Slashdot Mirror
Surround Lights
Branephaid writes "According to this press release from Color Kinetics, (the company that came up with LED-based colored premise lighting and those nifty Sauce lightsticks), a new technology called "Surround Light" could soon enhance our gaming and movie watching. The idea is that the Color Kinetics lighting products are interfaced to your computer to play a "lighting effects track" in the physical room around you. Seems pretty nifty, but probably expensive." The boring folks out there will bitch that there are patents involved but they just want to complain or get off their one track minds. I'm more interested in the potential applications of such a technology. Lightning in a moody scene in a movie? Explosions in a shooter? Surround sound really is an amazing advancement, could surround light come close, or is this just hype?
I've been wondering if Rob would ever express any misgivings about how the site he and Jeff made popular has now been turned into a nonstop 2600-wannabe rant against any form of intellectual property, a rant that bears little relation to their own opinions. It looked like they had pretty much given up and turned the reins over to Michael and Jon Katz.
I'm reminded of that old L.A. Law episode where the old guy realizes how much the pushy woman has usurped control of the firm and announces, "Now, we're taking it back." (OK, I'm a little hazy on the details - I wasn't the biggest fan.)
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
If you need a CNN logo to remind you you're watching TV, then you're probably watching too much of it... ;-)
Colorkinetics has been hyping their 'innovative' use of colored LED's for a long time, and have very little to actually show for it. It's my guess that they're after more VC funding.
I would say that their patent claims are very misleading, and the patents themselves probably aren't worth the paper they're written on. Here are the two patents they cited:
6,016,038 Multicolored LED lighting method and apparatus
The systems and methods described herein relate to LED systems capable of generating light, such as for illumination or display purposes. The light-emitting LEDs may be controlled by a processor to alter the brightness and/or color of the generated light, e.g., by using pulse-width modulated signals. Thus, the resulting illumination may be controlled by a computer program to provide complex, predesigned patterns of light in virtually any environment.
6,150,774 Multicolored LED lighting method and apparatus
The systems and methods described herein relate to LED systems capable of generating light, such as for illumination or display purposes. The light-emitting LEDs may be controlled by a processor to alter the brightness and/or color of the generated light, e.g., by using pulse-width modulated signals. Thus, the resulting illumination may be controlled by a computer program to provide complex, predesigned patterns of light in virtually any environment.
There's no way this is a novel invention. Using a processor to modulate and change LED colors? Done for decades. I'm willing to bet that they've never attempted to enforce these patents, and most likely they won't.
As for the video game application, there's maybe a small niche here, but this is hardly earth-shattering news.
The basic idea of expanding multimedia is an intriguing idea - add more effects, make it more realistic, expand the potential artistic complexity.
Wether it DOES anything useful, is affordable, and won't have other complications is a problem. We all recall the Pokemon Epilepsy scare - who knows what malfunctions could plague this even if it is a cool idea.
And let us not forget that old attempt at Smell-O-Vision . . .
"The Sage treasures Unity and measures all things by it" - Lao Tzu
I haven't seen an industry that had such a fight with its own obsolescence, except for the military-industrial complex. Watch for the MPAA to borrow from McCarthy's playbook. ("I have in my hand here a list of 5000 movie pirates...")
And you think I'm kidding...
-jhp
/. -- the Free Republic of technology.
The light glare off of a round monitor / TV would suck big time. I've got a VVega, and I've STILL got reflections.
Would the main display brighten as well to offset the increase in ambient lighting. The human eye would see the main display get "darker" when the ambient lighting went up. You'd lose some contrast as well.
I'd think it'd be more of a distraction than anything else.
I keep trying to pick fights, but I can't shake this Excellent karma.
I saw "Tommy" at a theatre in New York. They already did something similar during a pinball sequence. Turned the entire theatre into one giant pinball game. It was pretty spiffy.
If you want to be seen, stand up. If you want to be heard, speak up. If you want to be respected, sit down and shut up.
