get better at knowing what you'll want to see.

All of this might bring to mind the eerily-prescient tech classic, Minority Report, in which a frantic Tom Cruise sprints by ads that call out his name and track his location. Immersive's founders emphasize that privacy is a big priority for the company; all information gathered is private. The video below, which displays users' faces as they look at the ad is primarily to help illustrate how the ad functions, and not a part of the everyday software. There is no opt-out available for those who might not want to participate, however.

"The information that we are collecting is purely numerical," Immersive CEO Jason Sosa told the Huffington Post. "It’s not identifiable to any one particular person."

Immersive tested the ads in the Sony Style Store in New York, and they're due for a wider release at a Hudson News Kiosk in John F. Kennedy Airport.

WATCH:

Video by HuffPost's Hunter Stuart

Comments

[antoniamatthews]

09:58 AM on 04/28/2011

This technology offers some real value to advertisers - outdoor media is one of the least targeted mediums, but technology like this means the ability to really target ads to a more precise audience. That targeting ability also means increased relevance for the consumer.

As a media planner, I'm curious about the pricing model for this. It needs to necessarily be different than typical out of home/digital outdoor media.

[Andrew Wojtkowski]

03:49 PM on 04/27/2011

Okay, that watcher looks like a frat boy and the ad is of a woman's perfume.

I think it's broken.

[Phoenix]

12:15 PM on 04/27/2011

I can see ways that facial recognition technology is useful and can be handled well, including much of the data-gathering activity and use of AI this post talks about. However, the use of one’s image for advertisement without permission goes too far. If you’ve ever read Terms and Conditions…ha ha, yeah right, but seriously…on some social media sites, dating sites, etc., many make it clear that if, for example, you upload that picture of yourself up into the public sphere, you may end up starring in the site’s advertisements. You commonly grant permission for this in agreeing to the terms, because yeah, you want to use the site and put up your photos and all that.

But this sort of “grab your image and publicly use it for whatever the bleep I want” marketing is an invasion of privacy and/or infringement on my image rights in the copyright sense. Calling out one’s name to grab attention (the scene in Minority Report that this post talks about) would constitute a similar sort of breach.

[Jonathan Dennis]

11:57 AM on 04/27/2011

HuffPo needs a new video player.

[Jose Periut]

10:11 AM on 04/27/2011

doesnt matter.. i still wont buy their siht

[hunkindoo1]

09:52 AM on 04/27/2011

Miss no talent!

[etnoobanga]

09:47 AM on 04/27/2011

More than Likely It is not just targeting Consumers the Big Picture is by far a "more devious use". This is No Good! In order to target a Consumer Base Stick to the Old Fashion Method of Taking Surveys. This conniving invention was basically contrived for a more underhanded premise one more tool to keep up with the public which is an "invasion of privacy".

The sales pitch throws you off they tried to make it an easy sale, Trick No Good~!

[sallysees]

09:22 AM on 04/27/2011

!!CREEPY?? This is light years beyond that 1950's scare people in movie theaters felt about so-called subliminal ads they saw on the screen during the cartoons and commericals.

The bright minded and ambitious young men and women driven by greed, with access to the kind of cutting.edge state of the art technical means to electronically monitor us in the public spaces..yes that smells to high heaven ethically, not to mention its a kind of objectification of what is most fragile and vulnerably, humanly weak about us as individual persons.
If someone knows what you feel and think to this degree that is inferred here, isn't that tantamount to taking money out of your pockets as you would a child's weekly allowance?
This is Mad Men stuff on Steroids, cause we are way past the point of them merely manipulating us to buy their brand. This is intensely cultural; a mass socialization and utterly powerful enculturation leaving the individual with no other place to stand, where you cannot buy a pair of Jeans without worshiping the monolithic materialist industrial "Voice".
But that is far, far from the least of it.
Now, we merely have those who are in this for greed, and perhaps a sense of power, that use this frightfully powerful technological means.
But what if it fell into the hands of, say, a Facist, a sweet-talking, psychopath with megla-maniacal, messianically driven dreams to rule the world.

.the Anti-christ comes to mind...

[brookmo]

09:05 AM on 04/27/2011

Guess I'll be wearing hoodies everywhere in public!

[Pavane]

10:18 AM on 04/27/2011

Actually, I was thinking hooded long cloaks could make a real come back.

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

12:11 AM on 04/27/2011

Just what we need.

[DaneAZ]

12:05 AM on 04/27/2011

Remember Minority Report?

Buying a fake face to wear in public might just become the next popular move.

[Pavane]

10:18 AM on 04/27/2011

Maybe the Burka IS a good idea!

[seajewel]

08:24 PM on 04/26/2011

As I'm logging in I see HP wants more info on me: "Your micro-bio is empty." My micro-bio is empty? So what. I like it that way!

Perfect timing AOL Thanks Arianna.

This is not sort of creepy or getting creepy it IS creepy. With all the security breeches and accidental leaks. I'll be walking around holding my umbrella all year long if this keeps up. I'm disgusted that NYC would do this to us.

[itsjimmy]

06:16 PM on 04/26/2011

This is kinda cool... but kinda creepy at the same time.. at least if the ad was relevant to me it would be beneficial.. but other than that it's just weird.

[Peace Walker]

10:08 AM on 04/27/2011

And if you are on a limited budget, barraged with ads specifically targeted to you everywhere you go urging you to buy things that you do not need?

[Natems86]

05:16 PM on 04/26/2011

Instead of fearing 2012 we should fear 1984

[Isabelle Parker]

06:12 PM on 04/26/2011

yeah, my first thought on this was "wow. George Orwell is a motherfuckin PROPHET."

[SickHippie]

12:00 AM on 04/27/2011

That's been my first thought a lot lately...

[no exit]

04:27 PM on 04/26/2011

Is this invasive? Oh hell no. Anything that benefits multinational corporations is fine with me. After all they're running the country and should get extra bennies.