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MINI Introduces RFID-Activated Billboards

Posted by kdawson on Thu Jan 11, 2007 04:30 PM
from the L.A.-Story-meets-Minority-Report dept.
Privacy
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."
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  • Ya... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Swimport (1034164) on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:32PM (#17563760) Homepage
    This has good idea written all over it.
    • Yes, just what we need. Yet another distraction from the task of driving. I wonder how many people will be killed because they were too busy reading their personalised billboard. Motorists need less distractions not more.

  • More like (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "Jim, I'm finally glad to see you emerge from your mother."

  • Fun! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ruiner13 (527499) on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:34PM (#17563796) Homepage
    This could be fun to put out fake terror warnings on billboards to get people to drive faster :)

    • Re:Fun! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by linefeed0 (550967) on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:49PM (#17564074)
      Fun? If you think jail is fun, and you would like to share this man's fate [thesmokinggun.com], I suggest you do so.
    • "This could be fun to put out fake terror warnings on billboards to get people to drive faster :)"

      Or to get them to slow down: "...smokey on your right, 1/4 mile ahead, hiding behind the tree..." Like having CB in which few broadcast but many listen.
      • Yeah, they'd have too many people who thought it was funny to put "shit shit boobs" up there for them to give you free reign with the messages.

  • Bigbrotherboards (Score:4, Funny)

    by CranberryKing (776846) on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:35PM (#17563822)
    Great. How soon until it says "Jim! You are being detained."

    Believe it.
    • "Hi Akbar! It looks like you have traces of explosives on your car. Please pull over by the black helicoper up ahead."

  • insert bad joke here (Score:3, Funny)

    by BadERA (107121) on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:35PM (#17563836) Homepage
    Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not an billboard trigger.
  • "Jim - You should have got a Hummer!"

  • What range? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gstoddart (321705) on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:39PM (#17563900) Homepage
    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?

    • Re:What range? (Score:4, Informative)

      by man_ls (248470) <jkoebel.gmail@com> on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:44PM (#17563978)
      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.

    • Re:What range? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by HTH NE1 (675604) on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:45PM (#17563990)
      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.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by BlahSnarto (45250)
      I just googled RFID longrange and
      came up with a few interesting links

      http://www.ela.fr/ [www.ela.fr]
    • Using active tags and a highly directional antenna on the receiver, I suspect that you can probably "see" a tag from quite a distance away. Active tags transmit continuously, so they don't need a high-strength RF field to give them the juice to operate, like the passive tags inside SpeedPasses, etc.

      Examples of active RFID already in use are the EZ Pass boxes used in cars in New England and the Northeast. They have toll gates in New Jersey that you drive through at full speed, and the receivers are up at nor

  • No, they don't. (Score:5, Informative)

    by RobertB-DC (622190) * on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:42PM (#17563946) Homepage Journal
    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...

  • Jim... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "Owning a MINI does not make you gay Jim"
  • "Jim! You Could Have Had a V8!"

  • You get a RFID tag IN THE MAIL? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dekortage (697532) on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:48PM (#17564064) Homepage

    This means that the billboards will display their messages whenever the MAIL DELIVERY TRUCK drives by. Nice. And I'm betting a number of tags will mysteriously get lost in the mail and end up on eBay. Other issues:

    • If it's a keyfob, then it will also trigger the signs when someone is driving their OTHER non-Mini vehicle. Many families have two cars, and people drive other cars.
    • The article says "When the boards detect that you are about the drive by, they deliver a personal message based on the information you originally gave." In other words, when you're driving 70mph down the road, make sure you look up for your important message from your car manufacturer -- and then miss your turn.
    • Opposite extreme: you're stuck in traffic for 50 minutes underneath the sign.

    And there are too many ideas for mischievous messages... "Mini announces recall of your vehicle's braking system" for example.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by smitty97 (995791)
      when you're driving 70mph down the road, make sure you look up for your important message from your car manufacturer -- and then miss your turn.

      "Jim! TURN HERE-> "

      • Reminds of the signs I saw on a highway in Pennsylvania... "Jim Thorpe, 2 miles"... "Jim Thorpe, 1 mile"... "Jim Thorpe, exit". Must be nice for Jim to have such an arrangement with the highway department.

        (Yes, I know it refers to this [wikipedia.org].)

    • This means that the billboards will display their messages whenever the MAIL DELIVERY TRUCK drives by. Nice.

      Sounds like it's an active tag, so perhaps it has an off switch and/or requires a battery.

      And I'm betting a number of tags will mysteriously get lost in the mail and end up on eBay.

      Why are you betting that? You think postal theft is commonplace? Why do you think so?

      * If it's a keyfob, then it will also trigger the signs when someone is driving their OTHER non-Mini vehicle. Many families have

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Blakey Rat (99501)
      This means that the billboards will display their messages whenever the MAIL DELIVERY TRUCK drives by.

      Ok, but it's still advertising by Mini regardless of what vehicle is near it. What difference does it make which vehicle triggers it?

      And I'm betting a number of tags will mysteriously get lost in the mail and end up on eBay.

