Let me be the first to say "mission accomplished." Kids are creepy anyway, but throw in a system that leeches blood when it rains and you just might scare people into giving up their cars entirely. Not surprisingly, the billboards have been effective. Since they were put in place, there hasn't been a single fatal accident in the area. [Neatorama via Buzzfeed]

Yahoo Japan plans to install billboards equipped with cameras and facial analysis technology that identifies each person's characteristics, such as age and sex. In addition to specially-targeted ads, they're programmed to display content like news and weather. I wonder if in the future these things can detect other product preferences from our outward appearances. I just hope they don't reveal anything embarrassing, like a need for incontinence pads. [Nikkei via Crunch Gear]

Japan's NTT Communications is testing a new billboard setup in January that has a built-in pair of cameras hooked up to image detection software that determines how many people are in front of the ad, and just how many are looking at it. It doesn't try to identify individuals, or tailor the ad to specific demographics, unlike some proposed systems.

The way NTT's system works is that it compares the image of passersby to an "average Japanese face" and determines whether or not they're peepingthe ad:

"We gathered together many faces and came up with an average Japanese face, and by using pattern matching the system recognizes faces from the image."

So, uh, does that mean it won't work on white people? [Good Gear Guide via /.]

Each side of the sign, designed by D3 LED, requires a 48-drive RAID pumping data at a rate of 3.2GB/second to a custom-built PC. From there, the data is fed through graphics cards to multiple DVI pipes, which lead to six DVI pixel splitters (known as a Spyders). The splitters take video data of a specific resolution and upscale it to the size needed for the display. Once the data is crunched and formatted for the sign, it's sent out via 4Gbps ethernet to one of more than 12,000 display modules that make up the ginormous billboard.

Each module is a mini-computer, complete with MAC address, redundant 4-gigabit ethernet ports, power supply and a fan. Each panel can report all kinds of vital statistics, including its temperature. If there's a problem, the panel reports itself to the main computer for easy troubleshooting. (Like a good communist, it can report problems with its neighbors, too.) The majority of the electronics are accessible from inside, so dangerous repair jobs on scaffolding suspended over Times Square are a thing of the past.

The sign's modules are split into three sections, low-, medium- and high-resolution grids based on their distance from the street. (Why waste pixels for objects way high up?) The top, as you probably guessed, has the largest pixels, at 24mm, while the middle has 12mm and the bottom has 10mm.

The animators are faced with a tough challenge when creating content for the signs, as they must keep the different display sizes in mind so the animation appears cohesive throughout the sections. To help out the animators, sign creator D3 LED made a virtual copy of it that is 10,000 pixels high by 4,000 pixels wide, the equivalent of 43 megapixels. (It's 20 times the resolution of HD, too.) They use an Adobe After Effects template to help coordinate placement of the animations on the slash-shaped sign.

As previously reported, a single 30-second spot on the billboard requires a staggering 150GB of data transferred through the system. But before you accuse D3 and Walgreens of hogging all of the power in New York, they attest that they are not. With the Con Ed bill in mind, their design reduced unnecessary copper wiring by over 300,000 feet and increased the voltage for more efficient power. They also set up an auto-dimmer (like you might have on your laptop) that adjusts the luminosity of the LEDs based on the ambient light outside. All of this makes it not necessarily cheap but at least cheaper than you'd think to operate.

The Walgreens sign is a complex, fascinating testament to the sheer power of LED displays. While most people living in New York avoid Times Square exactly because of things like this, tourists will undoubtedly flock to the center to observe the sign up close, even though it can be seen from as far away as Bryant Park and the Port Authority. For now, it's something that even this semi-jaded NYC resident can appreciate. [Walgreens Sign on Giz]

The companies claim, of course, that the cameras won't store pictures of you almost getting into an accident when you drive past that Victoria's Secret ad, instead just registering your gender and how long you look at the ad. But if there are cameras there that can train on your face there's no guarantee that in the future they won't somehow link up what billboards you look at with the profile stored on the internet hooked up to the picture of you that was secretly taken of your with your iSight camera. They'll be able to create a total consumer profile of you, the marketers wet dream.

I'm kidding, of course. That would never happen. People would protest as soon as the little invasions of privacy added up to something that large. Right? Right, guys?

But in any case, the companies behind this tech have visions of targeting billboard ads to specific demographics. You know, like Metamucil ads to old ladies and iPods to young men. Cool? [CNET]

Imagine a future filled with people getting paid to wear annoying ads everywhere you went, or attention seekers getting in your face with a shirt filled with their stupid propaganda. It's a good thing we will all be long dead before this sort of technology becomes widely available. [Lunar Design via Gizmowatch via DVICE]

The Aeroform as he calls it, features a streamlined design for "optimal aerodynamic and climactic performance." Even the name is derived from the term "aerofoil" which refers to a structure that provides stability or a steering function in a flying object. The whole thing even looks like some sort of aircraft intake if you ask me.

No doubt that something like this would be really fantastic to live in — that is until you stumbled out of your house drunk at 4am and tumbled head first into the abyss. Probably a major reason why this concept may never see the light of day. [KRob via Treehugger]

Microsoft put up a gigantic billboard and paid sixteen dancers to "Cirque" up a Vista logo over it. After the performance was over, the actors got down and hailed cabs—a graceful exit if we've ever seen one. We're just curious where they keep cab fare on those outfits.

– Jason Chen

Microsoft Vista Is So Off the Wall [Gothamist]

We once knew a girl whose face was so ugly it could stop a sundial, so if she lives near Wrigley Field in Chicago, she won't have any way of knowing that it's time to stop eating Egg McMuffins and start digging into Big Macs. Ad agency Leo Burnett dreamed up this idea for a McDonald's billboard that takes us fast food junkies back to the ancient days of sundials, casting a shadow on a cup of McCoffee at 6 a.m., and moving along to other various delectable breakfast items until 11, when those scrumptious McDonald's fries are given the nod by the shadowy arches.

As the breakfast competition heats up in the Chicago markets and beyond, the McDonald's ad agency figured it could turn to the power of the sun for its billboard marketing, and searched far and wide until it found a billboard with just the right angle to take advantage of the sun's rays. The billboard made its debut on Friday, and it will stay in place until next month; by then the shadow angles will have changed so much it will cease to work properly. Great idea, unless it's a cloudy day, where the billboard will make absolutely no sense at all. But who needs it anyway—as if we depend on the McSun to tell us when we're hungry. – Charlie White

McD's launches next strike in breakfast war - in Wrigleyville [ChicagoBusiness] (Thanks, Gavin!)