
Show HN: Mosaic – Use multiple iPhones as one big screen - igul222
http://mosaic.io
======
magicseth
The Junkyard Jumbotron lets you use all sorts of devices, and it's web based.
You arrange the screens in the positions you want, and each one displays a QR
code. You take a picture of them all together, and the Jumbotron breaks the
image up in to the right pieces:

<http://jumbotron.media.mit.edu/>

~~~
gailees
Who uses QR codes?...

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networked
Those are ARToolKit glyphs, not QR codes (see
<http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/>).

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mortenjorck
I really like the business model here: Free, simple standalone app that serves
as a fun proof-of-concept, supported by a commercial SDK for the inevitable
ideas you'll come up with. Smart.

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tiredofcareer
Maybe I'm sentimental, but you should rebrand. I think NCSA Mosaic holds a
position of antiquity in a lot of hacker minds, and Mosaic is a special name
to me.

Or, maybe we'll eventually run out of English words and start recycling
anyway, and I should move on. Tough to say.

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paul9290
Nice... us hackers must be thinking the same thing lately - let's use multiple
IP devices to do X.

We just released...

SpeakerBlast - Turn multiple friends' IP devices into one massive stereo
system.

Checking out Mosiac ... i wonder what other uses of multiple IP devices can be
put to use to?

~~~
igul222
Congratulations on getting SpeakerBlast to work! We've tried doing that
before, but getting the time delay low enough for it to sound good is
incredibly challenging.

~~~
paul9290
thanks!

I can see an ad agency using Mosiac at conference for Point of Sale demo. 100
person ad agency tells their employees, "Hey bring your Ipads to the
conference we're gonna use them to create one huge TV for our video demo."

Cool stuff.

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piyush_soni
Just wondering on your business model. Do you really expect there would be
many people with so many iPhones to use this for the purpose of making a big
screen? Because those who don't already have, would probably just buy one big
screen IMO...

~~~
joelhaasnoot
Just think of all the concerts, festivals and other large-scale events though
that could make a huge mosaic with the crowd instead of using lighters!

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rjvir
I saw this live at PennApps - it's incredible. It truly feels magic.

~~~
gailees
Yeah I honestly didn't believe that it actually worked when I saw the demo.
Apparently, they even did it with video!?

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Terpaholic
Indeed - I saw it myself

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gailees
This is really neat...what would I want to use the SDK for though...?

~~~
igul222
Multi-phone board games. Swipe-based file transfer. Multi-screen movie
watching, video streaming, web browsing.

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zalew
were you aware of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_%28web_browser%29> when
choosing the name?

~~~
igul222
Yes. There are a few other things out there using the name Mosaic, but we went
through about a hundred names and really really liked this one, so we stuck
with it.

~~~
zalew
if you started an indie rock band, would you call yourself 'the beatles' :)?

~~~
yefim323
The Beatles are still listened to. This browser is no longer used. I don't see
the parallel.

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nwh
It's a pity they need such new devices, I've got a box full of old iPhones and
iPods that this could have been used on.

~~~
igul222
The limit in the system is that we don't have enough devs to do everything we
want to do right now, but we're working on it!

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rayiner
I would pay a bunch of money for an app that lets me drag windows from my MBA
to my iPad.

~~~
rdouble
<http://avatron.com/apps/air-display>

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imaginator
This looks similar to the free Blinkendroid app for Android:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cbase.blin...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cbase.blinkendroid)

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haraball
Here's another relevant project by Seb Lee-Delisle:

[http://seb.ly/2011/09/pixelphones-a-huge-display-made-
with-s...](http://seb.ly/2011/09/pixelphones-a-huge-display-made-with-smart-
phones/)

~~~
zan2434
very clever implementation with the flashes! We'd love to see Mosaic used at
such a large scale

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leeoniya
most expensive screen ever.

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undershirt
Very neat art experiment and interface implementation. I love it. I can see a
lot of fun social table top games using this.

~~~
atlex2
Thanks! For sure drop us a line and we can get you building on it!
everyone@mosaic.io

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ranman
Still using MongoDB on the backend?

~~~
igul222
Among other things, yes!

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prawn
Video doesn't demonstrate, but does it work with angled screens?

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dannowatts
this seems fun! and not to be a downer, but can someone give me some examples
on how this would be used in the everyday setting?

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romeonova
If only I have multiple devices laying around.

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ricardobeat
Props for the very clever position detection!

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sebastianbruce
Just downloaded it, loving it so far!

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username3
Do photos pan and zoom in sync?

