Projection WOWness

Not much to say really except OMFG!

Thanks Kate! via The Next Web

Virtual Street Games

Thanks PSFK for this on some cool virtual gaming

October 8, 2009

A massive hi-tech athletics tournament is scheduled to take place between three cities in the north-east of England. Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough will all compete against each other simultaneously from there respective locations within a digital court. KMA has designed this virtual/real playing field that uses projected light and thermal imaging technology to create interactive elements and track player movements.

designboom explains how it works:

the ‘courts’ created by projected light; each court comprising a central playing area and two zones representing the other two locations. balls of light appear from the centre of each court – these projected images can be moved by players physically ‘touching’ them. the aim of the first game is for each location to gain points by moving as many balls as possible to the other locations. games last 90 seconds and 5 games make a series – through which the games increase in complexity as players become more familiar with the rules. the town or city with the most points at the end wins.

The games will take place from 29th October – 1st November.

prodesignboom: “KMA: great street games”

THE NEXT DIMENSION

Thanks Trendcentral for this on the fast approaching (virtual) world in 3D

With 3D this genuine, who needs reality?

3D is on its way to becoming the norm at the neighborhood multiplex, particularly for animated features and horror flicks. And while it may be a while before Woody Allen's next film visually plants us on a NYC sidewalk while screening in a Topeka theater, 3D soon will be moving from the cinema to the living room in order to enhance your home entertainment experience. Here's a look at some of these retina popping devices and how artists are taking the technology and running with it:

Sony 3D: Sony says it will have 3D technology in American living rooms by 2010 in products including BRAVIA LCD HDTVs, VAIO computers, Blu-ray discs and PlayStation 3. Although the idea of watching Lost in 3D is certainly not without its appeal, we expect that gaming may be the category to really lasso this technology. Today's new third dimension isn't like going to the arcade in the mid-'90s and paying $8 for three minutes of watching neon lines. It's adding a feeling of actual space. This could upgrade the "guy stuff" on your computer to a whole new intensity level - imagine video game bullets that feel like they're headed right into your couch.

i-3D Video Glasses : While Sony confirmed that they are going to have 3D TVs ready for gaming addicts next year, don't expect to be able to walk around images in the same way that Princess Leia circled Obe-Wan Kenobi begging for help. You'll still have to don some head gear to make the images pop off the screen. For those of us who can't wait for Sony to fine-tune the home 3D experience, the i-3D Video Glasses plug into any DVD or MP4 player and feed you video like Star Trek's Geordi LaForge got his. The images look like they're on a 80" x 69" screen, while you look like you need a ticket to Comic Con.

Projection Bombing : Let's not forget that our interest in 3D was sparked by illusions designed to look like they have depth. That concept is being stretched by street artists and, more recently, projection artists. A tech-driven evolution of graffiti, projection bombing is when fleeting images are transmitted on to unsuspecting walls and buildings with nothing more than a Honda generator, projector and laptop. (Check out this video of a digital tiger running across a city's buildings.) Urban Screen, a collective of German artists and architects involved in research and development of experimental media installations with the aim to stage urban displays, seems to be the leader in these optical assaults. The content housed in their Vimeo channel will trick your eyes even more than that online pinwheel everyone's been staring at to make their hands look like they're melting.

How Demand for Digital Experiences Is Transforming Our Physical Spaces

Great post from Garrick Schmitt on Adage, via Mobile Behaviour

And Creating 'Screens' Where There Weren't Any
Posted by Garrick Schmitt on 09.01.09 @ 08:44 AM

At times it seems that the entire world has become a screen. The proliferation of devices of all shapes and sizes -- from the jumbotrons in Times Square to the micro-menus of Apple's Nano -- surround us. And, of course, the sheer multitude of these screens (GPS, iPod, mobile phone, LCD TV, Nintendo DS, etc.) has begun to change our interaction with the physical world.

But what's most interesting about this development is not the abundance of screens, per se, but about how our culture's seemingly ravenous desire for digital experiences is changing our expectations for physical spaces -- both in public and private.

