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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Dwarf in the Playground
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    Default What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    In a future setting their is a Laser billboard that can deliver personalized verbal advertising to multiple people simulateously with the harmless laser beams delivering the sound. “Laser billboard” sounds too boring and doesn’t really explain how it’s different and uses advanced technology. What would be a good name for this type of billboard?

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    PaladinGuy

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by Maximum77 View Post
    In a future setting their is a Laser billboard that can deliver personalized verbal advertising to multiple people simulateously with the harmless laser beams delivering the sound. “Laser billboard” sounds too boring and doesn’t really explain how it’s different and uses advanced technology. What would be a good name for this type of billboard?
    As entry 1.

    Multiplexed Acoustic Photon Delivered Advertising Display/Device (MAPDAD)
    Has enough technical words that almost make sense, a passable acronym. And you can always Pin Number it to Mapdad Advertisor or something.

    There's going to be better sounding ones

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    Colossus in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Hold on a sec here. A laser powerful enough to generate sound is not simultaneously harmless. Also, where is it delivering the sound to? The person would have to be facing in a very specific orientation compared to the board for it to be directly delivering it to the eardrum.

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    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Hold on a sec here. A laser powerful enough to generate sound is not simultaneously harmless. Also, where is it delivering the sound to? The person would have to be facing in a very specific orientation compared to the board for it to be directly delivering it to the eardrum.
    This does remind me of Futurama. Depending on the setting it miht be fitting to have such crazy contraptions around.
    In a war it doesn't matter who's right, only who's left.

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    Eldan's Avatar

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
    Hold on a sec here. A laser powerful enough to generate sound is not simultaneously harmless. Also, where is it delivering the sound to? The person would have to be facing in a very specific orientation compared to the board for it to be directly delivering it to the eardrum.
    They are special lasers that only translate sonic energy but not pain energy.
    Resident Vancian Apologist

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    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldan View Post
    They are special lasers that only translate sonic energy but not pain energy.
    It's the fuuuuuture!!!

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    Ogre in the Playground
     
    RedWizardGuy

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    The more interesting (and also scarier) issue:

    How is a billboard delivering personalized content? Websites can do it because of tracking cookies. What are people wearing/radiating/etc. in this future that allows a billboard to send a personalized ad? (Or is the billboard reading our minds?)
    "That's a horrible idea! What time?"

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    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by tomandtish View Post
    The more interesting (and also scarier) issue:

    How is a billboard delivering personalized content? Websites can do it because of tracking cookies. What are people wearing/radiating/etc. in this future that allows a billboard to send a personalized ad? (Or is the billboard reading our minds?)
    Well, there is the Minority Report route for this. Eye recognition or face recognition is pretty much available right now and is not wide-spread only for both cost (the need for lots of hi-res cameras and computers with quick access to a suitable database) and legal reasons.
    In a war it doesn't matter who's right, only who's left.

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    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    I came up with a few ideas for names, just brainstorming:

    Precision Marketing Board
    Directed Acoustic Advertisement
    Personalized Advertising Delivery Device
    Massive Area Marketing Individualizer

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    PaladinGuy

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by tomandtish View Post
    The more interesting (and also scarier) issue:

    How is a billboard delivering personalized content? Websites can do it because of tracking cookies. What are people wearing/radiating/etc. in this future that allows a billboard to send a personalized ad? (Or is the billboard reading our minds?)
    Facial recognition I think is already pretty near there
    Plus doing what normal people can do, in detail and constantly, is pretty close to mind-reading. If it can pick up which item your gaze lingers on a millisecond too long?
    (and as such it's already at the capabilities which scares me in the near future)

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    Excession's Avatar

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    I you use ultrasound rather than lasers this is an Audio Spotlight (or a couple other names) and is something that people have played around with in the past. Perhaps a laser version would work by focusing on one spot of air and heating it to a plasma to produce a click, then making lots of clicks to produce the desired sound.
    Last edited by Excession; 2019-01-30 at 05:46 PM.

