The Billboards Are Watching You

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If you’ve ever seen a poster in the mall that you’ve liked and stared at it for some time, chances are, that poster will be staring right back. This is, however, not so much of a "Big Brother" gimmick as much as it is a marketing tool. From xuuk, a Canadian-based company specializing in cutting-edge technology, comes the eyebox2. This contraption is essentially a tiny video camera surrounded by infrared light-emitting diodes. It can record eye contact with 15-degree accuracy at a distance of up to 33 feet, so even a simple glance from someone in passing will be tallied into the score. The plan is to install these cameras into posters and billboards everywhere potential customers tend to thrive.

"It will revolutionize the digital-signage industry because it solves the half-missing part of the business model," explains xuuk CEO Roel Vertegaal, who spent several years developing the gear in the Human Media Lab of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. "Right now they’re pushing ads to clients, and they don’t even know if those clients are seeing those ads."

While quite expensive (Almost $1,000), the eyebox promises to become the next big thing for marketing companies to be used as a stepping tool for marketing new brands to consumers.