Projecting Images on the Air
 

THE PRODUCT


The FogScreen is a new invention which makes objects seem to appear and move in thin air! The FogScreen is a suspensible device that creates a thin, smooth fog surface almost instantly when it is switched on. It can be used for image projection just like a conventional screen.

FogScreen is, however, a screen you can walk through! The fog, made of ordinary water with no chemicals whatsoever, dissolves in seconds by itself, leaving no trace behind when you switch it off. The viewer can walk through the screen – walk directly into the picture! People and things can be brought into view through the screen. There are numerous other ways to use the FogScreen.

 

Write your message in fog - it will not vanish in the air

The FogScreen is an excellent eye-catcher. Whenever FogScreen has been presented to an audience, it has proved its ability to draw magnificent attention, gathering people around in crowds. Especially children love it, as you see from the video on the Company page. It nails people's attention, and as such, it is a very valuable airborne advertising media.


You can even create walk-through or drive-through posters. It is especially useful in malls, airports, stations and other public places, not to forget mass events. Can you think of a better way to introduce a new product than to bring it into the view of the audience through the screen? Looking for a magical eye-catcher for your booth at a trade event? Now you have found it! Customers who walk through your company logo at a trade fair will likely remember the experience and the logo and your company.

 FogScreen on stage
 The images projected onto the FogScreen seem magical, like in a vision. As the screen itself can appear from nowhere, and disappear again, it creates huge possibilities for use in theater plays and concerts.

Entertain your guests with FogScreen
 Whether you are planning a rock concert, a prize ceremony, an anniversary, any commercial or private event, elevate the atmosphere with the magical FogScreen. Guests can enter through the screen to an event!

Attract people with FogScreen
 The Fog Screen attracts viewers to play with it whenever it is used for image projection in public. The screen can be used to attract people to theme parks and other attractions, museums (both art and science), nightclubs (why not surround the dance floor with a walk-through screen), theaters, casinos, PR events… For example, you can use the FogScreen to create a fantastic theme park dark ride, to project a horrible monster on the screen, and to make the real thing come right through the screen, or you can make the cart move through the projection.

 Create a luxurious interior with FogScreen
 Lobbies and entrances of Fortune 500 companies, high level government and other office buildings, and luxurious residences and cruisers are also places where you will find a FogScreen in the future. Companies will be projecting their PR videos and graphics on the screen, while others will use it to view TV and movies. As the FogScreen becomes integrated into our daily lives, architects will be integrating it into the structures of new buildings.

Some special applications
 The FogScreen is silent and non-breakable, which enables safe gaming, exercise or training, and allows non-supervised public presentations. It also enables the audience to enter and exit rapidly through the walls into virtual environments, which can even be sequential. Mixed reality and immersive projection technology could use CAVE-like virtual rooms with fog walls, making them effectively “virtual virtual rooms”.

 

OUR TECHNOLOGY


All the important principles of FogScreen technology have patent pending. The basic components of the screen are a laminar, non-turbulent airflow, and a thin fog screen (or any particles) injected into and inside a laminar flow. Created this way, the fog screen is an internal part of the laminar airflow, and remains thin, crisp, and protected from turbulence.


When the screen is formed, images can be projected onto it. The screen can be translucent or fully opaque. The quality, size, and other features of the screen have been thoroughly improved in our latest prototype which was shown at Siggraph 2003.

The fog is made within the device using water and ultrasonic waves. If you hold your hands in the fog flow, the fog feels dry and cool, and your hands do not get wet. When the device is in operation, it generates a mild downward air and fog flow.

The FogScreen works very much like an ordinary screen in terms of projection properties. It can be used for both back- and front-projection. Normal stray light is not a problem, as long as it is weaker than the projector. A projector with at least 3000 ANSI Lumen is recommended. Distance between projector and screen should be a minimum of 2 meters.

The image is spectacular in normal daylight, but the darker the room, the better the result. For the best result, a dark background is highly recommended. The world premiere demonstration was at the Science Fair in Turku, Finland in October 2002. This exciting new product was reported by all the main news media outlets in Finland (TV news broadcasts, newspapers, and cable).

The fog screen has later been presented in Herald Tribune, CNN, Reuters, Wired etc. (USA), Spiegel and numerous other international magazines. The first permanent prototype installation has been running reliably in Vapriikki Museum Center in Tampere, Finland since January 2003.

We are continuing the development of FogScreen. The next generation of FogScreen will be interactive and will behave like touch screens. This property will be utilized especially in advertising, in malls for presenting shops and products, in art productions and as interactive exhibits in science and other museums.