Source:  Digital Signage Expo 2008
Award Submission
Company:  TruMedia Technologies
(www.tru-media.com)
Client:  Adspace Networks

Project Overview
Adspace Networks, Inc. builds, owns and operates the Adspace Mall Network, a network of full-motion digital displays located throughout select malls across the United States. The company's patent-pending technology empowers both advertisers and retailers with unprecedented targeting, flexibility and control of their advertising and promotions in the mall environment. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in New York City.

TruMedia Technologies Inc is the leading provider of real-time audience measurement solutions. TruMedia’s advanced automated imaging systems deliver accurate viewing measurements for out-of-home advertising on posters, digital signs, TV monitors, display windows and in-store product displays.

Objectives
Digital Signage has remained a largely unmeasured medium. Advertisers are asking for proof of effectiveness and Adspace wanted to provide that proof by accurately measuring the audiences viewing their digital signs in malls. The objective was to determine how many people watched the screens, how long they looked for and get a better understanding of viewer demographics. Adspace chose TruMedia Technologies’ automated real-time audience measurement solutions for the task. 

Description
TruMedia installed its iCapture audience measurement solution for digital screens on 6 screens in 3 different malls across the USA (Locations to be disclosed at completion of project).

TruMedia’s automated audience measurement solutions are easy to install and use. The iCapture Ultra Cam, a unique high-resolution, wide dynamic range camera is placed above each screen and oriented towards the audience.

Viewers' faces are analyzed in real-time by the iCapture video processor to yield business-critical information such as true "face towards" counts and individual exposure times. Further real-time classification algorithms determine the viewer’s gender and age group. 

Results
The final results of this project will be submitted in the second week of December. We expect the audience measurement data to prove that the screens are being viewed and are effective at catching the attention of passing shoppers.

Challenges & Solutions
Video based solutions often have difficulty functioning accurately with bright back lights. Harsh lighting conditions were easily overcome with the use of iCapture’s wide dynamic range cameras.