Colloidal Display

Colloidal Display
Originally uploaded by ~db~

This project proposes an innovative solution that transforms a soap film into the world’s thinnest screen. It has several significant points in comparison to other displays or screens:

- The screen’s transparency can be controlled dynamically by using ultrasonic sound waves. Because of its transparency, membranes and a single projector can develop the plane-based 3D screen.

- The screen’s shape, surface texture, and reflectance can be controlled dynamically with ultrasonic sound waves.
Because of its dynamic character, the screen can display realistic material.

- The screen’s unique material, which allows objects to pass through it, promotes new ways of human interaction with flexible displays.

These features open a new path for flexible displays.

Yoichi Ochiai
The University of Tokyo

Alexis Oyama
Carnegie Mellon University

Keisuke Toyoshima
University of Tsukuba

Snail Trail

Snail Trail
Originally uploaded by ~db~

Philipp Artus’ snail trail is a 360-degree laser animation loop projected onto a column. The two-minute animation relates the story of a snail, which in response to its environment, keeps evolving new means of locomotion; ultimately inventing the wheel and eventually devolving back to its original form. The projection surface is made from a phosphorescent material creating an afterglow that slowly fades out. As a result of the phosphorescent trails, viewers can simultaneously see what happens, what has happened, and what will happen. This reflection on time is elaborated further through the endlessly cycling structure of the work as well as through the recurring pulse of sound and light, which refers to periodic natural phenomena like the tides or the seasons.

Sustainable Cinema (detail)

Sustainable Cinema (detail)
Originally uploaded by ~db~

Sustainable Cinema

Sustainable Cinema
Originally uploaded by ~db~

The wind-powered Sustainable Cinema No. 4: Shadow Play is a kinetic public sculpture that harnesses sustainable energy to generate a moving image. By using natural power to re-create an early art form that led to the beginnings of cinema, the sculpture references the histories of both motion pictures and industrialization. It explores a possible future of environmentally responsible media; looking forward by looking back.

Scott Hessels
City University of Hong Kong

Coronado

Coronado
Originally uploaded by ~db~

Coronado is a six channel sound installation that is inspired by the sonic experience I had at the Coronado beach in California. Using an ocean drum controlled by autonomous mechanical arms as the source of the soundscape, a feedback loop is created and the sound waves are bounced across the six sound channels, creating a spatial interpretation of the sound scape.

- Kian-Peng Ong aka Bin // @Ctrlsave

Tavola

Tavola
Originally uploaded by ~db~

Tavola is a new platform for holographic and interactive 3D experience. It enables holographic 3D visual and 3D audio experience in a natural, free-space 3D interaction, and it can augment the interface of smaller devices such as smartphones. The head-tracking component is compact, accurate, and non-intrusive to the user’s appearance. The system supports in-the-air 3D interaction and several hand gestures via a set of natural and immersive free-hand interaction methods. Possible applications include kiosks, virtual tourism, shopping, education, training, environment simulation, and data visualization.

Yue Fei
Panasonic Silicon Valley Laboratory

Andrea Melle
Panasonic Silicon Valley Laboratory

David Kryze
Panasonic Silicon Valley Laboratory

Jean-Claude Junqua
Panasonic Silicon Valley Laboratory

Bunny Zapper

Bunny Zapper
Originally uploaded by ~db~

Actually a demonstration of removable printing, allowing surplus promotional items to be reused, with a different message, instead of being thrown away. This bunny was one of several items they used.

Saturation (Detail)

Saturation (Detail)
Originally uploaded by ~db~

Saturation is an installation that highlights the abundance of wireless signals occupying the electromagnetic spectrum. The work indexes the FM radio spectrum to reveal the density of the invisible communications infrastructure saturating the environment and our bodies.

The work is installed in the form of an enormous chandelier; a set of open aluminum boxes housing FM radios are strung together and hung from the center of the ceiling. At rest, while concealed within their enclosures, the radio receivers output an ocean of static. Once exposed [by pulling on a big red rope in the center of the installation], the radios each connect to a different station, filling the space with a cacophony of noise. This process reveals a densely populated, dynamic array of electromagnetic fields that, while intangible, constantly permeate our bodies and environment.

Daniel Barry
University at Buffalo

Adam Laskowitz
Design 5 and University at Buffalo

Making Of The Man

Making Of The Man
Originally uploaded by ~db~

A MakerBot in action.

Tardigotchi

Tardigotchi
Originally uploaded by ~db~

Tardigotchi is an artwork featuring two pets: a living organism and an alife avatar. These two disparate beings find themselves the unlikely denizens of a portable computing enclosure. The main body for this enclosure is a brass sphere, housing the alife avatar in an LED screen and the tardigrade within a prepared slide. A tardigrade is a common microorganism measuring half a millimeter in length. The alife avatar is a caricature of this tardigrade. Its behavior is partially autonomous, but it also reflects a considerable amount of expression directly from the tardigrade’s activities.

Ready For Your Closeup

Ready For Your Closeup
Originally uploaded by ~db~

Part of the setup for making The Merchant of Venus Prime.

TELESAR V

TELESAR V
Originally uploaded by ~db~

The TELExistence Surrogate Anthropomorphic Robot was by far the most exciting thing I saw at SIGGGRAPH this year. As presented it was a sort of robotic avatar, with a human wearing a large helmet equipped with stereoscopic displays and audio, plus haptic gloves which provided both pressure and temperature feedback.

In the demonstration, an operator sits in a chair, wearing the helmet and gloves. They see and hear the video and audio provided by the robot's cameras and microphones. As the operator moves, TELESAR mimics those movements in real-time, whether looking around, or reaching out to touch something. When the robot is offered a cup of water, the operator is asked to estimate how far away the cup is, and then to reach for it. He successfully grasps the cup and is able to determine the water inside is cold.

Additionally, the headset has a microphone, allowing the operator to speak through the robot's mouth, interacting with people (or perhaps other robot/avatars) in proximity to the TELESAR avatar. Indeed, after the demo, the audience is given several minutes to talk with the robot, which actually meant interacting with the human sitting a few feet away. Still, the effect was obvious and immediate. People weren't talking with the operator, they were talking with TELESAR.

SplashDisplay

SplashDisplay
Originally uploaded by ~db~

SplashDisplay is an interactive system in which you toss styrofoam "food" at a "whale" (actually a blue disk of light) swimming in the middle of foam beads. The system is able to detect where the food lands, and creates outward ripples radiating from that spot. If the food lands on the whale, it responds with a happy spout, which is caused by a low frequency speaker below the foam beads.

JUKE Cylinder

JUKE Cylinder
Originally uploaded by ~db~

"JUKE Cylinder is a cylindrical interactive device that metamorphoses hands to a musical instrument by localizing the sound image on the hands and enables users to control the pitches of the sound. Users create and control the sounds of real musical instruments (guitar, piano, flute, etc.) with their hands. They perceive that the sounds originate from interactions or objects that would not normally produce audio output."

MIT Mood Meter

MIT Mood Meter
Originally uploaded by ~db~

The MIT Mood Meter counts the number of smiles it can see in a large room, or indeed a whole community, and notes how long those smiles last over time. The Happiness Barometer on the left can be seen as a general measurement of the mood of that group of people. The visual feedback is meant to "raise awareness of how our own smiles can positively affect the surrounding environment".