Better than surround lights would be a Surround DigiScents system. Then I could emulate at work the comfort of my own bedroom; empty coffee cups through the left sniffer, musty old mouse mat from the centre sniffer, the two right sniffers would tell me there's some cold pizza somewhere in my unmade bed, and my rear-left would recreate that homely smell of the pile of socks in the corner.
insignificant sig
Patents and copyrights are allright when they are there to protect real innovation and development of new technology. From the post, its plain to see that these patents deal with a specific method and implementation of an idea. This isn't one-click nonsense, this is a specific protocol.
Hello, prior art.
Hello, not quite. This patent is for THEIR SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGY AND IMPLEMENTATION. This patent in no way states "we have exclusive rights to every time anyone ever uses lights to augment their television viewing."
Please at least try reading the article before jerking your knee. Taco opposes meaningless and assinine patents. No where did he say patents on their own are inherently evil.
I think it'd be cool; bright flashes for explosions .. but you wonder if there comes a point where the game/application is so immersive, people start experiecing real life emotional consequences. At what point can we fool the mind, and do we really want to? Some games are already realistic and scary enough ... =)
"Old man yells at systemd"
-----
crazy dynamite monkey
In the ideal/reference film viewing environment, the image projected is intended to consume enough of the audience's field of vision that peripheral sight is engaged.
Given this, it should be obvious that ambient lighting _CANNOT_ add anything to this experience that would not already be addressed by the display technology. Ambient lighting does nothing but pollute the original image content...
As for, specifically, the home market: now that we've finally brought high quality video within the grasp of the general public, and have mature standards for color reproduction in editing and viewing environments, you want to hose all that by introducing ambient lighting???
This is bogus.
Stage and "party" lighting is the only remotely usefull application of this product, but it's worth noting that existing lighting-control standards are quite flexible, and would die laughing if they caught wind of this "surround light" hype...
Though I'm not sure if it's worth it as a user, as a developer it's probably not a bad idea to include support, they assured me that there was just a small (10 lines or so?) chunk of code you'd have to include so that systems with this installed could use it with your game. If that's true, why not? I can't remember for certain, but I don't think support was tied to DirectX. (I know I asked, but I can't remember the answer.)
As an aside, this might actually be an example where patents indirectly spurred innovation. I talked with someone who knew the behind the scenes story of this company, and apparently they made so much money from products based on one of their patents that they decided they could throw some of that at a wacky idea based on their technology that they weren't sure would work. Even if Surround Light crashes and burns as an idea, their other products are going to keep them in the black.
What? The point of getting a patent is not so you go out and develop the technology! Everyone know the point is to get the patent, preferably on something invented before so you know people are using it, wait for infringers, sue and threaten, and collect the licensing fees and damages.
Actually developing a product involves unnecessary time and expense.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
What ever happened to the good old days? It seems we can never be happy with what we have. I guess in a culture where technology changes faster than my underwear, I shouldn't be surprised.
I remember when the Atari 1600 (or whatever the number was) came out. That was the greatest thing known to man. Then the first Nintendo came to use and graphics could not get any better than that, and if they could, who would need them, right?
I have to admit that this is all pretty cool, but I miss the days when we used to watch a bug zapper for entertainment. Now we need things to be as realistic as possible without feeling actual pain. Although I imagine that will be next, suits that you wear while playing your FPS game so when you get hit it actually will inflict pain on you.
Personally, I think I am ready to go back to squirrel hunting on the back 40.
Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.
.. I should stop trying to ethernet enable a disco ball?
Set up some triacs on a parallel port, so you can choose the brightness of (say) six lights positioned around you.
Then write a Quake mod that drives them based on dynamic lighting (simple hack to the relevant quakec) and you're away
The question is really whether these lights would add to the experience or detract from it. I tend to think they would detract, rather than add.
Part of the reason for having a dark theater is to allow you to disassociate yourself with the world around you. With the general tendency of talking and other distractions in the typical theater now-a-days, that's hard to do.
I suspect that lighting as described would tend to remind you that you're in a theater rather than draw you further into the film. And I think that would be especially true in the smaller screen theaters.
Now, I also suspect that in special venues such a technique could be experience enhancing. I feel like I saw a similar thing at some amusment park several years ago. But it enhanced the affect because the "theater" was built with that in mind.
