Projector technology continues to advance every year. From laser projectors to 4K options, today’s latest and greatest tech seemed unreal just a few years ago. But designers and engineers are incorporating projectors into more non-traditional uses, and in the future, it’s likely projectors are going to be used for a lot more than business presentations and home entertainment.
Just in the last year, projectors have been incorporated into a range of mind-blowing applications, including augmented reality, real-time communications, and in the kitchen. Here’s a look at a few of these futuristic sounding applications, but don’t expect to see them available to consumers in the near future. A few are still light years away.
Real-Time Cookbooks
At Milan Design Week, furniture maker IKEA unveiled the cookbook of the future: a projector-enabled, augmented-reality recipe book. Essentially, using a camera and projector, IKEA envisioned a product that would provide recipes based on the ingredients on your chopping blog. The recipe is then displayed on the counter via a projector. So, for instance, if you had a tomato, some bread and cheese, a recipe for melted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup would be projected. Sounds far out, right? Well, don’t expect the real-time recipes anytime soon – IKEA’s design was for a kitchen in 2025.
Projected Jewelry
Here’s an interesting idea: Light jewelry. That’s right. What if you could wear a projected necklace made of light? That’s the idea behind NECLUMI. The designer’s “necklace” is actually an image coming from a tiny pico projector that’s attached to the wearer’s clothing. The projector then displays a piece of jewelry that’s sent from a smartphone app. This really leaves the door open for a variety of light-enabled displays, bringing traditional jewelry into the 21st-Century.
An Immersive Video Game Experience
Virtual reality is progressing quickly, and one of the latest developments centers around a projector-enabled set-up. French start-up Catopsys and an R&D firm recently unveiled the Immersis projector. The projector displays a panoramic, virtual reality image throughout a room. On screen, you see the game that you’re playing, but the projector adds the additional parts of the image that aren’t visible. Thus, gamers are completely immersed in a virtual reality world. The firm successfully raised funds for the project via Kickstarter, so keep your eyes peeled for reports on its developments.
Digital Game Boards
This one isn’t exactly futuristic, as it’s still possible now. But the use of a projector to display a Dungeons and Dragons board is pretty clever. One reddit user recently showed how he used a projector to display a digital version of a D&D board onto a tabletop, making for a completely unique gaming experience. Who knows maybe we’ll start seeing this more and more.
Car Dashboard Projections
A San Francisco-based company is currently working on a projector-enabled dashboard mount for every vehicle. Essentially, the designers are using a projector to display an image on a small reflective screen. The projector is synched with the driver’s smartphone and the car’s computer, and then information is displayed on the reflective screen. So, if you receive a text message, a notification would pop-up on the screen. Currently, this project is in development stages.
Moving Wall Pictures
Google was recently awarded a patent for a product that has the potential to change the way we paint the walls in our homes. Here’s the idea: You would cover your wall with a photo-reactive paint. Then, a projector would beam light onto the wall, and the paint would be “activated” and create a moving image, similar to a screen saver. Hey, in the future, you might no longer need wall hangings. Of course, this is just in the patent stage, so it’s yet to be seen if this will ever come to fruition.