On a spur-of-the-moment caffeine run, a co-worker and I walked through Ballston Commons in Arlington, Va. and saw a flat screen (about 3 feet by 4 feet) on the floor with an interactive Pong-type game on it. A 3-year-old boy was clumsily trying to kick the virtual ball. And when his game was over, an ad for Hilton hotels appeared.

Reactrix, an interactive media company based in California, provided the set-up. The company has placed these systems in malls and movie theaters across the United States, resulting in millions of advertising impressions every month. According to their site, consumers’ physical engagement with the system creates an experience that really aids in advertising recall. Also, this thing is so cool that people tend to tell others about it, so there's quite a bit of buzz surrounding these.

What would be really cool, I thought, is if a newspaper company sponsored one of these and somehow fed their latest headlines and photos to it. Passers-by could step on a headline or photo to read a story while waiting for the train (or waiting in line for their morning caffeine fix).