Posted by Sunny on June 04th, 2008

All of us as consumers have long had our purchases watched via loyalty schemes, checkouts even via our credit cards. It seems that the fat cats in big chairs puffing on their fat brown cigars are not content with just knowing what we purchased and instead want to know what we are thinking about purchasing.

We are still a way off mind reading, but new technology from Philips is allowing the mega stores to get an insight into what we are thinking. The new hardware and software can track our head and eye movements. As a result it can tell what items we have been looking at longest and pass that information back to the store.

Imagine you have been outside the window staring at that new TV you quite like. Then as you set foot in the door there is already a sales person there with all the information you need ready to make the pitch. It could get very annoying very fast. Lucky for us, at the moment the aim is just to provide more detailed information about the product via a passive or interactive video display in hopes it will push us towards making a purchase decision.

The more worrying factor is will they couple this with face recognition technology too? You could pass a shop, look at something, then the next day have a direct offer in the post, or even an email on your computer by the time you get home offering a discount online?

Worse still, what about all those guys that stare at the lingerie on the models in the window… will they be labelled sex offenders, will security tackle them down, or will they just be sold the underwear along with the mannequin? (This sounds stupid, but there was a movie about a similar subject). Yeah, this is a stupid thing to say, but who knows where society is taking us. One day this may not be so stupid.

This world is changing, but sometimes we do wonder if it is for the better.