VPlay brings video mixing to Surface,

For most people, there is only one name that matters in the world of Microsoft Surface / "rave" integration. And that name? Al Roker. But that hasn't stopped the company from continuing to develop new and innovative ways to show off its super-sized touchscreen device in the milieu of clubland. VPlay, for instance, is a live video mixing tool that allows one to display video clips and live images, manipulate effects, and concoct some pretty complex signal paths with your bare hands. Interested in giving this one a spin? No word yet on a commercial release, but do make sure you peep the video

Plastic Logic e-book reader: now with 3G.

You're probably wondering what's been happening with that super thin, super sexy Plastic Logic e-book reader that we've seen floating around various tradeshows. Well, the device has landed at D7, and it's got a few new features cooked up -- most notably, built-in 3G data. There's no specifics on what carriers or bands, but besides that WiFi connectivity, you'll be able to go totally nuts out in the real world. Additionally, it looks like the company has seriously tweaked the UI, now providing a simple and clear interface for getting around your documents, and a page-turning gesture (don't mind the green tint in the pic above, the screen is still very much grayscale). The slate is definitely lust-worthy, but we noted a fairly slow screen refresh (way slower than the Kindle), which is kind of a downer -- along with that fairly distant 2010 launch date. Plastic Logic also made an appearance on Fox Business News today,

The Cube van GestureTek

Bron; GestureTek website
We zagen hem in februari al op de ISE in Amsterdam.

"Introducing The Cube - a compact, turnkey, 'plug and play' interactive display unit that brings the power of gesture control to a variety of display spaces. Project the interactive 80” diagonal display onto almost any floor, wall, table or counter for branding, advertising, entertainment and product promotion. The Cube will engage customers, turn heads and drive business results."

Brochure (pdf)

The Razorfish Razorfashion.

The Razorfish Emerging Experiences team is a dedicated group of highly experienced professionals focused solely on emerging experiences and technologies. "Effective innovation" is our multifaceted approach to concepting and delivering pioneering solutions for our clients"

"Founded in 2008, Razorfish Emerging Experiences is a cross-functional team composed of strategists, artists, experience designers, and technologists. We’re part of the Razorfish Strategy & Innovation practice led by Shannon Denton. Jonathan Hull is the managing director of the team, Steve Dawson is the technology lead and Luke Hamilton is the creative lead."
Our team has developed an application built on the new Razorfish Touch Framework (RTF) lovingly called Razorfashion. It demonstrates how we believe retailers can meet shoppers growing expectations for more engaging digital experiences in-store andprovide a consistent, integrated experience across the multi-channel shopping ecosystem.

Razorfashion Retail Experience

Interactive abribus.

JCDecaux, one of the world’s leading outdoor advertising companies, started deploying interactive abribus (bus stop shelters in Sweden) based on ubiq’window.

In the first stage, the Abribus let people find lines and connection by entering destinations or lines. In next steps advertising will be proposed to passengers: ad-games, interactive ads, edutainment, etc…
The interactive digital signage content can be remotely updated by a 3G connection.
Ubiq’window’s computer vision technology is the best fit for this usage as it resist Swedish street conditions and it is crowd-proof.
Installations are made by ubiq’window distributor in Sweden, Touchme.

TouchMe interactive abribus at Brunsparken from TouchMe on Vimeo.

Catchyoo Face Tracker.

LM3 LABS unveil patented Catchyoo Face Tracker, an innovative digital signage solution for shop window interactivity. Catchyoo Face Tracker tracks faces of passing people for creating eye-catching interactivity with digital content. Faces become pointers which trigger events and follow people. Catchyoo FT’s patented technology is robust to urban environments like busy sidewalks, changing light conditions, night and day,…
Catchyoo Face Tracking is multi-user and leverage information like distance from screen, speed, direction, changing directions, number of watching people, groups, etc…
Catchyoo Face Tracker can be associated to most display technologies: projection of course but also LED, Plasma/LCD, etc…

Iedereen slank !!

