DigitalBillboards
Latest
Camera-equipped digital billboards scan humans in Tokyo, serve up tailored ads
Marketing managers, you best take a seat. This right here is your future, like it or not. According to a new report from one Earth's most mesmerizing cities, digital advertising billboards are being trialled in Japan that are not only equipped with cameras, but with an ability to scan passers-by for gender and age group. Once that data is collected, the billboard then flashes an advertisement that best fits the type of human walking by. So, anyone care to guess which ad gets shown when the 6PM central station train lets out?
Skullphone decides to speak, probably shouldn't have
Now that Skullphone's act of purported electronic billboard hackery has been proven to be nothing more than a simple act of forking over some cash, the graffiti artist has apparently decided to try to explain things somewhat, albeit without going so far as to completely fess up. What's more, as evidenced by the tidbits of the conversion provided by PAPERMAG, Skullphone also didn't go so far as to make a lot of sense. On the central issue of hacking, Skullphone said that, "once again, it's a matter of semantics. What does it mean to hack the system. Is getting people to think for themselves hacking?" As if that wasn't enough profundity, Skullphone also said that "the art of hacking I know nothing about. What is hacking? What is art?," before going just a tad over the top by saying that "people thought Bob Dylan sold out when he went electric. I guess people weren't ready for it." If that's got you intrigued, you can hit up the link below for some more bits of wisdom.[Thanks, David]
Skullphone's Clear Channel billboards not hax0r3d, actually pa1d for
That Skullphone billboard hack we saw yesterday had everyone at Engadget HQ pretty impressed with the corporate-pranking hijinks. Too bad it turns out that Skullphone is actually a phony (and total buster, we might add) who had to pay The Man (aka Clear Channel) cold hard cash to "glitch up" the digital billboards. According to Curbed LA (and our reliable tipsters / commenters), Skullphone paid the massive media conglomerate for one-day Los Angeles-wide ads -- there was no hacking involved at all. From now on, he should just leave the signage-goofing to the pros, or at least make it clear there's some money changing hands. Fool us once, shame on you... and... we won't get fooled again.[Thanks, Dakota]
Clear Channel digital billboards in SoCal hax0r3d
We've gotten pretty used to seeing crashed digital billboards and signage dot the landscape, but just like regular billboards, what's really interesting is when the graffiti artists manage to get their own messages up on the big (big) screen. Looks like Clear Channel is the latest victim - 10 LA-area billboards owned by the media giant started displaying the logo of 18-year-old graffiti artist Skullphone last Thursday, slotted innocuously within the regular ad rotation. Sure, it's not quite at the anarcho-political level of the Billboard Liberation Front and their ilk, but every great leap begins with just a small step, no? Hit the read link for tons more photos.[Via Textually.org]
FBI rolling out digital billboards in 20 cities
Employing public signage in the pursuit of suspects is probably about as old as criminology itself, so it's no surprise to see the FBI leveraging the latest technology to erect some of the largest, most versatile wanted posters in history. Thanks to a partnership with advertising giant Clear Channel Outdoor, the G-men will deploy some 150 digital billboards -- capable of displaying fugitives, missing children, or public safety info in real-time -- to 20 major cities around the country, following a successful trial launched in Philadelphia in September. So if you're planning on committing a felony in Des Moines, Iowa or Akron, Ohio soon, better get it done quick, lest your ugly mug become the talk of the car pool during your morning commute. List of all the lucky cities after the break.[Via Slashdot]
