YDreams and Ovibeja together in the same sentence could be unlikely but the truth is: if you visit this year’s edition of the Ovibeja fair you will find YDreams technology in Mértola’s municipality exhibition area. This fair is known for being the biggest ‘agriculture do’ in Portugal, combining best of breed tradition and innovation. Mértola municipality hosts the best of innovation presenting its historical, cultural and natural heritage with YDreams technology.
Mértola Landscape Projection
You can discover several interesting locations in Mértola’s landscape projection by pointing a flashlight that pops up information as you find heritage spots such as “Oficina de Tecelagem” (Weaving Workshop), “Castelo” (Castle) and “Torre do Relógio” (the Clock Tower). Another interactive solution showcased in Mértola’s exhibition area is a sand-like walkway. As you walk over the sand, it fades and reveals incredible Arabic tile work that once covered the floor of Mértola’s Castle.
Sand-like Walkway
This innovative way of presenting historical, cultural and natural heritage is a preview of what will be a re-qualification project for “Casa Romana” (the Roman House) and “Núcleo do Ferreiro” (the Ferreira Nucleus), two important museums in the region, to be developed together by YDreams and the Mértola municipality until the end of 2008.Ovibeja’s 25th edition started last April 26th and runs till May 4th. For more information please go to: www.ovibeja.com. And for more news about Mértola municipality check their website.
Few things are more characteristically Portuguese than the famed Calçada Portuguesa or Portuguese pavement. A joy to behold, there is nothing more picturesque than a stroll along our highly recognizable sidewalks, so long as you aren’t wearing stilettos.
With this in mind, YDreams and OMG Digital made sure the very first thing visitors set foot upon when entering Portugal, was exactly that – a virtual Calçada Portuguesa - created for Nissan, and aimed at promoting the brand’s recent launch of the Nissan Qashqai.
The 34-meter walkway extends along most of Lisbon’s baggage claim area and surprises visitors by unraveling some very cool images of the Nissan Qashqai as they stroll over the virtual pavement, without the embarrassing risk of anyone getting their heels caught in the cracks of the pavement!
I´m very sad this week because the cutest project that I’ve ever worked on in my entire life … just finished. I literally shed a few tears once it was over because I don´t quite know how to explain my feelings about it. Maybe the child inside of me will miss the sensation of Happiness every time I saw the people interacting in front of the screen, taking pictures of the giant Coke bottle (with real coke inside … imagine the smell) or just laughing along with the TV Coke commercial.
The Happiness Factory from Coca-Cola was such a pleasure and a job perfectly done. Everything was perfect. Of course there were endless nights running tests and some nervousness, but from the very start, when we were invited to be a part of the it, we could see that this would be “The Project”, here in Brazil. One month of hard and pleasurable work.
I would like to congratulate every YDreamer involved. Capeta, Renan, Caetano and Daniel Prado, as well as the people at Gringo (our partner ad agency) and Coca-Cola, thank you for making my dream come true.
Recently, Engadget, a web magazine with daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics, picked up on our Flapi YouTube video, which gave viewers a look into what goes on at YLabs, our in-house R&D lab.
There’s more where Flapi came from, so we thought we’d share a clip about an augmented reality experiment involving foamy virtual bubbles. We stumbling upon the technology about a year back and at the time weren’t quite sure what to do with it.
YLabbies try out Virtual Bubbles
Below take a quick peak at how the creative use of an ingenuous lab experiment gave way to a fun interactive experience for movie-goers in São Paulo, Brazil:
Interactive Cinema Experience at São Paulo Movie Theaters
Following other YDreams’ products with AR, such as the Virtual Sightseeing Scenic Viewer and augmented books, SimVideo extends the possibilities of these technology applications by providing a large set of tracking, simulation and composition functionalities with very low hardware requirements, due to a very powerful proprietary platform.
With this technology we envision applications such as real time competition with F1 drivers during a Grand Prix Tv transmission, the re-enactment of famous movies, performing alongside or replacing ones favourite actors (imagine Woody Allen´s Broadway Danny Rose inverted) and an enormous variety of augmented reality applications.
With SimVideo, video feeds that are either live or pre-recorded can gain new levels of interest through the addition of an individual layer of contextualized interactivity.
SimVideo implements static and dynamic occlusion, static and dynamic shadow casting, collision detection and physics.
Related experiences have demonstrated real characters interacting with virtual objects, new developments already undertaken in SimVideo are leading to virtual characters affecting and controlling real world objects. Soon one will be able to see Flapi turning real lights on and off and other real world objects controlled by virtual characters.
The main idea is merging real and virtual life in a seamless universe that tends to become one.
July 7th, 2003 - YDreamers celebrate the launch of the Undercover mobile game
For a long time YDreams has been associated with mobile gaming. In recent times we have been slowly moving away from that particular business area, to focus on our core of interactive conceptual environments or experiences. Mobile games, though, played an important role in the company’s success history.
Undercover and Undercover 2: Merc Wars, which expanded the concept further, were mobile Massive Multi-player Online Games that incorporated live location features making them pioneer gaming experiences in that particular genre. This further strengthened YDreams expertise in location-based systems and, above all, as a creator of a different breed of interactive experiences. It took a lot of sleepless nights, hard work and some ingenuity to try to compete in such uncharted territory against the big players of game development.
