Gaming has always been a lucrative business, but it has come under the spotlight lately due to certain global events. Even those who wouldn’t label themselves as a gamer may have found enjoyment in some kinds of games, from location-based AR types like Pokemon GO to exercises and sports on the Nintendo Switch. Regular gamers, however, prefer to use bigger screens, sometimes a computer monitor, and other times a larger TV. There is a bit of a dichotomy, however, between TVs for gaming and TVs for other kinds of entertainment, like watching videos, even if both kinds of TVs offer almost the same features nowadays. Gravity is a design concept that tries to bridge the gap by smashing both worlds together, offering a single TV that can change its form a bit depending on whether you’ll use it for gaming or just for streaming.
Designer: Ibrahim Can Erdincmer
Many of the advanced and smarter TVs these days can also be used for gaming, thanks to specs and quality meeting gamers’ requirements. At the same time, however, these different groups of people have different preferences when it comes to the aesthetics of their screens. Most TV viewers want something sleek and stylish that looks almost like a work of art on their wall. Gamers, on the other hand, go for maximum visual impact, usually with kaleidoscopic lights inside or around their gear.
Gravity tries to cater to both audiences at the same time, using a rather interesting strategy to give both groups what they want. In its normal state for regular TV viewing, the actual screen sits flat inside the frame, surrounded by angled bezels that give it a faceted appearance, like a picture frame with its edges raised around the image. In gaming mode, however, this screen shifts forward, revealing lights that shine behind the screen and on the frame, creating that colorful light show that gamers seem to crave.
That isn’t the only shape-changing trick that this TV knows, though. There is a built-in camera on top that reveals itself in gaming mode, for example. The lower bezel also becomes a second display, showing notifications and other information that gamers might want to always be within their peripheral vision. The concept doesn’t mention whether these features are only available in gaming mode, which would be a shape since they could also add value to the TV, like for making video calls.
Gravity is definitely an interesting design that tries to solve what may be a problem in households that use the same TV for both viewing and gaming. Then again, it might also be an overly complex design when both parties can settle on a compromise instead. Shape-changing TVs, however, seem to be where the industry is heading to anyway, so something like this might not be that far off in the future.
