Ideas

I've had this idea for a while, without the fragrance add-on. You can do this quickly and cheaply with e-paper or e-ink. Additionally, you can display large art and soon, color art. You would ideally want the walls of your house to interact with your computer, so you could go from an image on the 'net, to a wallpaper equivalent of a desktop background. This would also be ideal as part of a computerized home automation system, because you could have the system manage the wallpaper settings automatically, on a timer, randomizer, user choice, or some combination.

Eventually, a home automation system will probably double as a server as well. The house will manage downloads and file-sharing, and the files will be available to a user's individual computer upon request. At some point this will probably result in advanced e-ink technologies handling multimedia wallpaper... but not just yet.

epaper or eink is enither quick, cheap, or easy right now. You can get picture frames that hook into your flickr account though!

This sort of thing is a great mental excercise, but not sure how it can be crowd sourced... or in this case even viably built into a business. You've got a bunch of things getting in your way. Cost. Availability. Developing the technology. A tough one, but a neat idea none the less.

you need a big screen I think

I've hear Billy Gates has art work like this that works on the neuro-pickup of guests. Or something.
I like the idea of the switch. So many times I've wished I could change my home, walls and art, to fit my mood. Like music.

I heard about Bill Gates house too. You basically get a badge with a chip in it that knows your preferences and changes the art work as you walk around. I think it's also connected to climate control so it knows how cold you like a room, etc.

Great idea! I get depressed when I visit a hospital's drabby room. Your idea would bring some light into a patient's room while they recover. I had a similiar idea, where you would have printed panels with designs and you place hooks on the wall. The panels would fit on the hooks and when you got tired of that panel you would unhook it and put a new one.

This is a good idea, and could also work on a scaled down less techy version. If you took two pieces of transparent/tracing paper and stuck your e-ink pattern inside (keeping in mind e-ink contains tiny particles which are negatively charged for one colour, and positively charged for another) and passed a current through one face of the transparent paper, could that change the colour of the pattern when the negatively charged particles are attracted towards the positively charged side of the transparent paper? The only question would be how to safely discharge the electricity through the paper, and maximise the quality of the images and their perceived colour saturation.

I like headofideas idea too, for hooks- the hooks could even be connectors to a console which allows you to change the images, or even connect to a computer/network so that you can upload images, maybe even soothing animations, to the electronic panel.

I am no scientist so I am just wildly postulating :-)

Bill Gates House
http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=9738CIiY41k

Sound cool! Will it take a lot of cold cash?

It will probably take a lot of technology that has yet to be developed. I don't believe this is very feasibility. Currently epaper is quite expensive and hard to upscale to something of room proportions.

Looking at the way the technology works I would say the best solution is using multi-color leds under a back panel.

This is one of the applications already being proposed for organic LEDs (OLEDs) which can be printed in large areas onto flexible polymer substrates. Google 'OLED walls' or similar and you'll find plenty of people talking about the idea. Initially only single-colour walls will be available, but eventually there's no reason the concept can't be extended to full-wall displays. Unfortunately, this means that while your idea is valid, it's not original, and there are plenty of people better-placed to move it forward than you.

Texture is still up for grabs of course... Good luck coming up with the technology for that one though!

you dont aim small

Or..... you might come up with some type of projector which would mount some small distance from the ceiling and would project a 360 degree image onto the walls. You could then programmatically project any set of images or patterns you wanted on the walls at any time.

I guess it could become a reality of life in a few years. You could try patenting this.

I don't know about domestic use? This would be probably aimed on high-end market only. How many people will really want to invest in something like this in their home?
However I think it is a great idea for commercial use. There are some commerial venues like hotel saloons, exibition centers, galeries etc., that needs to be redecorated on (almost) daily basis. Offering a venue equiped with this technology could cut on price for (re)decoration, for the customer and allow the provider to set his price higher.
I know there were developed some materials that could be used for this type of project. I think panasonic developed a type of fabric that works as a screen.
Not sure how this can be crowdsouced, maby just give you some ideas about existing technologies on the market?

I saw a "wallchanger" on youtube. It exists already for architectural purposes. People who like change, can also stick gigantic stickers on their walls. They can be produced out of your own photo's, actually, out of anything. I mean that there are cheaper alternatives. Have you thought about the loss of space when oleds are used? I think that nano-applications are being developed this instance so that one can for example change the color of the carpaint etc...