If you've seen the classic Alice in Wonderland, you probably remember the scene where Alice falls down the rabbit hole and is consequently introduced to a new way of seeing life. To this day, "rabbit holes" are synonymous with adventure, discovery, and new dimensions. This notion is exactly the reason "RabbitHoles," the Canadian 3D Motion Hologram company, bears it's name.

The company's mission statement is to give the world a new way of seeing by bringing 3D and motion to life, in print. To accomplish this mission, they have developed an entirely new print medium: a 3D Motion Hologram printed into a 2-dimensional film surface, which displays full-color 3D and action visible without special eyewear.

A RabbitHole works much like a flip-book, with an embedded sequence of 1280 digital images acting in place of drawings on pages...using film instead of paper...and the viewers' thumbs being replaced by the viewers themselves. The digital images each provide a unique perspective of the scene or object that varies gradually from one image to the next.

The technical side of the "how it works" all comes down to lasers:

Red, green, and blue pulsed-lasers are used to embed a diffraction grating within a small thickness of holographic film. Each digital image in the sequence is divided into a given number of holo-pixels using proprietary algorithms. The holo-pixels are then assigned to their necessary location amongst a given number of rows and columns. This grid of unique holo-pixels is submitted to the Company's patented printers, which utilize red, green, and blue pulse-lasers to embed the data into the specially formulated emulsion film. The resulting prints must be front-lit from either the top or the bottom at a 45-degree angle by a direct white-light source such as a Halogen fixture or sunlight. With the white-light shining properly on a RabbitHole, the diffraction gratings bounce the light in an extremely specific wavelength, and therefore color, which allows RabbitHoles to reflect full-color images.

According to RabbitHole's website, three characteristics make this new communication tool unique and particularly memorable:

3D/Z-plane: RabbitHoles are completely flat (0.7mm thick), yet the 3D imagery appears further in front of, and deeper beyond the surface than people imagine is possible.

Motion: Using CGI (computer generated imagery) or live-action digital video, RabbitHoles can hold motion sequences up to ten seconds long to tell a short story, or bring a character to life.

Interactivity: Viewers' movement in front of a RabbitHole triggers the immersive and animated content, provided by the image sequence embedded in the surface.

Like most promising new technologies, obstacles like high costs and technical complexity of production stand in the way of mainstream consumer usage of RabbitHoles. Currently, a single movie-poster-size piece takes four hours to print and costs about $2,000, but don't be too quick to discount the tech as a possibility just yet. RabbitHoles is working on bringing down the prices and speeding up the production and the medium has the potential to add a whole new dimension to visual communication...literally.

Check them out for yourself on their website. Be sure to watch the video on the homepage, it gives the most "realistic" view.

Our close proximity to NYC definitely has its benefits such as having easy access to pop-up galleries and events such as this past weekend's Gizmodo Gallery. If you're not familiar with Gizmodo, it's pretty much THE blog to go to for entertaining and informative insights on tech and gadgets.

The guys over at Giz decided to display the best of Gizmodo for the general techy public. They gathered up "the biggest and best from this year, strange tech from the far reaches of the world and prototypes from the dawn of the electronic age" and set up shop at the Reed Annex in the Lower East Side. They then looped the gallery idea in with a Toys for Tots fundraiser and let the fun begin!

Head to their site for a full list of items displayed and check out N-GEN's highlights below:

The biggest attention grabber was most definitely the 103-in plasma screen, but then again, it was hard to miss. The giant plasma displayed Mars in 3D, an ultra-high def virtual reality panorama from photographer Joergen Geerds, and video games galore. Other notables included the Back to the Future-modded DeLorean, which one homeless passerby touted as "the original bat mobile" that "could smoke any *expletive* cop car in this city, yo!," a live "Will it Blend?" demo of a charged iPhone (which resulted in a minor explosion), and the amazingly clear-pictured, yet equally expensive 11-in OLED TV from Sony.

Last month Esquire dropped the first magazine cover to incorporate e-ink technology. While the creative was underwhelming, the execution sure generated a lot of buzz.

Looks like in-store POP is next, followed one presumes by packaging (I'm betting on cereal boxes, but we'll see).

Quote:

Henkel's Right Guard is testing use of printed electronics to power flashing lights in corrugated in-store displays at Walgreens stores in the Chicago area, a first step for a technology from Arizona start-up company Nth Degree that could eventually bring low-cost streaming video to printed displays, packaging, direct mail or magazine inserts.

Link

Thanks to Rob Webber for this one.


Shinoda announced a new flexible display technology that's light and thin, presumable making it easier to fit into dramatic and well-placed signage locations. Posts have focused on using these in home, but I see this as a digital signage play.

