Interactive bus shelters in San Francisco act like virtual aquariums

The dynamic digital screens display a beautiful underwater scene full of colour and natural motion, featuring a fashionable cuttlefish

For Monterey Bay Aquarium’s 2017 “Share the Love” campaign, bus riders and pedestrians on the sidewalks of San Francisco got an authentic aquarium experience as they encountered custom-built, state-of-the-art interactive bus shelters in a series of creative executions.

The dynamic digital screens displayed a beautiful underwater scene full of colour and natural motion, featuring a fashionable cuttlefish. For those who stopped to admire him, the imaginative cuttlefish – a natural master of camouflage – detected the colour of the current viewer’s clothing, and morphed his on-screen colour to match his admirer and relayed a personal message.

The digital displays also showcased scenes of the aquarium’s real-life underwater beauty, framed by animated silhouettes of aquarium “visitors” observing the magic. When pedestrians step within range, the experience would capture that person’s silhouette and display it onto the underwater experience itself.