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Mini Introduces RFID-Activated Billboards

Posted by kdawson on from the L.A.-Story-meets-Minority-Report dept.

frinkster writes "MINI USA has placed interactive billboards in 4 US cities (Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco) and invited a few hundred MINI owners in those cities to join their targeted 'advertisement' pilot program. The owners sign up on MINI's website and receive an RFID keyfob in the mail. When that MINI owner drives by the billboard, a targeted message appears. Each owner tells MINI what to show when they drive by, such as 'Jim, you are one sexy beast.' If the pilot program is successful, MINI plans to put up more billboards in more cities and allow every owner to participate. MINI swears that no personal information in contained in the keyfobs and that all communication between the MINI and the owner is subject to their privacy policy and thus the program is completely safe. But how well will they keep their billboard logs away from the prying eyes of law enforcement or private detectives? And what are they doing to prevent 'hackers' from changing the personal messages to insults, such as 'Jim, nice to see you finally emerge from your mother's basement'?" MINI calls the interactive billboards "Motherboards."

12 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Ya... by Swimport · · Score: 4, Funny

    This has good idea written all over it.

  2. Fun! by ruiner13 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This could be fun to put out fake terror warnings on billboards to get people to drive faster :)

    --

    today is spelling optional day.

    1. Re:Fun! by linefeed0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Fun? If you think jail is fun, and you would like to share this man's fate, I suggest you do so.

  3. Bigbrotherboards by CranberryKing · · Score: 4, Funny

    Great. How soon until it says "Jim! You are being detained."

    Believe it.

  4. insert bad joke here by BadERA · · Score: 3, Funny

    Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not an billboard trigger.

    --
    I am, therefore you think.
  5. What range? by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What range are they imagining for RFID? I have always heard that driving past a billboard (unless it was *really* close) wouldn't be close enough for the transmit distances of RFID.

    If RFID is readable at distances of 50-100 feet or so, that's opens a bunch of issues people have been saying can't happen.

    Anyone with any more detailed knowledge about RFID care to chime in on this?

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:What range? by man_ls · · Score: 3, Informative

      Active (Powered) RFID and a good antenna will net ranges much greater than 100 ft. You never hear about the Active sort terribly often, but it's out there, and is appropriate in a situation like this.

    2. Re:What range? by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Putting the RFID reader in a mile marker nearer the road (or in the road itself) and then relaying the information to the billboard via another, longer-distance technology, gets around the billboard-range problem.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  6. No, they don't. by RobertB-DC · · Score: 4, Informative

    MINI calls the interactive billboards "Motherboards."

    Um, the FA actually says:

    Look MINI USA to roll-out the Motorboard program to a wider MINI-owning audience later in 2007.

    Looks like somebody does need to get out of his parents' basement...

    --
    Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
  7. Correction... by eta526 · · Score: 4, Informative

    MINI is calling them Motorboards, not Motherboards. The article is incorrect.

  8. Re:Minorityreport tags by Bassman59 · · Score: 4, Informative

    What trolls tagged this 'minorityreport'? I fail to see the relevance. In Philip K Dick's dystopian future, you'll be followed by annoying ads that target you specifically. The trigger for the ads in the future is that you'll have some kind of ID implant that gets read by the adbots. The MINI keyfobs are an external version of that ...
  9. KeyFobs still linked to PID by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Insightful
    MINI swears that no personal information in contained in the keyfobs...


    Doesn't really matter. All you need to know as a marketeer is the unique ID of the FOB. When the FOB was registered your name, etc. goes into the master DB in the sky and from that point forward any POS or PO-Advertisement that sees your FOB will have access to your personally identifiable consumer portrait.

    The "see some stupid phrase on a billboard as you're driving to your lifeless cube" game is just a way to train various peons to be good consumers and hang onto their FOB.