Planespotters Replaced By Machines!
November 24, 2013 9:02 AM Subscribe
British Airways #lookup Watching this makes me feel like I am in the future. Enjoy!
This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- Brandon Blatcher
Just as long as the kid doesn't whip out a slingshot...
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 9:18 AM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 9:18 AM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
The effect probably wouldn't be as good if you were standing in a different place than the expensive rooftop where that camera was placed to shoot the viral video, though.
It's not the billboard that makes it work as an ad, it's the video of the billboard. It's more like Baudrillard than BA.
posted by tapeguy at 9:26 AM on November 24, 2013 [5 favorites]
It's not the billboard that makes it work as an ad, it's the video of the billboard. It's more like Baudrillard than BA.
posted by tapeguy at 9:26 AM on November 24, 2013 [5 favorites]
If they can do this at all, they can time the video and place the kid on the screen in any way they like.
I'm guessing its placement is optimized for view by an area of motor traffic at a stop light, or a particular area of foot traffic. Depending on angling, probably both.
And I assume the billboard only highlights takeoffs from one particular runway. No landings, no other runways. That way, the billboard doesn't have to predict anything, it only has to respond to a trigger from a server monitoring the same flight traffic data everybody has access to; if data says a plane took off on runway A at 14:27:35, it's guaranteed that the plane will be in view for the billboard to highlight at, say, 14:28:15.
Clever, but with available technology it's not miraculous.
posted by ardgedee at 10:13 AM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
I'm guessing its placement is optimized for view by an area of motor traffic at a stop light, or a particular area of foot traffic. Depending on angling, probably both.
And I assume the billboard only highlights takeoffs from one particular runway. No landings, no other runways. That way, the billboard doesn't have to predict anything, it only has to respond to a trigger from a server monitoring the same flight traffic data everybody has access to; if data says a plane took off on runway A at 14:27:35, it's guaranteed that the plane will be in view for the billboard to highlight at, say, 14:28:15.
Clever, but with available technology it's not miraculous.
posted by ardgedee at 10:13 AM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
Great, now I'm going to spend all day wondering who else is a replicant.
posted by rue72 at 10:24 AM on November 24, 2013
posted by rue72 at 10:24 AM on November 24, 2013
The British are easily impressed by their own advertising innovations, I have noticed.
posted by spitbull at 10:54 AM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by spitbull at 10:54 AM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
I know it's all about marketing, but it's still pretty "whoa!" I guess I just appreciate the little things that amuse and delight.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 10:57 AM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by halfbuckaroo at 10:57 AM on November 24, 2013 [2 favorites]
I dunno, I genuinely think it is clever and nicely done. Being technically groundbreaking has nothing to do with it. (And I do think it is a minor accomplishment, in the way that nailing available technologies together for the first time can be.)
Pens and paper have been around for hundreds of years, but I can still be impressed by a good drawing.
posted by ardgedee at 11:23 AM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
Pens and paper have been around for hundreds of years, but I can still be impressed by a good drawing.
posted by ardgedee at 11:23 AM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
Using this, you could make something similar for where you live.
posted by azlondon at 11:57 AM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by azlondon at 11:57 AM on November 24, 2013 [3 favorites]
Realtime flight information from onboard navigation computers is available in Europe. In the US it's delayed by 15 minutes.
posted by gallois at 12:11 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by gallois at 12:11 PM on November 24, 2013
Realtime flight information is available in the US, if you listen directly to the data transmitted from the plane's radio. Only the FAA internet feed is delayed by 15 minutes. Receivers are cheap and easy to use; one popular model these days is the Kinetic Avionics SBS-3.
The downside is, you need to be within a few dozen miles of the aircraft. But it would work perfectly for an installation like this.
posted by foobaz at 12:46 PM on November 24, 2013
The downside is, you need to be within a few dozen miles of the aircraft. But it would work perfectly for an installation like this.
posted by foobaz at 12:46 PM on November 24, 2013
Yeah, I'd imagine the billboard has a receiver for something like ADS-B transponders, or an internet connection to the airline's offices which do.
posted by hattifattener at 12:54 PM on November 24, 2013
posted by hattifattener at 12:54 PM on November 24, 2013
gallois: "Realtime flight information from onboard navigation computers is available in Europe. In the US it's delayed by 15 minutes."
