Marketers figure out new, creepy way for Kinect to spy on you while you’re shopping

Dan Seitz Contributing Writer, Tech

Brick-and-mortar stores have a problem when it comes to competing with their web-based rivals: websites know exactly how many customers are buying what and have a better idea of why they’re buying it. That way, they’re able to target products to customers better. Well, in theory. Anybody who’s discovered that buying one product from Amazon makes them think you want some really wacky and insane products knows otherwise.

Now, grocery stores want to bring that insane wackiness to your real life, using the Kinect! Yay?

The idea is that instead of setting up intrusive marketing surveys, you just quietly wire a bunch of Kinects to the top of your shelves to spy on people and see what products they look at. Over time, as it gathers more data, it forms a “heat map” of products people are most likely to look at and, of course, buy.

Personally, we’re just wondering how, precisely, they’ll be able to keep this data anonymous, especially when people show up in, say, the condom aisle and since it’s pretty easy to cross-reference time of purchase, product purchased, and credit card used to find the identity of the dude on camera. Also, can we control, say, the security cameras with gestures, because if you’re pointing a Kinect at us, we should at least have fun with it.

Shopper Tracker’s Kinect Hack Is Like Google Analytics For Retail Store Shelves [TechCrunch]

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