Real-Time Virtual Smog Visualizes Air Quality On Warsaw Billboard

February 10, 2022 by Dave Haynes

The Polish digital OOH media firm Screen Network has an interest and knack for blending its campaigns with real-time data from systems and sensors, and has now done that for an information campaign about air quality running on one of its primary LED display locations in central Warsaw.

The in-house campaign was built around the idea of a fire-breathing dragon perched above the corner of a busy Warsaw intersection, with a 3D animation married to a real-time overlay of virtual smoke/smog that is thicker, thinner or clear based on data from an air quality index feed. The animation’s appearance depends on the current air particle readings from a nearby measuring station.

“Thanks to innovative technology,” suggests Screen Network in PR, “thousands of people passing through the centre of Warsaw are warned about smog – a threat that we do not notice, but at the same time, significantly affects our health.”

“The smoke accompanying the dragon was created using the ‘Unreal Engine’, known through the production of computer games. It enables modeling of the virtual world in real time,” says  Damian Rezner, COO of Screen Network. “We use current readings of suspended particle levels and translate it into real-time via the smoke surrounding the Dragon. The worse the air quality is, the thicker the smoke becomes. Thanks to this process, we were able to visualize a threat invisible to the human eye.”

Screen Network manages the largest network in Poland, with more than 20,000 screens – from big ones like this down to screens in shopping malls, gyms, railway stations, airports and gas stations throughout the country. The air quality campaign was done for social good, but also as a tangible way to show media planners and brands what’s possible with sensors, real-time data and auto-generated media.