Bron; www.nabbnet.nl
Benieuwd hoe je eruitziet met een paar pondjes minder? Kijk dan in de speciale spiegels van CZ. Deze zijn in abri’s van CBS Outdoor geplaatst op de NS-stations van Amsterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht, Breda en Tilburg. Wie een blik in zo’n spiegel werpt, ziet een slankere versie van zichzelf. Zo stimuleert CZ om verantwoord af te vallen. Dat levert je namelijk niet alleen een mooi figuur op voor de zomer. 5% tot 10% van je lichaamsgewicht kwijtraken is vooral ook heel gezond. De spiegels zijn een idee van reclamebureau Imagine en zijn uitgevoerd door zeefdrukkerij Triomf in samenwerking met CBS Outdoor.

Cisco Expo in Hannover.

Die Cisco EXPO besuchten zum Großteil die IT-Leiter und Netzwerk-Experten von Unternehmen, die Computacenter und Cisco Kunden sind. Umso wichtiger war es für Computacenter, auch diese Klientel von dem Medium Digital Signage zu überzeugen, denn man konnte bei dieser Messe nicht erwarten, auf die Kommunikations- oder Marketingexperten zu treffen. Deshalb wählte Computacenter eine Installation mit ausgefallenen Inhalten.
Für die Installation wurden fünf großformatige 57-Zoll Displays in einem Durchgang im Portraitformat aufgestellt und eines direkt am Stand. Die Inhalte erstellte die oysterbay Werbeagentur. Alle Screens wurden durch Ciscos Digital Media Player mit Inhalten versorgt.
Die Resonanz auf diese Installation war sehr positiv. Zum einen fielen die Displays durch Ihre Größe und Ihr Format sofort ins Auge und zum Anderen waren die Inhalte so erstellt, dass Kunden den Computacener Stand besuchten und explizit nach den beschriebenen Lösungen fragten.

LED TV versus LED DLP TV

De laatste tijd wordt er heel wat reclame gemaakt voor LED TV. Maar opgelet, er zijn meerdere soorten. Zo heb je namelijk de LED TV en de LED DLP HDTV.

Eventjes een woordje uitleg. Elke LCD-tv alsook DLP-TV heeft een lichtbron nodig (een lamp). Een LCD-TV heeft kristallen die het beeld vormen. Aan de achterzijde zit een CCFL (ultradunne fluorescentielamp) die licht doorheen de kristallen laat schijnen. De geschatte levensduur van zo’n lamp is 13 jaar bij normaal gebruik. Nadeel van dit systeem is dat het licht doorheen de LCD schijnt, en dat de kleuren enkel optimaal te zien zijn als je loodrecht naar het scherm kijkt.

Een DLP-TV werkt met een DMD-chip. Deze chip bestaat uit minuscule kleine spiegeltjes, waarop het licht van een lamp wordt geprojecteerd. Deze grijswaarden worden dan door een kleurenwiel gestuurd om zo gekleurde pixels op het scherm te projecteren. Deze systemen worden ook in de cinemazalen toegepast. Aangezien het projectie is (men spreekt soms ook over retroprojectoren), is het kleur onder elke hoek hetzelfde.

Indien we nu de lichtbron (de CCFL bij de LCD-tv of de lamp bij de DLP) vervangen door LED-licht, dan spreken we van een LED TV. Maar de systemen van LCD of DLP blijven bestaan, zodat je LED TV en LED DLP TV’s kunt vinden op de markt. Het gebruik van de LED zal zorgen voor een nog langere levensduur en een nog lager verbruik.
Twee soorten zijn:
- Edge lit LED LCD en
- LED matrix backlight LED LCD’s.
De eerst zijn bijvoorbeeld de Samsungs 6000/7000/8000 serie TV’s. De ledjes zitten aan de zijkant en er zit geen lichtbron aan de achterkant, daarom zijn ze ook maar 2,9cm dik.
De tweede variant heeft een arsenaal aan ledlampjes achter het scherm zitten (Samsung 9000, A9xx). Het grote voordeel hiervan is dat deze onafhankelijk van elkaar aan en uitgezet kunnen worden waardoor Local Dimming mogelijk wordt; delen van het scherm zijn dan erg donker, ander erg licht. Dit kan niet met CCFL of Egde LED. Meer info over dit onderwerp vind je hier

The Children's Interactive Library.

