/ 2 November 2005

Camera lets stores know age, gender of customers

Customers stopping to gaze at the store window may soon be less anonymous than they think — the store will instantly know their age and gender.

Japanese bikemaker Yamaha Motor has unveiled a camera system that recognises if a person is a man or woman and puts them into one of five age groups.

”We think this system is suited to marketing,” said Makoto Yoshida, Yamaha Motor’s advanced system research division supervisor.

”This could be used at entrances and gates to some facilities or set up at eye-catching spots to profile those who entered the places or stared at them,” Yoshida said on Wednesday.

Yamaha designed the system by building up a computer database of 10 000 people’s faces.

It said the system gets it right on gender 88% of the time –about the same accuracy rate as the human eye — and 77% of the time for age.

Yamaha also proposed using the technology in vehicles that operate in closed areas such as theme parks.

Based on passengers’ gender and age group, the system in each car could recommend in-park spots to visit, the company said. – Sapa-AFP