Awesome interactive installations in new MS buildings

A couple of months ago the Microsofties from Entertainment and Devices division moved into four brand new state-of-the-art buildings on the Redmond campus much to the awe of the other employees. Besides just the glamor and smell of a new building which I’ve been told is even better than the “new car smell”, each of the four building’s atrium feature a three-story high interactive installation that makes traditional vertical banners look pathetic in comparison.

The installation designed by MODE Studios utilizes a transparent LED system called curveLED making it possible to both see and see through the display. The interactivity of the installation comes from sensors both inside and outside the building that analyzes traffic patterns, weather and thermal patterns inside the building. Combined with a single unmarked “hotspot” that allows for direct interaction, the installation features procedurally generated imagery that is always dynamic and evolving.

Yeah the economy is hitting Microsoft really hard.

27 insightful thoughts

  1. That shit might as well just be random. They keep explaining how people won’t even know what they’re effecting about the screen. So what’s different than a bunch of random stupid flowers over a screen?

    Microsoft, stop being stupid… and make a 120gb ZuneHD. that 32gb piece of crap won’t even hold 20% of my collection

  2. This video was terribly put together. One of my big pet peeves is these videos people put online that take forever to get to the point, and then once they’re there, take forever to express it.

  3. Looks like a cool display…
    What I wanted to know was whether it is limited to a pre set bunch of graphics (e.g. those flowers) or whether it continually acquired new images to manipulate. That would seriously affect its ongoing appeal.

  4. It still amazes me how shocked and surprised people apparently are to see macs on the Microsoft campus, or involved in any way with what Microsoft is doing.

  5. Goddamit, yeah there’s a MacBook, WOW. As I saw it I thought that the people will comment just on that …

  6. obviously made by mode studios and not Microsoft because of that mac.. 50 bucks says that Microsoft requests that they take down the video or take out that mac scene.

  7. I hope Microsoft has bigger things to care about than a single Macbook in a video that wasn’t even made by them.

    I love the screens. I think it’s great that people remember to invest in art installations. Preventing the office space becoming a boring shell.

  8. Well I work on Mac s/w at Microsoft so seriously, no big deal. I’m writing this on a MBP and btw, it runs Win7 just great!

  9. I hope they didn’t spend as much as I’m sure they did. I really don’t think it’s that interesting or cool.

    I think a lot of the things Microsoft Research is working on would be much cooler. Or they could have just told someone at Microsoft Research to design some techy piece of art. Then they could have found some functional use for part of the technology.

  10. You’re on, jjpriest25. Give me your email address, then I’ll mail you my paypal account so you can give me the $50.

  11. So the point of this is eye candy and energy waste? And as if transparency in the Windows UI wasn’t enough!! What’s this obsession of MS with transparency? Either let me fully see through or let me see the screen properly.

  12. “procedurally generated imagery that is always dynamic and evolving” sounds (oxy)moronic. In this Web 2.0 world, they should’ve said something like “monoidal t-norm-based propositional fuzzy logic generated imagery” or something.

  13. Just popped by this building today to have a look – pretty cool, but I felt like a dork waving my hands and making noises trying to influence the “parameters” that drive the display.

    Looks cool tho.

  14. Lol at the last sentence, I was thinking the same thing. I feel bad for the 15% of employees who were laid off and are watching this and screaming at their screens.

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