Ready for digital billboards that notice you need new sneakers as you wander by? That comment on your waistline and discreetly recommend gym time?
Ready or not, they’re coming, and Viennese company uma just scored $1.1 million in funding from multiple investors to make it so.
Uma recently demonstrated technology dubbed “SKIN” that interacts with passerby. You know those chatty flat-screens that badgered Tom Cruise in Minority Report? Like that, or an “interactive multimedia installation that reacts to people.” The technology can track people using 3D cameras, and interact with users carrying RFID (radio frequency ID) or NFC (near field communication) technology.
(More on TIME.com: Use Your Phone to Pay for That Dress, Courtesy Google)
“I have looked at the future of display systems, and it is clearly based on semantic technology, which can feed information to users based on their preferences, or other external, relevant events,” said newly appointed board member Henrich Schuster. “uma is taking the industry into new directions, and I am pleased to be part of its growth.”
But will we be pleased to find ourselves besieged by public devices that reach out to us like email spam, only without junk filters or delete buttons?
(via TechCrunch)