Mobile phones control video game billboard

To promote its automotive Web site, Yahoo! and interactive agency R/GA have created a huge billboard in New York City’s Times Square that allows pedestrians to play a video game via mobile phone.

The billboard is part of the 23-story-tall Reuters sign and will operate through April 22, reports Adweek. It is timed to coincide with the New York International Automotive Show April 9 to April 18. It also coincides with the launch of the revamped Yahoo! auto site, which now offers a personalized research section, among other features.

RFIB, the company’s sign technology, is similar to toll roads’ Easy-Pass systems. The technology could be expanded to customized billboards in the near future, according to John Mayo-Smith, vice president of technology at R/GA. For example, a digital billboard might be programmed to have a different image depending on whether a car or a motorcycle passed it.

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