Hacks, mash ups and other alterations clearly rule the world of technology. So much so, in fact, that improving upon on third party creations and finding new levels of usability is commonplace and expected. That being said, every so often, some of these “hacks” demand you take notice of the innovation and creativity involved.

Linking up a number of mobile devices to create a Jumbotron-style of “monitor” is one of these alterations.

Thanks to some brainiacs at MIT, we now know what such a creation would look like and how it would perform. The idea is simple: they linked up a number of various mobile devices — smartphones, tablets, and laptops are mentioned — to create a single display unit that looks similar to the technology used in these oversized monitors. According to the developers’ site, the Junkyard Jumbotron allows users to:

The Junkyard Jumbotron lets you take a bunch of random displays and instantly stitch them together into a large, virtual display, simply by taking a photograph of them. It works with laptops, smartphones, tablets — anything that runs a web browser. It also highlights a new way of connecting a large number of heterogenous devices to each other in the field, on an ad-hoc basis.

There’s also a video discussing the methods involved in creating a Junkyard Jumbotron, and the “coolness” factor of this particular hack is plain to see:

Do you have any mobile device hacks you’re working on? Have you heard of one that maybe escaped the public’s eye? Are you planning on creating your own personal Jumbotron out of soon-to-be unwanted first generation iPads? Let us know in the comments below.

H/t to Neatorama for the find.