You might want to think twice about how often you hang out at your local shopping centre in the future. In Japan, NEC has developed a new facial recognition system geared towards retailers that determines the age and gender of shoppers, and tracks how long and how often they visit a given store.
The collected data can be used by a retailer to analyse trends in who exactly is visiting its stores, and what they can do to encourage repeat visits. And because the database of shoppers is stored in the cloud, it can’t be fooled by simply visiting another location on the other side of town. It will recognise you no matter where you shop, unless you invest in a believable fake beard and oversized sunglasses. [DigInfo TV]