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Point and Flick: GoodPoint
Status: In development
Remember the scene in Steven Spielberg’s 2002 blockbuster movie, “Minority Report,” where Tom Cruise’s character interfaces with the information on his high-tech computer screen like Leonard Bernstein conducting an obedient New York Philharmonic? That movie was set in the year 2054, but the same multimedia-presentation technology, GoodPoint, is here now. To create an in-booth presentation using GoodPoint, you load your presentation material — including images, video, sound files, even other software programs, such as Microsoft Excel — onto your hard drive, which syncs up with the GoodPoint system. After your materials are loaded, simply pull on a pair of special gloves that connect wirelessly to the GoodPoint screen, and communicate with it by using simple hand motions, such as waving, thumbs up, and raised-palm “stop” gestures. Pictures and text on the screen appear and move when and where you want them to, freeing you from the stylistic straitjacket of conventional PowerPoint presentations. With technology like this on the horizon, you can start using that computer mouse as a paperweight, and give your outdated laser pointer to the cat.
Source: Gesture Studios, Los Angeles, www.gesturestudios.com
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Light Heavyweight: Litracon
Status: Currently available
In “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” Scotty gives a 20th-century businessman the chemical formula for transparent aluminum. Big deal. We’ve got see-through concrete, and, unlike transparent aluminum, it’s as real as William Shatner’s hairpiece. Called Litracon, the concrete blocks contain hundreds of embedded glass optical fibers that transmit light from front to back. As a result, objects passing by on one side of the concrete wall appear as sharp — and somewhat spooky — silhouettes on the other. Instead of fortress-like blank walls, Litracon allows attendees an intriguing glimpse of shadows and shapes they can’t resist investigating. Available in precast blocks up to almost 20 inches thick, Litracon could turn your booth into a block party no one will want to miss.
Source: Litracon Bt, Csongrád, Hungary, 36-30-255-1648, www.litracon.hu
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Have a Ball: Momento
Status: In development
After the title character of H.G. Wells’ 1899 novel “When the Sleeper Wakes” stirs from a 203-year-long catnap, he encounters a strange device that plays sound and pictures that seem like “reality viewed through an inverted opera glass.” That’s how you could describe Momento. Built as a concept gadget the same way concept cars at auto shows are to pique the public’s interest, Momento looks like a snow globe. But, unlike the decorative object, you can beam still images or video to Momento via a wireless Bluetooth connection. Then, when an attendee walks by, an internal sensor wakes up Momento, playing anything from video of your CEO greeting visitors to video demos of your latest widgets. Like a real snow globe, just shake Momento and a new video or picture instantly appears. While not currently slated for production, you don’t need a crystal ball to see the technology is practically ready-made for the trade show floor.
Source: Royal Philips Electronics N.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands, 31-20-59-77-777, www.philips.com |
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Guiding Lights: Lumalive
Status: Currently available
Status: Currently available
Twenty-six years ago, the futuristic novel “Dream Park” imagined clothes with watches imprinted into their fabric. Reality, though, turned out to be stranger — and cooler — than fiction: Lumalive technology makes it possible to weave LEDs into any fabric or fabric-covered object, from T-shirts and towels to Speedos and sofas. Imagine the possibilities: Staffers wearing shirts with lighted insignias pre-set to color wash through all of your company’s hues while they walk with visitors over a carpet glowing neon bright with pictures of your newest products into a lounge where they relax on couches that glimmer softly with your corporate messaging. With Lumalive, your clients will undoubtedly see the light — and remember it.
Source: Royal Philips Electronics N.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands,
31-20-59-77-777, www.philips.com
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Screen Play: Disposable Video
Status: In development
In 1929, CBS president William Paley predicted that televisions of the future would be “supersized, stereo-scopic screens.” But what he didn’t see was that the future of video could also be super downsized. Munich, Germany,-based Siemens AG’s new Disposable Video is undoubtedly one of the biggest — and smallest — developments in video screens to date. Powered by an ultra-thin battery, Siemens’ color video screen can be printed on anything from paper to foil, and on items as small and thin as badges, labels, product literature, tickets, books, and magazines. Once activated by an electrical charge — you might press a button on a badge or ticket, which switches on the battery — your prospects could actually carry your video presentation around with them. The disposable videos could inform them about your products, give them directions to your off-site event, or even cue up interactive video games — all without the need for a television or DVD player.
Source: Siemens AG, Munich, Germany, 49-89-636-00, www.siemens.com
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The Water's Fine: AMOEBA
Status: In development
The advanced aliens in “The Abyss” created forms out of H2O as magically as Michelangelo did marble. Now the AMOEBA (Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin) brings the outer-space technology down to Earth. A set of 50 generators surrounding a water-filled tank produce waves that in turn form precise lines, shapes, and even words. AMOEBA could draw your company’s logo, spell out its slogans, or create a 3-D replica of your latest product.
