Have large panels or sheets of electronic wallpaper installed onto the surface of your walls (preferably when the house or room is being built or remodeled). I think holes can be made in the material if done properly (the holes would be for things like electrical outlets, etc.).
The walls would be connected to an electrical control box (or one for each room maybe) which would allow you to set the appearance of each room; light, gray, dark, or a pattern. The control box could also be connected to your computer which would allow you to design your own patterns or select pictures or in the future download more “wallpapers” from the internet. The control box could be set to change the appearance of a room at a preset amount of time like once an hour, once a day, once a week, once a month, etc.
The electronic wallpaper could also come in color (which would be more expensive). Color electronic wallpaper would have a much greater visual effect and would be much better for digital images.
Electronic paper only uses electricity to change it’s appearance, the rest of the time it does not require any electricity.-- BJS, Dec 21 2006 Electronic paper http://en.wikipedia...wiki/Epaper#_note-1 [BJS, Dec 21 2006] Halfbakery: Mood Changing Wall Paper (2004) Mood_20Changing_20Wall_20Paper [jutta, Dec 21 2006] Electronic Wallpaper http://www.t3.co.uk...ctronic_wallpaper2!By the aptly named Dario Buzzini. [jutta, Dec 21 2006] Shameless self promotion e-floor [fridge duck, Dec 22 2006] They had this in a pop-sci article. I think you could click and drag your windows to move or re-size them too. I don't know if it's possible to do that last part currently, though. They mentioned OLED's. I'd like to do this, but I imagine it's prohibitively expensive right now. (I can't seem to find a link to the popsci article).-- Zimmy, Dec 21 2006 It isn't WTCTTISITMWIBNIIWR, I didn't see it in a movie, and it's based on current technology just on a larger scale.-- BJS, Dec 21 2006 I say this is a little bit of a unique take on this using the epaper.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 21 2006 I don't think I've seen all three of the "Back to the Future" movies (since the first one came out more than four years before I was born, and the second and third ones came out a few months after I was born), and even if I have, and I certainly don't remember anything that's similar to this idea in any way.-- BJS, Dec 21 2006 I think Zimmy was talking about some kind of LCD thing, and not e-paper.-- BJS, Dec 21 2006 I'm neutral also. Organic Light Emitting Diode, I think. I didn't look up e-paper, as I assumed it was LED. Sorry about that. <edit> I'm wavering towards a positive vote, as It seems OLED's don't last as long as e-paper would.-- Zimmy, Dec 22 2006 I originally had this idea because I just wanted the wall across from my computer screen to get dark since it's white and so there's a glare when the room is bright, but I still like to have light walls when I'm not computing.
Okay, so I know the idea to have walls that can change colors or patterns is not very new, but I think the idea to do it using an e-paper like material is new. I also think e-paper is a good material to use because it uses or wastes no electricity most of the time.-- BJS, Dec 22 2006 I covered the same thing in my e-floor idea - see link.-- fridge duck, Dec 22 2006 do you want me to delete this post? Iwill if you do.-- BJS, Dec 22 2006 I'll leave that entirely up to you and/or the moderators.
The wallpaper idea was more of a sidenote to the e-floor so arguably this idea is new.-- fridge duck, Dec 23 2006 I think its new personally, so I would not delete it.-- jhomrighaus, Dec 23 2006 Okay.-- BJS, Dec 23 2006 random, halfbakery