What’s the tech behind Magic Walls?
January 22, 2024 7:08 AM Subscribe
The On Running store in NYC has a Magic Wall. Other retail stores have similar kiosk or displays that do similar things. Is there a framework or other toolkit(s) that are standard development jumping off points or are these incredibly custom? I’m not looking for a RasberryPi type setup but if there’s some sort of industry standard to this? Even coffee shops or low-end retail spots have screens that string together and display content, I assume there’s a starting point.
I’m well aware I could probably do something incredibly custom, and that a flagship store in NYC likely had no budget and went to a niche consultancy. But I’m looking to see what set of technologies would power these sorts of displays and if it was standardized or at least people aren’t starting from scratch each time.
As a hobby or experiment I want to create a “magic wall” kind of as an art piece, but using something as off the self commercial as possible. Like start by pretending I have the budget of a high end flagship store and work my way down on what’s possible
Thanks!
I’m well aware I could probably do something incredibly custom, and that a flagship store in NYC likely had no budget and went to a niche consultancy. But I’m looking to see what set of technologies would power these sorts of displays and if it was standardized or at least people aren’t starting from scratch each time.
As a hobby or experiment I want to create a “magic wall” kind of as an art piece, but using something as off the self commercial as possible. Like start by pretending I have the budget of a high end flagship store and work my way down on what’s possible
Thanks!
I’m well aware I could probably do something incredibly custom, and that a flagship store in NYC likely had no budget and went to a niche consultancy.
Flagship brand stores in places like NYC, London, Paris etc. famously spend millions if not tens of millions of dollars on design and amenities per store.
With that said, the undoubtedly partnered with someone on the technology and the implementation. It is unlikely that the had the expertise to build this inhouse. I imagine that the technology to measure and analyze sports movement is an evolution of all that tech you see in Olympics featurettes where some track athlete or bobsleigh pusher is in a lab watched by lots of cameras. The innovation here is that they can do it cheap enough in a retail environment and the tech doesn't require sensors on the participants. Also you don't need sophisticated experts running it and interpreting the results.
As a different but related point, the retailer Fleet Feet has a foot scanner in its store to helps recommend fit. I used one last year and you stand in barefeet on a small platform the size of a pizza box with short columns on the corners making it look like a large fancy wifi router. The sensors build a 3D model of your feet in a few seconds. That coupled with some questions you answer on tablet (walk vs run, how often are you exercising? casual vs. serious, etc.) it offers shoe suggestions that you try on. The proportions and arches of my feet are pretty statistically normal so there wasn't a lot of revelations here for me but I imagine this could be useful for people that have unusual foot configurations.
posted by mmascolino at 7:33 AM on January 22, 2024
Flagship brand stores in places like NYC, London, Paris etc. famously spend millions if not tens of millions of dollars on design and amenities per store.
With that said, the undoubtedly partnered with someone on the technology and the implementation. It is unlikely that the had the expertise to build this inhouse. I imagine that the technology to measure and analyze sports movement is an evolution of all that tech you see in Olympics featurettes where some track athlete or bobsleigh pusher is in a lab watched by lots of cameras. The innovation here is that they can do it cheap enough in a retail environment and the tech doesn't require sensors on the participants. Also you don't need sophisticated experts running it and interpreting the results.
As a different but related point, the retailer Fleet Feet has a foot scanner in its store to helps recommend fit. I used one last year and you stand in barefeet on a small platform the size of a pizza box with short columns on the corners making it look like a large fancy wifi router. The sensors build a 3D model of your feet in a few seconds. That coupled with some questions you answer on tablet (walk vs run, how often are you exercising? casual vs. serious, etc.) it offers shoe suggestions that you try on. The proportions and arches of my feet are pretty statistically normal so there wasn't a lot of revelations here for me but I imagine this could be useful for people that have unusual foot configurations.
posted by mmascolino at 7:33 AM on January 22, 2024
Best answer: Even after looking at the webpage and watching the video linked in the "article", it's still very unclear to me whether the shoe store wall includes measurement technology or if it's just a very large display.
If you're interested in the "very large display" aspect, yes, this a common and mature technology in the entertainment and corporate conference world - to the point where cheap (in context) knockoffs from China are readily available, and acts touring relatively small 1000 - 2000 seat venues will carry video equipment on tour, and you can buy or rent turnkey packages.
The search terms you're looking for are "video wall" or "digital signage."
There's basically two ways to do this; one is a bunch of small (say 2 foot by 2 foot) LED or LCD panels that all connect together physically, electrically, and electronically, along with a standalone image processor device that spreads the images & video content across the panels. The image processor is usually run via manufacturer-specific proprietary software to set the proper size and resolution, and then the actual content can be as simple as playing a video on a laptop sent to the processor via HDMI.
The second way is basically LED/LCD TV screens without a frame around the screen that again are connected together to form a larger display area, with some basic software running the image. These TV's are usually called "professional (or commercial) displays" - often (usually?) they don't have tuners or speakers, and do give the tech setting it up access to a bunch of image control parameters that you don't usually get on consumer TV's, so they can compensate & correct for brightness and color matching and all kinds of stuff that may vary from screen to screen.
