In the past couple of decades, we have become used to interacting with our world through a lens of technology – but that lens is about to change yet again. Researchers at the Hasso Platner Institute are working on a project that will completely change how technology affects our everyday lives. The group is working on a smart floor that will effectively add a new dimension of interactive tech to our environment.

The smart floor itself is called Multitoe. The interface detects people and things standing on it. Then a complementary system called GravitySpace uses special software and a projector located beneath a glass floor to show avatars moving around the room. The avatars are each associated with a specific person (these have to be set up ahead of time) and follow that person around, creating a sort of digital double. The floor is so sensitive that it can detect your posture and movements through only a few small points of contact (such as your feet).

This system has the potential to completely change the way we interact with our environments. Because the floor can sense every object in physical contact with it, it is able to tell when there are multiple people in the room. Apps could be developed to play games or communicate through the floor itself. The team behind the project predicts that eventually the technology will find its way into removable carpets, so that when you move into a new place you have only to roll out the carpet and get started enjoying your digital life in a new physical environment.

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Sony has filed a patent application that will take television to an entirely new, way creepier and more interactive, level in our homes. But the question is: do we really want that? We’ve developed technology to help us skip commercials, and most of us seem pretty happy with that. Sony, however, wants to take us in the other direction by feeding us unavoidable but “fun” advertisements in streaming media.

The patent application is quite broad and can apply to a number of advertising tactics. One of the most disturbing is a commercial that requires you to say the name of the company in the commercial in order to shorten the commercial’s airtime. In the above example, the viewer sees a short spot for McDonald’s and is asked to say “McDonald’s” out loud to reduce the time the advert is on the TV. It’s sort of like an obnoxious test to ensure that the audience is paying attention to the advertising.

The really interesting parts of the application, however, revolve around the possibility of making commercials into interactive games. In one example, a Burger King commercial asks the viewer to hurl a virtual pickle at the hamburger on screen in order to speed up the commercial. The viewer uses some sort of controller already found in the home and could possibly win points in the game which could be sent via text message. In fact, Sony wants to involve every gadget possible in this system, along with social networking sites for good measure.

While the interactive advertisements are interesting from a technological standpoint, they are sort of alarming from a consumer’s viewpoint. Do we really need more invasive ads, particularly ads that force us to show we’re paying attention to them? Making commercials into games seems like a dangerous pursuit, particularly where impressionable kids are involved.

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Throughout the years, almost as far back as the history of television itself, companies have been trying to introduce the element of scent into TV shows. Not surprisingly, the attempts have all failed miserably – it seems that no one really wants to experience Conan’s aftershave or the smell of Dexter’s kill room. But a French company called Olf-Action is giving the whole smell-o-vision thing yet another try with a device they’ve helpfully named SMELLIT.

The SMELLIT is being developed more for gaming and movies than for television, but the concept already boasts an impressive library of scents: dentist’s office atmosphere, smell of horse, and smell of polluted cities are among the highlights. The scents are released through chambers that look a little like tiny airplane engines. The next time you’re playing Grand Theft Auto you might just be able to smell the burning rubber and spilled gasoline.

Although SMELLIT is little more than a concept at this point, it may eventually prove to be the one scent-driven accessory that becomes a household item. Then again, it could go the route of every other smell-o-vision gadget in the history of television and simply fade into the forgotten history of things that never quite took off.

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Singing to plants is a tried-and-true trick for getting them to grow bigger and more beautiful, but what about turning their containers into speakers? Irish designer Niall Diggins created Ceramic Sound, a flower pot that is not only an attractive home accessory – it’s also a high-quality surround sound speaker. For people who hate the look of boxy speakers mounted all over their walls, this might be the perfect compromise between great sound and attractive home decor.

The speaker is on the bottom and the watertight flower pot is on the top. The flower pot comes in a variety of colors and comes on its own or with a speaker, so users can switch out colors to match their decor. Will the sound waves from your music affect the way your plants grow? That remains to be seen, but you’ll definitely have some of the most stylish speakers around.

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In Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451, plaster walls in homes were replaced with huge video walls. The total immersion in sounds and visuals transported the characters in the book to a different place – one where the troubles of the real world couldn’t intrude. It was only a matter of time before someone brought the “parlor wall” concept to real life.

The RunCo WindowWall has the potential to bring mind-numbing constant stimulation to the brains of every household with enough money to afford one of these expensive-looking arrays. The large display is formed of lots of smaller displays; the individual screens are all extremely thin at 4.5 inches each. When they’re put together in a large setup, the between-image gap is only .28 inches, giving nearly seamless viewing between displays. Of course, in these renderings the whole walls aren’t covered in constantly-blaring television, but it’s a safe guess that at least some of RunCo’s customers will want the full-room immersion.

The displays can easily be configured to fit any home or commercial building and just about any size wall. The array can even be curved if the space calls for it. Naturally, the owner of the display doesn’t have to watch constant television – the video wall could display anything from vacation photos to fine art. But we have to wonder what it would be like to install a full four-wall system and turn it on for life-sized Shark Week immersion. Sadly, despite its name, the WindowWall doesn’t revert to a transparent window when not in use. Maybe the next generation of WindowWalls will remedy that.

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