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Companies deem it essential for their advertisements to be able to reach their target customers in order to be effective. The new ad system by NEC claims to be able to distinguish people based on age and gender. Called Digital Signage Solution, the system is composed of a display with a camera and a FeliCa contactless IC card reader/writer. A participant would need to face the display in order for the camera to get a glimpse of the person, and hold a FeliCa-based mobile phone over the IC card reader/writer.

Based on the person’s determined stats, the display shows advertisements most suited to the person. Of course, they’ll find it hard to get people to stand in front of a display to view ads without giving them something in turn. So, participants are sent coupons to their mobile phones which they could use when purchasing from stores. Each coupon is equivalent to an entry for raffle draws where consumers can win prizes. Aside from being able to show ads based on a person’s age and gender, NEC’s Digital Signage Solution can also optimize advertisements based on geographical location and even time of day.