Apparently, water is all the rage these days if you want to get a message seen. In
Tokyo Bay Monster-fashion (sans holographic video monster), a designer named Julius Popp has created a system of displaying moving text and images using falling drops of water, thus creating a kind of virtual billboard that appears to be hovering in mid-air. The system -- called AquaScript -- works by utilizing magnet-valves which expel single drops of water on demand; proprietary software syncs the valves into a "freely definable bitmap-muster" which produces blocks of images with the falling liquid. Check the video after the break and see the wetworks in action.
Update: According to the flurry of activity in comments, Jeep has been up to these shenanigans for quite some time, though it appears they're using a system designed independently of this one... which kind of makes Mr. Popp's work just
slightly less exciting. Thanks guys!
posted February 3rd 2008 4:03PM
didn't jeep already do this a the autoshow last year?
yes they did, its been around for like 2 years
Not only been done, but done better. :\
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2LUz2WVcek
I have seen this.. or at least something similar on the Discovery channel.
The one which I saw was interactive too.
Seems really loud, novel tho.
I first saw this at the 2004 Toronto International Autoshow. Not only did they make words with the wall but they used it as a projection screen too. It was all extremely slick.
Jeep booth, Genova autoshow 2005 (or maybe even 2006, can't remember). The very same thing. Only a bit earlier...
Now who's gonna put Tetris on it?
What a duff use of the technology - the poor dancers must be ashamed to show the video! The usage by Jeep was much better. Like the idea of Tetris!
Sounds a lot like this older Engadget post: http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/13/zaragoza-world-expo-to-feature-mit-designed-digital-water-wall/
Slow news day.
THIS IS OLD CRAP. I SAW ONE OF THESE IN GERMANY THREE YEARS AGO.
Old old old.. Jeep shows this at each autoshow . I remember seeing this in 2001
It really doesn't seem all that useful. Even the Jeep version wasn't that good. I'll admit it is novel, but has even less impact than skywriting.
Couldn't they just project an image onto a constant stream of falling droplets of water?
Nah, That would be too easy!
Invented in 1983, on sale since 1989. http://www.pevnickdesign.com/
I do this with just a garden hose and my thumb and two fingers.
This technology desperately needs to be integrated into some kind of futuristic urinal.
All this downward-vertical-scrolling is getting old. Wake me when they figure out how to do a horizontal scroll, or upward scroll.... or heck, no scroll at all.
I don't think anyone wants to see a display made with 1000 gallons of pee
It's in color!
anyone remember when Anheuser-Busch had one of these at the 96 olympics in atlanta?
The 1996 Summer Olympics Budweiser display was done by Pevnick Design, the company mentioned in an earlier comment.
I was going to say the same thing... Jeep's is just a little smaller, and I've see it the last 2 years
I went to Thailand three years ago and went to the King's exhibition, and this water thing was used, and it was amazing. Far better than this one, and that was three years ago.
One of those Japanese voice over shows on Spike has a wall in the background that does the exact opposite with bubbles. You see the text scroll up the wall. It looks much cooler and it is silent.
This was installed at my school's art museum for a while last year - apparently it's hooked up to and rss feed that draws random words from online searches. It's very neat to watch - even if Jeep was doing it first.
Yeah, the inventor was my professor at UW-Milwaukee. cool guy.
Old as my granny's panties.
I just bought her a new pair like last week.
yea, mr. pevnick was my teacher for a digital arts class i took at UWM. pretty cool stuff.
Hellz yeah, in Atl. Only theirs was huge!
It looks purdy.
lol you think 3 years ago is old?
I saw this at the 1996 Altanta Olympics done by Coke. It was huge. 11.5 YEARS AGO!
So unfortunate that it is in Arial - the bastard typeface of our time.
The artist Myléne Farmer use this for her last concert, with falling letters and like a big screen.
Watch it : http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=LUgmDI1a80o
This could be even more fun using mercury to create dynamic funhouse mirror effects. Probably could even fry a bird using it on a sunny day.
Another option, would be to use some kind of a dark, opaque, but reflective fluid with high surface diffusion, then coordinate the system to time the drops to be scanned with a system of red, green and blue lasers. It'd probably work somewhat well as a free-floating display but would act a bit more predictably and uniformally than previous attempts with projection across fog/smoke. Also, since it's liquid based, you wouldn't be limited to a static surface shape. You might even be able to generate dynamic 3D objects using the droplets to create the surface geometry while the lasers generate the texture as they scan along the surface.
I´ve seen this "water letters" last year at the IAA in Frankfurt (Germany). Old news, guys...
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=10gPqXUJQsY&feature=related
They used this at the 2002 or 2003 WWE Royal Rumble in Boston. It was pretty unique.
There is a system called Aqua Visual FX which is manufactured by Le Maitre Effects in the UK which it seems is a slightly more advanced idea- the video on their site is quite impressive.
Actually Mr Popp has been doing this sort of thing for a few years. I first saw this at an exhibition in 2005 (and I understand he'd been up to this sort if thing for some time before that)...
http://www.illuminateproductions.co.uk/flux/artist.asp?id=4
Stephen Pevnick had a display like this at the 1996 Olympics... America for the win...
www.PevnickDesign.com
not new at all, you have the same thing in mylène farmer's concert
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AVn82cxHe7k
yeaa steve is my teacher right now i remember seeing these when a started school a few years back. Milwaukee FTW
Yeah, this IS the system that one of the other commenters "saw in Germany three years ago". The difference is that it was an art installation called "BIT..FALL" back then. Aquascript is the commercialization of BIT..FALL. It's more powerful and has more capacity than the Pevnick system. Available for weddings and bar-mitzvahs...
Yes, Professor Pevnick invented this type of Environmental Art in the 1970s. Originally he called his device "Rainfall" but later it became the Graphical Waterfall. Steve Pevnick is a professor of art at the University Wisconsin Milwaukee. There is a 1978/79 patent on it to show who came first. Not only first but after 30 years has perfected it so that his water displays can be 2' thick and any length or height.
Using the graphical waterfall as a Environmental Art center piece in Malls, Airports and city centers is something Professor Pevnick is hoping to achieve. Originally working with Light, sound and water, Professor Pevnick was trying to give the full sensory perception of art. To see art is not enough,,, you need to use all your senses. Professor Pevnick has achieved this and more.