Britain's ubiquitous CCTV video surveillance network has nothing on Japan's Orwellian nightmare in the making. One of the country's top electronics firms, NEC, has just announced a new plasma display fitted with a tiny camera that can accurately identify a person's age and sex in order to target them with specific advertisements.

Shoppers interested in what they're being peddled can simply hold their cell phones near the 50-inch display and a QR code containing a URL with more product information will be beamed to their handset. We'll spare you the over-used Minority Report references and simply suggest that someone out there get to work developing camera foiling supermasks to assist those of us still interested in a smattering of privacy.

Times of India