iPhone-controlled 3D display, via ping pong balls and air pumps

I'm not quite 100% sure what this is -- it's supposed to be a "floating forecaster," some sort of 3D display for weather information, but to me it looks more like 30 air guns with ping pong balls sitting in them. I don't really see how the "weather" part of the display works, but what's really cool is that the whole thing is controlled by an iPhone. It looks like you touch whichever part of the grid you want to raise or lower, and then move your thumb up or down to set the ball at a certain level.

With a little more software work, there's probably a lot more that could be done here, just creating patterns by swiping across the screen, or even running a game like Pong as the balls raise and lower across the grid in sequence. But as an art installation, it's pretty neat as is. Check out the full video after the break.

Thanks, William!

View Tags

Source: http://www.vimeo.com/13059978

Categories

Found Footage iPhone

I'm not quite 100% sure what this is -- it's supposed to be a "floating forecaster," some sort of 3D display for weather information, but...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

5 Comments

Filter by:

Repsej

Hi, if you like the idea about floating balls, you should check a very different implementation out at http://www.akosta.dk/musiccubes/
or watch just the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF2gExHyd5k
In the "Music Cubes" you can actually grab the balls and place directly in the height you want them to have!
It's a whole new interaction :)
Plus the implementation allows you to 'play' the balls as if they where nodes, thereby making different tones for different heights.

PS: The akosta webpage is currently only in danish, but if someone wants an explanation in english I'm sure we can work something out.

November 02 2010 at 2:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply