Obscura Digital's High Def Projections

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Power Trio: (from left) Creative director, Travis Threlkel, production head Chris Lejeune, and CEO Patrick Connolly | Photograph by James Deavin

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Searchlight Pictures: For the May relaunch of iGoogle, Obscura turned buildings (including Google's NYC HQ in the distance) into multi-story canvases. | Photograph by James Deavin

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In part, the G-Boh work ethic is based on a code of having one another's back. "We've been working together longer than Obscura's been around," Dowlen says. "We're a family." But it's also a testament to the genuine respect they have for Threlkel and Connolly's vision. Says Dowlen: "There's a sense that we're building something unique and beautiful. Yeah, we do work for corporations, but we're giving them a piece of what we love."

Obscura can't afford to be precious these days. They're so slammed they're lucky to carve out a couple of weeks for any given job. The interest has put Obscura in the unfamiliar position of auditioning potential customers -- deciding which projects to pursue and which to pass on. "We have a basic test: 'Is that stupid, or is that going to be anything?' " says Connolly.

The attention is expanding into top-tier venture-capital circles as well. When David Weiden of Khosla Ventures (which primarily funds environmental startups; see page 92) pays a visit to the Obscura offices, Connolly takes him through a dome and past the undulating Chinese dragon. "Here's something wild," he says, walking over to an empty stage tucked in a corner. He presses a button, and the five long-legged members of British pop group Girls Aloud materialize, high-heeled and bustiered. It's a projection -- a scaled image trained on a nearly invisible Mylar scrim -- but looks eerily real.

Instead of pulling out his checkbook, Weiden furrows his brow and slides his black-stockinged foot in and out of his shoe. "If I was a big company, I'd be interested in this," he says slowly. "You're doing cool, creative stuff here. I think right now if I was a CEO, I'd hire you, but I'm not sure I'd invest in you. What's the billion-dollar company here? You need to articulate: Is this going to be a great company, or a great technology design shop?"

The kinetic Connolly seems temporarily stilled by Weiden's reaction. "Our services business is top-notch. We just need to find a way to manage the product route," he muses after the meeting. Connolly knows his company is at a crossroads and has produced prototypes with potential mass appeal: A projector that turns your living room into the rainforest, an interactive whiteboard that could become a boardroom staple, a touch-screen game application that is hyperinteractive and removes the need for a controller.

Soon the unbalanced force that runs through Connolly is in motion again: "In the past, it was either products or services, black or white, but there may be this evolving hybrid where we can do both," he says. "Right now, it's like we're a Labrador retriever in a room full of tennis balls, and we can't stop picking them up."

And what, really, is so wrong with going after every ball? The Obscura crew is reveling in the moment. "We're so booked right now it's crazy," Connolly says. "Last week, I went from Detroit to Dubai, then to Minneapolis. I was in, like, five different time zones. I just heard from a guy who owns one of the world's largest megayachts -- he wants us to go out there and do a multimedia retrofit of the entire vessel" -- complete with touch whiteboards that will serve as a digital concierge to manage everything from GPS to weather mapping, not to mention popcorn delivery to an onboard theater (total price: $10 million). "How frickin' James Bond '80s is that, man?!" At moments like these, it's clear that Obscura's 10-year plan -- or lack thereof -- is utterly beside the point.