zondag 31 oktober 2010

Samsung unveils new 55-inch LCD with ultraslim bezel.


Remember the world's thinnest bezel separation touted by Sharp just this past June? Forget about it. Samsung has bested its Japanese competitor with the unveiling of a new 55-inch Digital Information Display panel that features bezels of 3.8mm on the top and left edges and 1.9mm on the bottom and right, leading to a positively svelte 5.7mm distance between the content of neighboring displays. That good stuff is augmented with Full HD resolution and a blinding 700 nits of brightness. There'll also be a 46-inch model that offers a 7.6mm separation (hint: that's still pretty damn thin), though we've yet to learn on when and where aspiring home cinema nuts might be able to obtain either screen.

vrijdag 29 oktober 2010

Matrix Light Boxes in tankstations.


bron; http://www.sign.nl/

In verschillende Shell tankstations zijn Matrix Light Boxes geplaatst, om het nieuwe concept ‘Bakerstreet FLOW' te ondersteunen. Om verschillende sferen te creëren, wisselen de Light Boxes van kleur.

Het door Shell ingevoerde concept moet ervoor zorgen dat de bezoekende automobilisten bij het tankstation kunnen genieten van een hapje en een drankje. Om die warme ambiance te kunnen realiseren zijn er speciale Matrix Light Boxes geplaatst.

Sfeer
Deze Light Boxes geven op bepaalde tijden van de dag verschillende kleuren af, om zodoende steeds een andere sfeer te scheppen.

Studio America in Leiden is verantwoordelijk voor deze kleurrijke toepassing

woensdag 27 oktober 2010

Face recognition goes mobile.


Newly developed software for mobile phones could bypass PIN numbers and passwords by recognising the landmarks of your face as you look at the phone’s front-facing camera.

Technology developed at the University of Manchester, and funded by the EU based Mobile Biometrics project, tracks your face in real-time, and is believed to be unrivalled in its speed and accuracy of recognising your facial features.

Unlike typical, more limited types of facial identification that can only give an approximate position and scale of the face, this app can see the exact location of your eyes, nose, mouth and jaw line.

"A mobile phone with a camera on the front captures a video of your face and tracks twenty-two facial features,“ said Dr Phil Tresadern, lead researcher on the project. “This can make face recognition more accurate, and has great potential for novel ways of interacting with your phone.”

Face verification is already being used in devices like laptops, webcams and Xbox 360‘s Kinect, which will automatically log you on to your Xbox Live profile if it identifies your face and body. As for smartphones, Tresadern claims that it’s the first time that a technology this sophisticated has gone mobile.

You can watch a video of the technology being demonstrated on a Nokia N900 below. The University has also made software prototypes for the iPhone 4.

3d projection aloft brussels.

For the opening of the nice ALOFT hotel Brussels Schuman on September 23 rd we from beam made a cocktail of content and projections !

dinsdag 26 oktober 2010

HP Slate 500


Bron www. fan.tv
HP heeft zijn Slate 500 tabletcomputer gepresenteerd. Deze tablet PC met Windows 7 moet de zakelijke markt veroveren.Met een adviesverkoopprijs van 800 dollar is de HP Slate 500 geen goedkope tabletcomouter. Dit is de Amerikaanse prijs, reken in Nederland maar op zo'n 800 euro.

Voor dat geld krijg je echter wel veel moois. De HP Slate 500 beschikt over een snelle 1,86GHz Atom Z540-processor, een 8,9 inch touchscreen (1024 x 600 pixels), een 64GB SSD voor dataopslag en 2GB RAM. Een Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator zorgt er voor dat je op deze tablet naar Full HD video kunt kijken.Voor beeldtelefonie is er een VGA-webcam beschikbaar en voor het maken van foto's een 3 megapixel camera. Voor het beluisteren van muziek is er een koptelefoonaansluiting aanwezig. Communicatie kan via WiFi en USB.

Een dock (met hdmi-aansluiting) en een HP Slate Digital Pen met Evernote-software zijn bij de prijs inbegrepen.

New Light Installation Shows NYC's Grand Central Station.


Jim Campbell's Scattered Light sculpture haunts Madison Square Park with phantom straphangers.
A light installation that looks like dancing human ghosts opened in Manhattan’s Madison Square Park last week, just in time for Halloween.
Scattered Light, by SF-based multimedia artist Jim Campbell, is a grid of lightbulb-encased LEDs that hangs off an 80-foot-long support apparatus and flickers in the shape of human silhouettes marching through the park.
The images are taken from video of commuters hurrying through Grand Central at rush hour. Campbell deconstructed the footage, then mapped its pixels onto almost 2,000 LEDs. Here's the effect on a far smaller scale than what you'd find in the park now:

maandag 25 oktober 2010

Augmented Reality Eyeglasses.


The AR Walker, augmented reality for your glasses. This technology from NTT DoCoMo allows you to instantly access location-based information about the things around you. This would be very convenient for people walking about in urban areas, or for tourists. The system also provides easy access to other kinds of information. For example, if you look up towards the sky, you'll get weather information...beyond what you'd figure out on your own.

Of course, the fashionable get-up is in the prototype stage, so you won't be able be seen in public with the newest type of shades anytime soon. For more information, see the video below:

donderdag 21 oktober 2010

Corona connects Times Square billboard to Facebook.


Bron: www.screens.tv
Beer company Crown Imports is linking a digital billboard in New York’s Times Square to the Facebook page that promotes its Corona Light brand.

It will hire the 40-foot-high billboard from 8 November to 6 December as part of its campaign to encourage people to click the Like button on its Facebook page.

Already, the number of Facebook users “liking” Corona Light has jumped from 3000 in August to nearly 90,000 today. That may reflect its success as one of the few light-beer brands to have grown sales in the U.S. over the last year.

And when the digital billboard goes live, Facebook members who “like” Corona Light will be able to upload photos for display in Times Square. Images of the billboard will also be shown on Facebook.

The new campaign is not the first time that a digital billboard has been hooked up to Facebook – LocaModa, for example, has used a Times Square screen to display Jumbli, its game that can also be found on the social-networking site. But Corona’s decision to pair the two media appears to be confirmation that such linkages have moved beyond the proof-of-concept stage into commercial reality.

The campaign, devised by agency Pereira & O'Dell with media buying by Horizon Media, is part of a push to engage customers in their twenties and early thirties and position Corona Light as more dynamic than sister brand Corona Extra, which is promoted with a laid-back vacation theme.

“The long-term strategy is to have this programme help us build a base of consumers we can re-engage throughout the year, thus developing long-term relationships and dialogue,” Jasmine Summerset, strategy supervisor at Pereira & O'Dell, was quoted as saying.

dinsdag 19 oktober 2010

Interactieve etalage Diesel in Bijenkorf


Bron; www.signtotaal.nl
Diesel had een interactieve etalage in de Bijenkorf waarbij gebruik werdt gemaakt van thermal imaging. Bij thermal imaging ontstaan beelden door warmte die vrijkomt. In de Bijenkorf op de hoek bij de Dam, had Diesel een spiegel geplaatst. De spiegel zette de lichaamswarmte van de persoon die ervoor stond om in energie.

Het concept is tot stand gekomen in samenwerking met ChampagneValentine. Diesel staat hierbij letterlijk voor energie (Diesel turns energy into power).
De lichaamswarmte van mensen wordt getransformeerd op het scherm, waarbij graphics, sparks en ontbranding toegepast worden.

Voorbijgangers worden uitgenodigd om te spelen met hun eigen energie en te kijken naar hoe deze persoonlijke energie zich omzet in beeld.
Naast dit scherm, was er in de etalage een kunstwerk gebouwd, waarbij honderden objecten versmolten waren en vanuit de diepte naar het licht toe groeiden. Het ging om objecten zoals speelgoedautootjes, kandelaars, dancing shiva’s, tafeltjes, poppen, bloemen en de eigen producten van Diesel. Dit alles was bedekt met een zilveren coating, die het licht van het scherm weerkaatste. Op de eerste etage van de Bijenkorf (op de Diesel mannenafdeling) was hiervan meer te zien.

Sony presenteert eerste Google TV.


Bron; www.fan.tv
Niet langer is de televisie een apparaat om alleen passief naar te kijken. Sony heeft namelijk de eerste Google TV gepresenteerd. Met de Google TV vervaagt de grens tussen televisie en computer. Je kunt met een Google TV veel waarvoor je tot nu toe een computer nodig hebt. Bijvoorbeeld internetten, mailen en informatie opvragen. De Google TV daarvoor voorzien van een Chrome browser. Deze kun je beeldvullend gebruiken, maar Chrome kan ook het scherm delen met een televisieprogramma. Dat laatste brengt veel interactieve mogelijkheden met zich mee.
Sony is het eerste merk dat een Google TV uitbrengt, maar andere fabrikanten zijn er ook druk mee bezig. Ook Samsung en Logitech willen op korte termijn een Google televisie op de markt brengen. Daarnaast komen er settop-boxen, kleine kastjes die je op je huidige televisie aansluit om de mogelijkheden van Google TV te kunnen gebruiken. De Sony Google TV komt voorlopig alleen in Amerika op de markt. In 2011 worden de eerste Google TV's in Nederland verwacht.

maandag 18 oktober 2010

Largest Video Wall in a U.S. Airport.


McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas can add another first to its list of “being first” in technology now that an accord with Samsung has been approved by the Clark County Board of Commissioners. Under the agreement, Samsung will provide 130 46-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) screens that will be engineered to create four separate video walls at the nation’s seventh-busiest airport.the 100-screen tiled formation will be the largest in a U.S. airport, measuring 33 feet by 19 feet. The visual catch comes from the ultra-thin frame around each monitor that gives the appearance that the tiled formation is one solid piece. Three smaller video walls will each use 10 screens to create 6-foot-by-9-foot displays that will be located at the A, B and C concourses.

In exchange for the 130 high definition LCDs, which hold a price tag of more than $570,000, Samsung will brand each display. “Samsung is a world leader in display technology and we saw this as a great opportunity to display our product in a world-class airport that attracts visitors from around the world,” said Doug Albregts, vice president of sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics America, Ridgefield Park, N.J.

Las Vegas-based Alliance Airport Advertising, which manages all of the airport’s advertising contracts, is largely responsible for solidifying the McCarran-Samsung partnership, which included drafting plans for the engineering and installation of the final digital video network. Programming for each display will consist of paid advertising and airport messaging. Alliance estimates that the video walls will produce an additional $500,000 in advertising revenue for the airport each year.

donderdag 14 oktober 2010

iPhone Projector.

Intrigue and Attraction are 2 of the most powerful elements of any presentation or display. This video illustrates how even in a presentation-style display, the intrigue of rear-projected images take your images from commonplace to "WOW". And it runs on an iPhone or iPod??? That's nuts! But it's really fun and potentially very powerful for more effectively conveying a sales message, or any other type of video or still graphic presentation.

woensdag 13 oktober 2010

TDK's bendable and transparent OLEDs.


at this year’s CEATEC: TDK’s two passive matrix mini OLED panels, one of which is transparent and the other bendable (like the one Sony showed earlier this year). What’s cool is that both prototypes are showcased as black-and-white and color models.

You can see both displays in action in the videos I took at the exhibition below.

The flexible type is just 0.3mm thin and sized at 3.5 inches. Apparently, TDK plans to start mass-producing this panel as early next year. Its picture quality wasn’t really as high as you’d want it to be, but there is still time for improvements.

The panel with the bigger wow-factor, the see-through type, was really cool. It has a transmittance of about 50% and features QVGA resolution – which is OK, at a screen size of about 2 inches.


Dual-Touchscreen Mobile Phone.





One of the hit products at Fujitsu’s booth at this year’s CEATEC exhibition (that’s currently taking place near Tokyo) was the so-called “Dual-Touchscreen Mobile Phone”. As the name suggests, it has no physical keyboard but boasts two screens instead, and it’s designed like a typical Japanese clamshell cell phone.

Technically, we have a 3.4-inch capacitive touchscreen on top and a 3.5-inch version on the bottom, with both displays having 480 x 960 resolution. The prototype Fujitsu currently shows at CEATEC uses Symbian as the OS, but if the phone ever gets commercialized (like the company’s Separate Keitai actually did after it was showcased at CEATEC 2008), Android appears to be an option.

One screen can be rotated by 90 degrees, and both screens switch between landscape and portrait modes automatically. What’s cool is that you can actually separate contents on both screens, for example using Twitter on top and checking emails on the bottom.

maandag 11 oktober 2010

Recon Transcend GPS Goggles – world’s first head up display snow goggles.



These Recon Transcend Snow Goggles are the first to come with a GPS enabled head’s up display built in. You get realtime speed, altitude, distance, temperature, dinner menu (um…maybe not) and mucho other stuff thrown at your eyeballs as you’re hangin’ a 360 or whatever.

Toshiba to launch 3D TV.


Japanese electronics giant Toshiba on Monday said it will launch the first liquid crystal display 3D television that does not require users to wear special glasses.
Toshiba will offer 20-inch and 12-inch Regza GL1 Series sets in Japan from the end of December, the company said.

The 12-inch model is expected to sell for about 120,000 yen (1,400 dollars) and the 20-inch model will carry a price tag of 240,000 yen, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Current 3D-capable televisions require viewers to wear glasses that act as filters to separate images to each eye to create the illusion of depth.

Makers have turned to 3D sets in a bid to boost demand for new TVs and halt a slide in prices, but the key challenge has been how to enable groups of viewers to all see 3D from different angles at the same time without glasses.

Toshiba's screens use processing technology to create depth-filled images from any angle.
The company added that it planned to offer larger screen models that use glasses as well as smaller personal screens.

Rival Sharp earlier this year unveiled a small glasses-free LCD touchscreen that shows 3D images for use in mobile phones, digital cameras and games consoles such as Nintendo's 3DS, to be released in Japan in February 2011

Books are all turned around at this Manhattan coffeeshop.



At the new location of Manhattan coffeeshop D'Espresso, a prevalence of books also nods to its unique location: It's located just a block from the New York Public Library. But that wasn't enough for designer Anurag Nema and his team. They took the idea of a library and flipped it, quite literally, on its side -- sure, it's a design gimmick, but also one that makes good business sense and just might become a recognizable branding signature.



The "books" are actually tiles printed with sepia-toned photos of bookshelves at a local travel bookstore that ring the room, including the floor, walls and ceiling. In addition to painting unusual surfaces with intriguing patterns -- whoa, you're standing on books! -- it gives an Alice in Wonderland-esque sense that the room has been suddenly upended.But take a closer look at what's going on here. The "floor" is the left-hand wall with a dark hardwood herringbone pattern. The banquette almost looks like a couch that could be resting on that floor.

zaterdag 9 oktober 2010

Google opent officiële Google TV-site.



Google heeft de officiële webpagina voor Google TV geopend. Het ziet er prima uit en biedt onder andere de mogelijkheid om een rondleiding te krijgen langs alle mogelijkheden. Google TV is gebaseerd op Android en zal voor het eerst te zien zijn in apparatuur van Logitech en Sony. De eerste aankondigingen voor apparaten kunnen we binnenkort al verwachten, maar helaas zullen die vooral gericht zijn op de VS.
Meer info: Google TV

Wat de apps betreft: bovenstaande video geeft meer informatie daarover.

vrijdag 8 oktober 2010

Sony brengt Tom - Tom naar Amerika.


Bron: www. engadget.com
We heard back at IFA that Sony was making the absolutely brilliant move of incorporating a market leading navigational system into its Xplod line of in-dash A/V units, and now that love is being shipped across the Atlantic (or the Pacific, if you're taking the scenic route) in the form of the XNV-770BT and XNV-660BT. The beautiful Sony / TomTom partnership will soon be assisting clueless American motorists when both of the previously mentioned units ship in November, with the 770BT offering a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen and the 660BT stepping down to a 6.1-incher. They'll both feature rear USB ports for iDevice connections, support for multi-channel audio playback and most importantly, pre-loaded maps of US and Canadian roadways. TomTom claims that its maps offer more than one million more miles of roads than other GPS brands in America alone, and buyers will also be treated to familiar TomTom extras like IQ Routes, Advanced Lane Guidance, MapShare and six million POIs. We still wish Garmin would've received the nod here, but it's certainly better than some white label system -- check 'em soon for $1,300 and $1,000 in order of mention.

woensdag 6 oktober 2010

Hubble Deep Field in 3D.

Sinds zijn lancering in 1990 heeft de Hubble telescoop zich bewezen als een van de meest waardevolle ruimteonderzoekers. Zeker toen in 1996 de Hubble-ruimtetelescoop langdurig op een klein stukje hemel gericht werd. De foto die daaruit voortkwam, het ‘Hubble Deep Field’, laat sterrenstelsels zien op afstanden tot ongeveer 11 miljard lichtjaar. Wetenschappers hebben de beelden van het “Deep Field” bewerkt tot een 3D-filmpje, en dat ziet er indrukwekkend uit!

