Amscreen, a division of Sir Alan Sugar's Amshold company, has devised a way advertisers can gather information about those who view their ads, even when they are just on a high street.

Using face detection technology through Amscreen displays fitted with cameras, the advertiser can find out the gender, age, date, time and volume of viewers automatically.

This information can be gathered in real-time, so brands can actually tailor their adverts throughout the day to target a specific group of people. The target audience could therefore see a very different type of advert from that displayed earlier in the day, for example.

Amscreen boasts a network of over 6,000 outdoor digital advertising displays around Europe, with over 50 million people viewing them weekly. It will use a variant of the facial detection technology originally developed by automated audience measurement firm Quividi.

The software is only able to determine characteristics, so security issues are eased a tad. But there are still some who might be concerned.

"It processes the images it sees and instantly converts these into basic numeric data, the system does not recognise individuals as it relies on facial detection technology, not facial recognition technology," said Amscreen.

"Brands deserve to know not just an estimation of how many eyeballs are viewing their adverts, but who they are too," added CEO Simon Sugar.