Engage force-fields

So the whole forcefield concept is still a bit science-fiction-ey. BUT, this comes damn close. The Trophy system does pretty much the same thing as those laser-whatever-powered versions do in the movies. Any projectile fired at the tank is detonated or disabled before it makes it to the vehicle. I want one for my Corolla.

Choose your own adventure…movie?

A preview of things to come?

Brazilian-based AgenciaClick has created what would seem to be an intriguing interactive movie theater experience to promote the Fiat Idea Adventure, a light offroad vehicle. Movie goers will meet a guy named John in a pre-movie film and, using SMS messaging from their cell phones, be able to generate 16 different versions of the promotional film and choose the ending.

-via Adrants.com

Could this be the precursor to the interactive movie? Perhaps this will be the saving grace of the film industry which, as we all know, has seen better times. Most point to the shrinking difference in experience between viewing a movie in the theater and viewing it at home as the reason for the slow decline in ticket sales (I would suggest a lot of the problem also lies in telling new and better stories, but hey…what do I know?). But if this becomes a legitimate technology it could offer a completely different experience from what you would be able to get at home. Something to look out for.

Would you like some Britney with that?

Brace yourselves folks, but McDonald’s is doing something interesting. They are currently testing a system in their Woodbridge Mall location (near Chicago, IL) that allows customers to watch/listen to music videos and other entertainment.

Using the system, patrons can queue up songs and videos using text messaging or a WiFi connection, and the content then plays in a special “multimedia zone.” The Woodfield multimedia zone contains 10 flat-panel screens capable of playing back the content, and the entire service is free—for now.

-via arstechnica.com

Sales have gone up 17% since implementing the system, and McDonald’s plans on extending to a number of other stores nationwide. This is a great move for McDonald’s who, after taking a pop-culture beating in the last few years, is trying to re-establish some cool factor associated with their restaurants. It will be interesting to see if this system ends up going nationwide within the next few years.

Hi, we’re BBH and Leo Burnett and we are WITH it…no, seriously guys we’re hip!

Ok, so it’s easy to make fun of agencies trying to prove they’re caught up with what’s cool, but on a serious note this is pretty good news for agencies BBH and Leo Burnett. Most agencies missed the proverbial boat on MySpace and YouTube, waiting until they became cultural phenomena to jump on the bandwagon. But here we have at least two agencies (I’m pretty sure there are more) that are hitching their wagons to a trend relatively early…at least for advertisers. These two agencies have begun building digital offices within the realm of Second Life (if you’re not familiar with SL, you should be…read this right now) and from some preliminary photos, BBH’s office looks pretty cool. If this takes off the way it looks like it might, we may end up doing a lot of our “first life” living and working in our “second life” bodies in the not-too-distant future. Feel free to give your thoughts.

When I was your age, all we had were chalk boards.

This is just plain cool. Teachers will have a field day with this thing once it’s mass produced.

Fri-cken lay-sser beams

The new kid on the block in the world of HDTV will soon be Laser TVs from Arasor International. If nothing else, at least the name of the technology isn’t an acronym. But apparently the new technology is going to blow away Plasma and LCD in both price and image quality. Today’s technology only displays 30-35% of what the eye can see. Laser technology will reproduce around 90% of what our eyes can see. Plus it should be about 30% cheaper to produce. Sounds too good to be true, but hopefully not. No anticipated release date.