The Children's Interactive Library project was an untraditional interdisciplinary research and innovation project exploring the children's library of the future.

The objective was to create spaces for children in the library that offer new experiences, learning, events, sense impressions and physical activity. And at the same time acknowledging the library'sunique capacity of being the place where cildren come in order to aquire information and knowledge.
The Children's Interactive Library was a collaboration between Interactive Spaces, the Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, the Department for Design, Aarhus School of Architecture, and others.

30% Of World’s LED used in Moscow ?

The Eurovision Song Contest is definitely one of the creative landmarks of the year, so we are extremely proud to play a vital role in this trendsetting stage design.
Moscow reportedly used something like 30% of the world’s stock of rental LED for Saturday evening’s 54th Eurovision Song Contest Final. Barco alone supplied more than 1000 LED tiles.
The event took place in the Olympiyski Indoor Arena in Moscow and viewers from around Europe tuned in to watch 42 countries compete.Viewers would have seen a total of 735 OLite LED tiles, 6200 MiPIX modules, six SLM R12+ projectors and six CLM R10+ projectors used with the PufferSpheres®.

All video was controlled by Barco image processing equipment and two Encore systems and 24 Image Pro HD’s made sure the show ran smoothly.

E-Paper overtreft Digital Signage.

Paper beflügelt Digital Signage !!
Laut den Prognosen von Displaybank wird der Markt für E-Paper-Displays jährlich um fast 50 % zulegen. 2010, so orakeln die Marktforscher, soll der Umsatz mit elektronischem Papier bei rund 260 Mio. US$ liegen.

Für 2020 prognostizieren die Analysten ein Volumen von 7 Mrd. US$. Das elektronische Papier wird dann nicht nur in Mobilgeräten wie dem Kindle von Amazon oder Sonys E-Reader verbaut, sondern auch als Wiedergabegerät bei Digital Signage Verwendung finden.

Interead's COOL-ER claims to be the 'iPod moment' for e-readers.

Bron; www.engadget.com
Upstart company Interead is looking to jump into the ever-expanding library of e-book readers with its debut, the COOL-ER. Company founder Neil Jones describes it as the "iPod moment that e-readers have been waiting for," calling the device the first of its kind to be designed specifically for the non-technologically inclined reader in mind. Indeed, the aesthetics seems to borrow liberally from the iPod nano, and features eight different color options. It weighs in at 6.3 ounces, or a little less than half of the Kindle 2, with the same 6-inch e-ink screen, and is small enough to fit comfortably in your jacket pocket, he says. It's got 1GB internal memory and a SD card slot, as well as a 2.5mm headphone jack with a 3.5mm converter bundled with every device. The feature set is pretty barebones, with no keyboard, text-to-speech, WiFi, or Whispernet equivalent -- all files have to be loaded via USB or SD card -- but in its place is a more attractive $250 MSRP, and Jones assures us at that price the company'll be making a profit on each unit sold. Format support includes EPUB, TXT, JPEG, any kind of PDF, MP3 for audio, and eight languages including Russian and traditional / simplified Chinese. The company's also launching an e-book store and offering an extra discount for customers who register their COOL-ER. It'll go on sale May 29th for US and Europe via its website, with retail distribution partner expected to be announced closer to the launch date. We're gonna wait until we get a few chapters into Alice in Wonderland before giving a final verdict,

The worlds largest 10x12 pixel display.

This video of a giant lightshow -- a nerdworks, if you will -- put on by a group of students at Wrocław University of Technology. This is not the first time we've seen such a display, nor is it a first for this particular group, who call themselves Projekt P.I.W.O. -- but it is one of the best (and longest). The ten minute show includes much classic geekery -- Pong, Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Michael Jackson. Yes, that's right: Michael Jackson.

