There have been previous attempts at digital photo displays. So i guess Electric Objects is the latest one.
Could be cool as a way to display your Studio Artist generated art work around your house.
Caveat regarding kickstarter projects. I have personally invested in 6 different ones over an extended period of time that all seemed like really cool projects. Funny though, i have yet to have actually received any of them yet. The ship dates keep slipping. The circuit board had some issue, the plastic for the box was designed wrong, etc, etc. I'm assuming they will all arrive here at some point in the future, but it has made me rethink kickstarter a little bit.
Before my existing kickstarter experiences i probably would have just jumped into this new one right away. I might do it anyway.
Anyone have any thoughts on this, as compared to other existing digital photo frames. None of which has really seemed to pan out as successful products so far to be honest. At least that's been my impression, but perhaps i'm mistaken.
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I know this kind of system, because I sell it to my customers (schools, companies) since many years.It's called Digital Signage. Based on a controlled computer who is placed behind the screen. I'm working with a french company who developed this software. Perhaps Electric Object has a liter version...My player alone, is more expensive, and you add the TV price...
What's your opinion of Electric Object then, based on what then claim to be offering vs the price they are asking for it?
They try to claim that when you consider the pricing of a digital print plus the framing costs what they are charging is not necessarily out of line with a physical print's cost. But i haven't really worked through that cost analysis in detail.
I was also wondering how what they offer compares to just something like a base price mac mini and the cheapest display you could get to hook up to it that wall mounts. You could always get a print framer to do an aluminum mount for the display so it could hang effectively on the wall. I don't think anyone sells turnkey systems like this, but you could custom configure one. Or maybe even something like an android phone with that google chrome video adapter hooked up to a cheap tv with digital input you'd pick up from costco?
I always thought a fully digital photo display setup could be effective for displaying studio artist generated artwork. We have an imac we kind of use for that purpose here at the office. But it always seemed like digital photo frames that were sold in the past had weird quirky software, or low res displays, or whatever, because they never really seemed to catch on. Everyone i know locally that does digital art ends up getting it printed, as opposed to trying to use systems like this.
But at some point maybe that changes. Not sure if this particular system is the tipping point, or not. Like all kickstarter projects, the promise vs the reality always leaves me wondering, at least until you can see the finished thing.
I suppose that EO's system is based on the community to display pictures ?
My system, or Digital Signage systems works differently :
I have the possibility to :
Visualize pictures, movies, power points and I can program sequences to display them.
Example : I create a sequence composed by 10 pictures, 1 movie, 3 powerpoints and finally 3 pictures. When the sequence is finished, (I'll do this on my computer) I'll send this sequence to the player (that is a mini PC, fixed behind the screen). And I can display it right now, or just put it on the HD of the player to play it later. (1 year programming delay).
I can also create zones (up to 4) and display different things in each zone, or program a date to zoning
I can create banners and put them everywhere on the screen, or program a date to display banners.
In a banner I can have RSS flux (?) with web infos. (Weather, TV infos..)
I can control what is displaying on the screen, on my computer. That is important if the screen is at another location. But all this have a cost. Visiosense's player is about 1390 euros, and you add the price of the screen.
I don't know what screen quality EO offers at their price...They cannot do all what I can do with my software, but one didn't necessarily need all of these features to visualize art...
I think EO's market is very different than the one you are addressing. Basically there's is someone at home who wants a digital photo frame display on their wall, or sitting on their desk. So not an advanced corporate presentation or in store display system kind of thing.
One of Studio Artist's features is gallery show. That was originally envisioned as something that could be custom programmed to generate a live custom art display. For use in an art gallery kind of situation, or maybe running at home. So something like EO interests me as a possible solution for that kind of thing, as opposed to a dedicated iMac, which is what we use when we use it that way.
Of course our users quickly came up with all kinds of other uses for gallery show that have nothing to do with live running art shows. Things like generating custom mutated presets, or folders or processed artwork to cull through at a later time looking for keepers. Or as a way to visualize what a specific ip op effects could potentially generate. Or new things like the generative art experiments i'm using it for these days.
Yes, you're right, it's not for the same use.
It's a basic system, but enough for a use at home.
Using gallery show mode to display, needs to dedicate a mini mac (or PC) on each screen. Or a splitter system (with network picture wires- because length in HDMI) to send the same picture on every screen, if there are more then one screen at home.
I have also the possibility, if my screen has loudspeakers, to program audio files :
example, you want to have an audio play list at a certain time, (when you're at home).
So you can program the power on of your TV, visualize SA art pictures, and classic music. (Cool option in an art gallery, or in a shop)....and power off time if you go sleeping.
EO can not do this because it's a cheapest display.