Video T-shirts

Lord_Dweomer writes "The Hollywood Reporter brings us the next trick up marketers' sleeves. A new t-shirt with an 11" display and 4 stereo speakers was unveiled at E3 last week playing a trailer of the new I, Robot movie soon to be released. Unfortunately the company behind them, San Francisco based Brand Marketers, has announced that they will not be for individual sale. When will I be able to watch a movie on my sleeve?!" Update: 05/20 15:38 GMT by M : i4u writes "We just reported about Irish Adwalker which uses Xybernaut equipment for a more high-end Video T-shirt. Also we saw the brandmarketers Video T-Shirt at the Wired Nextfest 2004."

Tv on your sleeve?

[Anonymous Coward]

When will I be able to watch a movie on my sleeve?!

You mean like this? [rr.com] ;)
Check out some of these pictures [dynamism.com]! Awesome!
Theres also a mobile phone with support for receiving tv, here [i4u.com], cool huh?

Depends...

[not_a_product_id]

... on how fast your arm is moving. (or wasnt' that the kind of movie you had in mind?)

Yay, more advertising.

[turnstyle]

I live in NYC, and these days it seems like every surface is covered with advertising crap.

It's so nice to know that there are yet more surfaces for them to cover.

Re:Yay, more advertising.

[turnstyle]

Yes, iminplaya, I think who I am and what I do is important to understanding my position on the issues that I discuss here on Slashdot.

And you must agree: after all, why are you so very unwilling to reveal (even vaguely) what you do to put the food on your table, and the roof over your head?

Re:Yay, more advertising.

[turnstyle]

I don't need to sell anything to understand my position on the issues.

I didn't say that you need to sell anything to understand your position -- but I would say that if you don't sell anything, that's a pretty relevent detail regarding how you came to that position.

A) 'cause it's driving you nuts?

I think that we would be having a more productive conversation.

B) See my first reply in this post.

See my first reply in this post.

C) It's a secret. Only my hairdresser knows for sure.

Ah, so

Was it the TV or....

[Mz6]

"The two women who wore the video T-shirts as they walked around E3 drew crowds and TV news crews on hand to cover the gaming conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center."

With this coming from a marketing company, something tells me that the interest wasn't the shirt, but rather what's behind it, literally.

Re:Was it the TV or....

[Anonymous Coward]

It was the first 3D trailer that you could watch without special glasses!

Re:Was it the TV or....

[Paisley Phrog]

Well, they did say that marketing like this was a "clutter buster" (emphasis on "bust").

Re:Was it the TV or....

[Frymaster]

Well, they did say that marketing like this was a "clutter buster" (emphasis on "bust").

actually, emphasis on clutter! on my way to work this morning, i saw a guy wearing a nike sweatshirt, an adidas hat and a pair of track pants that advertised the local sports team across the ass. the guy was a walking billboard - a free advertising vehicle for the respective companies. and there are hundreds and hundred of people dressed like this at any given mall.

now, imagine a world where those advertisements are

Re:Was it the TV or....

[Paisley Phrog]

That was sort of my point....clutter on someone's bust (-;

Re:Was it the TV or....

[flyneye]

I wonder if a sufficiently endowed woman wearing one would provide an IMAX sort of display.

Re:Was it the TV or....

[shystershep]

I think what you'd get in that case is a sort of fish-eye distortion. What you need is a model with, ahem, sufficient girth to support the wide screen.

Re:Was it the TV or....

[flyneye]

oh, i was thinking cleavage.

Re:Was it the TV or....

[Anonymous Coward]

With this coming from a marketing company, something tells me that the interest wasn't the shirt, but rather what's behind it, literally.

No, in reality the T-shirts didn't really show off any of the other *ahem* assets of the models. They really just looked like long night shirts with an lcd screen glued to the chest. IMO they could have been way cooler, with maybe a flexible screen that could fit around said assets and with possibly a better fit.

To me it just looked like somthing a 7th grader with

Pictures?

[nycsubway]

Can someone post pictures of this event? I'd really like to see these t-shirts.

/. or t-shirt better ad?

[thebra]

"I think Fox had a lot of guts to roll this out for 'I, Robot' because it was brand new, and a lot of companies aren't willing to do alternative marketing and want to stick to the same thing,"

Alternative marketing eh? I guess FOX also decided to advertise the movie on /. because I see very little info in the article about the shirt but plenty about Fox.

Mod me down if you must but you know I am right.

Huh?

[Cyno01]

A new t-shirt with an 11" display and 4 stereo speakers was unveiled at E3 last week

If its stereo doesn't it only need 2?