As foobaz mentions, only the FAA data is delayed 15 minutes. Anything FR24 or their feeders receive over ADS-B is updated in real time. Planefinder.net has better coverage than FR24 in many areas here in the US, for what it's worth.
I would not call an SBS-3 cheap, however. I would call a R820T TV dongle, a Raspberry Pi, and a program called dump1090 to be cheap, however. That whole kit will run about $50 as opposed to the well over $500 than an SBS-3 would cost. Of course, the SBS-3 has two SDR audio radios in addition to the (better) ADS-B decoder, so it's not like you're getting nothing for the extra money, but still.
The thing that's different in most of the Eurozone is that almost all aircraft are required to have ADS-B transponders over there. Here, it's maybe 20% of commercial flights that have them. Few bizjets or even airliners have them unless they are used to fly to Europe, although that is slowly changing as newly-ordered planes trickle into the US carrier fleets. Our ADS-B requirement does not begin until 2020, hence the slow progress.
posted by wierdo at 1:13 PM on November 24, 2013
As foobaz mentions, only the FAA data is delayed 15 minutes. Anything FR24 or their feeders receive over ADS-B is updated in real time. Planefinder.net has better coverage than FR24 in many areas here in the US, for what it's worth.
I would not call an SBS-3 cheap, however. I would call a R820T TV dongle, a Raspberry Pi, and a program called dump1090 to be cheap, however. That whole kit will run about $50 as opposed to the well over $500 than an SBS-3 would cost. Of course, the SBS-3 has two SDR audio radios in addition to the (better) ADS-B decoder, so it's not like you're getting nothing for the extra money, but still.
The thing that's different in most of the Eurozone is that almost all aircraft are required to have ADS-B transponders over there. Here, it's maybe 20% of commercial flights that have them. Few bizjets or even airliners have them unless they are used to fly to Europe, although that is slowly changing as newly-ordered planes trickle into the US carrier fleets. Our ADS-B requirement does not begin until 2020, hence the slow progress.
posted by wierdo at 1:13 PM on November 24, 2013
https://npmjs.org/package/planefinder is a small node/javascript library for getting information on planes near any location, using the unofficial planefinder.net API. Planefinder has a network of volunteers around the world running ADS-B rceeivers and sending data to them, so you can get both realtime data and the FAA delayed-by-15-minutes data (on the site itself you can click on options / Map / Show scheduled flights to toggle showing the FAA data).
One interesting wrinkle in using ADS-B data for something like this is that aircraft equipped with ADS-B don't broadcast a code or name for the airline--they broadcast an ICAO hex ID for the airframe and maybe a flight number. The flight number sometimes looks like "VX1234" or "AAR201" that lets you make a guess about the airline, but sometimes it's just something like "456". Presumably for the billboard BA knows the hex codes for their fleet and can link them to full flight info, but the way planespotting nerds do it these days is by maintaining a big SQL database they pass around (traditionally in sqlite format and named "basestation.sqb"), linking ICAO codes to airplane model, owner, whether it's a military aircraft, etc. It is a very primitive form of data sharing, unfortunately; there is no canonical source for this database and there are multiple inconsistent versions floating around (and plenty of confusion and conflict arising from that).
posted by jjwiseman at 4:41 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
One interesting wrinkle in using ADS-B data for something like this is that aircraft equipped with ADS-B don't broadcast a code or name for the airline--they broadcast an ICAO hex ID for the airframe and maybe a flight number. The flight number sometimes looks like "VX1234" or "AAR201" that lets you make a guess about the airline, but sometimes it's just something like "456". Presumably for the billboard BA knows the hex codes for their fleet and can link them to full flight info, but the way planespotting nerds do it these days is by maintaining a big SQL database they pass around (traditionally in sqlite format and named "basestation.sqb"), linking ICAO codes to airplane model, owner, whether it's a military aircraft, etc. It is a very primitive form of data sharing, unfortunately; there is no canonical source for this database and there are multiple inconsistent versions floating around (and plenty of confusion and conflict arising from that).
posted by jjwiseman at 4:41 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
No canonical source, but there are complete databases, if you don't mind paying for the privilege of having it. (or know someone who works for one of the companies that track aircraft ownership) I was talking to someone who works in the field a few months ago who was complaining that he couldn't get serial numbers out of one particular manufacturer. Never mind that the ownership/registration/ICAO ID he has is perfectly fine for literally every aircraft still capable of flight (and many that aren't any more), no, it's apparently important to some people which airframe rolled off the line first.
