The advertising screens, made by Lord Alan Sugar's digital signage company Amscreen, will use a camera to identify a customer's gender and approximate age. It will then show an advert tailored to that demographic, with ads focused on addressing three different age groups. 

The technology will also adapt ads based on other criteria, such as the time of the day or location. For example, you might expect to encounter advertising for coffee or cereal if you're shopping early in the morning.

Simon Sugar, Alan's son, explained the technology to UK retail magazine The Grocer, stating "yes, it's like something out of Minority Report, but this could change the face of British retail." Sugar says Amscreen hopes to bring the technology to as many supermarkets as possible.

Tesco says the screens will be rolled out across all of its 450 petrol station forecourts in the UK and are expected to reach 5 million customers.

The technology has already been criticised by privacy advocates. Nick Pickles of Big Brother Watch told The Daily Telegraph "people would never accept the police keeping a real-time log of which shops we go in, but this technology can do just that. It is a surveillance state by the shop door."

Thomas Hobbs, also writing for The Telegraph, says the technology seems 'safe for now' as it doesn't store or record any information about customers' faces, instead just transmitting anonymous age and gender data for analysis. Explaining the Amscreen screens are around 97% accurate, Hobbs does warn "moving to a system that provides something more sophisticated is just a case of changing the little box. It’s a small step from not saving your face, to saving it."