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UK moviegoers treated to industry's first interactive 3D game


Now here's a way to make us show up for the previews. O2 has evidently figured out that getting moviegoers involved in the action is a good way to get more fundaments in seats, and starting next week, the first in-cinema interactive 3D game will be rolled out in 20 Vue theaters around the UK. The title, dubbed Asteroid Storm, will rely on two overhead cameras that recognize hand raises down below. In short, moviegoers simply move their hands to direct a damaged spaceship out of an asteroid belt, but there's no word on whether or not "everyone's a winner." Here's hoping not, chumps.

Apple patents motion-sensitive HMD concept in defiance of good taste


Apple has added to its legacy of zany patents a head-mounted display with head-tracking technology intended to reduce viewer fatigue and disorientation (and induce nausea, if we're lucky) by simulating a theater or other viewing environment. The wearer of the device can pick a seat in the fake theater and then manipulate the image, zoom in and out, and look around thanks to an accelerometer and gyroscope built into the goggles. Few of these patents make it to market, but if you're eager to throw social acceptability out the window, there are already iPod and iPhone-compatible head-mounted displays on the market -- you'll just have to do without the positioning gimmick until Apple is crazy enough to actually sell this thing.

[Via TUAW]

La Machine's spider-mech traipses through the streets of Liverpool


France: it's like Canada, only with less hockey, and more boring mechanical spiders. Those hosers have foisted this amazingly-styled and yet utterly dull "La Princesse" piece of street theater on the innocent, unsuspecting people of Liverpool, and the travesty is set to continue for another couple of days. Hit up the read link for BBC's video of the mundanity.

Sony's Hot Ticket program brings live events to theaters at $20 a pop

Rent with Joey Fatone
If you're a live event nut but live in the sticks, listen up: Sony is about to bring live performances to digital theaters with its new Hot Ticket program. Sony will broadcast Broadway shows, concerts, and sports events to around 500 digital theaters, live and in HD digital projection for about $20 a seat. The venture will launch with Cirque du Soleil's final performance of Delirium from London and for the two of you who haven't seen it yet, Rent's final Broadway performance will be shown in September. We have to admit, though, this could create some fun SuperBowl parties with rival factions on either side of the aisle, Congress style.

The Game Boy musical teaches addict a lesson

So long as there are fanboys roaming the streets (and electronics aisles), weird fetishes and unashamed overkill will still have their places, but it's not too often that a gaming addiction finds a home on Broadway. In The Game Boy, Matthew Gandolfo and Robin Rothstein's family-friendly musical, a well-taught lad dubbed Chase purportedly falls a bit too head over heels for his dear Game Boy, which presumably leads to all kinds of childhood development issues. According to the production notes, the kiddo is simply consumed in the pixelated universe, and strives to "always being the best," regardless of the real folks he ignores in the process. As predicted, this behavior eventually results in a life of loneliness and dread, probably forcing poor Chase to switch off the Nintendo handheld and seek out his long lost friends. Of course, his parents could have just shipped him over Amsterdam to remedy the issue, but if you're interested in seeing the outcome yourself, be sure to hit up the Vital Theater Company in New York City from now until April 22nd.

TI pushing to get DLP in your cellphone, local cinema

It's not terribly uncommon to see a manufacturer try to push a product (or platform) into every crevice of your life, and it seems that Texas Instruments is diverting quite sharply from its calculatorish ways of old and making an aggressive push to get that DLP logo slapped on everything you own. While we've seen (literally) the diminutive Microvision display do its thang here at CES, TI is hoping to steal that thunder away by talking up its forthcoming palm-sized DLP projectors. The "fully featured" Pocket Projectors, which are co-developed by OMAP, would weigh "less than one pound," use the .55 DLP chip, and could purportedly connect to handsets or PDAs to beam up that big(ger) screen imagery for a crowd to see. Unfortunately for TI, these devices are not (at least initially) supposed to be integrated units, which could easily get overlooked if those built-in alternatives can muster acceptable quality. Additionally, TI is hoping to get that DLP logo stamped on your brain even when you visit the cinema, as the company now has its technology in 3,000 theaters worldwide and is frequently throwing logo-clad splash screens onto the canvas during pre-show advertisements. So if you wonder why you're strangely drawn to the DLP sets during your next HDTV shopping trip, trust us, it's not the mirrors, it's the marketing.

[Via AboutProjectors]

Wii in a theater: we don't need no stinkin' pixels


This latest Wii vid, which we've decided in a completely non-mathematical way stretches those 480p pixels to about one square foot of screen per, just goes to prove what all those Wii fanboys have been politely discussing with the Sony and Microsoft camps all along: pixels don't necessarily equal fun. In fact, we'd like to present another theorem of Wii fun: any game that makes your friends look like total fools -- sort of like they look when they're actually bowling, golfing, boxing or saving princesses -- is a total keeper, and if you can do it while being immersed in a totally sick 344-inch theater screen, with a digital theater projector and homemade sensor bar backing you up, then it's all the merrier. Keep reading for a video of this ultimate in Wii setups, or peep that read link for detailed instructions in building your own sensor bar (a variation on the original DoctaBu design).

Sony's 18,000 lumen SXRD 4K prototype projector

So you've got a fancy home theatre system do ya? Oh, and you like to boast a bit about the 3000 lumens your 1080p DLP kicks? Well check that ego son, 'cause Sony just unveiled their newest SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display) 4K projection technology which slams your home kit with a blinding 18,000 lumens (nearly twice the brightness of their top-o-the-line SRC-R110, pictured to right) and a 4096 x 2160 resolution. As you may have guessed, these are designed and priced for commercial movie theatres. Still, if you've got a couple hundie grand to drop, we're sure Sony might grant an exception to you and your fifty-foot screen.
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