The small panel version is the one that goes on the road with entertainers, the TV screen version is used in stores or other semi-permanent installations. (Generally speaking.)
Christie Video walls
Barco video walls
Samsung digital signage
Amazon listing for a Philips video sign/display
GearSource landing page for used touring video wall components
If you're interested in the possible measurement element I got nothing, sorry.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:45 AM on January 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
If you're interested in the "very large display" aspect, yes, this a common and mature technology in the entertainment and corporate conference world - to the point where cheap (in context) knockoffs from China are readily available, and acts touring relatively small 1000 - 2000 seat venues will carry video equipment on tour, and you can buy or rent turnkey packages.
The search terms you're looking for are "video wall" or "digital signage."
There's basically two ways to do this; one is a bunch of small (say 2 foot by 2 foot) LED or LCD panels that all connect together physically, electrically, and electronically, along with a standalone image processor device that spreads the images & video content across the panels. The image processor is usually run via manufacturer-specific proprietary software to set the proper size and resolution, and then the actual content can be as simple as playing a video on a laptop sent to the processor via HDMI.
The second way is basically LED/LCD TV screens without a frame around the screen that again are connected together to form a larger display area, with some basic software running the image. These TV's are usually called "professional (or commercial) displays" - often (usually?) they don't have tuners or speakers, and do give the tech setting it up access to a bunch of image control parameters that you don't usually get on consumer TV's, so they can compensate & correct for brightness and color matching and all kinds of stuff that may vary from screen to screen.
The small panel version is the one that goes on the road with entertainers, the TV screen version is used in stores or other semi-permanent installations. (Generally speaking.)
Christie Video walls
Barco video walls
Samsung digital signage
Amazon listing for a Philips video sign/display
GearSource landing page for used touring video wall components
If you're interested in the possible measurement element I got nothing, sorry.
posted by soundguy99 at 8:45 AM on January 22, 2024 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks Spyder! Thats the question I did not know how to ask correctly: how do I put a bunch of displays together of an arbitrary size/resolution. It looks like more or less this is vendor specific requiring several pieces of hardware (controller/media box) as well as vendor specific software to run. In order to show a PowerPoint there’s a widget in PowerPoint that translates it to the media server, which passes it off to a controller, that figures out how to put it on the display. I was assuming as much and it is a pretty closed off world.
Assuming I’d choose Christie and I wanted a screen that took input from a motion detection input, write a low level C driver probably and have it output the video to whatever low level API the controller takes. And this, again, is vendor specific. My best bet is probably to create a POC with a normal display.
My idea came from playing with a friend’s oculus and realizing augmented reality is cool, but no one wants to be wearing glasses all the time. What if I came home and my entire wall in my foyer was a high resolution “window” to a sunset or abstract video loop. If I came into frame it might transition into something asking how I am doing today, etc. Similarly there’s a person on YouTube who has a similar setup where it’s a giant wall of where a private jet can take you and he’ll touch various areas, different things will come up, like CNN’s magic wall. I have a pretty good idea how to do it custom but it’d involve some pretty heavy lifting. I guess beyond displaying static content that’s how these projects go.
posted by geoff. at 10:09 AM on January 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
Assuming I’d choose Christie and I wanted a screen that took input from a motion detection input, write a low level C driver probably and have it output the video to whatever low level API the controller takes. And this, again, is vendor specific. My best bet is probably to create a POC with a normal display.
My idea came from playing with a friend’s oculus and realizing augmented reality is cool, but no one wants to be wearing glasses all the time. What if I came home and my entire wall in my foyer was a high resolution “window” to a sunset or abstract video loop. If I came into frame it might transition into something asking how I am doing today, etc. Similarly there’s a person on YouTube who has a similar setup where it’s a giant wall of where a private jet can take you and he’ll touch various areas, different things will come up, like CNN’s magic wall. I have a pretty good idea how to do it custom but it’d involve some pretty heavy lifting. I guess beyond displaying static content that’s how these projects go.
posted by geoff. at 10:09 AM on January 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
Best answer: These screens tend to enumerate to the system as a standard display over hdmi or DisplayPort.
Generally the resolution is a little unusual, but you can use just about any software you like to create content.
Processing and VVVV are just two options.
posted by bug138 at 11:14 AM on January 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
Generally the resolution is a little unusual, but you can use just about any software you like to create content.
Processing and VVVV are just two options.
posted by bug138 at 11:14 AM on January 22, 2024 [4 favorites]
Best answer: The designers I know doing big video wall installations are working in TouchDesigner. Agree that Processing and vvvv are good choices if you don't want to pay for/learn TouchDesigner; if you're more comfortable as a graphics programmer and want to go lower-level/higher-perf than Processing, Cinder is another alternative that's been used for this sort of thing.
posted by Alterscape at 11:42 AM on January 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Alterscape at 11:42 AM on January 22, 2024 [1 favorite]
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