Help Us Develop the Junkyard Jumbotron

Rick Borovoy is a Visiting Scientist at the MIT Media Lab, where he develops tools to facilitate face-to-face interaction. After receiving his Ph.D. from the Media Lab, he co-founded nTAG Interactive, which provides data solutions for networking at conferences, sales meetings, and similar events. Building on that experience, at the Center Rick is developing projects that help neighbors engage face-to-face with their neighborhood.
Help Us Develop the Junkyard Jumbotron
The Junkyard Jumboron is a really quick, web-based way to combine many people's laptops (9, 12, 20...) into a giant, eye-catching display.
It's useful for...
...when you're organizing a rally, and you wan to draw the interest of passers-by.
...when you've assembled a cool collection of people, and you want to capture a unique photograph of the event.
...when your organization has a storefront, and you want to call attention to your cause.
All it takes is 3 steps to set up a Junkyard Jumbotron
1. Collect people's laptops, smartphones, etc and arrange them in a grid (on a table, in people's arms, etc). Any device with a web browser will work.
2. Point each device at a special url
3. Take a picture of the screens and the special "glyphs" that show up on them (thanks to the special url) and send it to a special email address (see left image below)
Now anyone can send arbitrary images to the Junkyard Jumbotron via email (see right image below)
We need your help.
* Do you have an old laptop that you'd be willing to donate to help us test the Junkyard Jumbotron software? It just needs to be able to get on to the web and to have a power cord.
* Do you have an occasion where you'd like to try out a Junkyard Jumbotron to call attention to your cause?
Please get in touch with me at borovoy@media.mit.edu
Comments
This is an awesome little concept that can do big things in the right space. I am organizing a Junkyard Jumbotron in Las Vegas, I even got a local company, Las Vegas Printing, a printer to donate some old laptops for the experiment.
I am exploring local laws as far as my options on Las Vegas Blvd. When I get it up and running I will let you guys know.
Utterly. Completely. Look forward to examples. Good luck!