We continue to see people push the boundaries of integrating the digital and physical world. Here’s another example, and very cool. The screen is a flexible silicone surface with projection that responds to touch and depth.

I wonder if they could make the silicone transparent in any way so that the projection comes from beneath, so it won’t interfere with the hands? Regardless, this is just cool to look at.

Found at Creative Applications. Here is the designer’s page.

One of the more interesting things that I saw at the Digital Signage Expo a few weeks ago was Perch Interactive.

(You can see a ton of Perch’s stuff on their Showcase page.)

While not terribly innovative, as interactive gesture projection technology has been around for some time, it’s getting better.

Now, Fujitsu has taken it a bit further, with the scanner detecting depth. The Verge has an interesting write-up on this, showing it off after visiting their R & D facility.

Why is this important?

Because one of the key differentiators between brick-and-mortar and online is that people love to touch and play. Retail is still where you go to try on shoes, push buttons on a device, and demo the product – things you can’t do online. This experience amps up visual merchandising and continues to drive the idea of digital interactivity outside of the ubiquitous 16:9 boundaries.

This type of technology brings the digital and physical worlds closer together.

Neat stuff indeed.

Very cool technology here. Lighting that is manipulated by drawing light and dark on a tablet.

Not quite “digital,” but in the sense of design, controlling this can be a huge benefit to designers looking to get really specific about lighting.

Qualcomm wanted to take waiting at a bus stop to 11.

There’s not much “digital” here. But, using mobile, these folks are treated to some exciting moments. Pretty cool.

Discovered at Devour.com.

Here’s an example of everything that can be awesome with interactive digital signage engagement.

Chris O’Shea has created “Woodland Wiggle,” an interactive experience at The Royal London Hospital. A permanent installation, it encourages children to interact, which helps them “benefit from the healing powers of art and play.”

I often talk about strategy, having the right plan in place to ensure that the execution is awesome. From O’Shea:

Working in close consultation with clinical teams at the hospital, and following a series of workshops with physiotherapists and occupational therapists, I was able to determine a range of movements that would give children the best health benefits which strongly influenced the format and design of the games created.

The installation had to work with a wide range of abilities, from wheelchair users, visually impaired, to bed bound children, so simple movement filtering allows for triggering of music & paint with just a wave of the hands.

Yep. I’d say that’s about as complete an understanding of the strategy as you can get.

Check out Chris’s other work here.

Found at DigitalBuzz.

Using a mobile device, you can bring TV content to life in front of the screen:

This is pretty cool technology. Imagine a retail space where you can use your mobile device to interact with the digital signage in a much more engaging manner that you control. It seems like AR was all the rage a few years back and then it kind of went quiet. This is definitely an interesting step in the evolution of AR.

What I found particularly interesting was the thought around individualized experiences with others in the same space at the same time:

“We’re thinking of using this in several ways. For example, in a public signage video, if tourist information is being displayed, it will ordinarily be in Japanese, but if a foreigner places their tablet or smartphone near the video, information in that person’s language could be shown in sync. Or if a person with impaired hearing brings their tablet near the video, the information could appear in sign language.”

So the idea is that more than one person could use it simultaneously.

Discovered at DigInfo.

It seems we are seeing a lot more “tactile” screen engagement technology. Or maybe it’s just me. I showed you about the large flexible screen. Now, here’s a tablet with a lumpy surface.

As reported by the BBC:

When you think about experience technology, and how the real world just keeps getting closer to the virtual world, it’s stuff like this that is right there for us to touch.

Tactus Technology is based in Fremont, CA. That’s just down the road from me. Might have to mosey on over there and push some buttons…

e-ink. Cool…but…meh. Amirite?

Check out PaperTab, developed by Queen’s University in Canada. It’s a paper-thin working tablet that can work with other tablets like it when in the same proximity.

You still need to hook this stuff up to a processor to do the work, but the whole thinner/smaller/mobile world keeps doing just that: Getting thinner, smaller, and more mobile.

Discovered at Stuff and humanmedialab.

Here we see an example of digital signage activated by removing the hanger from the rack below the screen:

What I like about it is the interruption of the screen above the rack. The onset of motion forces the consumer to look up. What I don’t like is what you hear the Shinsuke Sato from Ceno explain:

“Customers’ first reaction is,’what is this?’ There are hangers and monitors, and many people don’t understand it. When our staff demonstrate, they are surprised…” The video then goes on to say that “…the response from customers has been positive, and customers are enjoying the experience of picking up the hangers.”

If digital signage is disruptive, it should be intuitive. If customers have to ask why it’s happening, or if salespeople need to explain it, the experience is diminished. This becomes more of a curiosity than a experiential value-add.

However, this is an interesting idea. I can see clothing retailers putting these on the self-standing racks in the middle of stores. Imagine these on the show floor. All the screens working together to create an experience that the consumer can control.

Found at DigInfo.

Now touch screens can get all bendy stretchy! Check out this demonstration, called Firewall.

From Aaron Sherwood, he describes it thus:

A stretched sheet of spandex acts as a membrane interface sensitive to depth that people can push into and create fire-like visuals as well as expressively play music.

In my last post, I showed how IBM says computers will be able to help us in with sensory capabilities. With something like this, it’s easy to see how the digital world is getting closer to the real world every day.

Discovered from DigitalBuzz.