Personalised Billboards

Richard from Enprecis brought this to my attention... Mini continues to deliver innovative communications. (full disclosure, I have one and love it). They have recently launched an RFID pilot in 4 cities in the US where selected drivers will be given a keyfob cunningly disguised as an RFID tag (or vice versa). Every time the car passes by the active billboard, the driver's personal message will be displayed in lights. Sadly NY is not one of the pilot cities so I will have to wait for mine.... The campaign is from Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners in Sausalito, CA.

The photo above was taken during testing in NYC.

The Ginza Gets RFID'd

In a large scale experiment the Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project installed 10,000 RFID, infrared and wireless transmitters throughout Tokyo's Ginza shopping area. The tags and transmitters will provide location-related information to people carrying readers developed for the trial which will start in January and run until March.
The system will be able to provide users with simple navigation and information about the shops and stores in the area in four languages initially: Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. For example, an RFID tag on a street lamp will be able to guide carriers of the readers to the nearest railway station while walking past a radio beacon in front of a shop might bring up details of current special offers or a menu for a restaurant.
The project is supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MILT) and is one of several currently taking place in Japan.