Air Graffiti: How It All Began
It’s been a few weeks since Air Graffiti began reaching customers around the world, and the feedback has been amazing. Because it has been so successful, I want to share the story of how it all began.
After planning and designing our solution, we set ourselves a goal: to create the best digital graffiti wall for party rentals and events. I went to the drawing board and started testing.
First, it was important to me that the wall support two technologies:
- Infrared technology that supports an unlimited number of users.
- Mouse input or hardware that does not support infrared.
I set up a box, put the infrared webcam we had manufactured inside, and began testing its response time. I worked to minimize delays and make it as fast and accurate as the technology allowed:
It was so much fun! I researched rear-projection screens, and we tested many options before finding the best one for our needs. We also added stencils and wanted to try them out, so we set everything up at home and started testing:
We still had a long way to go, with improvements to make in almost every area. While Ron worked on the infrared spray cans, I improved the software, adding features such as printing photos, emailing them, and sharing them on Facebook. We also created a new output option: saving a video of the drawing process itself. Then we met for more testing. Here is some footage we captured from the side:
Next, it was time to test the multi-user capabilities. We gathered a few family members, handed them spray cans, and tried it together. Here is a quick clip from that session:
Then it was time for an event. We booked a bar mitzvah and went out to party. Here is the first event we did:
If you are familiar with Air Graffiti, you know how far it has come since the early version shown in these videos. Looking back always brings a smile to our faces and reminds us of the months of work and testing that went into it. By the time of this post, Air Graffiti supported hundreds of features, including green screen, photo effects, drawing effects, and a wide range of ready-to-use stamps and stencils. I hope you enjoyed this quick trip down memory lane!
