An Electronic Billboard for Newtown Square? More Flash Than You Might Expect

While Mr. [Thaddeus] Bartkowski touted electronic billboards as a means to disseminate civic messages and emergency notices [at Monday night's supervisors meeting], he did seem to concur that the software behind those displays is possible to hack and potentially not within his firm's control.  

This has already happened elsewhere. For example, in January 2010, a 27-foot by 18-foot electronic billboard was hijacked in downtown Moscow, Russia. For two minutes, a pornographic video flashed on one of Moscow's busiest roads.

This posed a substantial traffic hazard. The culprit was eventually caught, but the technical capabilities of hackers are well known to anyone who owns a computer that has been infected with malware.

Technology changes so quickly, electronic billboards can now potentially pick up the radio stations of cars as they approach, and change their displays to market directly to drivers.  Think about that.  

If you listen to an oldies station, what might come up on the sign? Some signs are actually built for you to interact with them. A Honda billboard asks you to text it, so that you can "start up the car" on the display, make its light blink, and get puffs of smoke to come out of its fake exhaust pipes. Looking at a sign, and texting it...if you're driving, that's a double distraction.

Here is a link to 10 Interactive Billboards (note: some are obviously intended for pedestrians only): http://www.oddee.com/item_97119.aspx

Terri McCarthy

Newtown Square resident