Fresh off my post about the Human Rights Watch white paper "Ban Killer Robots," we have a story about store mannequins who apparently can "watch" you and record all your visual information as you shop.
Italian company Almax have created mannequins -- dubbed the playful pun EyeSee -- that "feeds data into facial-recognition software like that used by police. It logs the age, gender, and race of passers-by.” A camera planted in one eye of the EyeSee records all the necessary information, and unlike overhead cams, Almax says their creations are more effective because "it stands at eye level and invites customer attention."
Almax started selling these mannequins last December, and has since placed them in a number of shopping outlets in the U.S. and Europe.
Reading this story, I cannot help but don my nerd hat and be reminded of the deadly Autons from "Doctor Who" -- disguised as store mannequins, they were manufactured by aliens under the human company "Auto Plastics."
Of course, there couldn't possibly be any sinister applications of these dummies here that I could think of -- in this Bloomberg article it's stressed that the EyeSees are being used purely to gather marketing data and assist the store in targeting purchases to the appropriate demographics. Just like Facebook and everything else.
