Who wants to look outside at the same backyard or the same adjacent apartment alleyway all the time? The folks at Rational Craft sure don’t, so they’re building Winscape, a “faux window” system that can be controlled with a Wii remote and iPhone app.
Winscape is a virtual window system that can display an accurate, real-time perspective view of a variety of scenery, from the Golden Gate Bridge (used in the video demo below), to an underwater kelp forest, to a Japanese tea garden. The system is comprised of a couple LCDs that are powered by a hidden Mac Pro, which is tuned into the movements of a person in the room holding (or wearing) a Wii Remote. Tilt and turn the remote as you move, and the faux Winscape scenery changes perspective as if you were looking out a real window.
While a Wii Remote is required for the system to function, various features of the Winscape system such as scenery, sleep, and wake times can be managed from the Winscape Remote iPhone app. Rational Craft also features a scenery site with more scene options for owners and tips for shooting and composing your own footage.
Rational Craft is targeting an eventual Winscape hardware and software kit price, sans Mac Pro, of $2,500-3,000. You can view a demo of the system in a YouTube video embedded below.