DigitalTicker
Latest
Breakfast's super-speed reactive electromagnetic display is 44,000 dots of promotional awesome (video)
TNT wanted to launch its new crime show Perception, in style, and we have to give it to 'em, this is pretty cool. Working with professional technological tinkerers, Breakfast, they created a 23 x 12 foot display made up of 44,000 electromagnetic dots. Imagine those ticker boards you see at train stations, jazzed up with a little modern flavor. The dots are white on one side, black on the other, and move at 15 times the speed of their typical rail-station counterparts -- giving a real-time effect. The installation is set up in Manhattan's Herald Square until July 29th, and is fully interactive. When pedestrians walk past, the board updates to reflect their movement, and this "silhouette" interacts with words and images on the screen. Extra sensory stimulation also comes from the noise the board makes, literally letting you hear your movements. If a picture paints a thousand words, then 44,000 dots in a video paints even more. Head past the break to see the beast in action, plus more details on how it was done.
Feedair Digital Ticker hands-on
Feedair is a USB-powered WiFi enabled digital ticker that will span emails and tweets (or anything else with an RSS Feed) to its old-school dot-matrix display. Controlled with an iOS or Android app, it's designed as an "unobtrusive display:" for those situations where you can keep a casual eye on a physical device or send messages to people who aren't au-fait with technology. Feeling it in the hand, it's machined from heavy aluminum and we could see this doubling as a paperweight for the right kind of office -- and a great way for your assistant to send you discreet messages during tedious meetings. Constructing a "vidget" (visual widget) is apparently very easy and the company's planning to court young developers to expand the capacity of the gear. Setting up the display to show Engadget's twitter feed took around 30 seconds, although in the process, the app froze out a few times, so it's not quite ready for prime-time just yet. The Feedair is expected to hit the shelves in March and cost around $50. Dana Murph contributed to this report.
