Toshiba tested an interactive digital billboard in Tokyo using sign technology that uses real-time data over the internet. This was done to promote their various laptops. YouTube users and passer-by with mobile phones were able to play video games against each other. It was like taking a short break from the rigors of daily life. The games were played on a digital billboard above the entrance to the Yodobashi Camera superstore in Akihabara. The games are basically mini-games and involve up to six players in a 90-second race to paint squares on a grid and hunt for Toshiba’s cute and cuddly Pala-Chan mascot. Mobile phone players used their number keys to control the game, while YouTube players on computers used the arrow keys on their keyboards. Participation is not instant because pedestrians had to call a phone number displayed on the billboard before each game started while YouTube users clicked a button on Toshiba’s toshibanotepc channel.

Source: [SlipperryBrick]