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In the 2002 movie Minority Report, Tom Cruise's character John Anderton is seen walking through a busy thoroughfare. He is surrounded by interactive billboard ads that can identify him and serve personalised messages ("John Anderton! You could use a Guinness right about now."). He then enters a Gap store and is greeted by a virtual assistant with knowledge of his previous purchases.
Fifteen years on, the technology depicted in this dystopian vision is almost a reality. Retailers have been investing in facial recognition, partly as a means of tackling shoplifting, but also with the...