Fotoshot mei.

3D Enabled’ Households By 2012.

Check out 750 7th Avenue at 50th Street in New York for the Snickers display where Inwindow Outdoor and Alioscopy have teamed up for the first 3D LCD ad on a storefront. The 42-inch panel uses an 8x recorded autosteroscopic (read: no glasses) 3D process to make the catchphrase jump off the wall at passers-by. The installation debuted May 6, and for the small cost of being marketed to vs. the now-shelved €18,000 Philips screen we once lusted after, it's a cheap way for us to get a peek at the future.



Interesting quote from Sarah Carroll, Director of Continuous Services, Futuresource Consulting in their recent research ‘Strategic Impact of 3D’ report on the 3D enabled home, she said “Consumers are starting to experience the new wave of 3D technologies at the cinema and through Digital Out of Home advertising, and it won’t be long before there’s a groundswell of demand for 3D within the home”
Bottom line Futuresource Consulting believe that by 2012 more than 10% of US and Japanese households will be ‘3D enabled’ and Western Europe won’t be far behind.
Now more than ever it seems that 3D is coming to the fore, with backing from all major sectors of the entertainment and consumer electronics industries.
3D movie production of course is intensifying and cinemas all over the world are investing in 3D technologies - feedback too, from audiences has been highly positive, with encouraging ticket sales.
Futuresource Consulting however believe that the ultimate goal is to bring 3D to the home. Their report reveals studios, consumer electronics companies, broadcasters, video game vendors and network operators are all poised to power 3D through the consumer diffusion curve.

Aantal Nederlandse e-readers groeit traag.

Bron; www.nuzakelijk.nl
Een doorbraak van e-readers laat in Nederland nog even op zich wachten. Uitgevers zijn enthousiast over deze apparaten waarmee je digitale boeken kan lezen, maar om die tot een succes te maken is er samenwerking nodig tussen alle betrokken partijen, zegt directeur Daniel Ropers van internetwinkel Bol.com.

In de Verenigde Staten maakt de e-reader een sterke ontwikkeling door. Producten van grote partijen als Sony en Amazon.com vinden daar al veel aftrek. Amazon gaf vorige week de markt een nieuwe impuls door een grotere versie van zijn Kindle te presenteren. Daardoor is het ook mogelijk om op een prettige manier kranten te lezen. The New York Times, The Washington Post en de Boston Globe gaan er deze zomer mee experimenteren.

Nederlandse krantenuitgevers zeggen ook klaar te zijn voor digitale distributie. NRC Media, onderdeel van PCM, begon ruim een jaar geleden met de verspreiding van NRC Handelsblad via de iLiad, een e-reader die is ontwikkeld door iRex Technologies, een spin-off van Philips. Groot is de markt nog niet. NRC Media heeft zonder veel inspanning zo’n tweeduizend iLiads verkocht. “En daarmee durven wij te stellen dat we de grootste wederverkoper van dit product zijn”, zegt marketingmanager Charles Lansu. “Het is echt nog een nichemarkt. Het wachten is op grote partijen als Apple, Dell en Hewlett-Packard. Alleen zij kunnen de markt openbreken.”

Een probleem blijft voorlopig de prijs. De iLiad kost in combinatie met een digitaal abonnement op NRC Handelsblad 699 euro. Voor de nieuwste Kindle van Amazon moet nog altijd 489 dollar worden betaald.

Microsoft Office Labs 2019 Vision Montage.

While its hard to predict exactly how technology will unfold, we are constantly researching, looking forward, and gathering insights to imagine how technology investments today can improve peoples way of life in the future.



If you visit the YouTube source, you'll find an interesting discussion about this five-minute+ clip.

Flexible, stretchable, rubbery OLED prototype shown off in Tokyo.

