Augmented Reality Billboard Used In The Netherlands To Confront Violence
We live in a world where any person can suddenly become the victim of violent crime without warning at any time. For example, a citizen walking home at night could be attacked, brutally beaten or even killed on the street by aggressive assailants who chose their target at random for any reason based on their intentions at the time. Perhaps an even greater problem than the existence of violent crime itself is the fact that other citizens commonly stand by apathetically or walk away and do nothing to help the victim due to their own fear of being hurt. Well, in the Netherlands, a interactive billboard using augmented reality technology was developed to confront the problem of apathy toward violent crime.
Apparently, the issue of public service employees like paramedics being attacked on the street is a real problem in the Netherlands. So, the augmented reality billboard was created as a method to raise public awareness of the problem and encourage people to take action by helping victims of violence. Currently, the interactive billboard is being used in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The billboard itself works by continuously playing the scene of a staged, relentless attack by assailants on a paramedic worker. The billboard’s screen is split up into sections and this depicted scene with the paramedic under attack takes up most of the screen space. Then regular people who happen to pass by the billboard are actually filmed right on the street and the live footage of their reaction or ignorance to the billboard is captured and displayed for themselves and others to see on a smaller section of screen on the top upper part of the board. Thus, real citizens are being filmed in real-time on one part of the billboard’s screen while the staged attack scene continues to play on the other part of the screen. This was done to give onlookers the sense that they are involved in the staged attack scene and confronts them directly with the issue of being apathetic in such a situation. The billboard uses a layer of previously recorded blue screen film to make this unique presentation possible.
Then four practical tips are offered to the onlooking citizens on the street as they continue to watch the billboard. According to the billboard, people in a violent crime situation should ask others for help and speak out about the problem, call 112 during such an attack, stay with the victim and make photos for the police while being willing to file a report of the event. Furthermore, the slogan for this project is “You Hold The Key To Greater Safety On The Streets”. It seems that this augmented reality billboard could serve as a real wake-up to people about the grave immorality of being apathetic to violent crime victims. These people in the Netherlands could really be on to something here. Personally, I think we definitely need this special billboard in the United States as well.
Tags: Augmented Reality Billboard, bystander effect, confronting apathy towards violent crime, Netherlands
