Augmented Reality Based Facades by Studio Maatwerk and Studio 1:1

Woonbedrijf, an Eindhoven-based housing corporation, wanted to spice up the façade of one of its apartment blocks in the city. Design agencies Studio Maatwerk and Studio 1:1 came up with a new take on the paint job: do it in Augmented Reality. Using the façade as a trigger for an interactive AR artwork on your smartphone, the designers left the building an extension in the digital world. Interesting idea. The artwork, which appears when you point a special app to the marker on the building, consists of a game and an animation developed by students at the Eindhovense School, an academy located next to the building. Click here for more photos of the project.

“A Day Made of Glass” by Corning

Cool concept video by Corning about what can be done using their glass technology in digital and physical environments. Lots of interesting ideas. Where is the multi-user interaction?

Canadian Twitter Based Murals

The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) has launched interactive murals to inspire Americans to book a Canadian vacation. These murals have taken over the streets of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles this summer – pulling content from Twitter to display real-time updates from and about Canada. The digital storescapes celebrate the CTC’s comprehensive social media strategy, and follow its 2009 Marketer of the Year award from Marketing Magazine.

WESC Interactive Window Display Concept by Module Advanced Interface Design

Interactive Window Concept made for the module Advanced Interface Design at Hyper Island hosted by North Kingdom. Links: Beatriz Areilza bareilza.com, Gustaf Engström gustafengstrom.se, Juliana Oliveira Silva cargocollective.com/?julianasilva, Lucas Lima luklima.com, Marcus Wallander lorem-ipsum.se

Surface 2.0 by Microsoft

This new version of Surface is powered by a multicore CPU and GPU by AMD and will be manufactured by Samsung (SUR 40) in a partnership with Microsoft. What’s special about the new version is that the new Surface is just 4? thick and uses the new PixelSense technology where every pixel is an infrared sensor (instead of a camera like the old Surface), making the device slim enough to be wall-mountable. The new Surface also features the biggest piece of Gorilla Glass ever produced. Sinofsky demonstrated the accuracy of the new PixelSense technology by placing a piece of paper in front of the Surface and the device was able to read the text accurately.

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N Building by TERADADESIGN

N Building is a commercial structure located near Tachikawa station amidst a shopping district. Being a commercial building signs or billboards are typically attached to its facade which we feel undermines the structures’ identity. As a solution we thought to use a QR Code as the facade itself. By reading the QR Code with your mobile device you will be taken to a site which includes up to date shop information. In this manner we envision a cityscape unhindered by ubiquitous signage and also an improvement to the quality and accuracy of the information itself.

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LightSpace by Microsoft Research

LightSpace combines elements of surface computing and augmented reality research to create a highly interactive space where any surface, and even the space between surfaces, is fully interactive. This concept transforms the ideas of surface computing into the new realm of spatial computing. Instrumented with multiple depth cameras and projectors, LightSpace is a small room installation designed to explore a variety of interactions and computational strategies related to interactive displays and the space that they inhabit. LightSpace cameras and projectors are calibrated to 3D real world coordinates, allowing for projection of graphics correctly onto any surface visible by both camera and projector. Selective projection of the depth camera data enables emulation of interactive displays on un-instrumented surfaces (such as a standard table or office desk), as well as facilitates mid-air interactions between and around these displays. For example, after performing multi-touch interactions on a virtual object on the tabletop, the user may transfer the object to another display by simultaneously touching the object and the destination display. Or the user may “pick up” the object by sweeping it into their hand, see it sitting in their hand as they walk over to an interactive wall display, and “drop” the object onto the wall by touching it with their other hand.

20 Foot Canvas by EVL at Univ. of Illinois

A huge touchwall was recently installed at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 18 HD screens with a resolution of 8160 x 2304 pixels comprise the EVL tiled display, also known as the Cyber-Commons. This video describes the touch-enabled paint application using an iPad as a palette and multi-touch (either hands or other implements) for users to paint on the 20 ft. virtual canvas.