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Retailers are targeting individual shoppers with digital billboards like those in the hit Tom Cruise film Minority Report. 

Cameras in the advert hoardings identify the age and sex of passers-by then display relevant products. 

The makers claim images of faces are erased immediately but some consumers fear the billboards will capture their expressions and responses to the ads. The signs are being tried out in Japan. 

Digital advertising expert Omaid Hiwaizi, 40, from London agency Chemistry, said: "Companies will be watching closely to see if they do well. 

"Although it may seem scary, it's no more sinister than retailers using cookies online to see what items you've looked at on their websites. 

"Many already use this technology to work out what you want." 

In Minority Report, a billboard tells Cruise's character he could do with a drink. US stores have started testing another system which texts vouchers and offers to customers' phones within a mile of a branch. 

Around 65 per cent of people receiving the alerts went into the shop. The scheme could be extended to the UK in six months.