<p>Though facial recognition software has been in our homes for some time (having been a feature in Picasa and iPhoto since 2009), the prospect of being the unwitting subject of similar technology while out and about is an alien one. That could be about to change thanks to the announcement of OptimEyes, a system designed to be fitted to digital advertising hoardings in Europe to gauge just who is paying attention.</p><p>Developed by "audience measurement" specialists Quividi (literal translation from Latin: I saw that) for advertising company Amscreen, OptimEyes won't, Amscreen says, identify individuals, but instead be used to gauge the number and type of people paying attention to particular adverts. This will "provide an even greater understanding into the effectiveness of any given advert across our entire network," the company writes.</p><p>Amscreen says that the system, which, unsurprisingly, requires the integration of a camera, will gauge the number of possible viewers and compare it with the actual number of viewers, as well as their age and gender. The system will also log the time and location of each view. And because this data will be reported live, Amscreen suggests it raises the possibility to optimize a marketing campaign mid run.</p><p>So will these all-seeing advertisements be easy to spot? "Basically they're a webcam," Amscreen's Marketing Director Mike Hemmings, told Gizmag. "It will not be obvious there's a camera there. There'll be no glaring light." But Hemmings describes the system more as a facial identification system rather than a recognition one, gauging the darker areas of a face to estimate age (with accuracy in the high 80s, percentage wise, he says). Gender, meanwhile, is "guessed" on the basis of attributes such as hair length.</p><p><a href="http://www.gizmag.com/amscreens-optimeyes--ad-hoardings-spy-on-their-target-markets/28327/">Keep reading...</a></p>