minority report commercials

February 15, 2009

The movie, Minority Report, includes in its backdrop a complete set of near-future tech. While the film was released in 2002, it is based on a 1956 short story by Philip K. Dick. Based on the wikipedia differences between the story and film, I’d guess the whole eye-scanning commercial was a “fiction” invented for the film. Now, the folks at Quividi are seeking to make that fiction a reality (via bitch).

If this were to take off, they could accurately measure CPMs for billboards and in-store advertising. I bet that would change the cost structure of internet vs. physical signage. Of course, it is technically possible to do the same on the Web. The difference is that on the Web, you need to give permission for someone to invade your privacy. On the street, there is no privacy. It is impolite for people to stare at you and if a human persists in that behavior, he or she can be arrested for stalking you. However, machines are not held to the same behavioral standards as humans are.

I can imagine a whole network of advertising that tracks what you look at, what collection of products intrigues you, and as physical in-store displays transform to the more cost-effect holo-display with easy bar-code scanning for purchase, then the products they expect you to buy can be placed near the front of the store.

Here’s an illustration of Quividi in action, assessing whether a person is looking at the advertisement and whether the viewer is a man or a woman:


watch video clip

Here’s a snapshot from Minority Report:

watch video clip

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