University of Twente / The netherlands

Classroom of the future- insights from the University of Twente about their vision on ‘”Classroom of the future”. What is “new” in “ new way of teaching”? How to support (group) collaboration? How to stimulate interactive, group experiences? And how (good) hardware can assist to accelerate!

LDN19- The world’s most iconic football retail store.

LDN19- The world’s most iconic football retail store
Immerse yourself in a digital mortar environment, which allows you to explore the World’s Largest Boot Room through a fusion of digital technology that delivers cutting-edge high street retail.

LDN19 is a next-level football store that guarantees a one-off, exclusive shopping experience through an extraordinary combination of virtual and physical retail.

LDN19 supports customer digital engagement, utilising 4K CTOUCH interactive displays and large display screens for absorption into a world of football.

Simply WOW! What a fantastic job done by Vivid Digital Retail and Green Room Retail

Movie by Greenroom.

CST fails to develop ultra-thin flexible E Ink watch, project's fate uncertain

In 2013, CST introduced the CST-01 ultra-thin, flexible E Ink watch. The company later raised over $300,000 in a kickstarter campaign, offering each watch for $129.



Unfortunatly, CST faced production problems, and due to low component yields, and actual price of each watch climbed to $260. CST decided to change its manufacturor (Flextronics), but it is almost out of money.

CST aims to sell its assets - but if they fail to do so, they may publish all design documents for free. In any case, it is highly unlikly that any of the 8,000 supporters will actually get a watch.

Samsung invests in another crowdfunded VR company.

SOURCE: Fove

Just because Samsung is extra-cozy with Oculus doesn't mean that it's putting all its virtual reality eggs in one basket. Samsung Ventures has invested an unspecified amount of cash into Fove, the company whose crowdfunded VR headset adjusts focus based on your gaze. There's no word of an official collaboration between the two companies, but it's not hard to see why a tech giant would pour money into this startup. Samsung is really eager to see VR take off -- Fove's work both creates healthier competition and provides the Korean firm with a technically advanced alternative to the established options.

projection digital signage restores destroyed Buddhas.

Historic sixth-century Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban made a triumphal if bittersweet return with the help of 3D projection mapping digital signage.

The effort was made possible by a system developed by a Chinese couple, Janson Yu and Liyan Hu, according to the Khaama Press.

The Bamiyan Buddhas — formerly two of the world's largest standing Buddhas, one of them more than 170 feet high — were destroyed by Taliban militants in 2001.

According to Mental Floss, since the home of the Buddhas, the Bamiyan Valley is on the U.N.'s List of World Heritage in Danger, the projector's use had to be pre-approved by UNESCO and the Afghan government:

The event brought out more than 150 people, celebrating the Buddhas' brief return and memorializing the real Buddhas' absence. A YouTube video from China Central Television (CCTV+) quotes one Bamiyan resident who said, "This cannot fill the empty space of [the Buddha], but it's something that reminds us that it is not dead."

According to CCTV+, the couple donated the equipment "to [the] local department of cultural relics protection," which will "reproduce the images" of the 115 foot and 174 foot statues every year in March. 

3D Hologram animation - Kristina Tuckute.

From PM Screen



PM Screen is one of the leading global providers of complete special media installation solutions - our experienced team of creative professionals will wow your audience like never before. We use top-of-the-line technology with a dash of flair and innovation to deliver an impression the way nobody else can. Our tailor-made shows and displays will transform any occasion - from product presentations to festival shows to those special moments in life - into an unforgettable experience.

www.pmscreen.com

SCOREBOARD.

A COMPLETE DOORMAT

The producers of Germany’s BILD tabloid newspaper have been making headlines for well over six decades now. But now the headlines are not only catching the eye, they’re also falling at people’s feet: the carpet in the newspaper’s revamped newsroom at the Axel-Springer building in Berlin has been turned into a media carrier. Visitors and employees receive the latest news stories every step of the way. The current news is fed to a carpet which is 1.6 m in width and 20 cm in height and is installed in the media organisation’s nerve centre. The newsroom’s new floor covering is supplied by Luminous Carpets, a joint venture between Philips and Desso. It combines LED lighting with a translucent carpet. The light unit is programmable and can be used to create decorative effects or to carry information. BILD editor-in-chief Kai Diekmann is enthusiastic about the innovative floor covering. At long last – a media carpet in a media organisation…

Klick here for a video impression

See-through screens visible inside and outside stores.

