Hasta La Ideas

I’m at CES this week – the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which this year looks to be dominated by 3D TV launches

CES is geek heaven: the biggest electronics show in the world, where major manufacturers launch their new products for the year.

Apparently 3D TV has become something of a tradition here, with grand claims being made for such devices almost every year, with little real-world results. This time, however, things are different. Panasonic and LG have unveiled ranges of 3D enabled sets but perhaps the most compelling case came from Sony at a glitzy press launch today.

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer announced a range of 3D TVs (on sale in the US in the summer) that certainly worked impressively on the demo stand. Yes, you still need to wear glasses (not the old red and green ones but the ‘shuttered’ type currently in use at cinemas) but the results, for both broadcast TV and gaming, were amazing – none of which can be seen by my rubbish pictures in this post.

UPDATE: I have some more info on how the Sony 3D TV system works. You need three things: a 3D capable TV, a transmitter and some ‘Active Shutter’ glasses. The transmitter sends a signal to the glasses that opens and closes the shutter 200 times a second to create the 3D effect. The 3D Tvs that Sony is launching in the summer will have built-in transmitters. Otherwise, there will be a free upgrade to the PS3 that will turn it into one, or else you need to buy a separate box.

Having to wear the glasses feels a bit clumsy and limiting. Apparently other manufacturers have tried systems which don’t need glasses, instead they use a lens which is put in front of the TV screen. Sony say that these lenses are, at present, prohibitively expensive and that you need to sit directly in front of the TV for them to work well. So it looks like we’re stuck with the specs for now.

But what marks Sony’s approach out from its competitors is that it also makes content to show on its new gadgets – through Sony Pictures. And it makes the cameras used to shoot the stuff in the first place. So getting us all to buy into 3D is very much in its interests.

Stringer made two more announcements which mean that 3D is finally something to be taken seriously. Sony is partnering with Discovery and Imax to launch a 3D version of the Discovery Channel in 2011 (cue lots of sharks leaping out of the screen to terrifiy viewers). And it is also partnering with ESPN to launch ESPN 3D in June. ESPN will show 25 World Cup games in 3D as part of 85 events that will be broadcast in 3D during the channel’s first year.

A lot has been made of the success of James Cameron’s Avatar in pushing 3D but Sony clearly believes that sport will be a prime driver in its adoption.

And where broadcasters go, advertisers will follow. The potential for creating stunning commercials and music videos is huge. In another cross-group tie-in, Stringer announced that Sony will be releasing a whole host of concerts and other music-related content in 3D from artists on Sony Music. Plus, it will make a ‘firmware’ upgrade available for PS3’s to enable 3D gaming in the autumn.

More gadgetry tomorrow.

London-based BERG demonstrate the potential of tablet devices to deliver a rich experience for magazine lovers

Magazine publishers are getting very excited about the potential of iPhone Apps, but far better experiences may be on the way with the imminent arrival of tablet devices. In this hugely impressive video, BERG walk us through their ideas for how magazines may work on such a device.

<object width=”400″ height=”225″><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8217311&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;fullscreen=1″ /><embed src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8217311&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=ffffff&amp;fullscreen=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”400″ height=”225″></embed></object><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/8217311″>Mag+</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/bonnier”>Bonnier</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

As this Guardian story notes, this isn’t just pie in the sky conceptualising but part of serious research commissioned by Swedish publisher Bonnier, which believes that such devices will be in use in two years’ time.

The BERG concept certainly seems more considered than this idea for Sports Illustrated that has recently done the rounds online.

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BERG make some very good points about the nature of magazines and how that might translate online – how readers like to feel that there is a beginning and an end to reading a magazine in contrast to the endless streams of content available via, for example, RSS feeds, and how enjoyable the physical act of flipping between pages can be.

For publishers, such a package of content, that marries a magazine-like experience with the connectivity of the web (by allowing instant updates, commenting, links etc) offers a far better prospect that websites. As iPhone apps have shown, people will pay for content when it is packaged up and distributed like a product. Just like they do in print.

There is more discussion about what is being termed the Mag+ project at Bonnier’s R&D Beta Lab here

Jeremy Leslie will be writing about these developments in an article for the February issue of CR.

Chilean digital design and fabrication studio gt_2P have designed a table made of intersecting two-dimensional forms that are designed using parametric software. (more…)

London designers Jason Bruges Studio has completed an installation of digital “mirrors” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. (more…)

Digital agency Saint and Karsten Schmidt have created a generative marketing campaign for the V&A’s new show of digital art and design, Decode. And you can make your own version…

V&A Decode generative identity from postspectacular on Vimeo.

Saint commissioned Schmidt to create an ever-changing open source artwork (above) that will be used for the exhibition identity (a detailed description of the process is on Schmidt’s site here. Documentary pics here). Visitors to the Decode website can then interact with the piece and create their own version, either at a surface level by manipulating Schmidt’s piece, or at a deeper level by downloading the open source code (here). The visitors’ efforts can then be posted to the Decode site. Check out the Recode gallery to see the submissions so far – here’s one by Austrian artist Lia who is also exhibiting in the show:

Recode Decode by Lia from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

Recode Decode by Lia from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.

A selection of the best will then be featured on digital advertising screens on the London Underground.

A review of Decode will appear in the January issue of CR, out on December 18, but in the meantime here are a few highlights:

Daniel Brown’s On Growth and Form at the entrance to the show. An ever-changing array of exotic digital flowers is created using images drawn from the V&A’s collection

Decode’s exhibits are not confined to the gallery – Jason Bruges Studio’s Mirror Mirror (commissioned for the show) is located in the pond of the v&a garden. A group of light panels each contain a camera to detect the presence of visitors walking into the garden. The visitors’ movements are captured and displayed across the water

Also commissioned specially for Decode is bit.code by Julius Popp, which sits in the Museum’s Grand Entrance. Rotating tracks form words drawn from a variety of websites monitored by the work

The sound-reactive Dune by Daan Roosegaarde (photo: Daan Roosegaarde) which visitors to Decode pass through on their way into the show

Daniel Rozin’s Weave Mirror uses 768 motorised laminated c-shaped prints which go from light to dark. The user stands in front of a screen: the shadow they cast behind them is then translated into a ghostly portrait on the Weave Mirror as each element whirrs and clanks into place acting as a mechanical pixel

Decode is at the V&A’s Porter Gallery until April 11