Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
For his mechanical mirrors, artist Daniel Rozin mounts hundreds of small objects like wooden tiles or metal balls in grids to produce displays capable of "reflecting" images picked up by a video camera. The 25-square-foot Circles Mirror
consists of 900 overlapping discs of laminated paper that rotate to mimic the changing shadows and light in the captured video footage. Each circle is powered by its own motor and bears one of 12 laser-printed patterns that range from light to dark. Custom software breaks down images geometrically into 30- by 30-pixel representations, with each circle corresponding to a pixel. The result isn't as precise as what you'd see in a glass mirror, but it's recognizable all the same.
University of Tokyo
Within the confines of a 3- by 4-foot screen, Carl Sagan's time-travel pipe dreams become reality. Touching the projector's Spandex surface sends the video playing under your palm backward or forward in time, producing spatiotemporal mashups. (Try inviting some winged monkeys into Dorothy's Kansas room in The Wizard of Oz
.) You can even throw pebbles at the display to generate ripples in time.
The Hug Shirt
Reach out and touch each other! Two Bluetooth-equipped Hug Shirts, coupled with Java-enabled cell phones, let long-distance lovers virtually embrace. Don the shirt, give yourself a squeeze, and removable sensors (tucked into pockets) beam pressure and temperature data to your handset. Within seconds, your S.O. gets a call and a hug from actuators in a similar shirt.
MIT Media Lab
When spun at the correct speed, 19th-century zoetropes brought still images to life. Computational artist Vincent Leclerc gives the concept a 21st-century twist with his 3-D displays. LED grids blink in prescribed patterns while turning at 600 to 1,800 revs per minute, displaying undulating abstract shapes in the process.
After too much frantic digging for keys at night, undergrad Rosanna Kilfedder designed a purse with lining that lights up to make it easier to find stuff inside. The SunTrap's solar-charged battery powers the electroluminescent lining, plus portable devices like cell phones, PDAs, and iPods via a USB port.