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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Beyond Smart TV: 'Surfaces' Prototype Reveals the Television of Tomorrow | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

Beyond Smart TV: 'Surfaces' Prototype Reveals the Television of Tomorrow | Gadget Lab | Wired.com: “In a few years’ time, you’ll be able to buy a TV that covers an entire wall, acting like wallpaper,” NDS chief marketing officer Nigel Smith told Wired. In this way, the TV could take the form of a gigantic canvas, providing layers of additional information, as well as different levels of immersion.

Because wall-sized TVs are hard to come by, NDS created a $30,000 setup comprised of six LCDs arranged in a rectangular array. The onscreen system is coded in HTML5 and runs on Chrome. A second screen experience, also coded in HTML5, provides remote control functionality in the browser of an iPad.

At first glance, the system is almost overwhelming. For the NDS demo, you walk into a room to find a large display seamlessly integrated with the wall. When it’s not in use, the image on the display matches the design of the surrounding wall. (In a real-life implementation, this would appear in a low-power state reminiscent of e-ink.) Turn on the TV, and you can control not only what you’re watching, but also the precise size and location of your main video window, as well as other information streams that appear on the wall.