Cheap face-recognition is now available to merchants for just $880 dollars per month per store. Using a simple PC and video camera system, the service makes use of face-recognition software powered by NEC's cloud computing services to estimate the age and gender of clients, and tracks frequency of shopping across locations.
Its amazing how quickly applications go from the military to civilian life, isn't it?
Now, the unpleasant future shown in Steven Spielberg's 2002 movie Minority Report can be yours! In this scene, Tom Cruise (with newly implanted eyes from a Mr. Yakimoto) enters a store.
In the film, the particular technology is an iris scanner that actually identifies individual shoppers. I note that NEC does not quite offer this level of service - yet.
Update: In their 1931 novel Exiles of the Moon, the Golden Age team of Schachner and Zagat describe a selective electric eye.
But the selective beam of the electric eye refused to swing open the portal. Already the orders of the master of the house had barred the door against her. The actuating mechanism that should have operated by the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell, remained dead.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'