After the post about Reactrix going out of business, a couple of companies got in touch to tell about their own projection systems:
The Cube by Gesturetek is "is interactive floor projection system that's turnkey, plug and play and portable."
Spotless Light is "a patented technology that senses reflective surfaces and focuses the projection beam on just those surfaces."
And Catchyoo by LM3Labs seems similar to Reactrix in that it also operates as an outdoor network.
Thanks for spotlighting GestureTek's Cube interactive floor projection display system.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to note that GestureTek is the inventor, pioneer and world leader in interactive projection surfaces, with over 4,000 installations worldwide.
We have licensed our many patents for video gesture control to companies who wish to do business in this space, including to a company that was mentioned in your piece.
More details on our patents for video gesture control, multiple camera control, stereo and 3D vision image control can be found at gesturetek.com
GTek has always been the leader in PR. They find blog posts instantly and trot out their overblown opinion of themselves. (Which is a rather negative way to say that their PR people are doing a great job of exactly what they're supposed to do!)
ReplyDeleteGTek invented a couple of minor pieces of interactive projection systems. None of them are necessary for a high-quality system. GTek's own system is getting better, it appears, although it looks like they still offer only primitive interactions and I'd hoped they would be able to ride Flash's coattails better; it appears they still aren't making use of its newer capabilities. Historically, their system has also been "install and forget" -- as in, "install and forget about it running properly after you turn your back." I don't know if they've managed to do any better on that front. Reactrix had a nice network management system, but even running disconnected, they seemed to keep working until the projector bulbs blew out.
The Spotless Light people have a great idea. Maybe someday they'll figure out something cool to use it for. This video is certainly not it.
The Catchyoo video looked awful to me, but I suspect that was just the playback in my browser. I know their stuff -- early on, they were pretty outrageous in the way they ripped off Reactrix's stuff (all of their early demos were nearly identical to Reactrix's early stuff, just with different logos.) But they did a good quality job of it. I've never played with one of their systems in person, but visually they have always looked very good. I don't know how stable or reliable their setup is.
But it seems odd to mention these guys without talking about Natal. Seems like they've got a decent shot at making this stuff finally break out for real. Ok, they're not projecting at the moment, and their camera has a narrow range, but commoditization is a hugely powerful thing.
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteAt YDreams we have also been developing our won interactive projections for a while. We usually integrate them in ambient technology projects, but you can see some stand-alone examples here:
- Virtual Garden (our first, back in 2003)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCuPU6fVGCo
- Nissan at Lisbon Airport (34 mt long)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekuoqgC9CvE
We're also commercializing a platform, Architek, that allow distributors to create projections similar to these using only a backoffice type program, based on our system.
http://www.ydreams.com/ydreams_2005/index.php?page=500