IMRSV and IPG Media Lab Install Real-Time Camera-Based Audience Measurement System at ad:tech San Francisco

IMRSV (formerly Immersive Labs) a TechStars NY company, and IPG Media Lab, part of IPG Mediabrands, the global media holding company of the Interpublic Group, today announced that the two companies have collaborated with ad:tech, the largest digital marketing event in the world, to install IMRSV’s Cara™ software platform at ad:tech San Francisco, April 9-10, at Moscone Center West. Cara software platform, which enables any web camera to become an intelligent sensor, is a new way to measure the world. The ad:tech installation will provide anonymous, real-time audience data taken from five locations on the ad:tech show floor, including age, gender and attention time. IMRSV has designed the Cara platform as a way to measure retail, advertising and other real-world environments.

IMRSV and IPG Media Lab have collaborated on ways to adapt the Cara software platform to social media and ad networks. IPG is also an initial customer for the Cara platform.

“The ad industry has clamored for better measurement solutions that gather actual human data, not just machine information, for years, and the Cara platform is a true milestone for gathering intelligent information in a real-world setting,” said Nicole Buraglio, marketing director for ad:tech. “We always strive to introduce new, innovative technology at our events, and the IPG-IMRSV demo is live, commercial technology that benefits our organization, as well as our members, in powerful ways.”

The Cara system will capture data, then tweet hourly breakdowns (to #adtechSF) of total data from all five locations in Moscone Center West, as well as data from each of the five locations. One of the locations is Booth# 2622 on the show floor, which will be hosted by IPG Media Lab and IMRSV.

IMRSV’s innovation in the development of Cara is software that can detect up to 25 people simultaneously up to 25 feet away using a basic web camera. The technology behind this is a proprietary face detection software that adheres to privacy by design principles and doesn’t record images or collect any personal information. The software is as easy to use as Skype, can be set up on any PC or smartphone and can detect audiences with 90% accuracy. Cara requires nothing more than a PC, Internet connection, a standard webcam and the Cara software. This enables smarter spaces and devices – whether toys that smile back at you, or vending machines that speak to you – with richer, relevant data. The platform adheres to a new industry level of information privacy created by IMRSV, the Principles of Good Use (http://www.imrsv.com/ethics-statement), that follows the Cara platform’s capture of anonymized data in which no personal information is collected and no images are saved or recorded.

Designed as a Data as a Service (DaaS) offering, the Cara platform has pay-as-you-go monthly plans. Available today for download from the IMRSV site at www.imrsv.com/pricing, the initial version of Cara is $39.95 per month per camera.

“There is an inevitability to the growth of information, and we want to ensure that information-capture systems, such as Cara, are applicable for everyday use. A smarter world is a better world; anything that can be measured can be improved,” said Jason Sosa, founder and CEO of IMRSV. “Cara is a new way to measure the world. We want to bridge the offline and online worlds to enable people to make magic from everyday life.”

Developed by IMRSV as an answer to the difficulties of human monitoring in physical spaces, the Cara platform provides continuous data, which can understand everything from the attention time of audiences viewing display content, how products perform in end-caps within stores and how efficient wait times can be managed. The Cara system can also enable intelligent interactive retail experiences.

Cara can determine attention time and duration, and can differentiate watchers at the same time in the same session. The software can perform with a 90% detection accuracy and can perform up to a 25-foot (8 meter) distance at 640X480 resolution.

“There is an elegance to the Cara software that makes it adaptive to a wide range of content, and we have seen a number of applications where this kind of product can be integrated for more effective audience measurement,” said Andy Maskin, experience director, IPG Media Lab. “The simplicity of the Cara set-up is what distinguishes it from any other solution, and it applies as much to creative campaign work as it does to audience measurement.”

The Cara product includes an analytics dashboard that provides real-time engagement data, including total duration, attention time, and glances. Four age groups (child, young adult, adult, and senior) can be measured, with coordinates mapping the attributes of a watcher, including X/Y coordinates; width and height, and distance.

Cara is available to developers as a REST API allowing third party developers to leverage the data. Developers can download the Developers Kit from http://www.imrsv.com/developers. Enterprise customers can inquire about a software developer’s kit (SDK) which provides a local real-time response for audience demographic data.

Sosa and the team at IMRSV are actively working on more lightweight software designs that will create smarter embedded solutions.

More Information on ad:tech San Francisco 2013:

• For more information on ad:tech, visit na.ad-tech.com/sf/
• To register for ad:tech San Francisco 2013, visit na.ad-tech.com/sf
• Follow @adtech on Twitter and join the conversation using #adtechsf

About ad:tech

ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition that covers the entire digital marketing ecosystem. Worldwide events – 10 shows in seven countries annually – blend keynote speakers, topic-driven panels and workshops to provide industry professionals with the tools and techniques they need to compete in a changing world. For more information, visit www.ad-tech.com.

ad:tech is owned by dmg :: events, which was founded in 1989 and now organizes over 80 events in 25 countries each year. Headquartered in Stamford, Conn., it is currently active in North America, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia, employing more than 300 staff. dmg :: events is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc, one of the largest media companies in the United Kingdom. For more information on dmg :: events, visit www.dmgevents.com.

About the IPG Media Lab

The IPG Media Lab is equal parts think tank, real-world proving ground, and change enabler. We provide agencies and clients with the power to harness emerging media by offering facilities, expertise, and resources specifically tailored to rigorously testing emerging media and marketing techniques, driving quantifiable outcomes, learnings and strategies. The IPG Lab is part of IPG Mediabrands, which was founded by Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) in 2007 to manage all of its global media-related assets. For more information, please visit www.ipglab.com or follow us @ipglab.

About IMRSV

IMRSV is code for innovation, a technology company developing solutions for real-world, real-time data analysis. The company’s Cara software is a breakthrough in rich audience capture design. Based in New York City, the company is privately backed. For more information, visit the web site at www.imrsv.com.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you would like a color photograph of Jason Sosa, founder and CEO of IMRSV; Andy Maskin experience director of IPG Media Lab; Nicole Buraglio, marketing director for ad:tech, or screenshots of the Cara software product, please contact Chris Pfaff on chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com or 201-218-0262.