Minority Report and precogs

I came across a newco that has a very interesting approach.

Think back to the movie "Minority Report." It's the year 2054 and Washington DC has not had a single murder take place in 9 years. Why has the country's homicide capital become a safe haven for its citizens? The Pre-Crime Department was established under its mentor, Director Lamar Burgess, and, with his chief detective, John Anderton, assisting, has harnessed the precognitive powers of three genetic mutants (the "Pre-Cogs") to stop murder before it happens in the long-anticipated Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise science fiction thriller, "Minority Report."

Now, fast rewind to 2007 - leveraging scientific research and insights into how the human brain processes stimuli like ads and marketing messages, and using new technology advances in dense-array EEG brain-scanning, eye tracking, and autonomous nervous system measurement, scientists are able to create a window into both conscious and pre-conscious responses to ads and messaging. The newco has developed metrics that directly measure attention, likeability, familiarity, and memorability without reliance on self-reporting. These findings will be aggregated into the world's largest database of neurological correlates of advertising effectiveness. The premise of the business model is that it may be possible with this data to radically improve advertising ROI by integrating neurological insights into every ad campaign and media spend decision.

More later. . . as a major software company is willing to pilot this platform to steer their clients to better position their banner ads.

Roll over GOOG - AdSense is dead meat

Update: A little tidbit came across my newsfeed this morning . . .

AOL has agreed to acquire Tacoda Inc., a New York-based provider of behaviorally-targeted online advertising solutions. The deal is reported to be worth nearly $300 million. Tacoda had raised around $31 million in VC funding since 2001, from firms like Union Square Ventures, Masthead Venture Partners and Rho Ventures.