Page 253 - AC/E's Digital Culture Annual Report 2015

AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2015253the programme breaks down the image, such as colour and texture. The system is still in its experimental phase and has a database of 4,266 works by 91 makers, the most extensive to date for a recognition system.The VIDA awards on technology and art have been set up by the Fundación Telefónica to encourage artistic research in the field of new technologies and artificial intelligence. They completed their fifteenth year of existence in 2014. The winning works were displayed at the foundation’s premises in Madrid from 12 March to 20 April. One of the most striking interactive installations created for the exhibition was a large mirror screen incorporating movement sensors, which replicated people’s body movements in an amusing manner, converting them into artificial life. This installation was also placed in the Plaza de Callao in Madrid and passers-by were invited to take part in the experiment, which encouraged people to visit the exhibition.94Stores and shopping centres all over the world are taking this one step further, as technology can turn everything that goes on inside a space into data that can be subsequently used to improve services, decide on sales strategies and find out more about customers, among other usages.For example, the firm ShopperTrak95 offers stores two types of services. One involves small devices placed at the entrance and exit of prem- ises that allow managers to predict the number of visitors and accordingly ensure the right num- ber of staff. The second service is essentially the same but at a more advanced level, as it allows visitors’ steps to be monitored in order to learn about their behaviour when they shop inside thepremises – a function that can be implemented in museums’ stores or bookshops.Sensors of this kind that monitor customer behaviour are also used in some institutions such as hospitals. Some technologies even allow customers to be monitored through their mobiles, via Wi-Fi – which is undoubtedlya very delicate issue – although as the article points out, these technology companies speak in terms of “non-identifiable personal information” and “privacy assured”, and the monitoring is conducted anonymously and consists of gather- ing data such as sex or age.The next stage takes facial recognition to a wider level, as in Museum Guide 2.0,96 an automatic guide system for museum visitors. This system analyses visitors’ eye movements (through glasses that incorporate Eye Track technology) so that when they look at an object or artwork, this technology delivers detailed information on what they are observing in different ways, including audio. This is made possible by the glasses’ recognition of objects combined with an algo- rithm that analyses the focus of the visitor’s gaze.Eye Tracking (Museum Guide 2.0)3. Technology associated with the actual visit