Retail designers can have the best of both worlds by using transparent in-window screens that still allow a store’s interior to be seen from outside, says supplier Crystal Display Systems (CDS).

Aiming its new modular line of LEDs at end users ranging from museums, aquariums and zoos to factories and offices as well as retail, CDS says its displays can be free-standing or ceiling-hung for maximum flexibility, and are viewable from inside and outside the building.

Just 8-10mm thick, they offer up to up to 85 percent transparency but are nevertheless powered by high-brightness LEDS of up to 6000 candelas per square metre for sunlight viewability.

The company is hoping that designers and shop-fitters as well as AV specialists will recommend them.

Said CDS managing director Chris Bartram: “The visual impact is amazing, as for the first time stores and brands can show images and messages without blocking the view to their stores, where they spend a lot of money to make them bright and inviting. Christmas promotions could be invigorated and bring stores to life.”

Manchester Digital Bridge.

Videowall - Samsung UD.

Dubai hotbeds of Digital Signage.

If Google Trends is a real measure of activity and interest in digital signage,
Canada is the hotbed country, but Dubai is the hotbed city at the moment.

These are charts from the past 12 months.

This graph shows web activity and you can see how the timeline kinda syncs up with ISE, DSE and the just-finished InfoComm

The results seem to come out the same when you layer in digital ooh and digital out of home.

Samsung "The Safety Truck"

This initiative was created by Leo Burnett / Buenos Aires for Samsung's Argentinian corporate office to promote road safety.

Freightliner Inspiration, Hoover Dam 2015.

Creative Technology US team up with dandelion + burdock for record-breaking projection mapping on Hoover Dam for the new Freightliner Inspiration.

Background The spectacular Hoover Dam became even more spectacular when the curved wall of the dam acted as the nation’s largest ever projection screen for the launch of Freightliner Inspiration, a groundbreaking autonomous truck from Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA). Creative Technology, a world leading supplier of AV and technical staging services teamed with digital design and technology company dandelion+ burdock for the event, which featured five 4×4pro media servers from d3 Technologies driving video, graphical and IMAG content on the expanse of the dam wall.

One of the top ten engineering marvels in the world, Hoover Dam was built during the Great Depression on the Colorado River on the border of Arizona and Nevada. The massive concrete arch-gravity dam impounds Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the US by volume, and is a popular day trip from Las Vegas.

The site was chosen to debut the Freightliner Inspiration truck, the first licensed autonomous commercial truck to operate on an open public highway in the US, to an audience of international news media, trucking industry analysts and officials. Autonomous vehicle technology promises to reduce accidents, improve fuel consumption, cut highway congestion and safeguard the environment. Unveiling the Freightliner at Hoover Dam symbolizes America’s continuing ability to dream big and accomplish amazing things, according to DTNA.


OSK Communications conceived the Freightliner Inspiration launch with production management specialists SIAM Productions producing the overall event. SIAM partnered with Creative Technology (CT) to bring the complex project to life with the expertise of d3 specialists dandelion+ burdock.

“Talk about projection on a big scale – this was it!” says Marty Henning, senior project manager at CT. “There was a logo projection on the dam before, but nothing had ever covered the whole face of the dam.”

d3 Solution The challenges were enormous: the 420,000 square-foot surface had a number of different angles of curves to it and was half-a-mile away from the projection tower, which featured 60 projectors synchronized to create a single seamless image with a resolution of over 4000 horizontal pixels.

More information here

Dubai is installing massive solar-powered palm trees.

Sunflowers are nice and all, but over in Dubai everything’s got to be bigger and better. Even the flora-inspired solar arrays.

Recently, the city installed its first Smart Palm. Its broad leaves have solar cells on the top, just like James Cameron’s solar sunflowers. But the Smart Palm doesn’t stop at merely producing power. It’s got a few other tricks up its sleeve.

Because of its size, the Palm also provides a decent amount of shade — handy for passersby who want to get out of the blazing Persian sun and rest for a few minutes. Speaking of rest, there’s also a bench connected to the palm where you can take a load off.

In addition to being able to recharge yourself, you can also recharge your devices thanks to the Smart Palm. Built in to the seating area is a charging station, which D Idea (the company behind the Palm) says is capable of replenishing batteries 2.5 times faster than your home charger. Presumably they’re pushing DC like your car, rather than AC like your wall outlets.

While you charge your phone back up, you can also surf the Internet using the Smart Palm’s free Wi-Fi. It’s got a range of about 100 meters, so it covers a whole lot more area than just the nearby hexagonal bench. But wait… there’s more!

Smart Palms also feature integrated digital signage and can serve up all kinds of information about Dubai. They’re also fitted with 360º infrared cameras and a panic button to help keep users safe.

There are only two Smart Palms installed in Dubai right now, but eventually there will be a veritable forest.  When the project is complete, there will be more than a hundred of these high-tech trees “planted” around the city.

AWARDS: NEW YORK SUBWAY STATIONS DIGITAL VIDEO PROGRAM CITED FOR ARTS HONOR.

New York’s MTA subway and commuter rail system has been honored for the digital artwork running on screens around at its new Fulton Center stop.

MTA Arts & Design was recognized by the public art foundation Americans for the Arts for the video installation New York Minute, as well as for a huge suspended sculpture in the atrium at Fulton Center

The Year in Review honor was among 31 outstanding public art projects on the US and Canada, with the video piece winning in the temporary art category.

New York Minute was created by new-media artist Gabriel Barcia-Colombo for Fulton Center. The large-scale video installation features portraits of New Yorkers doing everyday activities in super-slow motion, highlighting the comical and sometimes poignant street interactions that help make the city unique. The title refers to the hectic pace of New Yorkers’ lives.

The videos are displayed on 52 screens throughout the transit hub. They can be seen on the screens in the atrium’s street level and station platform level every 30 minutes, and on the mezzanine for the A and C Lines and in the Dey Street Corridor every 60 seconds.

“The average customer walking quickly past the screens might think the screens are showing a still portrait, but in actuality the screens show different actions in super slow motion. By slowing down and watching the same screen, that customer is rewarded with the whole video of one action, which could be something as simple and joyful as a dancing woman being twirled,” says Yaling Chen, manager of Arts & Design and its digital arts program. “Gabe’s work reminds us to pause for a second and just enjoy the moment.”

Creative Content.

GREAT IDEA for CLUBS and RESTAURANTS.

Funny.

I stumbled across a funny Youtube video titled “How to wall mount a Plasma/LCD WITHOUT a bracket!Exclusive… it really works!!!” 

Have a look at this video. 

Hondsrug tunnel Emmen / the Netherlands.

The light artwork in the Hondsrug Tunnel in Emmen won an international Lamp Lighting Award.

This prize is intended for projects involving lighting and architecture are combined. The Hondsrug Tunnel won the prize in the category of Urban and Landscape Lighting. It looks at the use of light at, inter alia, bridges, tunnels and roads.


The finalists

Samsung reveals plans for new mirror and transparent OLED displays.

Source; www.engadget.com/

Samsung has unveiled its new mirror and transparent OLED displays in Hong Kong, and from the sound of it, the company has big plans for both of them. While the event has only showcased the screens as ad billboards and as a virtual necklace stand, Samsung believes they have bigger uses in the future once they're integrated with Intel's RealSense technology. It plans to develop the mirror display, for instance, as a "virtual fitting room," made possible by the Intel technology's 3D cameras and an "automated library of stored perceptions." Customers can use the high-tech mirror to see what jewelries, clothes or shoes look like on them before actually trying them on to make sure they fit.

On the other hand, Samsung plans to use its transparent OLEDs for interactive ads that will take advantage of RealSense's voice and gesture control capabilities. The company claims its mirror OLED is sharper, clearer, has higher contrast and faster response times compared to mirror LCDs already available today. Its transparent OLED is apparently more colorful and clearer than similar technologies, as well. It'll likely take Samsung some time to make these plans a reality, but we doubt the company's slacking off either. After all, it has to compete with a lot of other companies also developing virtual fitting rooms and interactive ad displays of their own.

