The MIT Center for Civic Media, co-founded in 2009 by Director Chris Csikszentmihailyi, a founder of MIT Media Lab, is home to engineers, scientists and artists developing new media and information technologies that are free and open; their mission is to explore technological tools that will strengthen civil society.
The Brown Bag Toolkit
Junkyard Jumbotron is part of a larger collection of tools called the Brown Bag Toolkit which is oriented to improving face to face interactions including meetings, canvassing and chance encounters. The Junkyard Jumbotron project, led by Rick Borovoy, requires no special software and is simply a webpage that receives real-time updates from a server allowing scrolling, zooming and soon video. The team has written software allowing random displays including laptops, desktops, flat screens, smart phones and tablets, anything that runs a browser, to stitch together a large virtual image.
How Junkyard Jumbotron Works: Create Your Own
To create your own large virtual display go to Junkyard Jumbotron to get a unique URL to open on each device; directions are easy and straightforward on the site!
The displays will each provide a separate QR code. Next take a picture of all devices with a digital camera and send to the email address provided. At this point the setup has been completed and you can display pictures by sending them to the email address. When the pictures are displayed the entire collage can be scrolled, zoomed and moved in real time on all screens.
