Imagining an augmented reality future that's not an advertising hell

London design firm Berg and advertising agency Dentsu produced this short video, "Media Surfaces: Incidental Media," demonstrating a vision for a future in which media surfaces are everywhere, but are used to be playful, informative and to better connect you to your friends and family:

Each of the ideas in the film treat the surface as a focus, rather than the channel or the content delivered. Here, media includes messages from friends and social services, like foursquare or Twitter, and also more functional messages from companies or services like banks or airlines alongside large traditional big 'M' Media (like broadcast or news publishing).

All surfaces have access to connectivity. All surfaces are displays responsive to people, context, and timing. If any surface could show anything, would the loudest or the most polite win? Surfaces which show the smartest most relevant material in any given context will be the most warmly received.

Media Surfaces: Incidental Media

(via Beyond the Beyond)