Scanning Shoppers

From Business Week's "Point-of-Sale Advertising Goes High Tech":

Some retailers are starting to experiment with even more advanced tools. Merchants can now, for instance, install tiny cameras that scan shoppers' faces to determine their sex, race, and approximate age, and then flash appropriately targeted ads. YCD Multimedia, an Israeli company that sells digital-display systems, is already integrating such technology in some of its systems and is discreetly testing them in some U.S. retail outlets, though it won't say where.

So, long story short, a tiny camera can now guess your demographic profile, process an algorithm and suggest which muffin from the bake case that someone of your age, gender and race would most likely enjoy with [insert long, complicated coffee order here].

Is this the next evolution of television? If we can manage to take the "mass" out of mass-market advertising, will consumers listen? Or, will they revolt? Will our culture reject any and all "recommendations" and flock to establishments that value human relationships -- where a chef still makes his recommendation based on the fresh fish, the seasonal vegetables? Are we OK with Amazon's or iTunes' suggestions as long as they are delivered in privacy?

How could similar technology affect billboards and digital displays in the 2012 election? Do you think "they" will have figured out how to track our credit cards to these displays by then to process our spending habits, too?