Thankfully, in the US and a few other countries, the ICAO code is derived from the tail number, so there's no need for local databases if all you want are accurate tail numbers. Of course, transponders sometimes aren't reprogrammed when the tail number changes. There was one guy flying a plane around here for a few months sending a German ICAO ID even though it had long since been registered in the US and gotten a US tail number. In some other countries, the ICAO code belongs to the airframe itself. In still others, the ICAO code, tail number, and particular airframe have no relation whatsoever, they just give out the ICAO codes in the order people ask for them. Those are usually much harder for the plane spotters to figure out.
posted by wierdo at 5:35 PM on November 24, 2013
Thankfully, in the US and a few other countries, the ICAO code is derived from the tail number, so there's no need for local databases if all you want are accurate tail numbers. Of course, transponders sometimes aren't reprogrammed when the tail number changes. There was one guy flying a plane around here for a few months sending a German ICAO ID even though it had long since been registered in the US and gotten a US tail number. In some other countries, the ICAO code belongs to the airframe itself. In still others, the ICAO code, tail number, and particular airframe have no relation whatsoever, they just give out the ICAO codes in the order people ask for them. Those are usually much harder for the plane spotters to figure out.
posted by wierdo at 5:35 PM on November 24, 2013
The British are easily impressed by their own advertising innovations, I have noticed.
NEW ADVERTS NEW DANGER
posted by infinitewindow at 6:16 PM on November 24, 2013
NEW ADVERTS NEW DANGER
posted by infinitewindow at 6:16 PM on November 24, 2013
Smartphones have had a similar capability for several years.
Run this app, point your phone at a plane in the sky, and see the flight number and airline, as well as origin, destination, and distance from you.
posted by borborygmi at 10:10 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Run this app, point your phone at a plane in the sky, and see the flight number and airline, as well as origin, destination, and distance from you.
posted by borborygmi at 10:10 PM on November 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Anyone else notice this on a link from the BA Youtube page?
To make it work took quite a bit of digital wizardry, for both the poster site you might have seen in Chiswick and the video billboard at Piccadilly Circus that’s coming soon.
It's not really there! It's a concept video! It's a render! It's a mock-up! It's fake!
posted by tapeguy at 2:11 AM on November 25, 2013
To make it work took quite a bit of digital wizardry, for both the poster site you might have seen in Chiswick and the video billboard at Piccadilly Circus that’s coming soon.
It's not really there! It's a concept video! It's a render! It's a mock-up! It's fake!
posted by tapeguy at 2:11 AM on November 25, 2013
Wondering if it also does "Look, it's where Flight BA324 from Paris would be if it hadn't been delayed due to a tiny amount of snow at Heathrow!".
The inevitable consequence of only having two runways at an extremely busy airport.
Yeah, I'd imagine the billboard has a receiver for something like ADS-B transponders, or an internet connection to the airline's offices which do.
Unauthorised interception of ADS signals or ATC conversations is technically illegal in the UK, though that isn't enforced for private use. More likely, they're getting the position data from their own internal operations and maintenance system.
posted by atrazine at 5:13 AM on November 25, 2013
The inevitable consequence of only having two runways at an extremely busy airport.
Yeah, I'd imagine the billboard has a receiver for something like ADS-B transponders, or an internet connection to the airline's offices which do.
Unauthorised interception of ADS signals or ATC conversations is technically illegal in the UK, though that isn't enforced for private use. More likely, they're getting the position data from their own internal operations and maintenance system.
posted by atrazine at 5:13 AM on November 25, 2013
jjwiseman, I have no idea what I'd do with that module, but I'm thrilled that it's available to me.
posted by ignignokt at 12:37 PM on November 25, 2013
posted by ignignokt at 12:37 PM on November 25, 2013
ignignokt, I used it to give my drone awareness of nearby air traffic: Augmented reality display of air traffic for amateur drones
posted by jjwiseman at 12:48 PM on November 25, 2013
posted by jjwiseman at 12:48 PM on November 25, 2013
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