Visualization scientists have been using tiled displays for a number of years to look at their data. News media sites have been using tiled displays to show off how technologically hip they are. Why not have a tiled display built out of iPads! An iPad costs about as much as LCD monitor, admittedly with lower resolution, but includes multitouch. For some reason, I can see this showing up at SIGGRAPH or SuperComputing this year. ClarkeHopkinsClarke Architects from Australia came up with the idea, and even have a few conceptual images. From the blog post:
With the built-in features of the iPad and customisable applications, there is literally an endless number of things we can do on the wall. Interchangeable wallpaper pattern & video is just the beginning, but imaging a giant jigsaw that you can play using multitouch, an interactive aquarium scene, digital graffiti, interactive speaker wall, even a life sized digital bookcase for your iBooks! (If you can’t reach the top shelf, just drag it down with multi-touch!)
Typical television walls are just “so yesterday”!
Fun idea, but I think the one inch border (that’s two full inches between six inch displays) is going to limit the usefulness of this type application for the time being.