Source: Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., Tokyo, 81-3-3544-3147, www.mes.co.jp
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Wired Up: eCoupled Wireless Power
Status: Currently available
Transmitting energy without power lines has been a dream for almost a century, ever since Nikola Tesla tried to build a 187-foot-tall tower in 1901 that would beam energy — and a particle-beam “death ray” — anywhere in the world without the need for wires. The death ray didn’t pan out, but wireless energy’s time has come with eCoupled Intelligent Wireless Power technology. Debuting at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show last January, eCoupled allows, for example, an exhibitor to power its in-booth devices without the typical confusion of cords. A nearby built-in “hot spot” using eCoupled technology keeps everything from laptops to cell phones to PDAs constantly charged — as long as all the devices have attached eCoupled adapters. Not only does it mean no-strings-attached electricity, but it also has the potential to become a useful in-booth giveaway: free on-the-spot recharges for attendees’ gadgets and gizmos. From now on, using wires is just, well, haywire.
Source: Fulton Innovation Inc., Ada, MI, 800-222-1462, www.ecoupled.com |
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Off the Wall: HypoSurface
Status: Currently available
Back in the psychedelic 1960s, sci-fi writer J.G. Ballard invented psychotropic houses whose “plastex” walls reacted to inhabitants’ emotions by expanding like a kid blowing bubblegum. Today, instead of plastex, we have HypoSurface, and it’s just as mind blowing. Constructed of approximately 900 small metal pistons underneath a “skin” of fabric and plastic, HypoSurface behaves like a wall with a genius IQ and the emotions of a puppy that’s happy to see your customers. It can entertain prospects — and keep them in the booth — by stretching toward visitors like it’s reaching out to hug them, while pre-programmed images — from kaleidoscope-like fractals to company logos and text messages — ripple across it in 3-D. It can also react to sound, light, motion, or touch from people interacting with it. Source: The C.W. Allen Group LLC., Birmingham, AL, 205-263-0555, www.cwallengroup.com, www.hyposurface.org |
Holo, Stranger: M3 Heliodisplay
Status: Currently available
The first Stars Wars movie had us at holo — holographic that is, when a 3-D image of Princess Leia in her cinnamon-bun coiffure appeared out of thin air pleading for help from Obi-Wan. But the M3 Heliodisplay is light years beyond her highness’ bobblehead-sized image. It can take pictures and video from computers, televisions, DVDs, HDTVs, and video-game consoles, and create a 3-D, 30-inch-diagonal image in midair from a projector hidden in your booth. The image can also work like a virtual touchscreen. Attendees could “press” a part of the image labeled, for instance, “Portfolio,” and the M3 would run video of your company’s past work for attendees to stare at in shock and awe.
Source: IO2Technology LLC, San Francisco, 650-583-5230, www.io2technology.com |
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Mood Rings 2.0: KotoHana Emotion Communicator
Status: In development
The first Stars Wars movie had us at holo — holographic that is, when a 3-D image of Princess Leia in her cinnamon-bun coiffure appeared out of thin air pleading for help from Obi-Wan. But the M3 Heliodisplay is light years beyond her highness’ bobblehead-sized image. It can take pictures and video from computers, televisions, DVDs, HDTVs, and video-game consoles, and create a 3-D, 30-inch-diagonal image in midair from a projector hidden in your booth. The image can also work like a virtual touchscreen. Attendees could “press” a part of the image labeled, for instance, “Portfolio,” and the M3 would run video of your company’s past work for attendees to stare at in shock and awe.
Source: IO2Technology LLC, San Francisco, 650-583-5230, www.io2technology.com |
Heavy Metal: Mediamesh
Status: Currently available
The genetically engineered creatures in Rudy Ricker’s cyberpunk novel, “Wetware” cover themselves with “flickercladding,” materials that let them absorb and radiate light in whatever pattern they choose. Now you can cover your booth in its own skin that’s stranger than anything in science fiction. Mediamesh is stainless-steel wire mesh with LED technology woven into it that creates booth walls that are half display, half work of art. Powered through control units that are easily concealed and connected to your central servers, Mediamesh can be woven into virtually any shape or size, and can display images from basic graphics to video output. While your competitors might try to dazzle visitors with boring, old plasma screens or LED displays inside their booths, your entire exhibit architecture can be as bright as Times Square, and as artistic as the Museum of Modern Art. This is one time you’ll want to make a mesh of everything in your booth.
Source: GKD-USA Inc., Cambridge, MD, 800-453-8616, www.gkdmetalfabrics.com
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