Mannequins that "See" You?

Kitten snuggle time. :)

Good morning! I can't tell you how happy I am to be writing this early in the morning! I quit my pain meds last night and I was shocked when I heard my fiancé's alarm go off this morning at 5am. I haven't heard it in a month! I got to spend the morning with him while he got ready to go teach. I haven't done that in so long. My kittens and I got to have snuggle time while I watched Good Morning America while it happened (not tevoed!).

The down side of all this "awakeness" is that I'm seeing a lot more. The first thing I said when I sat up in bed this morning was, "Omigosh. Apparently I didn't do laundry last week." Josh laughed and said, "I mentioned that multiple times." Oops. Then, I walked into the kitchen and realized that the floor needs to be washed. And the counters need to be washed. And the sinks. I guess I haven't done anything for the last month!

I'm awake and don't feel groggy, but I still am having vision problems. Also, not surprisingly, the pain has come back with a vengeance. But I am in such a great mood, I don't really care. I am coherent, I got to kiss my fiancé goodbye, and I can remember things! I was definitely right: not having something for a month makes you so much more thankful for it!

So, I guess in line with my "name" being "ChickOpinion" I should have an opinion today about something on the news. Here you go!

There has been a development in technology that is hitting the stores. This BusinessWeek article explains the EyeSee, a mannequin that uses facial recognition technology with a camera through a pupil in the mannequin's eye to collect shopper demographic information so the store better understand its customers. Does this sound creepy to anyone besides me?

While the article claims that the mannequin doesn't store any images or data, I call bulls#!t. I don't believe that at all. If you stop to look at a dress or top on a mannequin it's taking in all of your visual data. The fact that the above-mentioned article mentions this has already changed store displays and layouts means that it obviously stores and assimilates data for a certain amount of time. What's keeping the store from downloading those images and data?

I like the person in the article who says, "If you go on Facebook...you can see exactly what information they're going to collect and what they're going to do with it. If you're walking into a store, where's the choice?" Agreed! I have not given any of the stores I go to permission to take my image. The article also mentions that the company responsible for these EyeSee mannequins is also working on "ears" for the mannequins so they can eavesdrop on what the shoppers looking at the display are saying. Wow. That's not an insane invasion of privacy at all...*sarcasm*

So, I think the moral of this story is, if you see a mannequin with a pupil and you don't want to have your image recorded, cover your face. As for me, I think I'll be utilizing fake mustaches and lots of hats.

Well, maybe it's not really my look...

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi