Filed under: Wireless

For better or worse, targeted advertising isn’t going anywhere. Seemingly, it’s not getting any more discrete, either. NEC’s Digital Signage Solution combines a camera, a large display and a FeliCa contactless IC card reader / writer in order to dole out advertisements that cater to certain demographics. The system includes the innate ability to determine “gender, generation and other attributes” of a person in order to serve up advertisements that will cause him / her to spend some dough. From there, the individual can scan their phone in order to access related content on their mobile internet browser. That’s all and fine and dandy we suppose, but how on Earth do you convince busy citizens to stop by and have a look at an otherwise uninteresting flat-panel?

[Image courtesy of NEC]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

We’re not exactly sure why the EU feels the need to track sheep and goats across Europe, but it just voted to make electronic tagging mandatory by the end of 2009. The move comes after a two-year delay at the insistence of the UK, and it means that all sheep and goats will be implanted with a €1 ($1.43) tag that will allow anyone with a €200 ($286) handheld reader to get a complete history of the animal. We’re pretty certain that infringes on sheep / goat privacy rights — quick, someone start a petition!

[Via The Register]

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Filed under: Portable Audio

The natural successor to the TUA-T500HD does more than just enable a slew of HD Radio-ready Alpine head units to tune into HD Radio, as it throws in that recently unveiled iTunes tagging feature for good measure. Hailed as “one of the first in-car applications combining HD Radio with iTunes tagging,” this accessory will team up with Alpine’s latest lineup of in-dash players to let users bookmark over-the-air tracks for purchase at a later time, effectively eliminating the “Now what was that song?” syndrome. Sadly, we’ve yet to see a definitive price or release date, but you can rest assured that the TUA-T550HD is on the way.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Wearables

Hungerhill School, a secondary school in Doncaster, South Yorkshire is running a trial that involves tagging the uniforms of pupils with RFID tags. The tags pull up data including academic performance, the child’s current location, and can even deny access to certain restricted areas — behind the bike shed, perhaps? The trial has raised the usual questions of privacy and human rights, although since the trial is voluntary and provides convenience by auto-registering pupils, the current iteration of the trial isn’t a particularly great violation. Call us when kids get tags from birth, then we’ll take to the streets: but probably only because ours missed out. We’ll take our tongue out of our cheek now.

[Via Picture Phoning]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!