• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, December 9, 2013

And here I thought I’d seen it all, with ads in the bottom of bins for personal belongings at airport security checkpoints. But I hadn’t, as it turns out a British company called Beatpixels is bringing digital display ads to the dividers provided by supermarkets so customers can separate their purchases on the checkout conveyor belt. The product, called ADVider, is intended to replace those horribly “boring” plastic dividers supermarkets use now (thank goodness). Yes, you read that right -- and yes, it means ads are now officially everywhere.

ADVider is a nifty-looking triangular baton with a 4.3-inch-wide display and a wireless connection powered by a lithium ion battery, also recharged wirelessly; the battery lasts three to five hours before it needs to be recharged. It uses Beatpixels’ proprietary Android-based signage player to show ads, and presumably can be used to show other content (which really isn’t that absurd in the age of Vine: heck, I’d watch funny cat videos for two minutes, and I’d even submit to some advertising if that’s the price for being entertained by feline antics in the checkout line).

One of the obvious advantages of the product is that it allows advertisers to reach consumers, quite literally, at the point of sale. The ADVider can also be used as a shelf display, or transformed into a digital cash register display with a stand. While Beatpixels didn’t mention mobile integration, ADVider already has MicroUSB interfaces and it’s not too hard to imagine it eventually incorporating some sort of NFC technology to engage consumers via ubiquitous smartphones. The initial price of the ADVider is $170 per unit.