Mazda ad wall watches the watchers with live head tracking tally
Vehicle manufacturer Mazda has put itself in the driving seat of crowd detection and facial recognition software in the form of a head turning billboard which keeps watch on who is looks directly at it and who walks past.
Erected within Toronto’s Royal Bank Plaza the video screen plays a 15-second loop of a MX-5 RF, enticing passers-by to give it a quick swatch. What is less apparent is that the display is equally observant, using discreet cameras to keep a running tally of those whose interest was piqued.
Ari Elkouby, creative director at J. Walter Thompson Canada, commented: “The billboard uses a combination of crowd detection and facial recognition technology. [The software] identifies when someone is in the vicinity of the board and then verifies through a number of separate algorithms that a person has turned their head to towards our hidden camera.
“To bring this idea to life, the video wall required a custom, industrial-grade computer upgrade that could process high-frame-rate video while rendering dynamic data in real-time.”
The display forms part of a month-long out-of-home campaign running throughout the Canadian capital.