AquaScript paints words onto water

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!

[john @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:06PM]

didn't jeep already do this a the autoshow last year?

[Tom @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:59PM]

yes they did, its been around for like 2 years

[Lucretius @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:08PM]

Not only been done, but done better. :\
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2LUz2WVcek

[x3qt0r @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:12PM]

I have seen this.. or at least something similar on the Discovery channel.
The one which I saw was interactive too.

[pathogen @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:35PM]

Seems really loud, novel tho.

[James Scott @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:35PM]

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.

[Ondra Soukup @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:45PM]

Jeep booth, Genova autoshow 2005 (or maybe even 2006, can't remember). The very same thing. Only a bit earlier...

[shaun @ Feb 3rd 2008 4:54PM]

Now who's gonna put Tetris on it?

[chainofcommand02 @ Feb 3rd 2008 5:10PM]

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/

[Adam C @ Feb 3rd 2008 5:12PM]

Slow news day.

[ecobore @ Feb 3rd 2008 5:17PM]

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!

[hrf3420 @ Feb 3rd 2008 5:18PM]

THIS IS OLD CRAP. I SAW ONE OF THESE IN GERMANY THREE YEARS AGO.

[Emre Aydinceren @ Feb 3rd 2008 5:23PM]

Old old old.. Jeep shows this at each autoshow . I remember seeing this in 2001

[Steffen Jobbs @ Feb 3rd 2008 5:43PM]

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.

[Stork @ Feb 3rd 2008 5:49PM]

Couldn't they just project an image onto a constant stream of falling droplets of water?

[computer.dude.28 @ Feb 3rd 2008 6:47PM]

Nah, That would be too easy!

[Anton @ Feb 3rd 2008 6:01PM]

Invented in 1983, on sale since 1989. http://www.pevnickdesign.com/

[Mile @ Feb 3rd 2008 6:18PM]

I do this with just a garden hose and my thumb and two fingers.

[Elroy @ Feb 3rd 2008 6:29PM]

This technology desperately needs to be integrated into some kind of futuristic urinal.

[Error404 @ Feb 3rd 2008 6:37PM]

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.

[spyboy @ Feb 3rd 2008 6:41PM]

I don't think anyone wants to see a display made with 1000 gallons of pee

[Neebs @ Feb 3rd 2008 9:05PM]

It's in color!

[schulzzy @ Feb 3rd 2008 7:09PM]

anyone remember when Anheuser-Busch had one of these at the 96 olympics in atlanta?

[Alan @ Feb 6th 2008 4:26PM]

The 1996 Summer Olympics Budweiser display was done by Pevnick Design, the company mentioned in an earlier comment.

[Mike Fletcher @ Feb 3rd 2008 7:20PM]

I was going to say the same thing... Jeep's is just a little smaller, and I've see it the last 2 years

[RichardBronosky @ Feb 3rd 2008 9:18PM]

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.

[David @ Feb 3rd 2008 9:31PM]

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.

[[W] @ Feb 3rd 2008 10:31PM]

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.

[James @ Feb 3rd 2008 10:34PM]

Old as my granny's panties.

[Reader @ Feb 3rd 2008 11:17PM]

I just bought her a new pair like last week.

[Matt @ Feb 3rd 2008 11:41PM]

Hellz yeah, in Atl. Only theirs was huge!

[Phantom1219 @ Feb 4th 2008 12:51AM]

It looks purdy.

[lintsniffer @ Feb 4th 2008 1:08AM]

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!

[Pieterle @ Feb 4th 2008 1:53AM]

So unfortunate that it is in Arial - the bastard typeface of our time.

[bones3d @ Feb 4th 2008 4:31AM]

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.

[Max @ Feb 4th 2008 4:34AM]

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

[Oli @ Feb 4th 2008 6:29AM]

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.

[yobert @ Feb 4th 2008 8:27AM]

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

[ben @ Feb 4th 2008 8:28AM]

They used this at the 2002 or 2003 WWE Royal Rumble in Boston. It was pretty unique.

[justin @ Feb 4th 2008 9:42AM]

Stephen Pevnick had a display like this at the 1996 Olympics... America for the win...

www.PevnickDesign.com

[Mabedan @ Feb 4th 2008 10:02AM]

not new at all, you have the same thing in mylène farmer's concert
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AVn82cxHe7k

[illusion @ Feb 4th 2008 12:08PM]

yea, mr. pevnick was my teacher for a digital arts class i took at UWM. pretty cool stuff.

[Lucas Dailey @ Feb 4th 2008 12:27PM]

Yeah, the inventor was my professor at UW-Milwaukee. cool guy.

[mambox @ Feb 5th 2008 12:42AM]

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

[putz @ Feb 5th 2008 10:37AM]

yeaa steve is my teacher right now i remember seeing these when a started school a few years back. Milwaukee FTW

[Matt Rayner @ Feb 7th 2008 10:48AM]

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...

[andrew @ Feb 25th 2008 2:29AM]

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.