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.
Texas Instruments has announced it’s making the tiniest projector ever created commercially available. Dubbed the Optoma Pico, the projector will be available next year with an insanely small DLP chip inside. While it’d be great to see the projector built into your cellphone, Optoma Pico will disappointingly remain a stand-alone mini projector. The product should be making its way to the United States in 2009 with a launch price under $300.
Affordable urban theater? Where do I sign? With this mini projector, you can sit in the passenger seat of your friend’s car riding down the Schuylkill Expressway watching that Four Hours of Filthy Fuckin’ DVD you have stored on your iPod for all who pass by.
Too negligent to monitor a server system? Well, if you’re a huge Star Wars geek like these Japanese fellows, then you can build your own R2-D2 server monitor out of a $3,000 dollar R2-D2 projector. The R2-D2 alerts workers whenever a server goes offline and can even project server status on a wall or ceiling.
Sooner or later, someone will build the C-3PO server monitor assistant to make smart-ass remarks on work etiquette and tasks. Though R2-D2 would be more useful in a work environment, you can’t have one Star Wars bot without it’s counter-part.
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Imagine the possibilities of having a tiny mobile-projector inside your cellphone. You could hold your own intimate private screenings, showcase the bestiality porn you found on IRC last night or broadcast. Really, the possibilities are endless. Thanks to John Van Scoter over at Texas Instruments, we now know that some cellphones will receive a portable projector by the end of 2008.
According to Van Scoter, he believes that by 2010, projectors will be as popular as built-in cameras. Some may even feature DLP technology to enhance the clarity of the movie being played. It’s really only a matter of time before hackers get a hold of some of these projection-enabled devices and use the projectors in another setting or homebrew device.
Thanks to an innovative design and well-thought form-factor, the Transformer concept phone by Shkinder Maxim can do much more than your average mobile device. The Transformer has the capability to act as a mobile phone, photo/video camera, multimedia player, projector, and is even working on support for holographic imaging and 3D scanning.
Featuring 2 independent swiveling and flipping displays, the Transformer can accomplish multiple functions without much change to navigation or form. The concept also talks of a possible 3D scanning system which would store a 3D image of an object in the memory banks and project an exact image of the 3D model using holographic imaging, much like R2D2 does for Princess Leia in Star Wars. (more…)
You know how in fast food ads, the food is always made to look like a perfect specimen of slightly cooked processed beef, but in actuality you’re getting the ugliest meal ever consumed? Something tells us this wide-screen outdoor projector is being advertised along the same lines. In all appearances, it looks like a perfect home theater to have a joyous day with family, outside watching a flick.
What they don’t show you is hat coming over the mountain to the rear of the camera are imposing storm clouds, coming to destroy your state of the art, high definition, white vinyl screen made with mesh-enforced PVC. Sure, it SAYS that its cinema quality, but do they mention that if its not used at a specific time, the lighting is all wrong and the screen is barely watchable? I think not. This catastrophe waiting to happen will cost you $2,400 for the 8 footer and $3,000 for the 12 footer. — Andrew Dobrow
This is just too damn cool to ever exist. This concept for the Wii II (assuming there will be one), offers a totally different take on console design, adding portability to the Wii. How is this done you might ask? Well for one, there is a built-in projector which doubles as the laser sensor for the Wiimote. All you would have to do is point it towards a surface and play.
The color of the console would be totally customizable and the Wii II would not only be able to play DVDs, but would also be compatible with Gamecube games. It would feature 15 hours of battery life and pack in 2 GB of on-board memory. Yeah, keep dreaming. We know we will. — Andrew Dobrow
There’s a fine line between home theater and design marvel, and this Titanic inspired home theater leans towards the latter while still packing some incredible gadgetry goodness. The room was modeled after the movie, Titanic, and the luxury room designs. Lucky for us they chose upper class rather than steerage.
While icebergs might not pose a threat to the Tennessee family who inhabit this room, the threat of sinking in to their chairs and not getting up must pose a mammoth threat. How do you tell your children to do their homework when there is a room like this? The theater’s dome contains 1,230 fiber optic light strands to give the illusion of a perfect night sky. Because of domes utter lack of acoustic sound, speakers had to be moved and acoustic padding added to the walls.
Their Vidikron Model 30 ET projector shines an amazing picture ratio of 2.35:1, wider than that of an average HDTV. The projector displays onto a gigantic custom made 120 inch screen. This is one room that really would make you shout about being king of the world. — Andrew Dobrow
Home Theater Inspired by “Titanic” [ElectonicHouse, via Spluch]
Some of the entertainment systems we’ve seen are a pure mess. The tangle of wires is not only an eyesore, but a safety and quality hazard. If you hate those balls of wires as much as we do, the NewSoft WMS100 Wireless Projector Adaptor could help you in taking care of that problem.
The WMS100 links wirelessly to any projector through a laptop running off of a WiFi network, letting the laptop transmit data wirelessy thorough the wonders of broadband. From the laptop, the projector of your choice produces the enlarged display. If you have to travel with those messes of wires you know why this could be beneficial. — Andrew Dobrow
Product Page [NewSoft, via MobileWhack]
Despite the coolness of owning a projector for its ability to maintain decent picture quality over a huge amount of space, most of you probably decided against a projector after reading up about low lamp life and expensive replacements. LG’s HS101 LED projector, displayed at CES 2007, struts ahead of the competition by showing off it’s extremely long lamp life of 20,000 hours (just long enough to show The Lord of The Rings trilogy in succession).
The unit measures 154×117mm and weighs 750g, about the average size for a run of the mill projector on the market. While it’s not as sleek as some of the others, it makes up for it with brute longevity. The extra-long lamp light of the HS101 is sure to attract the attention of big companies who tend to use projectors more often for their presentations. Imagine playing the Wii on this thing. That’s some big time table tennis.
Would it even be possible to host a 20,000 hour TV marathon? Of course hosts would have to take shifts sleeping, but damn, that’d be some intense marathon madness.
