Parts of Britain could soon become a Minority Report-style reality with Ocean Outdoor UK, one of the country’s largest digital advertising firms personalising outdoor digital billboards to those commuters passing by.
From next month, commuters at Birmingham’s largest train station, New Street, will become guinea pigs for state-of-the-art digital screens that will be shaped like eyes and beam adverts tailored specifically to those looking at them.
If New Street takes off, it could become the start of a move towards advertising seen in the blockbuster filmMinority Report, starringTom Cruise, which depicted a world in which billboards can identify people.
Such use of digital advertising has also been growing sufficiently in the far east and Germany. Earlier this year a local German brewerAstra Bierused facial recognition techniques to target female drinkers in Hamburg with video advertising.