Sep 22 2009 Crazy $80,000 Projection Pool Table System
This is a projection system designed to work with a pool table that creates all sorts of crazy animations while you're trying to sink your balls. I want one pretty badly, but not $80K badly. It doesn't even come with a table!
In addition to this setup, where the balls reveal an image hidden underneath, you can also set it up to have flames track behind the balls, or water that ripples as the balls pass over it. It's a pretty awesome trick, one that works surprisingly smoothly.
They're working on new software that will make it more useful than flashy, too. Imagine playing pool and having the lines where you should shoot projected down on the table, with a computer doing all the math necessary to show you just where to aim and how hard to hit.
Hell yeah, doing all the math necessary. Where the hell was this system when I was taking geometry? Because my calculator watch didn't do shit. I've been in 11th grade for 13 years!
Obscura CueLight Pool Table Is $200,000 Worth of Fancy [gizmodo]
Thanks trail mix, I love your butterscotch chips!
Sep 15 2009 Eye Candy: Video Mapped Projections
This is a recording of a wicked video projection show perfectly mapped to the front of a mansion in England. You've just got to see it to believe it. It's sort of long, but I recommend watching at least the first minute and then skipping around (there's even some Pac-Man action around 4:00). And speaking of skipping around, I don't do that shit -- I gallop. What? CLIPPITY CLOP, BITCHES!
Thanks to Gilllllll, who once projected his love into a sock. And to whoever sent this earlier: I'm a jackass.
Aug 5 2008 Eh: Multi-Touch 3D Hologram Display Is Here
This is a video of Obscura Digital demonstrating their multi-touch software with Musion's Eyeliner 3D holographic projector. It's pretty neat. But you know what? I'm getting sick and tired of all these multi-touch demos where it seems the extent of what you can so is shuffle through photos and resize them. BORING. Show me somebody building a LEGO castle or something. Anything -- anything besides "look, you can toss Polaroids around in space!" I mean I can do that in real life, and it would still suck. I want to see some VR applications. I need an escape damnit, and the drugs aren't working.
Obscura Digital projects multi-touch "hologram", blows all sorts of minds [engadget]
Thanks to Julian, who's anxiously awaiting holographic skin flicks.
Oct 26 2007 The R2-D2 Home Theater System Is Pricey
Need some more Star Wars in your life? Do you also need a home theater system? If so, you can get two birds stoned at once with the R2-D2 home theater system. The little trashcan looking bastard has a DLP projector, DVD player, iPod docking station, two 20-watt speakers, memory card slots and USB port, an LED message center, Millennium Flacon remote control -- and the cute little guy can even follow you around the house. He has sensors so he won't fall down the stairs when you're moving your porn party from the rumpus room to the bedroom! All this for only $2,800. I mean what a freaking steal. Hell, you can barely take a date to dinner and a movie for $2,800 anymore, and I guarantee your date can't project a naked Princess Leia out of her radar eye. He also won't tell you he loves you and then go bang the guy that works the drive-thru window at Wendy's. Porn Projecting Trashcan Robot: 1, Women: 0.
Product Site [thanks to JE, a hilarious individual, for the tip]
Oct 2 2007 Ex-Time Watch Projects Time On Arm
The Ex-Time Watch, a conceptual watch by Rong Yong, projects the current time and date onto your arm/hand with the push of a button. So when someone asks what time it is, you push a button, and then point your arm in their direction while flipping them the bird. I like the concept, because I hate listening to people. Just show me your damn watch, I can tell the time myself. Besides, you'll probably round off to the closest five minutes or something. I want the exact damn time. This watch is not for me. My wrists are so fat it would be projecting the time straight into a chub roll. You wouldn't be able to read anything.
Ex-Time Projector Watch [ohgizmo]
Sep 20 2007 Movie Screen Hides In Your Bookshelf
Italian designer Matteo Ragni has developed the Fly Shelf with Integrated Projection Screen. It's a screen for your projector that hides in a bookshelf. The size shown is about 67" wide, so you're not going to get any super big-screen action, but the idea is great. A 10 foot bookshelf might look weird though. Of course, anything would probably look better than my current hidden projection screen. Which is a Dukes of Hazzard bedsheet I keep under the couch. That the cats pee on.
Movie Screen Hides In Your Bookshelf [gizmodo]
Sep 17 2007 Scary Robot Face is Scary, Ugly
The WD-2 scary robot face from Tokyo University can allegedly transform to look like anyone. It has a projector in the rear so it can project video of your face and expressions to make it even more frightening. It has "17 facial points, for a total of 56 degrees of freedom," and is made from a "highly elastic and rigid (!?) material called Septom, with bits of steel wool mixed in for added strength." Neat concept, but I feel sorry for the poor bastard whose face was used in the picture, because that may very well be the world's ugliest mug.
Two crazy videos after the jump, one of the face changing, one with projection.
