Japan Launches Personalized Digital Advertising Displays

Japan is testing digital advertising displays with cameras that can read the gender and age group of people looking at them to tailor their commercial messages.

The Digital Signage Promotion Project, a consortium of 11 railway companies, launched the one-year pilot project at subway commuter stations around Tokyo.

"The camera can distinguish a person's sex and approximate age, even if the person only walks by in front of the display, at least if he or she looks at the screen for a second," said a spokesman for the project.

If data for different locations is analysed, companies can provide interactive advertisements "which meet the interest of people who use the station at a certain time," the project said in a statement.

The technology uses face recognition software  to glean the gender and age group of passers-by, but operators have promised they will save no recorded images, only the collated data about groups of people.