      What makes you say that? I've never had anything stolen from my mail, which I actually find kind of remarkable considering how many people have access to it. In either case, the post off
  • I'm a MINI owner in Miami, I WANT MY FOB!!
  • insults, such as 'Jim, nice to see you finally emerge from your mother's basement'

    What? Saying he's like a Slashdotter is an insult? No way! That's a compliment you insensitive clod!

  • And the question is, ???WHY???? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by wowbagger (69688) on Thursday January 11 2007, @05:00PM (#17564256) Homepage Journal
    And the question I have is, Why? Why would I *want* to be a part of this? Are they going to pay me to endure the targeted advertising?

    This makes as much sense to me as signing up for a free poke in the eye.

    • Is there something about RFID -- or "active" RFID -- that allows only a certain set of RFID readers to be able to read the chip? What I want to know is: how do I get an RFID reader? I want mount an RFID reader in front of my house and log all of the cars that come by, when they come by, if they are staying within "view" of the RFID reader for a certain amount of time (like, say, arriving an hour after I leave for work and leaving an hour before I return), etc. Pretty much every car is going to have RFID ta
  • I wounder if the RFID keyfob gets in the way of the RFID based I-pass used in the Chicago area
  • Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

    Does anyone remember that insanely irritating scene in Minority report when every ad was calling his name.

    Ugh, no thanks. I'll stick to nice quiet billboards that ignore me just as easily as I ignore them.

    I can see it now: HEY CHRIS, APPLY HEAD-ON TO YOUR FOREHEAD, HEY CHRIS, APPLY HEAD-ON TO YOUR FOREHEAD, HEY CHRIS, HEAD-ON CAN BE APPLIED DIRECTLY TO YOUR FOREHEAD - HEY CHRIS, IT'S IN STORES NOW - HEAD-ON!

    • I can see it now: HEY CHRIS, APPLY HEAD-ON TO YOUR FOREHEAD...
      Did you RTFS? The car owner decides what the billboard says (though I would guess that particular message would be too long). PS I had to truncate your message because the caps triggered the lameness filter!
    • "HEAD-ON CAN BE APPLIED DIRECTLY TO YOUR FOREHEAD"

      I see those ads too, and I wonder - why? What does it do? Is it breath freshener? Why would I apply that to my forehead?

      Yes, I know I could look it up, but isn't that the point of advertising - to tell me what your product does? (as opposed to driving me up a wall with the repetition)
  • The biggest problem is prank messages? I think all the messages will be prank messages - I think that's pretty much the idea.

    I assume someone at Mini gets to review the messages and decide which ones are allowed, otherwise there will be obscene messages, threats, etc. This will be like when Nike had the shoes you could order with writing stitched into them and some guy wanted his to say "Sweatshop" and Nike said no.

  • KeyFobs still linked to PID (Score:4, Insightful)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx (565205) on Thursday January 11 2007, @05:38PM (#17564884)
    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.

  • Brilliant marketing (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Rodness (168429) on Thursday January 11 2007, @05:45PM (#17564986) Homepage
    They just got every egomaniac out there to carry around yet another 'MINI' branded keyfob on his keychain and show it off to friends, thus greatly improving their word-of-mouth brand recognition. And they've managed to make (some) people WANT to look at 'MINI' branded billboards.
  • I think that I *would* carry a keychain if it could made me see mostly ads for things I've already expressed interested in. Give up my pharmaceutical and home mortgage billboards for anime and videogame billboards? Sign me up.
  • I can think of at least a few bits of ASCII art that could be fun on a billboard...

  • NON-customizable message... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by sloth jr (88200) on Thursday January 11 2007, @06:19PM (#17565510)
    According to the linked article, the message isn't customizable by you at all - you simply have to give Mini USA typical marketing demographic info, sign up for their spam, and then THEY get to choose the message.

    Bleah.
  • How much is this costing them? Surely it's fairly pricey to make custom-encoded RFID chips for every Jim who signs up? How is this offset? Nobody is going to pay attention the ad subject, it'll all be focussed on the inevitable "Jim is gay" hacked messages.

    • Re:Minorityreport tags (Score:5, Informative)

      by Bassman59 (519820) <.ten.ektal. .ta. .ydna.> on Thursday January 11 2007, @04:50PM (#17564094) Homepage

      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 ...
    • You know that scene in the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise just had his eyes replaced and has that bandage over his eyes that his doctor told him not to remove to soon or he'd go permanently blind and then those spider bots come in and he hides in a bathtub full of ice water but they find him and pull the bandage up and shine a bright light directly into his eyes but he strangely isn't injured at all except having to turn his rigamortis grin into a rigamortis grimace for a couple seconds?

      This is just
    • The film Minority Report features personalised ads which include your name, suggesting products based on past purchases etc.

      This is similar, just lower tech.
    • A friend of a friend once hacked one of those generator-powered message signs that the Highway Department leaves running, unlocked everywhere, with this message and the 800 number of the highway department:

      YOUR WEB SITE HERE
      1 - 800 - USA - MINI

      (or whetever their number is)
    • Well, marketing gurus could tie the owner of MINI in with a lot of other products. By knowing they drive a MINI they may be more likely to buy/own product X. So, MINI could increase their own revenues by selling ad space that is directly linked to their customers.

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