Interactive Display at LA Mall Promotes "Avatar" Blu-ray Disc by Morphing Shoppers into Na'vis

Inwindow Outdoor, a New York City-based company that specializes in digital storefront and mall advertising, has launched an interactive augmented reality display at The Grove mall in Los Angeles, in order to promote the Blu-ray release of the movie, "Avatar." According to the company, the display--a free-standing structure made up of multiple digital screens--uses custom technology, developed in house, in order to morph faces of shoppers into Na'vis (the wide-eyed blue creatures from the movie) as they watch. "This is by far the most technologically ambitious project we've ever done, and the first by our internal digital team," Inwindow Outdoor managing director, Jeff Cohen, said in a prepared statement. "The morph is incredibly realistic because the end result retains many of the user's facial characteristics. It goes well beyond augmented reality in that it isn't simply superimposing imagery, it's actually altering the underlying content in real time. The success of 'Avatar' called for an eye-popping exhibition that would be as engaging as the film and is bound to not only attract attention but draw in shoppers and drive sales of the 'Avatar' release."

According to Inwindow Outdoor, the Avatar display is a 60' by 10' structure containing three "morphing stations" and one large-scale video wall, surrounded by vinyl and branded in "Avatar" themes. As shoppers approach the screens, the company says, its technology captures their image and transforms them into a Na'vi. Once the morph is complete, users can enter their email address via touch screen, in order to be sent a video of their transformation, along with information on where to purchase the Blu-ray disc of the movie. The display, which was created in partnership with Fox Studios and Zenigh Media, was unveiled last Friday and is set to run for a month.