‘Rain Room’ is a hi-tech indoor rainstorm which falls everywhere except on the individual walking through it. The installation, which covers more than 1,000 sq foot and uses almost 220 gallons of recirculated water every minute, uses a set of 3D cameras to detect people’s positions, turning each of its individual rain streams on or off accordingly.
Via: The Verge
Loudspeakers and microphones were recently integrated into a London taxi in a bid to make the city sound better (and sell some headphones). Headphone manufacturer, Aiaiai, drafted the services of “sound artist” Yuri Suzuki to create the Sound Taxi that records its surroundings, processes the data, translates it into music and plays it out to London’s pedestrians.
Via: Inavate
For this cool prank LG hijacked an office elevator and replaced the floor with their new IPS monitors which, when triggered by sensors, display a virtual floor falling out of the elevator, exposing the shaft. Although probably staged it is a good demonstration of the products capabilities.
via: Digital Buzz
The Coke dance machine grabs passersby attention with callouts from members of the South Korean boy band 2PM; shows viewers with the band members on a multiscreen video wall; and then gets them to dance along with the band, dispensing free Cokes to people who mimic the right moves. Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect technology was used to make the machine gesture interactive.
In one of our 2002 newsletters we featured the world’s first dynamic mechanical advertising wall – the Hyposurface. Over the years this has been refined and Seoul-based collective Jonpasang have now unveiled the Hyper-Matrix, a movie theatre where the walls themselves come to life. Three faces of a Korean theatre were covered with thousands of motorized cubes, all of which pulse into glorious, larger than life patterns.
Via: fastcompany
A bar in central Budapest was rigged with RFID readers, antennas and wires which triggered some fantastic surprises whenever a bottle of Strongbow Gold was opened. The cider ‘StartCap’ is a RFID bottle-top that interacts with a “reader” to trigger something, whether to check you in on Foursquare, turn on the juke box or even fire a cannon.
Via: Creativebrief
Japanese game director Keita Takahashi, conceived the ‘3D Pacman room’ – an immersive, playable projection of the retro video game that fills an entire room. The work was shown at New York’s Museum of Art and Design as part of the babycastles summit 2012, where participants were able to engage with the classic munching monsters in an interactive way, blurring the lines between digital and physical play.
via: designboom
The Popinator is a fully automated , voice-activated popcorn throwing machine that can pinpoint whereabouts a voice originates from, before shooting a piece of popcorn at it for the user to catch. This type of technology could be applied to OOH sites but be careful what you throw!
Via: Digital Buzz
We first featured the concept of projection mapping onto mannequins back in October 2010 . Pearl Media have recently teamed up with rapper Lil’ Wayne using this technology to debut his new clothing line in Las Vegas.
To spread the word about the Little Sun solar-powered lamp, artist and creator Eliasson created a sunlight installation at the Tate Modern which allows the public to use the lamp to make their own digital compositions. Software then digitally captures each piece of graffiti, and incorporates it into an online spinning globe which participants can access on the internet.
Via: BBC Technology
Nissan used flat screens and Microsoft’s Kinect for Windows technology to allow its customers to explore the new 2013 Pathfinder before it hit showrooms in the US. Customers could explore the virtual vehicle using motion and natural human gestures.
Via: Inavate
Spotify, JCDecaux and Brothers and Sisters have launched a ‘Mood of the Nation’ campaign on Transvision screens in 15 train stations across Britain. The campaign will reveal the real-time music-listening habits of Spotify’s millions of listener reflecting the national mood and regional variations to become the ‘emotional barometer’ of Britain.
Via: Ibbonline
‘StreetPong’ is a playful urban interaction concept from Germany. The traffic lights game, attached to both sides of a crossing, not only shows how long the traffic lights will remain on green or red but also, as you wait to cross, allows you to play a game of ‘skateboard ping pong’ with a stranger on the other side of the road.
Via: complexrides
Scientists at Disney Research have developed a plant-based touch interface for their project, the brilliantly named “Botanicus Interacticus”. The project demonstrates how users can control audio and video signals just by touching the foliage in different ways. An electrode is placed in the plant’s soil so that actions such as stroking a leaf or shaking a tree trigger a response on a nearby screen.
Via: Inavate
“Chirp”, a new app that transmits data via a burst of digital birdsong, aims to simplify the way users share images and other files between smartphones. Chirp plays a two-second long noise sounding like a robotic bird which when heard by other devices triggers a download. Chirp can quickly send data to multiple devices at once and could be used to initiate opt-in downloads from poster sites or other OOH displays – birdsong to my ears!
Click here to watch the video
Via: BBC
JiWire have unveiled a new service to help marketers target specific audiences based on the billions of pieces of location-based data it has collected regarding people’s usage of public wi-fi hotspots. The company’s “Location Graph” harnesses that data to create anonymous user profiles based on the types of places people visit.
Via: MediaPost
A new app is being tested in Nashville that can check in people on Facebook and send them offers using facial-recognition cameras. Facedeals uses cameras installed at businesses’ front doors to read visitors’ faces as they enter. If they are users of the app then they will be checked in, and based on their “like” history will receive a customised offer.
Via: LA Times
The Motion Project from Colenso BBDO on behalf of V energy drinks is an amazing visual instrument – a machine that turns motion into music using several Microsoft Kinect depth cameras which allow people to create music by dancing around or waving their hands, etc. Very cool.
via: customlogic
As part of the Olympic celebrations EDF has created a spectacular nightly lightshow on the London Eye, based on the mood of the nation. An algorithm tracks all positive and negative Olympic tweets from the 10 million UK users to give a positivity percentage, which is translated into illumination on the London icon. Visitors can participate in this interactive campaign through digital and social media activity.
This fascinating project involved Google partnering with Coca-Cola and Art Director Harvey Gabor, to re-imagine his iconic 70’s “Hilltop” commercial for today’s digital age. The ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’ was turned into a reality using Google’s display advertising platform and specially-developed vending machines. In the spirit of the original work, users, via a website or mobile site, could record a message and send it with a Coca-Cola to someone on the other side of the world where it is dispensed from a vending machine along with the message. The lucky recipient can then respond with a text or video message completing the connection. The experiment was used to push the boundaries of how creative idea and technology can work hand-in-hand, and is proof that great ideas really do come first.
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