Minority Reports for the Majority

"John Anderton. You could use a Guinness right about now!" The target of this statement is Tom Cruise's character in the futuristic 2002 film Minority Report. It is the stand-out message in a relatively short scene in which we see him faced with a number of highly targeted, digital display adverts. Adverts that recognise his face and present him with 'relevant' (if not exactly timely) personalised content.

The scene probably left marketers salivating at the possibilities - until they remembered, regrettably. that they were indeed watching a sci-fi. Surely such tailored messaging would be out of their reach for years to come...

However, recent technological advances suggest that this may actually be reality far sooner than we think. Forget 2054, try 2012.

Can it really work? Will it be cheap enough? Would anyone really give away all their personal details? Well actually, the answer is yes - to all of the above.

Let me bring two exhibits to the table.

Exhibit 1: Immersive billboards - digital signage that is equipped with cameras that can roughly work out your gender, age and whether or not you are with friends. It can then offer you tailored advertising based on some assumptions.

http://www.psfk.com/2011/04/immersive-is-the-google-adwords-of-intelligent-digital-signage.html


Exhibit 2: Facebook picture recognition - a 'service' that 
 recognises the faces in your photo albums and tags them automatically in order to save you time.

It does not take a genius to propose synching the two types of technologies together. You could create a system that not only could establish who you are, but scan your personal page to discover what your interests are, what brands you like and who you are mates with.

I say bring it on...

I like to think that when they get hold of my page it will only be a matter of time before I'm offered a half price bottle of Bacardi, last minute gig tickets and a new (replacement) phone. Winning!