In a scene in the 2002 movie “Minority Report,” set in 2054, Tom Cruise’s character walks through a subway station lined with camera lenses and talking digital billboards. “John Anderton!” one of them calls out to him. “You could use a Guinness right about now.”
Such a setup will be technologically feasible much sooner than 2054. Already, digital billboards and signs scan faces to gather demographic information for marketing purposes. A wide array of companies, from Adidas to Whole Foods, has rolled out systems that predict gender and age and then deliver targeted ads. Intel says its AIM (Audience Impression Metrics) suite of software, which powers the Adidas and Whole Foods systems, can predict gender with 94 percent accuracy and age range with 90 percent accuracy.
