Omron Electronic Components announced its Human Vision Sensor that forms the heart of a new digital signage accessory aimed at retailers, providing the gender and age of viewers to display the right content at the right time.

The challenge of the human vision component with the HVC-P2 was choosing from the many image recognition features available.
(video: Omron)

The Nexmosphere X-Eye Gender sensor captures just the specific data points for those standing in front of interactive displays and digital signage, allowing content to be tuned appropriately whilst complying fully with GDPR regulations.

Reinventing the retail creating better experiences digitally with products and promotions

Hubert van Doorne, Business Development Director at Nexmosphere, commented, “Retail is continually reinventing itself, and we are helping retailers create new and better experiences digitally. A good and attentive sales assistant will direct customers towards products and promotions relevant to them, with X-Eye we’re now able to do the same with digital content. Our main goal with this product was to take a standard sensor and create a retail proof solution which can simply be connected with no set-up required. We were prompted use the Omron HVC because many of our customers were already very positive about this particular sensor. It provides comprehensive and easily accessible information with no set-up, internet connection or software license required unlike many of the alternatives we considered.”

The challenge is ensuring the right content is displayed at the right time with the right contents

Hubert van Doorne continued, “The main challenge of designing with the HVC-P2 was choosing from the many image recognition features available. We focussed initially on the data that would most benefit marketers but are looking at expanding functionality in the future. Gender detection is valuable in ensuring that the right content is displayed at the right time, and age estimation helps marketers analyse the demographics of the person in front of their display.”

Nexmosphere X-Eye Gender and the complexity of seeing and recognising faces, bodies and gestures

Nexmosphere’s small, non-intrusive unit is completely stand-alone. Nexmosphere’s goal in creating the X-Eye was to deliver a small, easy to integrate, non-intrusive unit that was completely stand-alone, with no internet connection or software license fees required.

The Omron HVC-P2 provided the core of this solution, handling all the complexity of seeing and recognising faces, bodies and gestures, providing a value and a degree of certainty at the UART or USB interface.

All the integrator needs to do is read the data output and programme the system to react appropriately.

Nexmosphere has blocked access to the image at the hardware level, ensuring GDPR compliance even if the software in the unit is hacked.
The X-Eye Gender sensor is part of the Nexmosphere XY range, a variety of sensors designed to detect presence in front of interactive displays.

The sensor gives a level of confidence in accuracy of the detected gender and features adjustable settings including trigger levels and detection area. The data points trigger age or gender-specific content to be displayed. This is a small, easy to integrate and non-intrusive solution with applications that include retail and museum displays.

Omron Human Vision Component HVC-P2, integrated module with camera and image processing board

The Omron Human Vision Component HVC-P2 offers one of the industry’s fastest image recognition speeds. It is an integrated module including a camera and an image processing board. It offers ten image sensing functions for use in digital signage, home and office automation and security applications, including body detection, face recognition, hand detection, age estimation, gender estimation and expression estimation.

The module is based on the Omron OKAO Vision software, a proven set of image recognition algorithms used in over 500 million digital cameras, mobile phones and surveillance robots around the world.

Info about Nexmosphere

Nexmosphere provides a versatile collection of sensors and actuators designed to transform Digital Signage from mere content on a screen into rich and intuitive experiences. These sensors have an exciting range of interactive applications including retail and museums. Their versatile collection offers flexibility to create unique customer experiences that are cost-efficient to implement on a broad scale. All interactive elements such as pick-up sensors, presence sensors, audio switching and LED lighting can easily be integrated into any Digital Signage platform using a serial or USB connection.

Info about Omron

Omron Electronic Components Europe is a leader in electromechanical PCB relays, as well as a leading supplier of components such as micro switches, MOSFET relays, DIP switches, photomicrosensors and connectors. Omron has a strong portfolio of innovative technologies including MEMS based pressure, flow and thermal measurement sensors, human face and gesture recognition modules, vibration and tilt sensors. Omron Electronic Components Europe strongly supports its customers in Western and Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS through 8 regional offices, a network of local offices and partnerships with specialist, local, regional and global distributors. Omron Electronic Components Europe is a subsidiary of the Omron Corporation, recognised worldwide as a leader of high quality, high technology electrical and electronic control equipment and component products.