Re:Huh?

[LostCluster]

Likely it's two on the front and two on the back... the whole point of these shirts are to get attention, so they want the sound going in 360 degrees, not just one way.

Re:Huh?

[Tackhead]

> Likely it's two on the front and two on the back... the whole point of these shirts are to get attention, so they want the sound going in 360 degrees, not just one way.

Whoa. Genetic engineers have designed a female human with an extra set of boobs on her back?

SCIENCE MARCHES ON! W00T!

It said the speakers were stereo. Need only one?

[expro]

Must be some sort of holographic audio device. Reminds me of a speaker I saw someone using, connected to his clock radio, that said "Stereo" in big letters. I was really impressed.

Re:Huh?

[Enigma_Man]

Or... would that be 8 speakers in total? Because if it's four stereo speakers, that makes me think of four pairs of speakers (as in.. one stereo speaker is really two speakers). Maybe it's like "pair of pants". Or maybe I'm just bored at work

-Jesse

Re:Huh?

[Aidtopia]

"Stereo" refers properly to a means of reproducing sound in two

or more discrete channels to create a solid, apparently three-dimensional sound.

Source: Common Errors in English [wsu.edu], emphasis added.

Re:Huh?

[SmackCrackandPot]

The extra two speakers are for redundancy.

That's what the organisers said at the last conference I attended.

But . . . but . . .

[shystershep]

. . . I'm supposed to be staring at your chest, aren't I?

I just wanna see this as TV show on a shirt

[VinceWuzHere]

A typical GUY comment here, but I want to see this animated on a T-Shirt...! [foolquest.com]

When?

[Patik]

When will I be able to watch a movie on my sleeve?!

As soon as you go to the gym and grow some 11" biceps.

Re:When?

[WormholeFiend]

you'd be getting neck cramps watching TV on your biceps... you'd better grow some Popeye forearms instead.

Re:When?

[stanmann]

Ok, 11" biceps are fairly small on anyone... take a piece of 8 1/2x11 and see for yourself.

next trick up marketers' sleeves

[Napoleon Blownapart]

T-shirts have sleeves ?!

Re:next trick up marketers' sleeves

[KevinKnSC]

T-shirts have sleeves ?!

That's actually the definition [bartleby.com] of a t-shirt. What kind of t-shirts have you been wearing?

Re:next trick up marketers' sleeves

[Napoleon Blownapart]

You can't hide anything up sleeves that short Apart from nanobateria perhaps

If I wanted ...

[burgburgburg]

to be treated like a piece of furniture, I'd just go home to my family.

I want other people to be MY piece of furniture.

What's next...

[millahtime]

What's next a gaming console built into a shirt too. So, imagine a baby tee on a "fine young lady" with this. I would stare at her chect while playing video games anywhere.



Yes, I know I have an overactive imagination.

Re:What's next...

[Black Jack Hyde]

Heh. She'd say "hey baby, you want me to slip out of this shirt" and the typical gamer geek would be roaring "Hell No! I'm almost done with this level! Stop squirming!"

Re:What's next...

[Adriax]

You can bet the engineers are working non-stop to develop a touch screen control version of this.

Re:What's next...

[pyrote]

I would stare at her chect while playing video games anywhere

I could see it now...

stuck on the first level of mario and you just let the mushroom kill you every time.

I think this configuration would drastically ruin high scores.

of course, noone could complain about games being anti-social.

Without Pictures this is just a tease

[Cyberllama]

Am I the ONLY one having troubles visualizing what this would look like?

So many questions, what powers it, how thick/heavy is it, what's the resolution of the screen.

Without pictures I just can't make anything out of this story.

Re:Without Pictures this is just a tease

[Kadagan AU]

Watch Minority Report. Notice the singing commercial on the cerial box. Imagine that on a shirt ;)

Re:Without Pictures this is just a tease

[Screamingliner]

Criminy, doesn't anyone look at Boingboing [boingboing.net]?

Teletubbies

[FooMasterZero]

Wonder if they will sue over trademark infringement ?

Re:Teletubbies

[WIAKywbfatw]

Time for Brand Marketers bye-bye...

Article with Pictures...

[bobej1977]

Here you are. [sfgate.com] The picture with reference to "active camouflage" is also very intriguing.

Pictures...Not Very Elegant

[theslashdude]

It may be the first time it's been done, but judging by the pictures, it's not a very elegant solution. It's not so much a video t-shirt, but a t-shirt with a hole in it covering up what is probably a heavy vest carrying all the equipament. I was expecting some new technology with flexible OLED's or something mounted right on the shirt. This is nothing more then anyone here could do with an old laptop and a black t-shirt.

camo

[nanojath]

"active camoflage" - pfft - I can TOTALLY see that guy.

Re:Article with Pictures...

[mhyden]

Oh my god! That active camo thing is awesome, when will we get an article about that? It made me thing of the opening scene from Ghost in the Shell right away, of course.

Re:Article with Pictures...

[electrichamster]

After googling a bit I found the website of the guy developing it: http://projects.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MEDI A/xv/oc.html [u-tokyo.ac.jp]

When you read how it's done, its really not that impressive at all - essentially just videoing the area behind him, and then using a video projector to shine it on to him.

Re:Article with Pictures...

[mhyden]

Oh, that's not as cool. If I'm getting this right, it only works if you're just standing in the right place, right? No running around malls, invisible, or sneaking into locker rooms? I thought there would be cameras on the back, presenting one pixel of information to a 1-px "screen" on the other side. That would be cooler.

Re:Article with Pictures...

[novakane007]

It's tough to tell how bulky the shirts are. I wish they had a side angle. The shirts appear to have a brick shape behind the screen, or is it fairly flat?

Sleeve movies.

[Mateito]

> When will I be able to watch a movie on my sleeve?!"

With the release of the new Pixar smash "The decay of the snot monster".

It seems that advertising will soon be everywhere

[spidergoat2]

[This space for rent. Inquire within.]

PEOPLE SPAM IS BAD

[aardwolf204]

And during the Fourth of July weekend, 20th Century Fox plans to have several people in the video T-shirts walking around malls, movie theaters, beaches, festivals and other venues packed with people to promote the film in the top 10 markets.

I thought door-to-door-salesmen-SPAM was bad

I thought telemarketer-SPAM was bad

I thought fax-marketer-SPAM was bad

I thought SMS-when-you-walk-by-starbucks-SPAM was bad

I thought popups-SPAM was bad

I thought SPAM-SPAM was bad

I thought LCD-billboard-SPAM was bad

PEOPLE-SPAM is BAD

Next time I go to a concert can I get a filter for my eyes, preferably an open source one?

guerilla marketers should live in the zoo

Re:PEOPLE SPAM IS BAD

[Niles_Stonne]

Soylent Green is People!?

Movie [imdb.com]

Depends on the media

[www.sorehands.com]

Depends on who is wearing the t-shirt when you watch the movie.

But, someone wearing a t-shirt is not the same as 50 spams in your inbox.

Re:Depends on the media

[Nasarius]

But, someone wearing a t-shirt is not the same as 50 spams in your inbox.

You're right - it's much worse when they've got four speakers attached.

Re:PEOPLE SPAM IS BAD

[zaaj]

Next time I go to a concert can I get a filter for my eyes, preferably an open source one?

Mediated or Augmented reality is something being worked on by the wearable computer folks at MIT's media lab. Steve Mann's name comes to mind from previous Linux Journal articles on the subject.

Users wear glasses fitted with 45-degree mirrors so that what you are looking at is piped into a video camera, and the output of a display is what you actually see. This give the wearable computer a chance to modify what yo

Re:PEOPLE SPAM IS BAD

[Nasarius]

Suddenly, "spam filtering" becomes more interesting when it involves a sturdy baseball bat...

Re:PEOPLE SPAM IS BAD

[KD5YPT]

Why stop with a baseball bat when you can tot some shotgun? Or, hack those monitors (i bet someone can find a way to do it) so that they display Goatse images.

Or one can just build an EMP blast generator to fry those DVDs... although people with pacemaker walking around is a problem....

I'd think slappings would ensue

[dr_dank]

when overzealous males try to "tune in Tokyo" at E3.

One step closer...

[NIN1385]

This is one step closer to predator cloaking! Now if we could just get bin laden to stop wearing the shit...

Re:One step closer...

[C10H14N2]

Yeah, a guy puts on a cloak made of Scotchlite and suddenly everyone thinks we've made a huge technological leap. Seriously, read the article here:

http://projects.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MED I A/xv/oc.html

Scotchlite makes for great front-projections, but it is decidedly not new--it has been around since the fifties. I had rolls and rolls of this material in my personal photo setup when I was eighteen (I'm now in my thirties) and was doing front projections all the time. The fact that they highligh

Rack Mounted

[NodeZero]

Brings more meaning to rack mounted hardware.

ah ha

[WormholeFiend]

as soon as I get me one of these video t-shirts, I'm gonna walk around playing Blipverts and giving people headaches, epileptic seizures (and maybe even a few explosions?)

somebody mod parent up

[evenprime]

as soon as I get me one of these video t-shirts, I'm gonna walk around playing Blipverts and giving people headaches, epileptic seizures (and maybe even a few explosions?)

any max headroom reference deserves an automatic +1 for coolness. It is sad how few nerds remember....

Re:ah ha

[SamSim]

I want to set one up so it shows a video of what my internal organs look like. Or just the picture from a camera attached to my back, so it looks like I have a hole in my chest. Mmmmm.

Bill Gibson, how we love thee...

[bigattichouse]

Need a flat camera on the back that projects on the tshirt on front to make the camo suit from NeuroMancer. Well.. a little bit anyway. And eventually a "pixel width" camera, so you could intersperse them over the whole suit.

Something is fishy

[dr ttol]

I looked up Brand Marketers, and there is no such company in San Francisco.

Also, no pictures of the video t-shirts.

Something is fishy.

Re:If something is fishy

[Anonymous Coward]

Must be time for girlfriend to douche.

Yes - it's kind of pathetic when a "marketing company" has zero visibility on google - but there you are. You have to search for "brand marketing llc" - in quotes.

http://www.brandmarketers.com/

Now - their contact info doesn't confirm where they are addresswise - but you can see from their portfolio pics they're all over san francisco. Hell call -em toll free and ask yourself.

You know you've been collecting games too long....

[AtariDatacenter]

...when the first thing that comes to mind when you hear, "I, Robot" is Atari, and not Isaac Asimov. And here I thought it was a movie based off of the video game. D'oh! :)

"Based off of" or "a rape of?"

[Valdrax]

Don't worry -- it's not really a movie based off of a book either.

I swear. This is going to be a worse rape of a book than Starship Troopers. Take one wide-eyed, enthusiastic book about a future of living with robots and turn it into a Frankenstein/Terminator science horror movie with Will Smith once again somehow dragging racism into the plot like he did with Wild Wild West. I felt sick after seeing the trailer. Honestly, next time Hollywood licenses a SF/F book that I've enjoyed, I'm burning the studios down proactively.

Re: A Rape of Asimov's Work.

[kent_eh]

Figures, it's what you should expect from Hollywood these days.

Yup, just like every movie headline on Fark [fark.com] says: Hollywood is out of ideas"

If they made a shirt out of OLED...

[AC-x]

...then presumably the entire t-shirt could be a display, now that would be cool

It probably wouldn't be bright enough for Preditor style camouflage but it'd be pretty nifty to have an animated shirt anyway :)

Wow!

[TooMuchEspressoGuy]

This could usher in a new era of people wearing... commercials..... in public.....

*sigh*

Can we please go back to a society where every new technology couldn't be perverted to the insatiable desires of the advertising industry?

Re:Wow!

[Mr. Bad Example]

> Can we please go back to a society where every new technology couldn't be perverted to the insatiable desires of the advertising industry?

Well, okay, if you insist...but being an australopithecine is gonna be really itchy.

An Article Without Pictures...

[dnahelix]

...is like a computer without a keyboard, or some other dumb analogy.

See a picture of those t-shirts here. [boingboing.net]

Meh!

[WoodenRobot]

"I think when you're looking for opportunities to stand out, the idea of someone who has got a T-shirt that's a monitor playing movie trailers is really cool," said Jeffrey Godsick, executive vp marketing at 20th Century Fox.

You're clearly biased. It's not cool. It's dorky. Really dorky.

"We were presented the technology a few weeks ago and instantly thought it would be great for a movie promotion opportunity. ... People at E3 stopped to watch the trailers because it's just so unique.

I'm SURE that's

I saw these at E3

[Besjon]

and was not impressed. They looked like cheap portable DVD players stuck up under a t-shirt with a rectangle cut out for the screen. I was embarrassed for the models having to wear something that bulky and stupid.

People didn't really crowd around to view the trailers, they mainly stopped for the novelty factor and to have a chance to stare at the women's chests. Nobody would have stopped if 1) the models were men because that would have been lame and 2) the models' didn't have large breasts and black t-shirts to help hide the ridiculous bulk of the units.

As soon as a couple people stopped to look, herd mentality took over and a small crowd was formed - especially since the models stood in the middle of busy and narrow intersections on the show floor. The crowds had very little to do with wanting to actually see the trailers.

I give them a few points for trying something different and being able to BS the Hollywood Reporter.

