Page 119 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2014

AC/E digital culture ANNUAL REPORT 2014and with the ability to perform an analysis every fifteen minutes. The data collected by the sensor mat are uploaded to the company’s application so that later, on the website, the results, trends, busiest times, etc., can be seen.These intelligent systems for data collection are attaining greater and greater precision. In fact, the latest technology can automatically turn everything that happens inside a given space (fair, gallery, bookshop, library, museum, theatre, etc.) into data. On the same pattern as website analysis tools, companies like ShopperTrak can work on specific visitor data, rather than on estimates. With their devices placed in the entrances to, and exits from, various spaces they can predict the number of visitors on the basis of the frequency of the public’s entry and exit. But a more advanced version of this technology is able to monitor individuals one by one to analyse what their behaviour is in particular places, such as boutiques, shops and department stores. If this technology is combined with others we have seen such as face recognition or more recent ones such as those from Emotient, the results can be amazing. In fact, ShopperTrak is able to monitor visitors through their wi‐fi and with their smartphones.It is a technology which, if not used well, may not fulfil minimal privacy requirements, although it is true that such a method of data collection is performed anonymously. Nonetheless, users should always know what types of technology are operating in the places they visit and whether that technology might invade their privacy. If these measuring tools provide the visitors themselves with some sort of service or advantage this methodology is easier to justify. Nonetheless, it seems to be true that the incorporation of technology of all types within physical spaces will become more and more commonplace. The data themselves may be used to analyse how the monitored individuals are feeling. We are in the era of Big Data and Data Mining, in which the feelings and emotions being monitored help to build more data, as in the case of the technologies we have already discussed. Companies such as Digital Reasoning, specialised in stoppingAC/Efraud through data analysis, are working on the understanding of all types of human communication, including interpretations of how certain colours are used in communications.The possibilities offered by screens, sensors and cameras may be quite fruitful when devising attractive and even interactive campaigns. Similar things can often be seen in some electronics shops, causing passers‐by to stop, play, and even interact with the window display. The cameras in mobile phones may be the ideal tools to enable people to participate in a display window with an intelligent monitor, for example, or for their contacts to see it. It is becoming common in cities such as London and New York to find shop windows with tactile technology. Customers may touch the screens to compare and choose the product they want. Recently, a giant interactive mirror/screen was installed in a Paris shopping mall, in front of which passers‐by could position themselves according to instructions given by the software. A scanner analysed the style and physiognomy of each person. Then, a search engine offered a series of results with various similar standard profiles. With these results, shoppers would discover that their style of dress was not unique. The most interesting thing is that the recommendations given by this technology are social in nature. That is to say, it is directed and fed by the patterns of all the users it is continuously memorising, as in other recommendation technologies based on algorithms.The tendency is, then, to work on sensory stimulation in spaces and commercial premises to create experiences and emotions in the visitors. Some museums are adopting applications together with augmented reality, 3‐D technology and face recognition as data for games and experiments with the visitors, the use of GPS or eye‐tracking technology using special glasses in order to give visitors detailed information about what they are seeing according to where they direct their gaze. More and more studies are investigating the relationship between sensory stimulation and the emotions in a variety of settings, while more and more companies are working on such projects. WhatWHERE WE ARE HEADING: DIGITAL TRENDS IN THE WORLD OF CULTURETHEME 9: THE NEW AFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGIES COME TO THE CULTURAL SECTOR CURRENT PAGE...119