After enough time at NEXTFEST to say I’ve gained at lease a cursory understanding of all the exhibits, I’ve come to one conclusion: The world of the future will run on video projectors. Now I’m not one to draw conclusions without collecting data. So, I counted them…as many of them as I could find. There are over 150 exhibits at NEXTFEST and 30 of them use a projector in some way. That’s 20%! If I counted each individual projector that number would be much higher (GE’s Go Big Interactive Video Wall uses four by itself).

My favorite projector-aided exhibit thus far is Sound Flakes an interactive experience that involves water faucets “dripping� colored shapes that can be stirred and lifted from the basin with a ladle. While playing with the flakes was fun, the real exciting part will be engaging my colleagues at edgelab in the quest to figure out how GE can use this art project to make our business stronger.

So is a world full of projectors something to look forward to? Judging by the amount of verbal approval (at NEXTFEST that translates to “oohs�, “aahs�, and “cools�), I’d say so. Well, at least until that $600 bulb burns out.