HOLMES: Can you imagine looking at a billboard and getting a custom advertisement based on your eyes? Sounds like some science fiction. Maybe you saw this in a Tom Cruise movie not long ago. But it's not any of that; it's for real. And it's today's "Edge of Discovery."</s>KYUNG LAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the world of advertising, you look at the ads. But soon, they'll be watching you. It's a future imagined at the 2002 movie "Minority Report." Cameras capture and read Tom Cruise's face. Then customized ads for his character pop up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jon Anderson, you can use a Guinness right around now.</s>LAH: That future is now. This billboard sees you, scans your face, then pulls up an ad you'll like. (on camera) Here's how this works. When you walk up to the ad, a camera captures your image. The computer figures out if you're a man or a woman and your age. Meanwhile, an age and gender-specific ad rolls. This shows that I'm in my 30s and I like seasonal pasta. The computer then determines how interested you are, how long you stay. That data is then recorded for the company. (voice-over) NEC engineer Ajuko Amagai (ph) says the facial recognition technology is accurate to within ten years of your actual age, and the next gen system they're testing out is even more age accurate. "This is a new age of advertising," says Amagai (ph). "We can learn something we never knew from marketing." The new ads give real-time reactions to street signs so marketing can be more targeted and more effective. NEC believes the use of this technology in advertising is just the next step. Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.</s>HOLMES: We saw more tears, raised voices, hurt feelings on both sides. Another heated hearing on those plans to build a mosque blocks away from Ground Zero. The very latest coming next.
Japanese Ads Target Specific Customers