I have serious doubts that it would work in the typical theater.
Sean.
Oooh, I can hardly wait for this in NetHack!
You recite a scroll XNAHT DUAM-
There is maniacal laughter in the distance-
(lights flash in such a way as to inform you that you have wasted a poweful scroll.)
--
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
And effectively. Anybody remember that michael jackson 3d thing at disney? They had lights on the walls in sync with the laser blasts. Made a neat effect.
There may be patent claims, and other such things which always surround the introduction of a new and innovative product, but I'd actually expect to see medical claims against this company too, as movie studios and others develop 'light tracks' for your favorite movies, and game companies develop the same for your favorite first person shooters.
Epoleptics throughout the world beware poorly written 'light tracks' will send thousands into grand mal seizures. This technology will take time before it's perfected, just like those movie rides with theI-Max style screens and the moving audience seats. If the timing was just a little off, it would cause the viewers to loose their equilibrium and puke their guts out. IF this company isn't careful, the lighting effects they're making possible just might have similar impacts.
---
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Can you imagine the viruses that people might start writing for such a system? I can just see the headlines now: "Computer Virus causes people to colapse with Epilepsy attacks!!!"
Scary...
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
And they wonder why there's an energy crunch. Let's all add another 500w of lighting to our entertainment rooms, and all the electronic gear to go with it!
Personally I think this is about as interesting as those plasma balls and fiber-optic lamps.
- Sig this!
I wonder if you were to watch that fateful episode of Pokemon with one of these lighting systems in the room if it would flash blue and red lights in the same sequence causing even a greater chance of seizures in epileptics?
Shameless Self Promotion : Webhosting at Blender Networks.
Something related to this that is pretty darn cool is this project from Stanford involving using projectors to project textures, etc. onto 3-D objects. Lots of interesting applications and challenges.
--
George W. Bush
President, United States of America
George W. Bush
President, United States of America
Is the ethernet wired popcorn maker, and a guy sitting next to me who mumbles fortune quotes all the way through the movie.
-- The avalanche has started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
The new game in my house is going to be 'switch off the screen, and guess what movie is playing by the flashing lights.
I am guessing that the opening scenes of 'Saving Private Ryan' will be the starter for ten, but 'Sleepless in Seattle' will be the difficult bonus round.
Except for the scene where she is driving at night singing about arses, of course.
-- The avalanche has started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
This sounds really great. What if one were installed in a real movie theater, instead of just darkness? I think that muffled colors could really enhance a movie (but nothing bright enough to make it hard to see).
Imagine The Matrix with monitor-green lighting for computers, muzzle flashes for the lobby fight, firey lighting for the lobby explosion, all on a giant screen. Aww yeah.
A) Woo woo it sounds great, and they've kindly published the interface so controlable from linux, etc...
B) Oh no! They've patented the design. Selfish commercial bastards.
What's flavor of the month on Slashdot this month? Do we like or hate companies like this?
THL.
--
Keeping
So could I get a machine that flickers like a 16mm projector behind me. So my home theator will really feel like the moovies.
Think about the possibilities of shadowing and sneaking around with a rail gun / crossbow / psionics / dead cat - whatever. When in combat, peripheral lighting in a game might indicate where the enemy is and how close. If an enemy is approaching from around a corner and blocking a light source as it makes the approach, and therefore indicating position and range before coming into view, it could introduce a whole new level of realism in tactics. Similarly, lighting could indicate temperature for puzzle situations, or weather changes that may affect visibility later on, etc. Pretty cool. But it better come with a vibrating seatcushion, too...
The only thing that worries me in this situation is that the system of lights would have to have some sort of safety options. If for some reason the lighting system were able to emulate certain wavelengths at certain intensities, there is tremendous danger of this lighting system being used for harm. A student of computer science could easily change the lighting program so that it would do "interesting things" to those in the room.
/. That it will only be used as a means of input/ouput operations.
I guess it's the whole idea of your computer turning on you as it's finally figured out that you're not going to let it post to
I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.