A very creative use of inkjet cartridges:

via hacked gadgets

Using windows as pixel grids for “mega displays” is not the newest idea at all, but the way LAb[au] and Dexia Art did this in Brussels currently is. They used the dexia tower for their “urban interactive installation“, where users can interact with the shown image at a multi touch screen in front of the building. As you can see at the live stream, it’s a really mighty and eye-catching sight. It can be seen live until the 15th of January.

As a fan and creator of the projected image, I’m a little bit afraid of its future use in the advertising branch. The cities could/will be dominated by blinking and attention catching videos on walls, grounds, and perhaps even clouds. But we’re still in the time where it’s fascinating when something moves where you don’t expect it. Two examples:

1. Beamvertising
A chewing gum company from the Netherlands drives around with a van, equipped with a beamer:
It’s really similar to the Nada Surf “Blankest Year” video from Kristian Davidek and Verena Soltiz

2. Motionposter
This concept uses the underground tunnels for advertisement space. In fact no projection at all (but monitors), but I saw a similar thing once in Munich, which worked with projection. Watch the videos on their website.

(via basic thinking and fresh creation)

As already mentioned in interesting wii hacks, the potential of the wii remote is enormous. It will be used as input device for all imaginable things. This posts deals with the musical use; I think the Band will be complete soon.

At the guitar, J5892 with is Wiitar2.0:

Man of the drums: MagicBobert:

and nobrand is responsible for the eletronics:

This machine is really amazing! Some kind of reality special effects - no video editing in here:

As a matter of course, there’s nowadays also a how-to-create-your-own-time-fountain-manual available on the net.

Rafaël Rozendaal from Amsterdam uses the Internet as platform for his art. He creates mostly full screen flash applications, where is not explained how to use them. He plays with the user in an interesting way - you always have to find out what you can do, and in which way. Most sites are some kind of minimal, but innovative.

Portfolio
Example of his work: itwillneverbethesame.com

I/O Brush from MIT Media Lab samples the world in images. It can photograph or record all kinds of visible objects, and uses them as brushes on a digital video surface.

The most interesting part is near the end of the clip.

More details at their website.

My favorite Microsoft project from in the last few years is definitely Microsoft Photosynth. After the very interesting videos, they released the first tech preview now, where you can test the basic functions in your browser*. The navigation became really smooth, and it’s a fantastic idea to browse through the world like this in some years.

* unfortunately it works only in IE, but all FireFox users can find a comfortable solution here

Front developed a very fascinating method for creating furniture:

The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialise free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined.
Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialised through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.

Sketch Furniture Website

viZoo invented an interesting method for projecting objects in midair:

They are talking about “3d objects”, what’s not correct as I found out . In fact the projections are still usual two-dimensional videos as we know them, but the holographic part is nevertheless fascinating.
Another strange point is that there’s nowhere told how it works exactly. I would be interested in how the light becomes broken in midair, but can’t find any information.

I think we’ll see something like this in the advertising sector soon; but I’m more looking forward using it for livevisuals some day.