Original story

SatWeb 16.4.2009

Virtual Beauty 2009 - virtual jewellery goes on display in Osaka

** The 1st World’s Fair in virtual jewellery - Virtual Beauty 2009 - was opened today in Osaka, Japan. The two-week trade fair is a forum for some 200 manufacturers attending in person with their own stands, and for a further 1100 present via the datanets. In addition, the organizers have gathered some of the world’s most priceless jewels from museums and private collections, in order that buyers can compare virtual jewels and “the real thing”. **

The stand-out attraction of the show, drawing long queues, is the virtual necklace developed by Holonokia, a division of the multinational telecoms consortium. The jewel in this instance is actually a collection of miniature hologram projectors, driven by Nokia’s new videomobile. Users can choose from among 49 jewel holograms, allowing a total of around 120 different arrangements. The jewel holograms can also be programmed to change according to the user’s mood and dress requirements.

Thirty-one of the holograms are based on actual gems and precious stones, and the remaining 18 on imaginary jewels. The designer Rosetta Stone has clearly been inspired by the first manned mission to Mars scheduled for touchdown on the red planet in four years. Among the imaginary jewels in the collection are a tiny Martian polar ice-cap and a rendition of a Martian dustwhorl. Many have expressed astonishment that a company such as Nokia should have branched out into the jewellery business. According to Stone, the decision was to some extent a matter of chance.

“The entire project came into being when Nokia developed the animated hologram and its experimental hologram video mobile phone. It was necessary to design some extremely small holograms for the screen display. The daughter of one of the designers was visiting her mother at work, and saw one of the prototypes by accident. She said it would make a great brooch, and the idea was born.”

Several manufacturers were showing off virtual jewels based on VDU technology, but there was a definite sense in the air that this is running out of steam, as people are tiring of wearing clothing, necklaces, or tiaras equipped with miniature display screens. Thin film technology is making inroads, but for example the otherwise very promising EMFI-6 Gossamer is a plastic film, and therefore still uncomfortably thick and sticky for the wearer.

It was symptomatic of the slightly tired mood that the only VDU jewel to cause any real stir on the opening day was a largish nose-ring which featured an unmistakable sexual come-on running across the screen, accompanied by the same message delivered in a choice of alluring voices of either sex.

Virtual Beauty 2009 also left this visitor in no doubt whatsoever that new technology alone is no guarantee of art. Many of the technical gimmicks have a very short-term appeal. The virtual world seems to be waiting for the next phase, when the bona fide jewellery houses - including Cartier (widely rumoured to be the subject of takeover moves by Siemens-Nixdorf) and Tiffany - start to create real jewels in the virtual environment.

Toteuma-arvio 2026

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Lisätyn todellisuuden sovitukset, kamerafiltterit ja virtuaaliset muotituotteet näyttävät koruja käyttäjän kuvassa reaaliajassa. Hologrammiprojektoreiden sijasta toteutus tapahtuu useimmiten näytöllä tai laseissa.

Johtopäätös: virtuaalisen korun käyttökokemus toteutui olennaisilta osin ja ajoissa.