The Most Impressive Thing at Macworld: The Technology Behind the Keynote
No, I wasn’t impressed with the Macworld announcements this year, but one thing that had me blown away was the technology behind Steve’s keynote. Apple has an unbelievable ability to make products attractive to users, make products easy to use for users, and put on a show. Take a look at the video of the iPhone demonstration during the keynote, I’ll wait… notice anything remarkable? The most impressive thing I noticed is the seamless display between the phone that Steve has in his hands, and the projection on the stage for the audience to view. I have no clue how they are doing this, but anyway I can think of it’s really impressive.
For starters, we can rule out a camera. The iPhone on the projection has no background on it, it’s a crisp and clear interactive view of the iPhone. One way they could be accomplishing this, is by faking the display that’s shown to the user. Not sure, but even if they were doing this they have the timing down perfect and they must have rehearsed it a thousand times. They could also be using a demo unit, that has some extra code to send the signal to eventually be show on the projection. I can only imagine the extra work that was put into the keynote, if that’s how they are doing it.
No matter how they are accomplishing this, it’s impressive because it worked. At least from all of the videos that I saw there were no errors or blue screens, similar to those that have shown up in some keynotes from Microsoft. Speaking of which, take a look at the keynote from Bill Gates at CES, see the difference? Apple puts on a show, and you have to admit it’s impressive.
