Famous Piccadilly Circus Advertising Board has Facial Recognition Added

Famous London Landmark Integrates Facial Recognition

London is a fantastic city. As with all amazing places, it contains many landmarks known throughout the world. The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben (currently silent), the London Eye etc. One of these is also the famous London Picadilly advertising board. This has, for over a century, been one of the most prestigious advertising spots in the UK.

Anyone who regularly goes to London may have noticed in recent weeks that the famous billboard has been undergoing modernization. Electronic boards, particularly those now with high definition resolution etc. are certainly the way forward compared to traditional paper posters. London itself is also obviously a major hotspot for the UK economy. Google is even planning to open a new headquarters there.

Well, it turns out that the renovations may contain more than you think as facial recognition cameras have been integrated into the design reports SkyNews. The reasoning for this, however, might make you a little nervous. Particularly those who may have watched the film ‘Minority Report’.

Why are the installing facial recognition cameras?

The idea is reportedly so that advertising can be tailor-made to suit those passing by. London Picadilly does, after all, see over 100 million walks past it each month.

The cameras are designed to monitor the age, sex and even mood of the people and as such civil rights campaigners are clearly outraged by this intrusion. I am not one of them, but even I admit, such intrusion is a little creepy. Maybe not as creepy as that Google Clip camera, but not by much.

Landsec, the company who owns the board has issued a statement saying: “Although the Piccadilly Lights screen will be able to display advertising content that responds to real-time factors – such as the weather or the color of cars – the technology is not able to recognize individual people or display individually targeted content. The screen does not collect or store personal details or data.”

What do you think? Is this clever advertising or creepy intrusion? Let us know in the comments!