An interactive billboard unveiled!

LONDON: Coca-Cola has unveiled one of the world's biggest and most sophisticated billboards - a 99-foot-wide neon colossus which can respond to the weather and interact with people looking at it from the ground.

The billboard was switched on in Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London at dawn Tuesday, lighting up with the message "Hello London" in the drinks giant's trademark red and white.

It's the biggest billboard in Britain and the widest in the world, beating even the monster Coca-Cola sign which reigns over Tokyo's Ginza shopping district.

"This is an intelligent sign, with state-of-the-art computer technology, built-in cameras and an on-board heat sensitive weather station," the Coca-Cola Co. said in a statement.

The sign can respond to weather and movement. "When it's raining, big drops will appear on the screen and when it's breezy, the Coke sign can ripple as if it's being blown by the wind," a spokeswoman for the company said.

It will also be able to recognize if people are waving at it from the ground below and, eventually, will be able to respond to text messages from mobile phones, she said.

Coca-Cola has had a billboard at Piccadilly Circus, the advertising heart of London, since 1954.

The lights in the circus have been switched off only five times since then, including in 1974 when a miners' strike triggered electricity shortages and in 1997 for the funeral of Princess Diana.

© Reuters