Direct to you-In not-so-distant future, advertisers will use retinal scans, holographs to target individuals

Which of the following are
real and which are science fiction?

• An ATM that gives you access to your
accounts by scanning your retinas.

• A supermarket checkout counter that lets you pay for groceries with the
touch of your thumb.

• Holographic billboards that call out to you by name as you walk by.

• Electronic magazines that deliver news instantly over a wireless network.

By Gary Gentile, Associated Press

The first two exist today; the others are images from the year 2054 as
depicted in Steven Spielberg’s new movie Minority Report.

Indeed, many of the film’s futuristic visions, including a holographic greeter at
the Gap and animated cereal boxes, could become real using technology
being developed today.

Already, personal video recorders, such as those made by TiVO and
SONICBlue, can collect information on individual households’ viewing habits,
allowing advertisers to more precisely target their messages.

And the next generation of cell phones will have position detection capability,
allowing retailers, such as Starbucks, to ring customers as they approach a
store and offer time-sensitive discounts.

In 1999, Spielberg convened a three-day think tank to pick the brains of 23
futurists about likely changes technology would bring during the next 50
years.

"The futurists that I assembled around that table didn’t agree with each other
on every point, but one of the several things they did unanimously agree on
was that the entire advertising industry is going to recognize us as
individuals, and they’re going to spot-sell to us," Spielberg said. "They will
sell directly to you." With inventions such as personal video recorders
enabling consumers to tune out "dumb" ads, today’s pitchmen are anxiously
searching for personalized approaches that depend on an increasingly
sophisticated knowledge of customer habits and desires.

From Amazon.com, which uses "cookies" planted on your hard drive to track
purchases, to supermarket loyalty cards that deliver coupons based on past
buys, people already are sacrificing some privacy in exchange for
convenience.

"It’s a question of how much do we want to sacrifice our ability to hide and
how much do we want to be uniquely served – that’s one of the trade-offs we
are making," said Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network and
the head of Spielberg’s think tank.

In one key scene in Minority Report, detective John Anderton, played by Tom
Cruise, is fleeing agents of the Pre-Crime police unit chasing him for a
murder he is foretold to commit.

As he runs down a street, electronic billboards scan his retinas and hurl
personalized pitches his way.

"John Anderton, you could use a Guinness about now!" one billboard shouts.

In another scene, Cruise enters a Gap, where his eyes are again scanned,
triggering a holographic version of the Gap’s greeter who asks if he was
satisfied with his last purchase.

In the future, it seems, the eyes are the window to the wallet.

Much of the technology portrayed in the movie already is being developed
and tested, including flexible computer screens thinner than a business card
that can receive images over a wireless network.

"The ability to have billboard-size displays, newspapers that are updating
themselves, packaging able to animate, these are all quite possible within
10 to 15 years," said Russ Wilcox, general manager of E Ink Corp., a
Cambridge, Mass.-based company developing so-called digital paper.

Early in the film, Anderton pours a bowl of "Pine & Oats" cereal at home,
triggering the animated characters to sing the product’s theme song.
Frustrated because he can’t make the characters shut up, Anderton flings the
box at the wall in one of the dark movie’s lighter moments.

Later, as Anderton dodges authorities, the pervasive retinal scanners are
used by police to locate him. Society, it seems, is moving that way.

Since Sept. 11, some airports have installed security devices that snap
photos of travelers and compare them to a database of suspected terrorists.

In addition, retinal scans and other biometric devices are being discussed to
help maintain homeland security.

That technology could conceivably be redesigned for commerce.

"It’s amazing how events have caught up with us after Sept. 11," said Alex
McDowell, the production designer for Minority Report who began imagining
the world of 2054 in 1998.

"We know we want security, and we’re willing to give up some of our civil
liberties to have that," he said. "And Pre-Crime is really, in the end, the total
loss of civil liberty. That’s the extreme of it and the consumer-driven part of the
film is the parallel extreme."

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