It has to be said that the commercial success of that specific game was not matched by the critical acclaim it received. Sometimes it doesn’t pay off to be on the forefront. But the hype and exposure the company got for devising such a product, and the lessons we learned from the whole process, have been an important part of making YDreams into the company that it is today.
We still get asked if we are “that mobile games company”. We aren’t, and the truth is we never quite were. Mobile games were a part of YDreams’ interactive experiences portfolio, but never the whole of the company. We are immensely proud of Undercover 2, Cristiano Ronaldo Underworld Football’s success or the launch of Wall Street Fighter in a few months time, but now we have moved on to a whole bigger realm of more encompassing projects.
Since mid February, booth contractor Grup Servis has been the keeper of two YDreams’ Magic Books.
These Magic Books, originally created for client Turismo Madrid, for the FITUR ‘08 fair, are now roaming the country’s other tourism exhibitions, set at smaller versions of the successful stand built in January for Madrid’s renowned Tourism Fair.
So far, the Magic Books’ interactivity has been featured at tourism fairs in San Sebastian, Valencia and Barcelona. The system’s plug-and-play simplicity, YDreams availability and the metal-stand’s sleek design have proven to be key factors for Grup Servis.
For many people interactive branding is still only about the Web.
It’s true that the Internet is full of exciting new possibilities, like viral marketing or the social media channels. But outside the two dimensional web there is a real world full of interactive possibilities.
The creative use of technology and new interfaces are changing the way people can be digitally approached in the physical realm. Intelligent Billboards, Digital Signage or Interactive Catalogs, controlled by gestures or multi-touch systems, are some of the solutions that we are starting to see on the streets, stores and public spaces that are part of our daily routine.
If the Internet was a milestone in the development of Permission Marketing, this new tangible interactivity allows us to go even further. You don’t force people to touch an interactive shop window or play a game at a cinema venue. So the challenge is on for marketers, copywriters and art directors, to create engaging content that people choose to activate. The result is a dynamic dialogue between the consumer and the brand. And this dialogue takes place within the physical world, making it even more remarkable than interacting on the virtual world of the web.
It is exciting to think that we can integrate some of these new tools with what web 2.0 has to offer. Particularly, the power that consumers are developing in defining the terms and conditions by which they want to be approached by brands, which will hopefully grow online and offline.
Imagine, for instance, having an online store’s characteristics in the physical world. Innovative interfaces would allow you to instantly compare items, browse suggested related articles based on datamining and other people’s suggestions. Clients could even write and leave reviews for others. Products and brands risk being more vulnerable, but quality standards would sure go up - and in the end we’d all benefit.
Last month YDreams Med launched a Magic Book installation, commissioned by agency MPG Spain for Nike.
The book is viewed through a 2m wide plasma-wall placed inside the shop-window of Nike Woman store at the L’illa Diagonal Shopping Mall, uptown Barcelona. Users may browse through Nike Woman’s seasonal brochure and the campaign is thought to last one month.
The shop-window has undergone a complete redecoration for the occasion and the set-up looks really nice. Check out the video:
For more perspectives (in spanish), click here or here.
According to our correspondent, Go-Kart expert Mariana Salgado, Wednesday’s race had a great turn-out. Rookie Rui Malvarez impressed the crowds with his flashy reflexes pulling off the quickest reaction time at the starting line, and shooting ahead of YVeterans Antão Almada and Tiago Fonseca. He managed to stay in first place for the first three laps but was eventually ‘deterred’ by a slight pile up on the runway, finishing up in third place but not bad for the new kid on the block!
First place was a toss up between Peter Figueiredo and João Frazão with both guys intent on taking home the most coveted Karting trophy. In the end Peter took the race by staying slightly ahead of João for most of the laps. Way to go Peter ‘Alonso’ Figueiredo.
The ladies, not to be outdone, also put in a great performance with Silvia Santos coming in 17th and Helena Rocha and Teresa Brás following shortly behind.
In the meantime, keep an eye out for the company’s next official Go-Kart event. All are welcome, and from the way some of you pull into the company parking lot I know you’ve got what it takes See you at the track!
YVeteran Antão Almada looking calm, cool and collected before the big race
Now what we’ve all been waiting for – the results!
Go-Kart Royalty
1st Peter Figueiredo, best lap: 1:06.47
2nd João Frazão, best lap: 1:06.38
3rd Rui Malvarez, best lap: 1:06.57
4th Tiago Fonseca
5th Vítor Duarte
6th Alfredo Saboga
7th Antão Almada
8th Bruno Neto
9th Luís Alberto
10th Filipe Tavares
11th Armindo Silva
12th Pedro Matos
13th Miguel Gomes
14th João Dornellas
15th Afonso Tavares
16th Sérgio Barata
17th Sílvia Santos
18th Luís Carvalho
19th Helena Rocha
20th Teresa Brás
21st José Danado
22nd Ranjeet Kumar
23rd Ricardo Luiz
The ladies’ winning circle
After a good clean race the gang rounds up & heads off to celebrate
* Special thanks to Helena and Mariana for the fun pics!
The Sea Monsters Interactive Exhibition for Lisbon’s Oceanarium movie has also been made available recently:
Watch out also for Filipe Freitas (a Portuguese Computer Science student at University of Aveiro), who wrote a detailed description of Microsoft’s TechDays event, complete with some videos of the installations we had at the show, like this one:
