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Multimedia Windowpanes
prostoalex writes "Washington Post talks about recent innovations in the world of windows (yes, lowercase). A Minnesota company is offering windows that double as entertainment centers, being used as projection screens for home entertainment systems and DVD players. A Yale professor is quoted to be excited about new product: 'One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun''."
I suggest you give a pass on these comments.
Great idea, until someone puts a baseball through your living room Window.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
Great for those times when you can't see the girl changing clothes across the street. Just pop in a porno. :-D
now I can pretend those videos of my naked nextdoor neighbor are live...
At least before they had to sneak over to look in the windows, now they just have to look at the windows.
Microsoft lawyers hit them with a cease and desist, it definately dilutes the trademark if people use windows as an entertainment device.
this reminds me of the scene screens in back to the future. you know.. in the future, where the scene screen repair man called marty a chicken and marty threw him out of the house..
This technology makes it into eyeglasses or contact lenses ?!?
I'd love to be sitting in my cube at work watching Office Space on my contact lenses!
-- Adam
You flip a switch and the mirror becomes opaque and acts as a screen for a projector. I can almost guarantee you that a real projector screen will make for a much better picture than these trick windows.
Does this mean that my neighbors will be able to see what I'm watching? This will invariably lead to copyright violation if somebody tries to watch a movie - there will be no such thing as a "private screening." Plus, if the window is big enough, one's parents will know that one is watching porn before they even enter the driveway.
http://www.outwar.com/page.php?x=267317
I haven't had windowpane in years.
'One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'
Wow, so they invented a back to the 80's time machine!
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
if i watch my movies on my window, then the neighborhood will ridecule me because they will find out my secret love of winnie the pooh, and that must be avoided.
xao
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
Didn't I see this in Back to the Future Part 2 and Total Recall?
I mean it was cool, but really, how practical was it?
Anyhow, I have a really hard time seeing this going anywhere. The problem with any sort of serious home automation or nifty built-in gadgets is that ten years down the line they're either a tangle of useless, unsupported wires and circuit boards from extint companies or laughably outdated (or both). I remember seeing a new item about a guy who sued Bob Vila and "This Old House" for pushing him to install a computer-heavy home control system for everything from the heat to the garage door a few years back -- the company tanked and now he has to rip the malfunctioning POS out and put in new stuff (which is obviously expensive).
So, I'll pass. Besides, the last thing I need is an incentive to get even less daylight.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
...does this look like from the outside? Can anyone who's outside your house see what you're watching? I don't see what the real benefit of this is, other than the "gee whiz!" factor. Not to mention what happens when your kids playing catch in the house break your window *and* TV at the same time!
- Faz
your window that is! To stop you looking out at anything that might be entertaining, only Windows(tm)can be used for that pupose.
This of all the really fun pranks you could pull on people. Or, how cool would it be to put fish tank screen saver on all the windows in your living room.
I'm just kinda wondering what the optimal performance conditions are for this product?
My guess is that the light has to be greater on the inside than on the outside, much like seeing a reflection using a mirror. Also there is the problem of temperature. Most electronics don't particularly enjoy being used at extreme temps. I'm also guessing that this thing has some type of current running through it causing an extreme temp change in the glass.
So how long until the first "projection window" explodes during the winter?
I can't wait for the trademark lawsuit on this one:
Anderson Windows vs Microsoft Windows.
Maybe if they could just darken completely so you wouldn't have to see your neighors, yeah, I'd buy (plain old polarizing film, that is). Or maybe if they could give houses in California a view of something besides the side of the neighbor's house 8 feet away it would work. If they could just maybe make the house next door even 20 feet away it would sell.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
You don't even have sunlight. That's right, the windows are opaque when there ISN'T a current flowing through them! Better have an UPS on your window or it's going to get really dark when the power goes out.
I'd rather look at my neighbours yard than "top gun". Come to think of it, I'd rather watch paint dry than "top gun". But sure, it's a nifty idea to put those large flat surfaces to some use rather than having to empty out a part of a wall for a projection tv. As an added bonus, the couch and chairs will be facing the windows with a view outside rather than a dingy corner of the room with a tv.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
If the power goes out, you loose the electical current in the glass which keeps it clear. If the power goes out, you have a major problem.
Spilled.net
What's really awesome about this development is that you can now get rid of all that pesky natural light that windows allow into your house and replace it with enriching programs such as Jerry Springer and Elimidate and ESPN Classic and the Cartoon Network!
Do they have a skylight version for my bedroom?
He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don't like your kind, and we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington."
One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'
This is a projection screen between the panes of glass, so one minute you neighbor's watching you sitting in your living room, and the next minute he's watching a mirror image of Top Gun
Won't the glass of the window create a glare problem? The wall beside the window probably makes a much better projection screen.
Jason
ProfQuotes
Why on Earth(TM) would the MPAA allow you to let everyone in your neighborhood watch the movie you're watching now? They better give out parrots and eyepatchs with these windows, cuz now you're a pirate. Yeah, and the pr0n references everyone else is making also hold up quite nicely. Although you could use it like a screensaver, instead of closing you're blind, put the "we're eating dinner", we're watching tv", or "we're playing billiards" movie on the windows when naughty time comes around. No peeping toms, since they can only see what you want them to see. Although, now they'll prolly flock to watch The Simpons on your widescreen window.
Th
I can't wait to see the public indecency laws coming from this.
"I was watching pr0n in the privacy of my own home." - porn viewer
"My 13 yr old could see through your flimsy window shade" - mom
"You showed porn to your neighbors! How dare you violate the terms of service of your pay-per-view purchase" - cable company
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'
uh oh, somebody just showed their true colors.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
Chris
I can't wait until the advertising trolls find out about this one.. remember eating at a nice restaurant, looking out the window at all the people walking by? Well now the restaurant owner can just get paid to show commercials instead! And if you don't look, well, that's like stealing.
Wouldn't it be easier to just set up a projection screen? a less expensive and reliable solution I'm assuming.
...will I get to see the Blue Sky Of Death?
You must think in Russian.
The whole window / tv screen thing has been a staple of futuristic anime for a while now, as well as a lot of standard sci-fi, if I'm not mistaken.
It is definitely more of a "Japanese" techology in the sense that it combines the functions of two things, saving both space and money. A boon for all of us who are cramped into tiny one-bedroom apartments.
for great justice, this sig has been moved
Total Recall had these type of windows. Uber geeky, I am please to see that Reality catching up with Sci-Fi once more.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Yet another excuse for the MPAA to raid my house, take all my possessions, and sue me into non-existence:
playing of movies in a public forum without express written consent and without royalty.
I better lube up for this one!
A Yale professor is quoted to be excited about new product: 'One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'
Those are two things that people should not be getting exited about. Unless your bay window overlooks the back yard of the local Baywatch lookalikes outdoor step aerobic club.
"Hey, turn him off, I was watching that!"
Glasses like that are great, since they block the view of all the chicks you won't be having sex with when you tell them about watching 'Top Gun' on your window at home, then making a joke about how the neighborhood kid crashed your 'windows' with his softball.
Don't forget to snort repeatedly!
So now your neihbors know what movie your watching or better yet the MPAA will come knocking at your door saying that you are illegaly distributing movies.
"One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'"
just like in [name war torn country here].
Wouldn't it be a whole lot cheaper to just pull down a "traditional" screen as a shade over the window?
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
Frank just got a 2000" TV.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
With re-sizing gadgets, you could just minimize the window instead of using blinds. No more fretting that there's no more room to hang things on the wall: Resize!
But what about if you have trouble seeing past that big tree that the neighbours refuse to cut down? Use the scroll bars!
All rights reserved. (Doed this count as prior art. No? ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
I guess it comes down to that.
Courtesy Dictionary.com: Window
1. An opening in the wall of a building for the admission of light and air, usually closed by casements or sashes containing some transparent material, as glass, and capable of being opened and shut at pleasure.
These things are hardly windows... you can't see through them and you can't open them.
~D:
will I have to take the tin foil off?
of his SF home. I think when the doorbell rings, the door goes transparent so you can see who's outside. Also, cars can be fitted with these windows which keep the car cool (or the contents invisible) when the windows are opaque. Both use LCD films on the glass.
I'd much prefer Slow Glass.
But that's just me...
It sounds too much like Window pains.
"Derp de derp."
OK so it's not that funny, but flamebait?
1. Get a projector that you can hook up to your computer.
2. Get a projection screen. You know, the perfectly ordinary kind that they use in schools for the "overhead projectors".
3. Put the screen wherever the hell you want (in front of a window or not).
4. Hook your computer to the projector, and what whatever the hell you want. DVDs, pr0n, or whatever. The best part is, the screen is opaque, so your neighbors can't see what you're watching from the opposite side of the screen!
Oh yeah, and if the power goes out, you can roll up the screen and see what would normally be behind it, too! (like your window, for example).
I realize that
0 6, 388283,00.html
1) your neighbors won't be able to see the porn and
2) This is an entirely different technology than the previous window switching technology - electrochromic
Electrochromic windows went from clear to dark-tinted, like the new fancy rear view mirrors and welding caps. These new ones go from clear to white - which is much cooler, literally.
here's a quote from the pop-sci article linked below
"The first residential smart windows arrived this year, and they're not electrochromic. In ThermoView's Alter-Lite windows, two panes surround a film embedded with randomly arranged, light-absorbing particles that provide natural shade. When subjected to a voltage, they instantly align to let light pass. The SPD-Smart light control technology that makes the windows possible was developed by Research Frontiers Inc., which has licensed it to 18 other companies--including Mercedes-Benz for a sunroof and Inspectech Aero Service for private-jet windows. Cost: $100 extra per square foot. "
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/bown/article/0,161
because I have been enjoined by this Holy Office to abandon the false opinion which maintains that the Sun is the centre
guaranteed to be ten light years thick. Some day.
So you can cut out the "Pr0n sells everything" line.
When having a 22' Total flat glass screen monitor
Is just as cool?
wander what the responce times are like?
In a world without walls and fences...
... who needs windows and gates?
"Why stare blankly at nature when you could be staring at Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman standing outside your bay window!!!"
Does this help poor children in repressed third-world countries soak in American culture instead of idling their minds with boring scenery? Will companies pay people for advertising space next to the dinner table? There are entire brave new worlds of revenue opening up! Prepare to surrender, America, 'cause translucent scenery value-addeds (or as we like to say, "window dressing"! ha ha!) is here to stay!
Please keep my windows entertainment-free.
Better yet, immagine this. One minute a burgalar is looking through the window into my empty living room, the next he's seeing an image of someone running towards him with a shotgun.
JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
How long until Microsoft files suit for Windows(r) trademark infringement?
If memory serves me right, it was an unpleasant afternoon at AT&T when I had a senior VP personally rip me a new one over my use of several outside windows as a whiteboard for some rather mundane technical designs. It wasn't anything proprietary and the window faced the water, but he really was right. I was being flippant and obnoxious, and it just looks bad from an informaion security perspective.
Now imagine some poor sot who forgets to hit the "Outside window opaque" button, and projects sensitive data in a powerpoint presentation using a media-window. Even if such mistakes were prevented by a modicum of idiot-proofing, I can imagine a whole host of methods to read the data off of a media-window from many miles away. Forget bouncing a laser off the window to collect the vibrations & derive the conversations occuring therein -- I bet one could derive the entire display image by measuring thermal deflection of the outside display pane. And that's just the start.
The problem I see is this: while most companies' "super-secret" proprietary data really isn't worth a hill of french-roasted beans, they *think* it's worthy of the highest levels of TEMPEST protection. And any organization that actually has sensitive data would laugh this right off the vendor-presentation schedule. You'll never sell it to business or government, so the sales volumes will never bring the price down to where anyone but the hyper-techno-elite can afford it. And in the homes of the hyper-techno-elite, they just might like to control the display and ambient natural light separately.
Jon
I think not...(*poof*)
import java.awt.*;
Window window1=new Window(new JPanel());
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
Are these windows actually blocking light rays or are they simply opaque, hence letting light get through and creating the ever-so-annoying glare on computer screens and TV's.. maybe even making it painful to watch tv in broad daylight (providing the window is a skylight sort of thing) Whats up with that??!!
From the article:
"He predicted the new multimedia windows will end up only in houses priced at $1.5 million and higher."
From 1943:
"I think there's a world market for maybe five computers." -- Thomas Watson
From the story: 'One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun''."
Ken Thompson who we all know and love from UNIX lore has written Reflections on Trusting Trust which describes just this problem.
Imagine that you insert a backdoor into a compiler, so that everything the compiler compiles is trojaned. If the compiler detects that it is recompiling itself, it quietly reinserts the trojan code. The actual source code to the trojan might be wiped out, but as long as you are running infected binaries, it will keep popping up again and again.
From the paper: "First we compile the modified source with the normal C compiler to produce a bugged binary. We install this binary as the official C. We can now remove the bugs from the source of the compiler and the new binary will reinsert the bugs whenever it is compiled. Of course, the login command will remain bugged with no trace in source anywhere."
A very interesting read.
You don't need to focus that close. Intelligent use of the displays allows them to create a "virtual image" that is coherent when focusing at a natural distance. Eyeglass-type displays are very possible.
They already did this in most Sci-Fi movies. Back to the Future II did it best(most realistic), where the darned thing never worked properly.
The real question is, what will they call this technology, seeing as how Microsoft will throw a fit at the obvious answer.
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
Put up the static image, call your victim into the room for some unrelated reason and then watch the look on their face.
You would, of course, also need appropriate sound effects -- and a well planned escape route.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
And two lucky winners can watch Tom cruise in their window without owning this product.
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
...a bridge cries silently for return of its beloved troll.
One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's lovely wife, and the next you're watching something other than Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'
Tat Tvam Asi
19.5 Collective used a technique similar to this to advertise a show at the Low Res loft following the 2001 Detroit Electronic Music Festival.
NPFC used some sort of material to frost the windows across one end of the top floor loft. A digital projector hanging from the rafters projected reversed images of a moving robot, "NPFC", the time of the performance and "Come up." The display attracted people in the crowds walking away from the festival. Once the band was set to play, they used a regular non-reversed projection and the wall of frosted over windows was used as the screen behind them for the visual accompaniment to their performance. It was a cool use of windows and not a bad idea for someone looking for interesting storefront displays or other applications.
D
--madgeorge
When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque
Hmmm, shame it isn't the otherway around - sounds like it's going to waste lots of juice given that the window is probably going to be in 'clear' mode 99% of the time.
-- Mike
One innovation that buyers would really go for, manufacturers say, is a true self-cleaning window -- covered with a protective surface similar to a car wax. Moisture would bead, rinse away and take the dirt with it. Although the technology is there, it hasn't been perfected, said Simpson of Pella.
I'd much rather have one of these than what is basically a huge LCD display. Clean windows - a thing most geeks probably haven't seen for a while. Or combine it with the Multimedia Windowpane, and have a self cleaning, 100" monitor! Sweet!- My Karma ran over your Dogma
we can create a nation wide system to warn birds they are about to fly into a transparent yet unforgivingly solid object.
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
So when my wife forgets to tell me she's watching Jurassic Park and I walk into the living room and see the TRex outside I'll keel over.
Remember Arnold's house at the start of Total Recall? They lived in what was essentially a window-less house. Yet the house had many window-like projection panes that displayed realistic outdoor scenery with picture-in-picture tv news, etc.
That's probably what these people are aiming for.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
The technology is similar to LCD displays, and has been around for years. I could have bought windows like this ten years ago and put a projection TV in front of them. The side windows as speakers, that's new. I mean, electrostatic speakers are old, but I'm pretty sure using glass in them is new.
For those that haven't read the article, the windows turn opaque white when no current is running throught them. They make a perfect big white screen to shine a projector on. They aren't making a huge LCD monitor into a window and displaying a picture by shining light through it, they are projecting a picture onto it.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
and there are certain concessions I have to make. I don't want the neighbourhood to know that I'm watching 'The Horse Whisperer'.
/.er
p.s Apologies for being a married
"She's a West Texas girl, just like me" - G.W Bush Iraqis
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Fujitsu: MCFLY!!!
Marty: Fujitsu-san! Konnichiwa!
Fujitsu: I was monitoring that scan you just interfaced! YOU are TERMINATED!!
A Minnesota company is...
Ya sure ya betcha! =P
This technology has been around for a while now, but it's very expensive. The use is not for windows that face outside, but for inner windows.
I've heard of corporate conference rooms that use windows like this. When the meeting becomes "closed door" all of the windows can be frosted.
I live in a small apartment, but it seems bigger than it is because of many internal windows between rooms. The problem is privacy. Shades and blinds are ugly. Instant frosting is what I've been looking for. If the prices come down, I'll buy.
I bet you this company makes computer-controlled auto-ass-wiping toilets, targeted at the same neuvo-riche customers. I just hope they don't run Windows...
This seems like new marketing for an existing technology. I remember seeing these windows in "homes of the future" quite a few years back.
Up until now, they've been marketed as 'privacy' windows, that can be made clear at the flick of a switch. And it is important to note that they require power to stay clear (although I don't know how much), so you'd want them someplace where they are regularly opaque.... like, maybe in a bathroom? Or windows around an indoor pool?
It's not like the glass actually makes the images, it just serves as a blank screen for a projector. Now if they had windows that doubled as flat displays, that would be something new and cool. As I recall, the windows I saw were a grey color when opaque--not ideal for a projection screen. Maybe they've made them whiter?
I think a window that doubles as a projector screen is a great idea. It's difficult to find technological innovation that's also non-intrusive.
With all of the home theatre components I keep packing into my entertainment centre, it's getting to be an eye sore. A projector on the roof using a window as the screen could reduce that clutter significantly. Everything else could stack neatly in a cabinet.
Besides, projectors have been starting to look pretty sweet. Bright and sharp, with no need to pay for speakers (If I pay $2000+ for a TV, why do I have to get it with crappy speakers?).
I'd be able to feed my need for stylish living, with killer movie viewing and console gaming madness.
Now if someone would just make a Wavebird for the Xbox.
PS: the speakers and touch screen are way too Jetsons for my taste.
That comment isn't as intelligent as it sounds. Modern tempered glass doesn't breaky very easially, and can stand up to baseballs. And that is assuming it is even glass, some windows are actually plastic, which can be bullet proof! Patio doors wouldn't be possible without that. (Or at least not as most houses have them with a patio door installed, but no deck outside since a kid could break through regular glass and fall several floors) Modern windows are a lot more complex than glass in a frame. Fortunatly they work just like the old type, just better.
I'm not trying to imply that you can't break this glass, because you can. However you can beat a patio door with a sledge hammer and not be sure of it breaking.
...who finds the symbolism of technology further closing you in from the outside world ironic, and a bit disturbing? :p
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
Why are those people in that house looking at me through there living room window and laughing?!?!? I'm not an animal! I am a man! Please stop tormenting me....
oh, wait, they're watching comedy on one of those new window-tv's. *walks away embarrased*
A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with. - Tennessee Williams
No no, you've got it all wrong. That's the 3D projectile ^H^H^H^H^H^H projection feature. All the new screens will have it!
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
>>>Great idea, until someone puts a baseball through your living room Window. Yeah, and it'll happen when you're watching a Field of Dreams DVD, and it'll take five minutes to realize the movie isn't on anymore. That tornado idea would be great if you own a copy of Twister. "Wow, I actually feel like I'm in the middle of a-- honey, go turn on the Weather Channel for a moment. No reason."
Libertarians somehow believe that private businesses should be stronger than governments but weaker than individuals.
'that double as an *advertisment* centre'?
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
I've been seeing stories about this technology since the early 90s, in Popular Science and similar. It hasn't taken off yet.
Yep, professors should leave the hip references to us (although TR was a 1990 flick...)
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Simple : maybe you can set the opacity of the window so you can watch your neighbourg's wife and TV at the same time!!!
and I worry about glare on my television screen now!
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
All you need is Sean Young, and an owl on a pedestal, and you've got Tyrell's office...
Now, not only do you buy a DVD and watch it on your DVD player, you get to pay out royalties for public performance when your neighbor, paid to watch on you, rings up the MPAA to tell them you're illegally broadcasting video.
Gary (-;
When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque, allowing it to be used as a projection screen for watching television or DVDs. The flanking casement windows become the speakers.
/. article implies. Oh, and I do hereby coin the phrase "turn [on|off] the windows". Apparently the projector is included with the package.
Seems to me this sort of thing would be a good replacement for blinds if you're into the 'wow' factor or have some reason to want a particular room to be very dark some of the time when its daylight out. They haven't invented a translucent TV as the
Windows that switch from transparent to opaque were introduced years ago by several window manufacturers, but they never caught on with consumers.
So apparently what these people have done is nail two things together that have never been nailed together before.
Slow glass of the 17 year variety to be precise if it allows you to view classic 1986 entertainment. That stuff is highly sought after.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Any technology that lets me see Tom Cruise AND Top Gun at the same time gets my thumbs up!
ôó
I would only buy one of these for one reason
and one reason only.
To fool birds into flying into the window.
Anyone remember the window projection screen in "Back to the Future II"? It was in the alternate 1985 at Marty McFly's future Hilldale home:
GRANDMA LORRAINE: I can't believe this window is
still broken.
(She channel surfs through an Eastern garden,
a sunset, New York nightscape, etc.)
MARLENE: Well, when the scene screen repairman
called Daddy a chicken, Daddy threw him out of
the house and now we can't get anybody to fix it.
GRANDMA LORRAINE: Look how worn out this thing is!
(She lifts up the screen and reveals the window
behind, whose only view is the dilapidated brick
wall inches away.)
-Mr. Fusion
Not that I should be succumbing to the temptation to get involved in such a silly gedankenexperiment, but . . .
Imaging So, first of all, IIRC, LCDs of the sort this window uses work by having the charge change the liquid crystal's polarization. If polarization is synced with the separate sheet of polarizing material it is clear, if not, then it goes opaque. So let's say the user puts on polarized contacts. Left one way, right the other, and the sheet of polarized material is removed. Then you have a "phosphor" layer in the back (OLEDs?) and a layer of this stuff in the front. The two layers are synced so that the image is refreshed at 60Hz, with two images per set. Left, right, left, right. That is then matched with the front layer which is switching polarization at 60Hz as well. Horizontal, vertical. Horizontal, vertical. So there's your 3-D.
Now let's say that the user(s) is/are being tracked by the environment (little transponders in clothes like the ones used for motion capture).
Concept Sound is ideally generated by having speaker elements built into the surfaces, with the surfaces broken up into a grid so that a sound can genuinely move from one place to another. The whole mess is wired up and driven as a phased array, where volume and frequency mix are set for each coordinate separately. Let's say a one foot grid unit, giving an "audio resolution" of one "pixel" per square foot. (Okay, so I'm working with English units instead of metric - shoot me.)
Approach One could probably get away with reduced sound resolution in the floor and ceiling. And if we're going to talk about near-present tech setups then I'ld say make the floor of "environment module" tiles of about one foot square (assuming that the user(s) wear shoes) with each module having, in addition to a speaker driver, a thermoelectric unit to make panels able to get slightly colder or hotter, a low-freq. (say 10Hz to 200Hz) vibration generator, and an ability to skew slightly.
Breakdown So, what is our gear for each tile? (Keep in mind that we're talking about buying enough gear for over four hundred tiles, so assume Jameco small wholesale order prices.)
* cheap bass speaker- $2
* thermoelectric unit - $15
* cheap mid-range/tweeter speaker set - $4
* four heavy load, fine control solenoids (for skew) - 10 x 4 = $40
(Remember that solenoid travel is about one to three millimeters, max, while cycle time can be as slow as a tenth of a second.)
* center post - $1
* ball joint for connection between center post and tile - $2
We can afford to use cheap delrin or whatever parts and just lubricate the hell out of them. Deflection is dinky, stress is all compressive, and maximum load (assuming jumping around) is what, a momentary seven or eight hundred pounds?
* underlying frame of assorted wood, glue, nails - $6
* masonite or ply tile panel - $0.5
* doped and painted fabric flooring surface - $0.5
(Probably scotch-guarded or equiv. if left painted, not my problem if turned to imaging surface)
* hunk o' cheap metal for placement between thermoelectric panel and tile underlayment - $0.1
(surely these would be bought surplus somewhere)
* wiring harness, connectors, and assembly - $8
Hey, we're assuming graduate student labor here.
Then add, say, three thousand dollars for laying in the underlying framework that the whole thing sits on (let's say a grid of 2 x 6es).
So, what's the damage? About eighty bucks per tile. For a twenty by twenty foot chamber that means four hundred tiles with, say, twenty backups for a total cost of about thirty six thousand dollars. Less then many frats spend on a holiday float. Less then a big college party. If I were in charge we'ld be buying everything at surplus (perhaps here.) and could probably bring the whole floor in for fifteen to twenty thousand. Add about ten thousand for mistakes and development costs.
Electrical Power usage per tile should be about five watts[1], all of which could be run at six or nine volts (so gotta use BIG gauge wire to deal with resistance issues), for a total running load of two thousand watts (and maybe a hundred more to drive hidden fans in the walls and ceiling[2]). Let's add another couple hundred bucks for a big ol' stepdown transformer to give us all those amps of six/nine volt current.
Computation As for processing drain, well, assume thirty audio signals that just get routed around the room like sprites in an old video game. Bass/vibration and temp could each easily be one sixteen bit value. If somebody gets slick, all four solenoids could probably be one value as well, but let's assume one per solenoid. Think of it as a color video image of twenty by sixty pixels with a refresh of fifty times a second or less and it becomes obvious that the only real problem is converting that data to signals on four THOUSAND (common ground for the solenoids) wires.
Okay, now given all of this, let's say that the ceiling has no solenoids and a resolution of one tile per two square feet. The walls have no solenoids either but a one foot tile resolution. Then only have thermoelectric on one panel in ten (since heat moves mostly vertically so the implications of localized wall temps are only notable if you get really close).
So a sim handling everything but video would be using less processing power then a single PC running Doom and the whole system up to now adds up to about eighty thousand dollars. So, what is the imaging cost? I dunno. Not my yob. I'm, after all a mech guy at heart.
Final&Notes I just thought that I'ld take a few minutes to clarify what it is we're talking about here.
[1] Even more then most of this, this number has lots of handwaving in it. I suspect that solenoid usage will be weird in some way that I don't know enough to predict.
[2] Fans pushing in bits of breeze should make all sorts of weather/motion.etc. effects more convincing. Low-bandwidth, high touch. Maybe add one of those spiffy new aroma generators in each one. (I could mention stuff like aerosolized THC but I won't. Ooops! Too late, I did.)
-Rustin
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
Ok seriously, does anyone actually RTFA before posting this stuff? And we quote:
"...Andersen's new entrant, which isn't for sale yet, is a bay window that doubles as a home entertainment center. A low-voltage electric current runs through the window. When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque, allowing it to be used as a projection screen for watching television or DVDs."
This seriously has NOTHING to do with being a multimedia windowpane and is simply a company grasping at reasons why people should but LCD-blanking windows, which cost a fortune to buy and to operate (you did follow that "uses low voltage current to stay open" discussion, right?).
-- People who think they know it all, really annoy those of us who do!
...on the plus side he can replace all those annoying views of the real world with panes showing Microsoft ads or something...
And the next minute people with popcorn camp out in your front yard
And then an MPAA studio tracks you down and sues you for putting on an unauthorized public performance.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Using it as a projection screen is kind of dumb... (As many others have mentioned, why not just put a retractable screen in front of the window? A much cheaper alternative, even if you insist on recessing it into the ceiling or otherwise making it "match" your other stuff. ) However, this would be a nice alternative to blinds. Horizontal and vertical blinds are way too leaky for my taste, and where are you going to find an opaque shade to cover a glass door or six-foot window? I like the idea of flipping a switch and turning the entire window opaque.
;)
;)
They are also unveiling new cordless within-the-window shades. These are blinds and shades that fit between the glass that can be lowered and raised without cords hanging down the sides of the windows. The Iowa-based company is already selling within-the-window shades with pull cords.
Um...what exactly is the point of this? Besides making it a pain in the arse to fix or replace the blinds when they break or get stuck, that is? And how do they work without cords? Are they electric? One more thing to break that you have to take the entire window apart to fix, then...
Andersen is also unveiling an "invisible insect screen" at the show, a window screen the company says is visible only from up close.
Pella will show new retractable screens for patio doors, in which the screens roll into the frame of a sliding door when not in use. The company already sells retractable screens for windows.
Just don't use the invisible insect screen on a patio door...by the time you're close enough to see it, your tray of drinks has already encountered it and succumbed to the laws of physics by being knocked out of your hands...
As for a retractable screen...um...I have one of those already...it's called a sliding screen door. When I don't want it blocking the doorway, I slide it over so it's behind the solid part of the patio door. How is this retractable thing any different, I wonder?
One innovation that buyers would really go for, manufacturers say, is a true self-cleaning window -- covered with a protective surface similar to a car wax.
Wait...my windows aren't self-cleaning? Oops... Maybe I should open my blinds once in a while...
On second thought, maybe not...ignorance is probably bliss in this case...
DennyK
What about cars? You can use this to adjust the amount of tint on the windows depending on the brightness and if you are driving the vehicle.
Maybe have all windows go completely dark when parked, or 30% when driving in bright light, 0% at night.
Fight Spammers!
I don't live next door to Tom Cruise, you insensitive clod!
Money for nothing, pix for free
Let the lawsuits begin!
And they do exist: http://www.pilkington.com/pilkington/International +Products/Activ/Activ+Banner.htm
Not having to clean the windows would be very nice IMHO :)
Or if you want to save money and don't mind racking up a few criminal charges, you could just tape Tom Cruise to the outside your window and watch him wiggle, but that's only fun if you live in a highrise. Let's see if he still feels the need for speed after falling 500 feet. Alternatively, if you can't find enough tape, you could show him that contrary to what he may believe, there is, in fact, a substitute for Porsches, and introduce him to your Hummer H2 fender-first. (Don't mind me, I'm just venting.) --Nicole K.
Man, and I thought Minnesoh-tans had a complex when I lived there (don't take it badly, I'm smiling as I write this).
I don't think the media automatically puts MN before WI. It's just that they're both in flyover country and are cold in the winter (some people aren't beyond believing that there's snow in the summer).
A Yale professor is quoted to be excited about new product: 'One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'
Whoa, push that boat out!! You develop a kick-ass screen system and your first movie is... Top Gun!??!?
Evidently this product has been in development since 1986...
If you're asking what the problem is that they're trying to address, that quote tells you.
You're totally right, and the article describes this as a prototype without even an established price. Obviously for the money, whatever it may be, there are much better systems out there -- but that's when you follow the "building a shrine to your TV" model that we're all living with. Take a look around: people build whole "home theater" rooms onto their houses for this stuff, which is ridiculous. The basic M.O. here, as described in that quote from the Andersen guy, is to make the technology fit into your life better, rather that making you suffer with a hardly-really-hidden 42" screen in a colossal entertainment center around which the furniture must make its obseisance.
And yes, of course for the money you could build a nice low-profile drop-down screen. Somehow as a design choice, that wouldn't have the magic "zing" of the room going dark and the picture window turning into a screen in an instant. So nope -- not rational. (Would you want the room to darken every time you watched the 6 pm news anyway?) But it's a design approach I wouldn't mind seeing more of. And the Anderson guy who said that above has a real clue what he's trying to do, anyway.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
you can see the real thing.
Sorry, have to go finish these TPS reports.
Well, this is the last time I take advice from slashdot! I'm now out 400 bucks 'cause I took a sledgehammer to my fiancee's patio door, and sure enough, it broke. Now I have to explain that I was just testing a theory of mine.
The restraining order is another matter, however...
Chris
> With these windows, you can enjoy your backyard
> and your television from the same position
But what if you want to have both simultaneously? Does it have picture-in-picture?
Might be time to buy some stock in whoever makes baseballs and baseball bats...
What professor there is hankering to watch Top Gun so badly that s/he can't wait to see it on the newest possible technology?
yes. that's all I'm going to say in all comments from now on.
(emphasis mine)
The window would be used simply as something that your video projector would produce an image on. If the glass breaks, so what? Your TV (tuner and other equipment) is/are still fine. Only the screen needs to be replaced. Just turn the projector at an empty wall then! Or get a pulldown screen or something. Your TV still works.
The glass is NOT and LCD or any similar technology.
Karma: NaN
And another thing...
This isn't really anything new. (And they actually state that in the article too.) A few years ago I went to the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland and they showed how this glass works. (And even when I saw it a few years ago, the display had already been up for a while.) They showed multiple ways of changing the screen from clear to opaque.
There were 4 ways: touch sensitive (when you touch the window, it toggled clear/opaque), switch (simple ON/OFF, like a normal light switch), sound sensitive (you could clap your hands and the screen would toggle), and... hm. darn. can't really remember the 4th way. Maybe it changed depending on the light around it? (if there was enough light, it was opaque, otherwise it was clear? this way it could be used to help cool your home during the summers by keeping the sunlight out, but still allow you to see out of it in the mornings and evenings.)
Karma: NaN
Alan Turing thought about criteria to settle the question of whether
machines can think, a question of which we now know that it is about
as relevant as the question of whether submarines can swim.
-- Dijkstra
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