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    Librarian in the Playground Moderator
     
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    What if it's built in laser communications? Like, supposed to be used for police and traffic control, but advertisers will look up your car's ID, cross-reference with their database, and hit the communications receptor (laser so it can be directed at a single individual) with a personalized ad? Steal someone's car and you get ads that match them.
    The Cranky Gamer
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Advertising.
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    Lizardfolk

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by Maximum77 View Post
    In a future setting their is a Laser billboard that can deliver personalized verbal advertising to multiple people simulateously with the harmless laser beams delivering the sound. “Laser billboard” sounds too boring and doesn’t really explain how it’s different and uses advanced technology. What would be a good name for this type of billboard?
    Long Application Sales Encouragement Ray Billboard.
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    Vibranium: If it was on the periodic table, its chemical symbol would be "Bs".

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    NecromancerGuy

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    I would go with something simple. That will be understood by the players. It also is how stupid things are given names currently (i.e. "The Cloud"). Meaning they are just marketing terms that get coined and then catch into more general use.

    Flash Board
    Target Ad
    Light Board
    Bamp

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    Banned
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Or they could have some name that's entirely divorced from function, depending on how much time you want to put into world building. Maybe they're called Benny Beams, because they were first developed by Benjamin something-or-another, and it became widely known as the first major commercial success of a celebrity inventor. You work the name in casually--implying that everyone in the setting is familiar with the name without having to have the significance explained to them--and at some point finding some excuse to explain the connection to the reader. Maybe later you sprinkle in some offhand references to Benny's other well-known inventions--nothing with any real impact on the narrative, but just enough to remind the reader that he or she's seeing a world with its own history and important figures

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Since the original billboard was just a board you posted bills on, I'll go with LordEntrails' suggestion of lightboard.

    edit: Also, there's this for factotum: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...t-listener-ear
    Last edited by Rogar Demonblud; 2019-02-05 at 12:01 AM.

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    PirateGirl

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Ebillboard. Like email. Short and simple.

    Are modern billboards rather common? If not, I suggest just billboard.

    Computer and calculator were both words long before the common usage of electricity. Sometimes old words just get repurposed.
    I write a horror blog in my spare time.

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    Librarian in the Playground Moderator
     
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by BeerMug Paladin View Post
    Ebillboard. Like email. Short and simple.

    Are modern billboards rather common? If not, I suggest just billboard.

    Computer and calculator were both words long before the common usage of electricity. Sometimes old words just get repurposed.
    In reading Doc Smith's Lensman series (mostly written in the 30s and early 40s), he mentions computers several times. It took me a while to realize that, because of when he was writing, he had no conception of computers as we thought of them... he meant banks of people doing computations.
    The Cranky Gamer
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    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hall View Post
    In reading Doc Smith's Lensman series (mostly written in the 30s and early 40s), he mentions computers several times. It took me a while to realize that, because of when he was writing, he had no conception of computers as we thought of them... he meant banks of people doing computations.
    So... grids of low power processors working in parallel? Seems about right.

    It is interesting that while he did not extrapolate on mechanical or electrical computers which were already somewhat available if not commonly known or used, he did recognize the serious need for accurate and possibly quick computations that have to be done from live data.
    In a war it doesn't matter who's right, only who's left.

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    Colossus in the Playground
     
    BlackDragon

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Hall View Post
    In reading Doc Smith's Lensman series (mostly written in the 30s and early 40s), he mentions computers several times. It took me a while to realize that, because of when he was writing, he had no conception of computers as we thought of them... he meant banks of people doing computations.
    Which is exactly what the word "computer" used to mean. When they made electronic (or mechanical) things that did the same job, they borrowed the same word.

    (Speaking of computers in SF, am I the only one slightly annoyed they don't seem to exist in Larry Niven's Known Space universe? He has people watching mass sensors to see when to drop out of hyperspace, because his hyperdrives really don't like deep gravity wells, and I always wonder why they couldn't just get a computer to do the same job).

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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    NASA computers:
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    Last edited by Eldan; 2019-02-06 at 07:35 AM.
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    Default Re: What would be a good name for this futuristic laser billboard?

    No matter what the billboards are named, I'm pretty sure they'd be called "God ****ing dammit."
    The Cranky Gamer
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    *Picard management tip: Debate honestly. The goal is to arrive at the truth, not at your preconception.
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