Saturday, October 17, 2009
Light Blue Optics: Interactive Microprojectors in your Day-to-Day Life
Light Blue Optics(LBO)is a privately-owned company in Cambridge, UK, with a facility in Colorado Springs, USA. LBO offeres a holographic laser projection technology that maintains high-resolution images from a pico projector. This technology looks quite useful, as it has a variety of applications that could easily support our day-to-day activities.
Here are a few pictures of the technology in action from the LBO website:
Automotive
The above picture shows how LBO's system can project pictures onto curved and angled surfaces, ideal for use in retail settings.
The mini-projector system can be used for collaborative interaction with multimedia content:
From the LBO Website: How It Works
"LBO's novel approach to miniature projection has a range of differentiating features and benefits. The term "holographic" referes not to the projected image, but to the method of projection. A diffraction pattern of the desired 2D image, calculated using LBO's patented holographic algorithms, is displayed on a custom-designed phase-modulating Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) microdisplay. When illuminated by coherent laser light, the desired 2D image is projected."
RELATED
Touching the void -(Memex 1.1, John Naughton, 9/16/09)
Head-up Displays go Holographic -(MIT Technology Review, Duncan Graham-Rowe, 10/15/09)
Interactive microprojectors -(The Economist, 6/9/09)
SID Vehicles and Photons 2009: 16th Annual Symposium on Vehicle Displays
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Signs, Signs, Everywhere, Signs
"Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind. Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?" 1970, Five Man Electrical Band
I like signs, and I appreciate good wayfinding designs. I didn't realize until I explored Flickr the other day that I am not alone!
Here are a couple of interesting "resources" on the topic.
Sander Baumann is a professional wayfinding strategist from Amsterdam. He is interested in art, design, typography, signs, and wayfinding. His company is designworkplan.
EGD is a Flickr group pool, and stands for Environmental Graphic Design. 94 members, and lots of cool pics, if you like signs!
If you REALLY are into signs, there is the 4,590 member S!gns group, and the 7,411-member Sign City group.
Below is a video that I like, it shows how signs can give a "sense of place", and live on in our memories:
Signs of San Francisco
Signs of San Francisco from Lindsay Tabas on Vimeo.
Posted on the Second Thoughts blog
Produced by: Lindsay Tabas
Photos by: Katie Delaney
Song: Signs by Bloc Party (buy on iTunes)
Lindsay Tabas, the producer of the video, does interface design, usability, product management, and user experience research. For a glimpse of what she thinks about, read her post, "The UI/UX Sandwich"
RELATED
Tons of YouTube videos about signs
More thoughts about signs, semiotics, and the interfaced world will be shared in the future!
Somewhat related...
Update:
I just came across the Interfaced World blog. "Place, Time, and Technology". The author of the blog is Mark J. Watts. Interesting pictures, interesting musings.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
My First 100% Synthy Photosynth!
This morning I uploaded 17 pictures taken from the balcony of a cruise ship one morning when we docked in Ireland. I was expecting emerald green, but this is what I woke up to on that gray, drab day.
If you can't see the images below, you will need to go to the Microsoft Photosynth website at http://photosynth.net to get the required tools.
The pictures are fairly high-res, which makes it better for viewers to explore.
If you go to the Photosynth website, view this Photosynth in the Direct3D viewer, in full-screen. It is easy to navigate with a touch screen- I used my HP TouchSmart PC and was impressed with the fluid interaction, considering that this is a web-based application.
Haven't yet heard about Photosynth? Here is a description from the Photosynth website:
"Photosynth creates an amazing new experience with nothing more than a bunch of photos. Creating a synth allows you to share the places and things you love using the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of a video game, and the mind-blowing detail of the real world."
