• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, April 23, 2010

If you were so moved by "Avatar" that you want to run away and join the Na'vi, or you just fancy being blue, you should check out the new interactive, digital out-of-home installation from Fox Studios and InWindow Outdoor, together with Zenith Media, to promote the upcoming DVD and Blue-ray release of "Avatar" at The Grove mall in Los Angeles. Even if you're not a fan, the promotional stunt is a pretty compelling example of new and emerging capabilities in the DO arena.

The promotion, which began last Friday, invites mall visitors to interact with a large digital display (measuring about 60 feet by 10 feet) that takes their photo and creates their Avatar, um, avatar. The display uses some of the same facial recognition technology that allows digital signage to determine a viewer's age, race, and gender, repurposed here for transforming all these characteristics into a blue Na'vi doppelganger.

If users are taken with their blue self, they can enter their email and the image will be sent to their email inbox to share with friends. Of course, providing an email address may also enable future marketing contacts, with the user's consent, and the display's interactivity makes it highly measurable. Like other interactive DO installations, it is also designed to attract audiences at various ranges and engagement levels, with groups of onlookers watching other users experiment with the display. The promotion is set to run until May 16.