Electrical engineering researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a new kind of organic electroluminescent (EL) display that can stretch and deform like rubber and does not tear or break when stretched. The material is produced by spraying a layer of carbon nanotubes with a fluoro-rubber compound, creating a rubbery, conducive material. The current, monochrome display prototype has a resolution of just 256 pixels, is 10-centimeters square, and can apparently be folded about 1,000 times with out falling apart, tearing, or imploding. The displays are thinner than plasma and LCD equivalents, and consume very little power, making them suitable for a range of different uses.The team is presenting its findings in the British science journal Nature Materials this month.

McDonald's Digital Signage Ïnteraction" in Piccadilly Circus.

McDonald's heeft in de UK, een grappige interactieve marketing actie gelanceerd.

Sharp LCDtje.

Gespot op de Digital Signage Expo 2009 in Essen / Duitsland

TV reageert op handgeklap.

De nieuwste HD televisies van JVC zijn uitgerust met een wel heel bijzonder gadget: de Hand Clap-functie. Daarmee kunt u de tv aanzetten of het volume regelen door met uw handen te klappen. Dat is mogelijk door een microfoon in het toestel die hoort wanneer en hoeveel keer u in uw handen klapt. Tweemaal klappen regelt het volume, driemaal schakelt het toestel aan of uit.
Volgens Paul Lits van JVC Belgium zijn deze functies slechts het begin. 'Als de Hand Clap aanslaat bij het publiek willen we naar veel meer commando's gaan die de consument zelf kan instellen. We doen ook tests met een kleine camera bovenaan de tv die bewegingen filmt waarmee u de televisie bestuurt.'

Innovative Digital Advertising Display Debuts in Metro Red Line Tunnel.

The dark subway tunnels briefly turn trains into mobile movie theatres where passengers are dazzled by colorful, live-action video segments. The LED system is composed of 360 digital strips that light up at timed intervals as the train passes the subway wall, blending together to form a smooth-flowing video presentation.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) today pushed the technology envelope by debuting a new electronic LED display for advertising purposes on the Metro Red Line subway, the first such system in North America.

The two-year pilot project, installed and operated by Sidetrack Technologies, Inc, will display 15-second advertisements visible to passengers on northbound trains between the Hollywood/Highland and Universal City stations. Advertisers are expected to include motion pictures, television shows, retailers and other national advertisers.
The project will generate at least $240,000 per year in additional rail operating revenues for Metro. All fabrication, installation and maintenance costs are borne by Sidetrack Technologies

--> zie hier een video --> Metro Media Relations.

Sidetrack’s Aero Advert also at London Heathrow
We noticed this Aero advertisement went up on the Sidetrack system in London’s Heathrow Express tunnels last week.
It’s always hard to show how effective we think this looks with a static still image - you need to be in the train carriage to get the full affect. We think the impact is very high.

Electrofluidic display tech improves color e-ink.

The race to develop a mass-market color e-ink display is at fever pitch, and there's a new challenger on the scene: electrofluidic display, or EFD. Developed at the University of Cincinnati in partnership with a handful of private companies, the new tech apparently blows everything else out of the water -- according to professor Jason Heikenfeld, EFD has superior brightness, color saturation, and video speed, all in a 15-micron thick panel that can eventually be used in rollable displays. No word on when we'll see any products, but the partnership is spinning off a new company called Gamma Dynamics to commercialize the tech, so hopefully it'll be soon.
Read - University of Cincinnati press release.

Canon with its Mixed Reality Aquarium.

In some ways, augmented reality is an elegant solution to the main problem with VR: while there are some areas where insane levels of immersion are required, this stuff ain't cheap -- relegating solutions like CirculaFloor to academics, the military, and the extremely well-heeled. But how about those who just want to see wild graphics while they, you know, "party?" Canon's Mixed Reality Aquarium headset transforms any area you inhabit into a giant fishbowl. Not the sort of thing that you'll want to do more than once, probably -- although, to the company's credit, this is more of a research project than an actual product. How about an option to swim with Daryl Hannah from Splash? That would be pure gadget gold. That said, this does make for a fun video