Store mannequins are meant to catch your eye. Soon, you may catch theirs.
Fashion brands are deploying mannequins equipped with the same technology used to identify airport terrorists to watch over shoppers in their stores. Retailers are introducing the EyeSee, sold by Italian mannequin maker Almax SpA, to glean data on customers much as online merchants are able to do.
The EyeSee looks ordinary enough on the outside, with its slender polystyrene frame, blank face and improbable pose. Inside, it's no dummy. A camera embedded in one eye feeds data into facial-recognition software much like that used by law enforcement authorities. It logs the age, gender and race of passers-by.
