Do you ever get the creep feeling that store mannequins are … watching you? Well, that feeling may now be justified. Italian display form company Almax has recently introduced its EyeSee line of mannequins, that are equipped with cameras and microprocessors in their heads.
The idea behind the mannequins is that they could be located in storefront windows or specific areas of the store, where they would gather demographic data on the customers. Using facial recognition software, they can reportedly determine things such as a person’s age range, gender and race. The mannequins will also keep track of the number of people to pass through a certain area within a given amount of time, and how much time each person spends there.
Almax suggests that store owners could then use that data to develop targeted marketing strategies, to place salespeople in the parts of the store with the highest traffic, to see what times of day are busiest (and with what sort of customers), and to gauge the effectiveness of window displays or the popularity of displayed items.
Needless to say, privacy concerns are definitely an issue. According to the company, all the data is processed within the mannequins, so no outside computers are involved, and nothing is transmitted. Nonetheless, that doesn’t change the fact that the mannequins would actually be watching you – and scrutinizing you.
You could always complain to the government, right?
It’s because he is a member of the same religious cult as this guy: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/11/26/jamie-foxx-calls-obama-our-lord-and-savior#ixzz2DKou43ep
This is still the sh!tt!est comment system on the interwebitudes.
Not if you’re a hipster.
Paging Hollywood Montrose …..
And would you feel any better if they had a little old lady sitting in a corner collecting the same data? And, aren’t you under surveillance ANYTIME you are in a department store? A Mall ? A Casino? If you are being watched, what difference does it make what gets recorded?
It WOULD of course be cool if the mannequins had red l.e.d. eyes that light up every so often.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/360369/End-of-the-Doctor-s-surgery
This ought to be fun.
Next you will call up your “physician” and be told if you are sick press 1. If you have and injure press 2. Etc.
If the mannequin figures out what you are thinking, can it also slap you? I’m just askin’.
This multi-million dollar investment uncovers that 99% of men look at mannequin boobs.
Am I the only one thinking that this could make interesting reality TV?
This would be interesting for a while, but a retail setting might get boring.
Marketing majors and Ad Men may really enjoy it.
Some website aggragates how much “eyes on” camera time NA$CAR sponsors get.
This system would not only monitor the clothing company’s display “eyes on” time, but also all other displays in that section of the store.
If we had this in 1981, we wouldn’t have the Americas Most Wanted show.
Umm,
something to understand..
And its posted on their front door..
all Business is considered Private property..Unless otherwise stated, under STATE LAW..
sadly, these mannequins are still smarter than the average shopper.
“You could always complain to the government, right?”
Har! Coming from an editor who enthusiastically supports a government with the worst privacy rights record in history, and that includes Bush the Tard…..that’s certainly ballsy. Unless of course, you were being facetious.
“According to the company, all the data is processed within the mannequins, so no outside computers are involved, and nothing is transmitted.”
So, the whole marketing department is watching the screen in the back of the mannequin and taking notes only. And they go from mannequin to mannequin all the time.
It must have been a marketing department that wrote that statement…
Oh well. All the sheeple think CCTV everywhere is quite normal also already. Those have facial recognition these days. And your in their database forever. I think many shops already do these things, only without expensive mannequins.
I wonder how much the government would pay for their data.
Maybe they should hang a sing around the necks of these mannequins “I am not only watching you, asshole!”?
Caught staring at the nipple cams again, awesome!
Interesting, I just purchased a GoPro camera for my car so I can catch all you crazy drivers on video. I don’t feel it’s too intrusive.
I would totally hit the mannequin anyways. But in a Christian missionary way.