Virtual window displays for wall mounted high resolution flat screen televisions is nothing new, but the latest tech has sure made them pretty cool all of a sudden. It helps also that the price of really top quality screens has plummeted over the past few years, so where it was once too expensive, it now almost makes sense to get one of these, especially if you’re stuck in a basement with no natural light.
Take this Winscape system. The beauty of it is you can do it all yourself, instead of having to pay huge money for specialists. All you need is a couple of 55 inch HDTVs or so, and the software which they sell for $34.95. If you want the full monty, you’ll also need a Microsoft Kinect sensor which will set you back $98 and give you a moving screen perspective just like a real window in the wall (watch the video below to see just how cool that is).
Once you connect it all up, you’ll probably want to pay them a few dollars for one or more of their looping high res scenes ($20 and around $60 for the 4K res versions), which depict idyllic tableaus from around the globe, like beach scenes in Hawaii or ski lodges in Lake Tahoe. It’s pretty sweet, and what’s even better is you can do your own shoots and grab your favorite location as well if you’ve got the equipment and time.
The software is Apple Mac only unfortunately, so that may be an added expense if you’re a Windows head, but it’s pretty cool that they’ve also tied it into an iPhone app which controls the whole scene switching and operation. The team behind the kit even offer some really excellent videos and instruction on how to build your own DIY system, complete with details of the mounts to use, and even what kit to use to record your own scenes. It’s amazingly cool (did we say that already?).
All in all it’s a really awesome kit, and we just wish we had the time and space to do one ourselves. Not to mention the cash for two flat screen TVs and a Mac computer. But compared to the thousands of dollars the specialists charge for this sort of virtual window installation, this DIY approach should save a huge amount.
Waking up in the same place each morning is boring indeed.
