Portals: Like I really wouldn?t report on this

by Mark R - on December 30th, 2011

What you are seeing here is not a deleted scene from Poltergeist where the TV sucks someone else in, starting with their hand.

This is a Kickstarter project called Portals, and it has nothing to do with the popular video game franchise Portal. What you see here is exactly what you think it is: someone has made a display that you can literally reach into.

It works with a simple greenscreen and webcam. When you stick your hand in the box, the webcam records your hand against the green screen and on the display you are looking at. In the case of the illustration, the user has chosen Google Streetview.

This reminds me of one of those shoebox dioramas I used to make in elementary school. In fact, you can even put other things on the Portals display besides your hand. All it takes is a little bit of touch surface and RFID tags.

As I have mentioned before, this is a Kickstarter project, which means it requires funding to get off the ground. Designer Jayne Videheecharoen has already achieved her goal, but it looks like she only wants to make two prototypes to finish her thesis. I really hope that you can buy something like this in the future, as the neat factor is really high.

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