Viewer-targeted display system and method

An information display system for targeting information to a plurality of viewers proximate to an information display, the system comprising:

• one or more audio sensors for determining one or more words spoken by at least one viewer in a subset of the plurality of viewers;
• an audio processing module for converting the determined one or more words spoken into text, and for identifying keywords in the converted text;
• a database comprising a plurality of information files, each information file having associated keywords;
• and
• an information file selection module for selecting one or more information files to display on the information display, based upon similarity between one or more of the identified keywords in the converted text, and one or more of the associated keywords of the one or more information files;
• wherein the one or more audio sensors are configured to determine the one or more words spoken by at least one viewer in the subset of the plurality of viewers, even when the subset of the plurality of viewers are not taking purposeful action to direct the information file selection module to select the one or more information files.

A viewer-targeted advertising system having a display for displaying advertisements to a plurality of viewers proximate to the display, the system comprising:

• at least one sensor of attributes of a subset of the plurality of viewers, comprising at least one of:
• a visual sensor for sensing physical attributes of the subset of the plurality of viewers;
• an audio sensor for sensing audible attributes of the subset of the plurality of viewers;
• a statistical modeling module for determining one or more representative demographics of the subset of the plurality of viewers, the one or more representative demographics being associated with at least one of the attributes of the subset of the plurality of viewers;
• a database comprising a plurality of advertisements, each advertisement of the plurality of advertisements being associated with at least one demographic;
• and
• an advertisement selection module for selecting one or more advertisements from the database for displaying on the display for the plurality of viewers, the one or more selected advertisements being associated with the one or more determined representative demographics.

A method for targeting advertising to a plurality of viewers proximate to an advertising display, the advertising display for displaying advertisements from a database of advertisements, the method comprising:

• determining one or more attributes of a subset of the plurality of viewers, the one or more attributes selected from physical attributes and audible attributes of the subset of the plurality of viewers;
• determining one or more representative demographics of the subset of the plurality of viewers, the one or more representative demographics being associated with at least one of the determined attributes of the subset of the plurality of viewers;
• selecting one or more advertisements from the database of advertisements associated with the determined one or more representative demographics of the subset of the plurality of viewers;
• and
• displaying the one or more selected advertisements on the advertising display for the plurality of viewers.