Billboards are talking back

Battery-powered hypertags allow visitors and passers-by to simply point and click their mobile at a billboard to access additional information and services from the Internet. Everything will be connected to everything!

Battery-powered hypertags allow visitors and passers-by to simply point and click their mobile at a billboard to access additional information and services from the Internet The Brits seems to have a thing for ‘pointing and knowing’. Half a year ago, we highlighted London-based Shazam, whose song recognition technology lets mobile phone users point their phone to a music source when they hear a song they like, in order to receive a text message (SMS) with the name of the artist and the track. Now Cambridge-based company Hypertag is rolling out battery-powered tags with built-in infrared signals, that allow visitors and passers-by to simply point and click their mobile at a billboard or display to access additional information and services from the Internet. In their own words: “Imagine walking down the street and seeing a poster advertising an airline; you point and click your phone at the tag, download flight times and make a booking.” On the tag owner’s side, a Hypertag server manages the content linked to each tag, allowing for easy monitoring and updating of web pages that are sent to consumers. Adding new exhibits or more information would simply involve changing the content linked to a tag or adding more tags. After successful pilots in the Tate Modern museum in London and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in 2002, the first commercial roll out is now taking place in 20 London cinemas, with billboards telling moviegoers where to download music, trailers or stills from the movie, find the nearest cinema or call up the online box office. The deal marks the beginning of a partnership between Hypertag and Primesight, the outdoor media arm of SMG PLC, and is the start of a wider roll-out across Primesight’s nationwide poster network. (Sources: Wired News, Proteinos.com, Nesta.)

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