What’s Above
A full-screen ambient experience for a TV, projector, or ceiling, showing planes, helicopters, and satellites above the user as moving labelled dots.
What it helps with
Most flight and satellite products are maps that expect the user to search, zoom, and interpret. What’s Above is for the opposite moment: someone sitting on a sofa or looking at a projected ceiling, curious about what is moving overhead.
What was built
The prototype turns planes, helicopters, and satellites into moving labelled dots on a full-screen canvas. It is designed for TVs and projectors, with couch-distance type and no map, dashboard, search, or dense control panel. The architecture defines a strict rule against logging or storing the user’s precise location. Because the prototype documents allow fallback data, this case does not claim that every visible object is always live.
What made it different
The unusual decision was to make a passive, room-scale information experience instead of another tracking tool. Removing most controls changes the feeling of the data: it becomes something to notice together, not a task to operate.
An information product can be calm enough to live in a room when it gives up maps, dashboards, and constant interaction.
What it demonstrates
- Planes, helicopters, and satellites as ambient motion
- Couch-distance labels
- Precise-location privacy rule and no dense controls