Andy Warhol once said that, in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes. Now, some argue that it has already happened, as the era of social media allows anyone to make a meme, a joke, or a funny video that can go viral. That brief moment of viral-ness accounts for the "15 minutes of fame" that the American artist was referencing. But there is another way.
Well, sort of, and it involves getting your face on a billboard. It is more than a poster, a stencil, or just plain graffiti. Instead, your face can be on a billboard at the BMW Welt thanks to artificial intelligence, and it would be an animated billboard, nonetheless. It is called Mega ME.
We are writing about a 42-square meter (ca. 452 sq.-ft.) LED screen inside the BMW Welt facility, which embodies a restaurant, a museum, a delivery space, and a bit of a museum of the BMW universe in Munich, Germany, right across from the firm's Vierzylinder (four cylinders in German) building.
Now, you must be wondering how this works. Well, first you must visit the BMW Welt, and then you need to go to the dedicated stand that has the BMW i Vision Dee concept. You need to take your picture using the dedicated camera and then wait until the AI tech is ready to integrate your appearance into a brief animation movie that is shown on the screen.
In more technical terms, we are writing about an anamorphic illusion, which uses technology from a start-up called Reface. The latter was founded in Ukraine, and it is the current market leader in face-swapping technology. It results in photo-realistic exchange of faces in both images and films.
It is sort of like that app that invaded everyone's privacy just to reveal what you might look like when you are old, but without handing out data from your smartphone, as well as your look to a third-party firm somewhere else in the world. Yes, that famous app that made “you” look older or smiling or somehow different had a few sketchy things in its Terms of Service.
The entire idea was thought up by the agency called Elastique, from Koln, Germany, which connected the dots between the idea, the start-up, and the BMW Welt.
As you can observe in the photo gallery, there is a photo stand right in front of the screen, and from there, it portrays the subject as a sort of futuristic astronaut holding the BMW i Vision Dee concept vehicle.
It is a fun way to get people involved with the German brand, as well as with its latest concept. Is it going to make you famous? Most likely, the answer is No. But do not let that stop you from enjoying it, we are not judging anyone here, feel free to be what you can be.
Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland. Full profile
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