Gizmodo post

via Pink Tentacle

Shinoda's website (in Japanese)

Ad Age had this last week:

For "Paranormal State," a ghost-themed series premiering on A&E this week, a billboard using technology manufactured by Holosonic transmits an "audio spotlight" from a rooftop speaker so that the sound is contained within your cranium.

That's generated some privacy-related discussion on Slashdot, as well as the usual mentions of Minority Report.

Advertising Age abstract (subscription required to read full article)



Holosonic press release

Brief summary of the digital signage situation on Connecticut's main roads.

Quote:

IN THE HEYDAY OF ROUTE 66, THE most intricate gimmick on a billboard was the waving, mechanical arm of a gigantic, cigarette-shilling cowboy — and the federal government considered that a distraction.

Now, billboard-sized TV screens have replaced the Marlboro Man with digital images that change instantly. They are “giant slide shows in the sky,” according to one critic.

The key question seems to be whether the signs, which are generally agreed to be more effective at catching people's attention, are thereby inherently dangerous. There's also the question of whether they're unsightly, but I don't imagine that argument will sway many decision makers in this current climate.

More here: Link

As part of a partnership to be announced Wednesday, the online search leader will dispense driving directions at thousands of gasoline pumps across the country beginning early next month.
Motorists will be able to scroll through several categories to find local landmarks, hotels, restaurants and hospitals selected by the gas station's owner. After the driver selects a destination, the pump will print out directions.
CNN Article

Commentary From 16:9:

A quick zip through the Gilbarco website tells a visitor pretty quickly that this is part of the SMART merchandising platform Gilbarco already has in place, and that ads and promo messages are already very much in the mix. It’s even called the Applause Media System. The screens appeared to be 10.4 inch, which is not all that small. The screens are also right at eye-level, which is a big deal.

Google could easily pull off the necessary scripting to serve ads based on station location, demographics and on and on. My guess is they want to see how this goes over first, and also wait until the installed base is much bigger than 3,500 — a number that translates to likely well shy of 1,000 stations.

16:9


Gilbarco website here.

Key quote:

According to the research, 44 percent of people pay some or a lot of attention to digital signage advertising, which places this media ahead of traditional billboards, the Internet and mobile phones, and on par with magazines, radio and newspapers, only trailing TV across this measure.

sixteen:nine article:

Our previous post on this is here.

Here's where to get the full report.

From Bill Gerba's comments:

If I had to pick one concept to latch onto, it would be that the format is least annoying to consumers. After all, if a TV viewer or radio listener doesn't like a commercial, he can simply change the channel, and there's still a good chance that he'll change back after a while. Newspaper and magazine readers simply have to turn a page or two. But if a shopper gets really turned off by an in-store ad, she could just walk out, and that translates directly into lost sales revenue. Thus, while retailers can make huge gains by effectively marketing at retail, they also risk irritating shoppers and reducing customer loyalty. With this in mind, it's encouraging to learn that when it comes to digital signage, shoppers have indicated that they find ads on the screens to be unique, eye-catching and entertaining -- and less annoying than virtually any other medium out there today.

Link (Wirespring)

According to the sponsor,

The study was designed to gain deeper insight into how people engage with and respond to digital signage advertising. A few of the questions that the study answers are:

* How effective is advertising on digital signs?
* Is digital out-of-home media a better way to engage people who are busy and difficult to reach?
* How does digital signage advertising compare to other media?

Study is here.

This looks like essentially a multimedia business card. Remember when people were doing these on mini CD-ROMs? Trouble was, you had to actually put the thing into your computer in order to see the content - and sometimes they even got stuck in there (many drives couldn't handle the odd sizes).

This one, by contrast, is a self-contained player. You load it up with content via USB (so clearly it'll be re-loadable), and it's got a battery that lets it display content independent of a computer.

In addition to the obvious business-card use, I can also see this playing a role in a sweepstakes - kind of a multimedia scratch & win, maybe.

From the Gizmag article:

[N]ow this novel new technology that lends itself to countless business applications is hitting the market at a cost of around USD$40 (though previous predictions had the price at $25).

The number of potential business development applications for the device are huge - photo companies can sell them to customers to use as an updateable digital portfolio, real-estate brokers can load images of properties onto the card to tempt prospective buyers, product reps can build relationships by presenting new services on the card to prospects at trade shows or on sales calls, pharmaceutical firms can educate physicians about new treatments via the card and retailers can run promotions and giveaways using information presented on the card.

From the rCard site:

It is an electronic device the size of a thick business card with a high-resolution, color screen that displays slide shows, graphics, photos, text and videos.

Thanks to Rob Webber for the lead.