Infrared billboards

Japan Ubiquitous Systems has developed a small infrared unit that it's testing out in advertising posters. Most phones in Japan have infrared interfaces, and the company is exploring IR as a way for passersby to get a note of a site URL, discount token, or other information from on a poster. It also supports images as well as text data, so downloading maps or standby screens is presumably also an option.

The system is currently in testing using posters around exit 8 of Tameike-Sanno station in central Tokyo; JUS is planning a full-scale launch in May this year and envisions desktop versions of the unit, as well as nametags for promotional events, and "fashion accessories". We can't think offhand of any reason for putting an IR transmitter in a fashion accessory when the kind of things people would want to share would likely be in their IR-port-equipped cellphones already, but maybe we're getting old.

Incidentally, is Japan the only country in the world where it's still OK to use a packet of cigarettes as a size comparison in a product shot?

[Via
K-Tai Watch (Japanese)]