Facial recognition for audience measurement

Big brother is watching you

British digital out-of-home operator Amscreen is to become one of the biggest users of facial recognition for audience measurement, rolling out Quividi’s technology to more than 6000 screens across its networks over the coming months.
The fast-growing operator, which has been expanding into Europe and now gets more than 50m views each week of its small screens mostly situated in retail outlets, is giving a vote of confidence to the technology after a year-long trial.
The Quividi system will analyse audiences by gender and age as well as recording the date, time and volume of views. Amscreen claims that 94 percent of shoppers in the venues where its screens are present view the content.
Said the network operator’s CEO Simon Sugar: “We are all aware that the media industry as a whole is moving more and more towards real-time planning and audience measurement and away from traditionally modelled audience metrics, hence we are now placing significant investment and resource on delivering this kind of depth of insight.
“Through access to extensive site and audience data from our network partners and our own detailed research studies, we already have actual audience data by screen and by hour. Our investment in this technology will support and enrich this audience data as we continue to raise the bar in terms of accountability, compliance and transparency.
“Our aim is to optimise our advertisers’ campaigns, reduce wastage and in turn help to shed the image that outdoor cannot be ultimately measurable and transparent.”
Via: http://screenmediamag.com (10 April 2013)