Fiat Parking Billboard.

We relocated the technology for the Fiat parking assistant outside the car by creating an interactive parking billboard: Different protagonists react to the cars in front of the parking spot and assist with parking. It shows how easy, stress-free and safe it is to park with the Fiat parking assistant.

Celebrity Tweets Displayed on London Streets.

DOOH company Outdoor Plus, posts tweets of the stars using key displays around the city of London.

A host of celebrities including Bono, Tracey Emin, Jamie Oliver, Paloma Faith and Richard E. Grant have teamed up with Outdoor Plus to deliver personal tweets to the streets of London, the digital out-of-home company said.

The #message2london campaign sees Outdoor Plus inviting celebrities to compose a message to Londoners in 10 words or less with one message being selected for display each week.

Dubbed ‘tweet on the street,’ the campaign is targeting more than nine million Londoners during each seven-day window at 18 Outdoor Plus sites around the capital including the Euston Underpass, Vauxhall Cross, The Eye Holborn, Cheyne Walk and the City of London Gateway.

“In an age where so many messages are communicated through private channels, we are thrilled to provide a chance for people to talk to more than nine million Londoners in the most visible public way. We are grateful to all the celebrity participants for embracing our ‘tweet on the street’ to help us demonstrate the instant fame which DOOH can deliver,” Outdoor Plus managing director Jonathan Lewis said.

The campaign is scheduled to run through August 2015.

Digital Signage market continues the positive trend.

The Digital Signage Business Climate Index (DBCI) in Benelux has further increased since the last poll in January. The Index grew from 71,43 base points by 3,57 points to reach 75,00 base points.
The DBCI reflects the very positive current business sentiment of the digital signage industry in Benelux.

Almost 90 % of the polled companies rate their current business climate with good. While just slightly more than 10 % see their situation assatisfactory. However, with 62 % the answers for more favourable business conditions within the next six month has declined. More companies than in the first quarter expect no big movement in the market until the end of the year.

Further research:

There are high hopes for the market potential for LED display technology. The digital signage and digital out of home companies polled in the DBCI all see a high to very high potential for LED display technology in competition to LCD displays within the next 24 months.

Here the full survey May/June 2015.

Digital door signs can look better.

While advertising screens get bigger, flashier and more interactive, the apparently humble digital door sign seems to have languished in the 1990s.

But U.S. supplier Keywest Technology is trying to inject some much-needed glamour into the functional meeting-room medium with its new SignWave system.

The SignWave features a larger, higher-resolution LCD display, now upped from ten to 13.3 inches across, with 1280x800 resolution and 500:1 contrast ratio.

The operating system is now Android 4.2, chosen for stability, while the SignWave offers quicker installation thanks to features such as Power over Ethernet (PoE), meaning that just one connecting cable is needed for the unit.

And adding to the visual impact, there is also a range of new frames in a choice of colours to blend with different interior designs.

The aim was “to substantially decrease installation time, improve security and increase display attractiveness and visibility”, said Koytt Nichols, Keywest’s director of R&D.

www.keywesttechnology.com
www.signwave.us.com

E Ink launches a new Spectra Yellow ePaper display.

Two years ago, we announced the Spectra e-paper panels that feature three pigments - black, white and red. Today the company announced an expansion of that product line to include the Spectra Yellow, which can show black, white or yellow colors.

The Spectra panels are aimed for electronic shelf label (ESL) retail applications. E Ink says that red and yellow are two of the most widely used colors relevant to in-store displays and signage. Spectra panels support both active-matrix and segmented format displays.

Bloomberg Hub - London City Airport.

British Airways Live Billboard.

Come to the Caribbean !!

The Flow.

WHAT IS THE FLOW?

The most visited monument in the Netherlands is undergoing a metamorphosis. Amsterdam Central Railway station gets a new entrance at; IJ hall. The meeting place at Amsterdam Central Station and by the passages your connection to more than 1.2 million passers between the IJ, center, subway and bus platform. Equipped with premium shops and restaurants overlooking the IJ. Ngage Media introduces its new digital proposition called "Flow". Four high-quality large digital screens at the gateway to Amsterdam with large premium video content processed in a qualitative programming.