-)----- B

Re:I saw these at E3

[eddnerd]

I also saw the models. They were far from impressive. The shirt made the girls look pregnant. I could do just as good of a job, by cutting a hole in a tshirt and gluing my portable dvd player to my belly.

But,

[BillFarber]

what will this do to wet t-shirt contests?

Re:But,

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

More to the question: How are you going to wash these?

This is Great News!

[njcoder]

If I'm running AIM and it decides to play a video trailer with sound or if I go to a website with a full multimedia add... I get really annoyed.

If someone asshole has a video tshirt that annoys me, I at least have a target for my frustration :)

Ladies

[Kadagan AU]

I decided to look around on E3's site for more info (maybe pictures?) on this. While looking, I found their merchandise site [ecompanystuff.com], and was excited to see they sell ladies! Boy was I disappointed when I clicked the link, and found it was just ladies apparel.

If it's on a /.'ers T-shirt...

[DieByWire]

they can't be using a flat screen. (sucks in gut, sighs)

Re:If it's on a /.'ers T-shirt...

[drmancini]

definitely not if pamela anderson wore it ...

Other, more cool technologies also showcased:

[MikeHunt69]

$50k Airscooter
Brainball - play pong with our brainwaves!
semi transparent cloak (seem to remember this on /. before)
Automatic vacuum cleaner
Asimo - Honda's newest robot
Power Assist Suit - think Aliens
Packbot - remote explosion detonation
Hy-Wire - GN's Hydrogen powered car
Moller Skycar - (video only - no working prototype exists)
Helios - solar powered lane.

I personally think the solar powered plane & the Hydrogen powered car are much more interesting than a TV on a t-shirt (direct link to pic here [sfgate.com] btw)

Re:Other, more cool technologies also showcased:

[MikeHunt69]

er, that should read solar powered Plane

Simpsons did it

[mcmonkey]

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/BABF02

Check out Adwalker using Xybernaut for T-Shirt TV

[i4u]

http://www.i4u.com/article1575.html [i4u.com]

Wheres the OLED

[POPE Mad Mitch]

Liquid Crystal Display !?

Not very practical is it, what we really want to see is the flexible OLED version of these, then you really can have a t-shirt with a builtin tv.

Photos?

[mbbac]

Where are some photos or videos of this? There weren't any links in the article. Someone had to have captured it.

Another "must-escape" technology

[mwood]

This reminded me of the _Calvin and Hobbes_ strip: "Calvin's Pitcher of Plague: $5.00 not to have any." Please, what will I have to pay to get a non-Gadgetized shirt?

Can reporters not afford cameras?

[zipwow]

I'm frequently frustrated by stories about "New technology X displayed..." but fail to have a photograph of the thing.

Thank goodness for /., at least the posters manage to find a picture.

-Zipwow

Staring?

[keriaan]

What with all of the social conventions against staring I find it hard to imagining myself staring at some stranger's chest (especially a woman's) for 30 seconds no matter how entertaining the video is. I could see this method of advertising working better if the video was on the back of the t-shirt. I am much more likely to be caught walking behind someone for 15 to 20 seconds and if the screen was on their back most if not all of the awkwardness associated with staring would removed.

Photo of the shirt

[Ryu2]

I took this photo [markwang.com] at E3 -- hope this helps.

Crummy display

[sunderland56]

So I stole one of these t-shirts, hooked up my portable DVD player, and started watching.... the damned display is upside down! What's with that??

I think there may be a case of prior art...

[jtseng]

http://pbskids.org/teletubbies/

Aghhh Spam!!

[respite]

How long before I'm standing in line at the grocery store and the displays on people's backs start trying to sell me (g|E|n|e|r|1|c-Vi|a|G|ra)?! I know for a fact that if someone payed people to wear these, then there would be plenty of takers. With sound and all, these could turn out to be extremely annoying.

Re:I want a video of this on my t-shirt...

[Patrik_AKA_RedX]

For some reason links with the form of xxxxSE.CX terrify me. Strangely I can't remember why...
Oh wait... oh no the images came back! Oh the pain, the pain!

Re:I want a video of this on my t-shirt...

[Mr. Bad Example]

Heh. I can see this for women now...

"Staring at my chest? GOATSE.CX FOR YOU!"

"Ah, Jesus! My eyes! I regret nothing!"

Re:I want a video of this on my t-shirt...

[stanmann]

Can I get a vote from someone with a 5 digit slashdot id?

Re:I want a video of this on my t-shirt...

[Ensign Regis]

No, it's not work-safe.