USA Explores Shadowlamps
By Hannah Welham
A new wave of internet voyeurism has surfaced this week as Japanese designers promote their new creation: the ‘shadow lamp’ or ‘Teleshadow’ which projects live video of your friends on to a lampshade. The creators hope that the recently unstoppable fads of MySpace and Facebook will be swept aside in the wake of this “non-intrusive” form of internet communication.Designed by postgraduate student Shunpei Yasuda at the University of Keio, Japan, the technology behind the idea is really quite simple. Users will have cameras in their rooms which feed a video of their movements to friends over the Internet.
Friends can watch as the video is converted to a moving shadow projected onto a small lamp. To avoid confusion (after all, it’s pretty difficult to tell one shadow from another) shadow lamp owners are provided with individual smart cards for each of their friends, so you can tell whose signal you are picking up. The design also manages to keep up with its contemporaries by having an optional touch screen allowing for vocal communication between lamps.
|
))
In fact, the design has a very cultural basis, having been inspired by the Shoji paper walls popular in Japanese homes. The walls allow people in neighbouring rooms some privacy whilst still reminding others of their presence. Yasuda hopes that Teleshadow will achieve the same thing.
The concept seems set to take America by storm having been successfully showcased at the recent San Diego Siggraph computer graphics convention. Be afraid Britain, be very afraid.
Get more from Hannah or from the Siggraph convention or just hang it all and stay with the Null:
- Weird inventions - Robo-Einstein busts a groove
- Unsung heroes - Who invented the button?
- How it works - Wi-tricity: cordless power
- Gadgets - Weird stuff from the Null shop
Images: Teleshadow
Share this
