Willie bus concept plasters public transport with LCD billboards

Anyone that's been to Las Vegas and caught a glimpse of the "Hot Babes" billboard circling around the city knows that vehicle advertising can be effective ... at least at grabbing your attention. A new bus concept by designer Tad Orlowski puts a more modern spin on the idea, integrating large LCDs on the broad sides of the bus. The screens can display a variety of information, including paid advertising, bus information and TV coverage.Over the past few years, Toyota has applied an external display design to several of its concept cars, including the Fun-Vii and the FV2. Daimler also envisioned such a concept recently.

We had the opportunity to play around with the Fun-Vii at the North American International Auto Show this year and enjoyed the way you could essentially restyle the exterior with patterns, colors, words and more with a couple of pokes and swipes of a touchscreen.

While the passenger car and three-wheeler concepts are interesting, the technology has much more potential for a large vehicle like a bus. Not only does the bus have far more room for displays, its extra size gives designers more flexibility in integrating displays in such a way that increases their visibility and/or decreases the likelihood of them being smashed to pieces.

Orlowski's Willie design focuses more on the former, using the vast majority of the bus's body as display space. The transparent LCDs replace traditional body panels and are mounted to an organic skeletal structure underneath. Because the displays are transparent, passengers can still enjoy views outside.