Bus stop ad that can tell your sex
Pedestrians are reflected in a shop window as they walk along Oxford Street, in central London. Pedestrians are reflected in a shop window as they walk along Oxford Street, in central London.
A street advert which uses facial-recognition technology to tell men from women is to be used for the first time.
The electronic hoarding, to be unveiled on a bus stop in London’s Oxford Street this week, plays a 40-second advertisement - with a different message depending on the gender of who is looking at it.
Only women will be able to view the full message, which is for a charity promoting female education worldwide. Men will just be directed to its website.
The advert echoes 2002 Tom Cruise thriller Minority Report, in which billboards directly targeted individuals.
The system uses a camera to guess gender by measuring the distance between eyes, width of nose, length of jaw-line and cheekbone shape.
A spokesman for the charity, Plan UK, said: “We’re not giving men the choice to see the full ad - so they get a glimpse of what it’s like to have basic choices taken away.”
Privacy campaigners condemned the advert as “creepy” and experts said it marked a future of personal advertising with “no boundaries”.
“I wouldn’t wear that shirt, dear - you might confuse the bus stop ads” - Daily Mail