Eye Flavor is a column with a large screen and a built-in camera that can be located at, for example, malls, conventions or airports. It's used to get demographic information from the passers-by, but also to show them specific ads. It shows if the public glanced at it, watched it, stopped or ignored it. Passers-by can also print out discount coupons in the form of QR codes which are recognised by cell phones. With all these possibilities, advertisers can see exactly which ads work for which public.

NEC has tested the system in the Granduo shopping center in Tachikawa, Japan. It’s available for $20,000.

Future Vision by Erwin Van Lun on this article

We’re getting more and more screens around us and brands will try to advertise for a while longer. Currently on the basis of demographic characteristics, but later you can pull up the profile off a social network site, recognise the passer-by and address them by name. Our brains are extremely sensitive to this.

Brands that let themselves be tempted by this kind of practices will become exactly like people that continually interrupt you during a conversation. Brands that build on the the dialogue, on the other hand, those screens we can call ourselves, and then recognition is useful. And it’ll be clear which brands will eventually be the strongest.

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• 2020-2035: Mediacompletion

• in Dutch