In the past few years, a host of artists, programmers and marketers have melded art and science to create new, digitally driven experiences that are redefining the way we think about our urban and personal landscapes.

Some of the better-known advertising work here includes Mini's groundbreaking "Motorby"HBO's "Voyeur" campaign, which transformed a New York City street into a theater. campaign, where an interactive digital billboard responds to Mini drivers passing by, and

But the trend is more than just "digital out of home," which is a phrase that gets used a bit too broadly to describe this cultural shift. Instead, it's a complete rethinking of our public spaces as digital experiences.

Project Blinkenlights: Perhaps the most influential and pioneering work done so far has been by this German group, which transforms office buildings into digital interactive installations. Its most recent project, Stereoscope, took over Toronto City Hall and created an interactive, visual concert.

Blinkenlights Stereoscope Toronto documentation video from Tim Pritlove on Vimeo.

The experience went beyond just a light display; it was participatory as well. Attendees were invited to play video games on the sides of the building by using their mobile phones. And artists could create their own animations for the installation using Project Blinkenlights' open animation formats and tools.

555 Kubik: Similar to the work of Project Blinkenlights, the 555 Kubik project is a digital installation that turns a naked building facade into a compelling piece of art through 3-D projections.

555 Kubik extended version from UrbanScreen on Vimeo.

The project was created by UrbanScreen, a European agency that specializes in large-scale projection on urban surfaces.

YouTube Symphony Orchestra: The YouTube Symphony Orchestra was an attempt to crowdsource a virtual orchestra via auditions through YouTube. For the public performance, which featured 96 professional and amateur musicians from 30-plus countries, Obscura Digital specifically mapped Carnegie Hall's architecture to project 20,000 square feet of full-resolution video and dramatically enhance the event.

Livestrong Chalkbot: As part of Lance Armstrong's return to the Tour de France and his Livestrong organization's mission to cure cancer, Nike commissioned the Livestrong Chalkbot. Created by DeepLocal and StandardRobot, the Chalkbot enabled thousands of people to have their messages (submitted digitally) chalked along the route of this year's Tour.

'Top Chef Las Vegas': For this season of "Top Chef Las Vegas," Fallon and Monster teamed up for one of the more clever uses of mobile and digital-billboard advertising. The team created an interactive casino in Rockefeller Plaza that highlighted the Las Vegas element of the show and allowed passers-by to play interactive slot machines with their mobile phones for the chance to win $5,000 -- now that's an incentive for engagement.

While the melding of digital and physical has been done well before, it's often been in fits and starts. But it's only been as of late, as the technology has become cheaper and connectivity more pervasive, that we've started to see a more profound shift in digital altering of our public spaces. The emergence of radio-frequency identification and augmented reality and shift toward branded destinations -- see the O2 in the U.K. -- will only accelerate the trend.

Leave it to Guinness to give us an early taste. Working with London's Red Urban, Guinness placed RFID tags on its team's rugby balls and players, providing real-time data for fans and coaches alike. Running pace, kicking power and passing speed are all monitored -- allowing a digital window into a physical event that is just scratching the surface of what's possible.

If the Guinness RFID work is any indicator, perhaps the future won't be about screens at all -- it may simply become a matter of data and sensors.

Building alive with lights and sounds

Just pain beautiful...

lights on from thesystemis on Vimeo.

Via psfk

Urban gaming

Thanks psfk
Urban Gaming by Jeff Squires

Lately, we’ve seen a lot of great projects utilizing high powered projectors. Many of these, such as TXTual Healing, involve an element of social commentary. It’s refreshing however to see a project that panders to plain old simple fun - who hasn’t wanted to play video games on the biggest screen possible?

There is not a lot of information on the campaign, but Xbox has set up a myspace page for what they’re calling “Urban Xbox 360 Gaming,” where, along with the below video, they are requesting people submit photos of the various locations where they are playing video games.

Urban Xbox 360 Gaming from UrbanXbox on Vimeo.