Rufus Butler Seder’s scanimation books like Gallop! and Swing! are popular across a lot of age groups. Their illusions are simple and satisfying. The technique that Seder pioneered now seems to be finding application elsewhere, such as this ad.
I’d be really curious to know whether this particular installation (and others like it) are related to Seder’s work in terms of intellectual property (i.e., did he sell rights to scanimation, or are similar technologies being developed elsewhere simultaneously?)
According to a quick search, Seder holds four patents related to new forms of animation. Many of them appear very closely related to his previous endeavors (the books and animated greeting cards. One from 2008, however, features a new looking design, which I have not seen made into a product yet:
(from U.S. Patent 7151541).
Perception and Playthings 