HypoSurface Walls Are Full Of Life

Bill Christensen

Date: 21 August 2007 Time: 05:42 AM ET

HypoSurface is a unique display medium in which the surface of the display actually moves. The surface is made of small, interlocking panels that can push out or pull in to create a wide variety of shapes.

The surface behaves like a precisely controlled liquid: waves, patterns, logos, even text emerge and fade continually within its dynamic surface. The human eye is drawn to physical movement, and this gives HypoSurface a basic advantage over other display systems.

The surface of the display can be made to mimic a wide variety of disturbingly biological movements. Letters and logos march across the wall; amoebas and snakes seem to undulate just under the surface (see video)

HypoSurface is a pretty good implementation of the plastex walls in J.G. Ballard's psychotropic houses from his 1960's Vermillion Sands stories:

It was a beautiful room all right, with opaque plastex walls and white fluo-glass ceiling, but something terrible had happened there. As it responded to me, the ceiling lifting slightly and the walls growing less opaque, reflecting my perspective-seeking eye, I noticed that curious mottled knots were forming, indicating where the room had been strained and healed faultily. Deep hidden rifts began to distort the sphere, ballooning out one of the alcoves like a bubble of overextended gum.

(Read more about Ballard's plastex walls)

Contrary to the company's web hype, the HypoSurface display is not the first display with a screen surface that moves:

AMOEBA Tank Forms Letters
The AMOEBA circular tank is able to form letters with standing waves.
Khronos Projector
Uses a flexible screen to let you move back and forth in time.