Anonymous Video Analytics is a method of counting the number of viewers (could be based on Gender and Age) who have actually looked at an advertisement displayed on the screen. There are a number of companies that sell the hardware (camera and pc) and software components for Anonymous Video Analytics. We have tested a few of these products and was quite surprised at how sophisticated (from a user’s point of view) the technology is.
The fundamental concept behind anonymous video analytics is to capture useful data for the network operators and advertisers. By capturing this information some of the software packages were able to display advertisements relevant to the viewer. For example, if the system captured that the viewer was a female aged in their mid 30’s, then an advertisement about Perfume products would be displayed.
We tested 4 Windows based applications and found all of them to basically capture the gender and age. There was one that was able to detect the ethnicity of the viewer which would be quite useful to the advertiser. From an advertisers point of view, the more information the system is able to capture the viewer the better it can target advertisements.
Now, I know you’re keen to find out how much it costs for such a system but like with any new and innovative technologies its not going to be cheap.
There is the hardware component which may include the following:
– PC or Appliance (you need to install the software on a PC – the faster and higher specs the better). Some companies will require you to purchase their own custom PC.
– Web Camera – most of them seem to recommend the Logitec camera but I tested one system with a non-branded camera and it worked
The software component can be expensive and it is generally based on the number of web cameras connected (licenses). It can range from US$600 – US$1000 per license. Yes expensive, but think of what you can do with the information being captured about the viewers. Advertisers love this information and they would pay $ to have this information.
One thing to keep in mind about this technology is that the videos captured from the web camera are not stored on the system. Only the analytical information gathered by the system is stored for reporting and executing the relevant advertisements.