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Have you ever felt you were being watched? Some new technologies might make you feel that way. Digital billboards (电子屏幕) are able to recognize certain human characteristics (特征). They have cameras pointed at the people on the street, and can recognize people’s age, a man or a woman. Then a computer inside the billboard uses this information to make ads (advertisements) for the people who are looking at the billboard. For example, if a man passes a billboard showing an ad about women clothes, the computer can change the ad to something such as men’s sporting shoes, to catch the man’s attention.

Although advertisers see this as a great chance to reach their customers, some people feel that this is an invasion (侵犯) of their privacy. However, advertisers say that the billboards will not be able to recognize their face or get any personal information about them.

In fact, this kind of “personal” advertising has already appeared on the Internet. Search engines (引擎) like Google and Bing can follow what we search for. When we have searched for some products and services, companies then pay search engines to use it in ads. So if you search for travel information, you may see ads for airlines and hotels. This kind of advertising has proved to work better than traditional advertising.

In today’s world, people see thousands of ads every day, but they don’t take much notice. Advertisers are trying to change that by personalizing the experience of seeing an ad. So pay attention the next time you see a billboard—it would be talking to you.