Operating in stealth mode for the past three years, Bellevue-based DS-IQ today is unveiling a new online system to measure and analyze in-store digital advertising.

Advertising products on giant digital screens in malls and big box retail stores is part of a growing trend, with retailers and advertisers trying to capture more dollars at the point of sale.

Last week, The New York Times reported that advertising giant The Publicis Groupe and mall operator Simon Property Group formed a joint venture, dubbed OnSpot Digital Network, to sell advertising space on digital screens in malls throughout the country.

DS-IQ's analytics technology could work in conjunction with those types of systems to tell an electronics retailer that sales of iPods surged 30 minutes after an Apple ad appeared in the store.

DS-IQ -- with just under 20 employees -- isn't disclosing customers at this time.

The team behind the company is kind of interesting, partly because they come from nearly every major Seattle tech company: Microsoft, Amazon.com, RealNetworks and aQuantive. (Now all they need are a few folks from Expedia and InfoSpace).

Co-founders Tom Opdycke and William Wu were managers at Microsoft, while principal scientist Jeremy York previously led the content automation team at Amazon.com. Vice President David DeBusk spent six years at aQuantive, most recently leading business development for the company's Avenue A | Razorfish division. And Alan Lippman, vice president of advanced technologies, a technical genius who I profiled in this story, was one of the earliest employees at RealNetworks.

Opdycke -- who previously served as director of marketing for Microsoft's Windows division -- said that DS-IQ delivers "Internet-like advertising measurement and accountability for the brick and mortar world."

Self financed, the company could bump into competition from aQuantive which is expanding its analytics technologies beyond the Internet. I am sure Google would like to get a piece of this market too. Here's a little more reading on the sector from Kiosk Marketplace, including what Wal-Mart is doing.