PointScreen

PoinScreen 2005
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PS-IAA Frankfurt
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EFS Video
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PS Video
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MARS Bag Performance
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MARS Bags
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Dance Floor
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Analog Theremin
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EFS Maus Biene
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MARS Bag
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Energy Meter 1998
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PointScreen für VW: IAA Frankfurt
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PS 3D Monitor
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PONTSCREEN : MINORITY REPORT STYLE INTERFACE 2003

PointScreen is an interface for touchless control of a screen. Inspired by the Theremin, the first electric musical instrument that can be played without touch, we have developed a digital technology for Electro Field Sensing. The position, direction of movement and speed of hand gestures can be used for navigation. The body's own electrostatic field is sensed by Electro Field Sensing and the determined position data is used for screen control. Along the way, experimental objects were created such as the Energy Meter (1997), a light box with colorful light bulbs, the red, yellow and blue light up depending on the physical condition of the viewer with varying intensity or even fall off. The weaker the body's electrical capacity is, the less the light is lit or even only flickers.
The electric, peeping MARS bags (1998) were designed for a performance. Peter Weibel comments on the MARS bags as anti-theft art object. The MARS table, a sensor-controlled sounding plateau leads to a crawling race of several babies whose mothers had dropped them off there. Used as a dancefloor, dancers create spherical sounds as they move.
These experiments were done with a simplified homemade analog circuit similar to the Theremin. We made the schematic available to the community for download so that more such interesting projects could be created. A first usable interface is the info jukebox, a digital kiosk system that enables contactless access to multimedia content. It shows a selection of video clips on individual projects of the Fraunhofer IAIS - MARS Exploratory Media Lab. The info juke box was also used to display the Digitals sparks award winners at Ars Electronica 2003.

But it became clear that to achieve the desired goal of a touchless controllable computer screen, we would have to develop a digital circuit in the form of a microcontroller. In 2002, the time had come. We were able to sell the touchless PointScreen, which proved to be the display of the future for VW, at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt with 100,000 visitors. Our vision of the touchless interface dates back to 1997, and the PointScreen interface was finally patented in 2007.

The Electric Field Sensor System (EFS) research and development originated in the I3-Intelligent Information Interface Programme of the EU in the project eRENA- Electronic Arenas for Culture, Performance, Art and Entertainment.
The MARS bag live performance was held on 27.11.1998 at the Cyber Star Award Ceremony held at the broadcaster WDR in Cologne.
The first professional PointScreen presentation took place at the VW booth at the IAA Frankfurt (International Motor Show) 2005, PointScreen passed the mass test by a professional, international audience.