Instructables has posted a cool DIY project that provides more use out of that large projection screen cramping your den. The one they’ve built shows this suave painting simply by turning the screen around. Hey look everyone, it’s the great Steve McQueen of Bullitt doing his famous leaning stance and he’s right here in my living room!

Why settle for less when it comes to an impressive home theater system simply because you lack the space available to portray art and media simultaneously? Better yet, pick a theme (like Pirates of the Caribbean) and not only decorate the back side of your projection screen with the theme but also the walls, ceiling and floor. That way, no one will doubt you’re a fan.

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What’s filled with sand, has tons of oil and a shitload of cash? If you answered the playground on Christopher St. where those heroin dealers hangout, you’re probably correct but I was thinking more along the lines of Dubai. Seems Dubai is one-upping the world again, this time with the biggest water fountain. The deets?

Costing a whopping $281 million, the new fountains will shoot water 450 feet into the air and pump 22,000 gallons of water through it at any given time. 6,600 lights and 50 projectors will shoot video and images onto the spray as its in the air…

So essentially, it’s going to make the Bellagio fountain out in Vegas look like Ryan’s penis: small and inferior. Way to go Dubai.

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Holographic images are no longer exclusive to science fiction films thanks to the ICT Graphics Lab at USC.  Three-Dimensional displays have proven to be quite difficult to emulate, suffering from problems such as small viewing areas and high costs.  Using spinning mirrors, high-speed DLP projections and very precise mathematics, the crew at USC are able to display nearly 5,000 individual images reflected every second which come together to create a real-space three-dimensional object. In this case, they’ve displayed a Star Wars imperial tie-fighter.

They’ve also created a formula that renders specific projections at different heights and traces each projected beam back to the display. This way, the projection always finds the correct position of the viewer. So regardless of where you’re standing, the tie-fighter will always be a tie-fighter.  This is a huge breakthrough in three-dimensional holographs that could eventually lead to Cortana-like women everywhere.

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We’ve seen interactive projection walls before but none as artsy fartsy as Wowlab’s. A camera identifies the contours of a human body standing in front of a wall. The projection will then interact with the persons via rain drops splashing in reaction to shadow, water puddles are created, and in the water even constellations may appear.

Now if only I could make sense of all the lousy poetry riddled all over their website.

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Jesus was known for a wide assortment of parlor tricks. If I had to choose one of Jesus’ powers, it would have to be turning water into wine, just because I’m a drunk badass like that. Arcstream AV is conquering another one of those biblical tricks with their interactive “Living Image” exhibit at The Science Museum in South Kensington, London.

Living Image uses a 6,500 lumens overhead projector and a variety of sensors that let the 1024 x 768 image of water change in real-time, depending on the visitor’s interaction with the floor display. Special infrared sensors allow for more than one person to interact with the displays at one time. Check out an awesome demo video after the jump. (more…)

*sigh* When will the geek community learn that just because an image is projected on a surface, giving the “illusion” of three dimensions, does not make a media be a “holographic” technology. We won’t deny that this interactive image projection isn’t really cool looking, but come on, it’s no hologram.

Now, with that out of the way, what the good people over at LM3Labs HAVE succeeded in creating, is a very impressive lit image projection show with some sort of gesture reading technology. It’s no hologram by any stretch, but that doesn’t make it lame. — Andrew Dobrow

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Cellphones are the wave of the future, but landlines are still widely used, no matter which way you twist it. So might as well make your landline look as cool as possible, right? The Projection Phone displays the caller ID info of the incoming call on the ceiling or wall of your choice.

A special power saving LED light allows the phone to project for 100,000 hours. Even after we’ve long left the Earth, this thing will still be projecting contacts. Available for a cheap $29. — Andrew Dobrow

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