Advertising gone underground

Those crazy Germans have come up with a projector and computer in a box that they attached to a subway train, the result is projected images on the wall of the subway tunnels. They chose to project cute fish and other interesting objects but I'm certain its only a matter of time before the advertising industry does what it does - commercializes this idea. I mean there is only so much space inside a subway car to utilize without blocking out all the windows and this lets them get you even when you are looking out of the window and makes it extremely easy to dynamically change the ads from day to day, even minute to minute.

Of course there are some problems to solve - like the suitability of the average subway tunnel wall for projection, they are not usually nice clean white walls! However if the tunnel had white pannels along it at regular intervals the projector could turn on an off as the train passed them creating an animated effect. With mirrors the image could even be made to track the white panels to give a longer persistance.

Plus there is the problem expense - adding expensive projectors to subway cars could take a long time to pay back for advertising. The key benefit of projecting form the car is that the image moves with you rather than being a fleeting glimpse. So why not just put the projectors inside the cars and project on the wall of the subway car. Or have screens on the outside of the windows that somewho go clear in stations, or use a camera to show the outside view that you would have seen if the screen wasn't there.

Lots of ideas, and I have no idea why I'm brainstorming to help the advertising industry. I think a month of interviewing at Google (didn't get the job) has warped my tiny litte mind...