Advert on Oxford Street shown only to women Published duration 20 February 2012

image caption The interactive screen will show the full 40-second advertisement only to women

An interactive hoarding at a London bus stop aims to show a 40-second advertisement only to women and girls.

The screen showing the short video campaign, by children's charity Plan UK, is located at a bus stop opposite Selfridges on Oxford Street.

A camera will measure facial features of the person standing at the screen to decide whether it is a man or a woman. It guesses right 90% of the time.

If it is a male, the screen will direct him to the charity's campaign website.

The advertisement highlights the issue of women and girls in developing countries, who face poverty and discrimination, not getting the choice to decide how they want to lead their lives.

Males will not get to see the advertisement in order to make them aware about gender discrimination, the charity said.

Facial recognition technology

The full advertisement will show three 13-year-old girls - from the UK, Mali and Thailand - talking about their lives.

The interactive advertisement, which will be available for two weeks from Wednesday, cost £30,000 and is activated when the viewer opts to see it.

The camera will measure facial features of the viewer - the distance between the eyes, width of the nose, length of jaw line and shape of cheekbone - to estimate the gender.

None of the data gathered is stored, the charity said.

Plan UK said it hoped to raise £250,000 over four months to provide access to education for girls from poor families.