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New Kiosk Technology: Facial Recognition

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A common technology trend that is expected to come into fruition over the next few years is facial recognition.

The director of Intel’s Retail Marketing and Communications unit, Christopher O’Malley, has argued that facial recognition technology will become extremely population as a tool to provide shoppers with more targeted information in-stores.

It involves the scanning of consumers’ faces to determine the approximate age and gender in which then certain products can be displayed on the kiosk interface dependent on that shopper’s specific profile. A number of brands have already jumped on the band wagon such as Kraft and Adidas and they have already deployed the software in-stores to improve customer experience. It has already been adopted in countries like Japan and is installed in industry sectors like retail (shops), hospitality (restaurants) and entertainment (theme parks). The technology can be used on kiosks, walls and digital signage and works for example, by advertising a female consumer in her fifties a range of goods that are suitable for her age and lifestyle. Adidas’s Vice Present of Global Retail Marketing, Chris Aubrey, says that “if a retailer can offer the right products quickly, people are more likely to buy something.” Accurate demographic and lifestyle information is therefore vital for this technology to work e.g. a female aged between 25-29 years old is more likely to have children at home and so kids products can be suggested. Or a male in his sixties is prone to having more disposable income to buy luxury items like cars or gadgets. The software has even been developed on social networking site Facebook, in which the tool automatically recognises people in photos put online to tag them in the picture.

Pic Credit: Inventor Spot