Analysis - Artificial intelligence-enabled cameras on billboards, in bus windshields, on petrol station forecourts and in the checkout at the supermarket - all these are here, or about to be.
  • Dave@lemmy.nzM
    0·
    3 months ago

    Why do billboards need number plate recognition? If they want to count eyeballs, would it not be enough to count vehicles?

    I have a similar question about why a mall smart screen needs to know your mood.

      • Dave@lemmy.nzM
        0·
        3 months ago

        But how does it help?

        Are they just checking for duplulicates to identify people who commute regularly?

        What does the smart screen in the mall change to sell you more stuff depending on your mood?

        • liv@lemmy.nz
          0·
          3 months ago

          Google algorithms pounce on vulnerable people, billboards could do the same.

          Not looking forward to the dystopia where one minute I’m admiring a picturesque landscape in a New Caledonia holiday ad and the next minute it sees me and hastily changes to an ad for cheap chocolate from The Warehouse.

          • Dave@lemmy.nzM
            0·
            3 months ago

            😆 oh boy, it’s coming, isn’t it?

            Occasionally I’m in central Wellington and almost feel obligated to read the billboards. I am not sure how else a company is supposed to advertise to me. I use an ad blocked at home and at work, I have a pi-hole doing network-level ad blocking to cover my phone (as well as an onboard one for when I’m out and about). I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t watch broadcast TV, and hardly watch TV in general so can’t even get product placement. Don’t use Reddit anymore so no astroturfing.

            Billboards are about the only way they can get me! Then it’s all Spark or power companies and a fat lot of good that does, if I’m going to choose a phone, internet, or power provider I’m gonna research the hell out of it on the internet, and I have no issues choosing someone I’ve never heard of since it’s all a commodity, one is the same as the next if it’s the same specs.

            Maybe if (when) your vision becomes a reality, I’ll be able to get some relevant billboard ads. Though I’m not sure where they will get my data to make the ads relevant. Other billboards watching me?

            • liv@lemmy.nz
              0·
              3 months ago

              Pretty sure Philip K Dick predicted it in the 60s but I can’t remember which book or story. I sometimes worry that we make things because he predicted them, but I do like the homeopapes.

              Yeah I’m in a similar boat, I don’t watch broadcast tv or listen to the radio unless someone makes me, I have ad blockers and tracker blockers, my loyalty cards are all signed up to an alias and its alias phone.

              Now that we don’t have a cat to spoil, I don’t think I’m anyone’s preferred target market though, except maybe some low level grifters!

              I guess in the absence of data it will default to what advertising always defaults to, i.e penis enlargement.

              • Dave@lemmy.nzM
                0·
                3 months ago

                I’m sure homeopapes are something we have. Perhaps you could call a social media feed something like that, though that’s more read what we tell you. Reddit/Lemmy? Where you subscribe to communities based on interest and get a feed of items of interest to you?

                Or maybe RSS feeds are more in line with the idea? One way or another, I’ve sure homeopapes pretty much exist.

                and its alias phone

                Ooh what do you mean by this? I use randomised email aliases for pretty much anything I sign up for, but I haven’t found a way to avoid giving my real phone number when it’s mandatory.

                I guess in the absence of data it will default to what advertising always defaults to, i.e penis enlargement.

                Hopefully we will soon have glasses you can buy that use AI to block out adds within our vision, using generative AI to fill in the gaps like a real time photoshop.

                • liv@lemmy.nz
                  0·
                  3 months ago

                  Homeopapes are definitely a thing. News agreggators, RSS feeds and customizable news like Reuters, and things like pocket being able to send to ereaders.

                  Alias phone is not some exciting tech unfortunately. I just have another phone that has a number and email account of its own that get used for signups. It’s on casual prepay and is associated with its own human name and online accounts. It’s kind of like I have an invisible flatmate who likes things like fuel cards and free streaming services.

                  Hopefully we will soon have glasses you can buy that use AI to block out adds within our vision

                  If we get that I want the They Live plugin!!