Chalkbot is a machine that updates the Tour de France tradition of spectators writing inspirational messages on the road to urge on riders to a digital experience. The machine takes 40-character tweets and SMS messages submitted by the public and prints them in chalk along the route. Creators Nike, the Livestrong Foundation, DeepLocal StandardRobot, and W+K, ask people to send a completion to the sentence "It's about..." Nike estimates that they will write 100,000 messages over the length of the race.
I tend to get excited about new ways of using computers to render text and this play on that idea is a great use of digitizing something that before now was analog and only available to people who could actually visit the Tour. Now people from the entire globe can interact with the riders, spread hope and make people happy. I also like that it forces users to think and be clever.
Once again, Nike impresses with their enormous creativity and their use of technology to create buzz, all while making people happy.
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