Pileus is an umbrella connected to the Internet to make walking in rainy days fun. Pileus has a large screen on the top surface, a built-in camera, a motion sensor, GPS, and a digital compass, and it provides two main functions; A Social Photo-sharing and A 3D Map Navigation. The photo function is connected to a major web service “Flickr”. A user can take photo with a camera on the umbrella, and pictures are uploaded to Flickr in two minutes with context tags via a wireless Internet connection. User can also enjoy theirselves watching photo-streams downloaded from Flickr (and video-stream from YouTube on an advanced proto) with simple operation of wrist snapping. [youtube]mvH51D3KJT4[/youtube] 3D Map Navigation is powered by “Google Earth”. Detecting a location data from GPS, it shows a 3D bird view around the user. User can walk-through a city comparing the 3D views and real sights, and the map is always updated by GPS and a digital compass. As it has a large screen, it create virtual reality but not immersive. Now these two functions can be switched by simply fliping a switch. As a future direction of its development, putting a context data on the Internet (e.g. geo-tags on photos), it will be able to provide social local-navigations, social local-ads, and real-time in-place communications. The product aims to provide an augmentation of everyday life synchronizing information on the Internet and the real place. source: WAN
hmm yes... hooking a projector onto an umbrella... who woulda thought.... if it was real tho... I can imagine lotta pple gettin' jacked in the rain...
man, what an expensive and useless thing to own your walking down the street to busy starring at your umbrella and BAM you walk into a pole i think the others on the street who just watched you fall into a puddle are more amused than you
