The film was produced by Bruce Branit who took one day to shoot the footage, and two years in post production. Given how much time some people spend playing games like World of Warcraft with their extensive landscapes, the building blocks for something like this are already here.

The trend in concept phones these days is turning retro, which is why we have the “Dial” reminisce the era of the round-dials on phones …  A projected light beam in the inner circle impersonates the rotary dial, but to dial a number you need to simply touch it.

Projected keypads/keyboards are nothing new – in fact, you can already purchase virtual keyboards that are nothing more than projected light on a surface already (and from the reviews seem to work quite well). So this conceptual design of a phone is more than plausible … the only question I have, how good is it surfing the Net from that bracelet …. [from Yanko Design]

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

One of the traps of predicting the future is taking our current method of interacting with the world and then simply wrapping in a shinier package. However, the truly ‘game changing’ technology often only comes about when someone redesigns our interaction from scratch – again, often without the unconscious boundaries that current technology impose and that we impose on our own thinking.

This conceptual video is Bonnier R&D’s take on the future experience of digital magazines.

The concept aims to capture the essence of magazine reading, which people have been enjoying for decades: an engaging and unique reading experience in which high-quality writing and stunning imagery build up immersive stories … It has been designed for a world in which interactivity, abundant information and unlimited options could be perceived as intrusive and overwhelming.

The company’s engineers have devised software programs that seamlessly combine images from multiple hi-def projectors, making mathematical corrections to account for irregular screening surfaces (a complex image given a fish-eye tweak, for instance, will look appropriately flat when projected onto a curved wall). The proprietary algorithms that drive these programs allow the team to display virtually any image on any surface — a brick building, a jumbo jet, or the hood and windshield of a new Saturn hybrid — with no distortion. “We’re into the immersive experience. It’s a holodeck kind of thing,” Connolly says, referring to the computer-simulated architecture first imagined in Star Trek.

A particular favourite of mine is the use of projected images to make a car become ‘transparent’ so that we can see the working engine inside. Obscura Digital High Def Projections (Fast Company)

Additional Info
Obscura Digital demo reel
New York iGoogle launch and Obscura Digital projector setup (Youtube)
Mint Plaza building projection (Youtube)

CH2 – Main information page
Guided video tour of CH2 (Youtube)