It's a Minority Report world

Eye (Photo credit: Gafoto)

Have you heard this? Now we can all live out Tom Cruise's nightmare. Well, not his real nightmare. One where he has in a movie. No, not waking up to Cameron Diaz next to him in bed. Not that movie. Ok, it may not have been his. It could have been Steven Spielberg's, though.
What I am talking about is the scene from Minority Report where Tom has to undergo eye surgery in the same way you get your kidney removed after passing out in a hotel room. When he wakes up, he goes around and all these billboards recognize him, well his eyes really, as an old chinese man. Wrong race, right height and complexion, though. The movie was set in the near future and guess what, the future is here.
This article from the Verge says that the age of where stores can recognize us is not far away. A company from New York, can now figure out what gender you are and how old you are just from a webcam. What you do is point from a webcam out from your store window and the software will tell you who has been watching your store window. It can be accurate up to 90% of the time, telling you whether it was a guy or a gal and whether they are young enough to be your customers.
This has store owners excited. They can greet their shoppers any time of the day. Imagine the day when the store window greets you young ladies "hi there mister" just because you forgot to shave some facial hair. Or wrap a shawl too close to your chin.. to hide the facial hair.
Or when the camera notices the diamond earrings and immediately adds 30% to the price on the LED display.
This can also backfire. Imagine the robotic store window calling the cops just because it's decided you're looking at the merchandise in the window the 'wrong' way.
Ah well.