The Bubble Screen is a project that has been 2 years in the making. Even though there are other bubble display screens around (see below), the latest version of this organic display creates perfect bubbles in any size and speed and uses them as pixels to write texts or make drawings into the liquid.

The biggest challenge for the designers was to overcome the problem of “Drafting”, this is when the first bubble experiences more friction and eventually the 2nd bubble (the one directly below it) catches up with the first and the image is ruined.

Beta-tank used a highly viscous liquid similar to shampoo in order to obtain a workable refresh rate. To solve other Fluid Dynamics issues Imperial College London was drafted in to create computer analysis for each bubble it travels in space. Video.

A work developed at Beta-tank by Daniel Kupfer and Eyal Burstein.

Previous version of the Bubble Screen.

Other Bubble Screens: Bubble Screen by Stephanie Andrews; Aquaplay, by Himanshu Khatri, which won the Next Idea competition this year (it was exhibited at the Ars Electronica center but was out of order when i checked it out.) A large, fluid-filled, transparent container is equipped with air vents in its base. A touchpad tells the built-in computer what pattern to produce; it’s then formed in 2D or 3D by batches of air bubbles; Water Canvas (image on the right), by Taro Suzuki, a bubble-making machine creates geometric patterns (via.)