Met HD-camera de ruimte in.

Luke Geissbuhler en zijn kinderen combineerden een weerballon met een HD-camera, een parachute en een iPhone en stuurden het gevaarte de ruimte in. Dankzij de GPS-ontvanger van de iPhone vonden ze het apparaat terug, op zo’n 80 kilometer van de plek van lancering. In het filmpje hieronder kun je de beelden van de val van 30.000 meter hoog naar de aarde zien. Doe jij het ze na?

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Beamer voorkomt zelfmoorden.


Dat een deel van de bevolking in Belgrado niet erg gelukkig is blijkt uit het schrikbarende aantal van veertig zelfmoorden per jaar, enkel door mensen die van een brug afspringen. In samenwerking met een reclamebureau heeft de Servische overheid nu een middel bedacht om dit aantal terug te dringen: een beamer aan de onderkant van de brug. Op het water wordt de zin “Je bent niet alleen” geprojecteerd”, tezamen met een telefoonnummer voor psychische hulp. Een te waarderen idee en nu maar hopen dat dit helpt!

maandag 4 oktober 2010

Hugo Boss’ Black Magic Window.

Last holiday season, Hugo Boss offered a little interactive fun for window shoppers in London with their “Black Magic” augmented reality screen. This really brings a whole new meaning to window shopping, offering customers more than the average holiday display window and even enticing them into the store.
Curious passersby start by picking up their free Hugo Boss black magic card and hold it in front of the interactive screen that is in the window display. A private season’s greetings and fashion show starts just for the shopper. After the show is over, customers can then enter the store to see if they have won any gift certificates. Once in the store, customers hold up their black card to another interactive screen which activates a game of black jack. Winners can win £50 pounds for in store shopping, and if they bring in a fashion trends magazine, they may win up to £250.

Hugo Boss’ Black Magic window stood out to busy holiday shoppers as they pass by the store because it invites them to take a minute, have some fun and even win an in-store gift certificate.

Dortmunder U-Turm Medienfassade der Superlative.

Eine in schwindelerregender Höhe mediales Kunstwerk schmückt seit Ende Mai die Dortmunder Innenstadt: In die Dachkrone des U-Turms – als markantes Industriedenkmal und ehemaliges Gär- bzw. Lagerhochhaus der Union-Brauerei Wahrzeichen der Stadt – wurde in 50 Metern Höhe eine umlaufende, 625 Quadratmeter große Medienfassade integriert, deren Bilder weithin sichtbar sind.
Die „Bilderuhr“ ist Teil der Filminstallationstrilogie „Fliegende Bilder“, einem einzigartigen Portrait des Ruhrgebiets von Filmemacher Adolf Winkelmann. Die LED-Fassade am U-Turm besteht aus insgesamt 1,7 Millionen lichtstarken Outdoor-LEDs, die auf 6.000 LED-Lamellen sitzen. Wie Jalousien wurden die Lamellen, horizontal in die bauseitig vorhandenen, 56 Gefache der Dachkrone.

Nur durch den Lamellencharakter der LED-Installation konnte die geforderte Transparenz im Off-Show-Modus realisiert werden. Die automatische Helligkeitsdimmung der LEDs sorgt entsprechend der Umgebungsbedingungen für das perfekte Bild und zugleich für einen stromeffizienten Einsatz der Technologie. Um den optimalen Einblickwinkel für die LED-Fassade vom Fuße des Gebäudes zu gewährleisten, wurden sämtliche Lamellen mit einem Neigungswinkel von zehn Grad in Richtung des Betrachters montiert. Die Passanten sehen in den Gefachen der Dachkrone täglich wechselnde Filmsequenzen. So läuft der Turm beispielsweise mit Bier voll oder sechs Meter große Tauben sitzen in seinen Gefachen.
In neun virtuellen, je 5,6 qm großen Fenstern, die auf die Innenwand des U-Turms projiziert werden, „leben“ hier Winkelmanns Menschen des Ruhrgebiets. Die gesamte Inszenierung erstreckt sich über drei Gebäudeetagen und gibt den auf den Rolltreppen vorbeifahrenden Besuchern Einblicke in fremde Zimmer.