Your Mug Is a Marketing Tool
Our dog is out of kibble so I hop into the car and rush to the store where I usually purchase it. As I step through the front door, a cheery feminine voice beckons me.
“Hello, William; welcome back to Snoopy’s Pet Emporium.” The sound emanates from a video display in a kiosk. “How’s your little Shih Tzu doing?”
“Little?” I mumbled. “You’ve got that wrong.”
The voice, accompanied by an animated image of a wagging tail, doesn’t seem to care what I’m saying and keeps jabbering. “Are you picking up a bag of Tidy Biteys today? [The screen flashes the packaging.] Your Shih Tzu is about due for a fresh supply, and I can save you 10 percent today with our preferred shopper coupon. I’ve just transmitted the barcode to your smartphone. Simply scan it at checkout. And don’t forget his heartworm medication, William.”
Nothing quite like that sci-fi-sounding scenario has happened to me yet, but similar situations are becoming a daily reality in retail settings around the world, including malls, hotels, banks, and entertainment spots. Ready or not, we’ll all have to get used to being greeted by “facial recognition” technology as it becomes a major marketing tool of corporations— and potentially another step in the demise of our diminishing expectations of privacy.
Already in wide use in Japan, The Los Angeles Times reports that facial recognition is going to become much more commonplace in America in the next few years as major brands adopt programming to spur store visitors to make purchases.
“You can put this technology into kiosks, vending machines, digital signs,” Christopher O’Malley, director of retail marketing for Intel’s embedded and communications group, told The Times. For example, the newspaper reports, the Venetian resort in Las Vegas already uses facial recognition on digital displays to provide suggestions for restaurants, clubs, and entertainment based on a person’s age and other demographics.
Much of the early software has been based on relatively simple attributes such as age and sex. Kraft Foods, for instance, has negotiated with a supermarket chain to use the technology in its stores. “If it recognizes that there is a female between 25 and 29 standing there, it may surmise that you are more likely to have minor children at home and give suggestions on how to spice up Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for the kids,” the company’s vice president of retail experience told The Times.
A customer’s race also could play a part in the targeting of products. Knowing that many younger black males favor Air Jordan sneakers, an athletic shoe company could pitch them on a new style endorsed by a professional basketball star.
“If a retailer can offer the right products quickly, people are more likely to buy something,” Chris Aubrey, vice president of global retail marketing for Adidas, told The Times.
Meanwhile, highly specific facial recognition which, like fingerprinting, allows identification of an individual, has been advancing “at exponential speeds,” according to science and tech blogger Dick Pelletier (positivefuturist. com): “Every human face has landmarks called nodal points which include distance between the eyes, length and width of nose, cheekbone shape, jaw line, and depth of eye sockets. These points create a unique 3D ‘face-print.’”
According to facial recognition company Visionics, as few as 14 of approximately 80 nodal points on a human face are required for its software to identify someone. Such a system (initially touted as a tool for law enforcement) theoretically can scan through a database containing the entire U.S. population in seconds.
But where does a huge database for commercial marketers come from? If you’re a card-carrying (or “preferred”) customer of a business you will likely be asked to provide photographic as well as other personal data like your phone number and email address. But for everyone else, images will be pulled from publicly available sources, notably the internet. Databases are being built from social media networks, including the hundreds of millions of pictures publicly posted by Facebook users. (Go to Google Images and search for your name. You might be surprised how often your mug turns up online.)
Facebook itself is now using facial recognition in its name “tag suggestions” feature. Some reports suggest that the company’s tech gurus can accurately pick out almost any of its half billion users from a single picture posted to one member’s photo gallery.
Resort hotels and cruise ships, including some operated by The Walt Disney Co., are moving toward room entry and theme-park access via photographic image. (They’ve been using fingerprints to identify patrons for years.) And, according to the website planetbiometrics.com, the technology already is employed to sort the large number of pictures Disney takes of guests on many of its cruises and on its private Castaway Cay Island: “The system is able to sort all the photos of that person, which can be viewed at leisure in the passenger’s personalized album.”
Similarly, retailers are experimenting with programs that recognize repeat customers when they return. Led by banks and check-cashing firms, retail giants like Target, Costco, Safeway, and Walmart reportedly are developing systems. Soon, your friendly Walmart greeter may be replaced by a virtual welcoming machine (thus putting many seniors out of work). Still, with so many people darting through the doors of big-box stores, even the most sophisticated facial recognition program is likely to crash with input overload. The key (for now) appears to be that a customer must be willing to pause in front of the machine in order to be recognized and greeted properly.
Note: Expect shoppers to go to stores like Walmart wearing wigs, masks, and outrageous disguises in an effort to avoid detection. (Oh, wait, lots of folks already wear bizarre garb to Wal-mart.) Still, most shoppers are expected to gravitate to the personal touches and discounts touted by facial recognition developers.
Says blogger Peletier, “In the next decade, you will enter the supermarket, grab an electronic cart that recognizes your face…and begin shopping. The monitor on your ‘smart cart’ displays selected products, price and total spent. As you wind through the aisles, the ‘cart’ recognizes things you’re running low on, and offers discounts. When finished, you select a payment option on the cart handle and walk out the door.”
Gone will be the “hodgepodge of checks, credit cards, and PIN numbers”—and perhaps much of the problem of identity theft.
Nonetheless, with every advance in technology come new worries about privacy. As cities install more identifying cameras in parks and on downtown streets, as more sporting and entertainment venues employ facial technology for security, the closer we come to Orwellian prophecy. Much the way traffic cameras recognize your car by its license plate, facial recognition programs will be able to nab you if, for example, you sneak a cold beer on Rehoboth Beach on a hot summer day. Your citation will be emailed to you.
As social critic Mark Dice, author of the book Big Brother: The Orwellian Nightmare Come True, writes: “Since police often photograph and videotape protests and demonstrations as possible evidence in the event that people commit assaults or vandalism, there are now new privacy concerns for even attending public rallies because police have the ability to run [the pictures] through facial recognition software in order to identify every single person in the crowd.”
With facial monitoring about to intrude on pretty much every aspect of our public lives, there is no longer much doubt: Big Brother is watching—and winning.
Email Bill Sievert or he can be reached via kiosk in major department stores.