More information at; www.gowiththeflow.nl

Choreography of LED screens at shipping containers.

The opening of the ATM Terminals Maasvlakte II by King Willem-Alexander, had a special choreography by huge LED screens on moving containers. Thanks to BlackTrax real-motion tracking.

The opening on April 25 of the world's safest and first fully automated, zero-emission container by King Willem-Alexander and 500 senior representatives from various governments and the global shipping industry, had to be something special.

Ever wanted to know how to track moving shipping containers fitted with ‪LED‬‪ videowalls‬ in broad daylight? Ushering in a new era in port operations at APM Terminals, Jurlights working for BIND used ‪ BlackTrax‬ integrated with d3!

“The only way to accurately track the Lift-Automated Guide Vehicles (AGV) across the 400 by 200-ft area was by using BlackTrax,” explains Menno Broere, Creative Director at Jurlights.

Read more: http://wp.me/p2gFIP-KJ

Style vs practicality: Key components of kiosk design.

With a good meal, half of the experience is determined by the presentation of the food. The same principle can be applied to kiosk design. Mainly, how does one find the balance between style and practical usage of valuable retail space?

Some kiosk manufacturers specialize in large-format touchscreens, such as RedyRef Interactive Kiosks, whereas others specialize in tablet kiosks, such as Heckler Design, but they both have to find a balance between style and practicality.

"Today, tablet kiosk designs typically fall into two categories: pipe and base or monolith," Heckler Design founder Dean Heckler said. "Pipe-and-base designs are often an uninspiring and flimsy combination of thin steel tubing attached to a circular or square base made of cheap medium-density fiberboard, thin steel or plastic.

"Monolith designs feature a simple tower of thin sheet metal, with a hole cut out for the tablet screen," Heckler said. "Monolith designs have an uncomfortably high center of gravity and a bulky appearance, which doesn’t fit into certain environments like museums, galleries or car shows as they detract from the subject matter."

In addition to these problems, according to Heckler, monolith kiosks also tend to be fairly expensive at $5,000 to $10,000 each.

So, Heckler Design tries to address these problems by creating a kiosk solution that is both aesthetically pleasing and simple to operate. It's tried to achieve both these ends with its WindFall Kiosk.

Features include a sculptural, tapered and modern design, the company said, as well as the capability to fit virtually any tablet. It also is anchored with a 17-pound, half-inch steel base with three points of floor contact to ensure stability.

"Rather than a gangly neck or obtrusive stanchion, it features a tapered neck jutting forth from a stable three-point base," Heckler said. "The tablet frame, which floats atop the neck, can be tailored to each specific tablet model."

WindFall is designed to allow users to put it together themselves and not take up a significant amount of space.

Redyref Interactive Kiosks on the other hand focuses on using space strategically based on the industry for which the kiosk is being designed.

"Our philosophy is modularity of design. As such, we use the enGAGE line of kiosk platforms to lay a foundation for a design strategy that moves the customer quickly to market using preliminarily design platforms that are intended to be semi- or fully- customized from their original platform design," said Ben Wheeler, director of marketing and sales for the company.

Redyref Interactive Kiosks, according to Wheeler, first examines the overall design of each retailer or restaurant to discover the best kiosk design to implement. It utilizes marketing surveys to discover these key elements. "A good example is the water and coffee verticals. These industries vary widely in the look and feel for the boutique coffee shops that are being built around the world," Wheeler said. "What might work in a retail coffee shop might not look so good in a boutique and vice versa."

"The enGAGE platform frame sets are set at 12-, 24-, 26- and 48-inches, which equates to square footage in the highly priced retail environment," Wheeler said. "Once you have the footprint required, we customize the cabinet skins to meet the component requirements."

Overall, any kiosk solution has to appeal to consumers' senses and be easy to access. If the kiosk is ugly, consumers will not want to use it. If the kiosk is not in a good location, consumers will not find it. If the screen is difficult to use, consumers will take their business elsewhere.