Shape-Shifting Billboards Might Start Targeting Ads at You, Because You Drive a Corvette

By Tony Markovich - September 1, 2016

billboards

Since you use the internet, you should probably know that every little place you visit, there are robots tracking your movements. Those robots watch what types of things you’re looking at, what you’re buying, what you’re reading, and what type of porn you’re looking at. Then, those robots compile that information into a bank, assess the information bulk, and decide on products that you might be interested in buying.

Those products are what show up in banner ads on any websites you visit. You didn’t think it was a coincidence that just 20 minutes after you checked out a Daenerys Targaryen T-shirt, more Game of Thrones items showed up in your Instagram feed? Yeah, creepy, right? Stupid Google. Well, that type of thinking might jump right out from your phone or computer, and into IRL. Right into the O.G. banner ads: billboards.

A company in Japan wants to take that same type of targeted advertising and use a similar method for those giant digital screens you might see above highways and city roads. The way it would work is that cameras attached to the billboards would read what cars are coming into view and are headed in that direction. Those cameras would send images to a computer that can read the files and determine exactly what types of cars are coming. Then, based on external car buyer data, the billboards would display advertising that data has shown would apply to that specific car.

So, if the camera spotted one of your C7 Corvettes, it might show you something that middle-aged gentlemen like. So maybe, like, an ad for Home Depot or something. In theory, if you’re going to see a photo of a nifty lookin’ new grill, then you’ll probably go straight to the grocery store to buy some hot dogs. Everybody likes things custom, right?