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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."

8 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. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Correction... by eta526 · · Score: 4, Informative

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

  7. 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 ...