IMRSV, Inc. Provides Facial Analytics

Cara is coming to a brick-and-mortar store near you. But don't be insulted when she doesn't recognize who you are.

Recently, I met with Jason Sosa, the CEO and Founder of IMRSV, Inc… twice. What came through to me was his passion for understanding the societal and human impacts of the technologies he creates and brings to market. This passion makes their mantra of and adherence to "privacy by design" very real and central to their approach.

Cara is the core software product from IMRSV, Inc. Cara analyses your face, and determines demographic, attention and emotive statistics about you, without attempting to identify you. As IMRSV states, Cara turns any connected camera into an intelligent sensor, but does so anonymously. Move from one Cara camera to another, or move away and back again to the same Cara camera, and the temporary ID number associated with you changes.

While Cara is pre-launch, I'm excited both by the technology, and by the IMRSV, Inc business model. The business model is very simple, whether a small shop owner or a developer interested in using Cara as part of a sensor analytics ecosystem, you pay $39.95 per camera, which includes the stand-alone Cara software and the Cloud-based data-as-a-service. The possibilities presented by Cara are what really got me going, fueling both an exciting initial briefing and a follow-up four-hour "lunch" and demo.

• small shop owners now have demographic information available to them that was previously beyond their reach
• larger organizations can better understand why campaigns in the physical world succeed or fail, just as they can online
• developers can build attention and emotions into their sensor platforms

What's does any of this mean? Here's a few examples.

• While Cara doesn't recognize a person, it can say that the person who bought X at the register was a young adult male or the person who bought Y in the drive-through was a senior female, based upon time stamps.
• Online retailers have long established ways of determining who is buying what online. Brick-and-mortar stores have tried to do the same through loyalty programs. Privacy concerns have affected adoption of loyalty cards. By anonymously providing demographic and attention data, physical stores can glean the same understanding of their customers as the online versions, without violating privacy.
• End-cap displays at retailers or kiosks at events can provided targeted messages, increasing effectiveness.
• A simple toy, using a smartphone to draw a face and its camera to record the smile of a child, can smile back.
• A car can respond to a driver glancing away from the road, perhaps "kicking" the driver in the butt through a vibration motor in the seat.

In addition to starting companies, Jason is very interested in the Singularity, and the impending impact of technology upon human employment and self-identity. This has led both to the "Privacy by Design" and "Principles of Good Use" for developers/partners. If you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Jules Polonetsky.

"Privacy by design solutions are critical to implementing new technologies in a world were data collection has become ubiquitous. Steps that Cara takes such as not collecting any personal information, and not storing, transferring or recorded any images are key to ensuring privacy concerns are addressed as these technologies are rolled out.”
- Jules Polonetsky
- Facebook.com/FutureofPrivacy
- @JulesPolonetsky

There are various pieces of research out there that show that the Internet of Things will be a 15 trillion dollar market right now. By 2020, I strongly believe that there will be over a trillion sensors deployed and that if your "thing" isn't connected, it won't be a viable product. Companies like IMRSV, Inc are providing the ecosystem to allow sensor analytics from everyday objects at very affordable prices. This will push this market even further and faster than the pundits anticipate. So, let me put on my tinfoil hat and stand on my soap box:

1. Every conceivable facet of everyday life will take advantage of connected data for informed decisions
2. Current sensor, internet of things, and data management & analytic companies will be assimilated into sensor analytics ecosystems or die
3. Privacy will be a major concern for those who care, but the majority don't know enough to care. Individuals like Jason and Jules will protect the masses and ensure adherence to privacy by design guidelines.

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