A wall that shows what is inside

Most things we use every day are black boxes: you know what a camera does, not how. In 2026 I developed a concept for an interactive projection wall that makes that hidden layer visible. All you have to do is walk.

The wall first shows a familiar object. Step over a glowing line in the floor and everything past it turns into a cutaway or exploded view: lenses, image sensor, circuit board, battery.

How it works

In my design, a projector fills the wall and a light strip in the floor marks the interaction line. A depth camera above the wall tracks where a visitor stands. Their horizontal position drives a vertical wipe between two synced layers: the outside and the inside of the object. A thin blue line marks the edge and moves with you, as if you carry an X-ray along the wall.

It builds on my Plakwerk installation, where a depth camera and TouchDesigner moved content along with a visitor. Here that position drives a mask.

From explainer board to scenes

I started with one explainer board: three steps (see the object, cross the line, see inside), floor zones that tell visitors where to stand, and three examples: a camera, a television and a patient monitor.

Then I explored the idea in healthcare and visualised the scenes with generative AI: a pill travelling through the body, the muscles at work during a physiotherapy exercise, and pain points shown in a hospital corridor. The floor line, footprints and blue divider stay the same in every version, so floor and wall speak one visual language.

What I learned

Here the interaction is the explanation: stepping forward literally means looking deeper. Next I want to prototype the wipe with a real depth camera, to test how fast the reveal should react and what happens when several people stand in front of it.