“Straight from the mouths of babes”

An original member of Ocean’s Eleven, João was forced to abandon the gang when told he had to lose the headlamp

When asked what his dad does for a living, 5 yr. old André Serpa beams proudly and answers “Daddy does magic!” 34 yr. old, YDreams Project Manager João Serpa laughs as he recalls his son’s reaction to watching him set up some of the cool apps, which João personally had a hand in developing, for the Braganza Science Center.

Before coming on board in January 2005, João and YDreams went back a long way. He first met company CEO, and co-founder António Câmara while getting his undergraduate degree in Environmental Engineering at the New Lisbon University. “Prof. Câmara encouraged most of his students to take part in GASA, a research group he helped found in the early 90’s”, recalls João, “I joined GASA in ’95. The place was a little “geeky”, slightly anarchic, and given it was the mid-90’s, had an almost primitive access to the Internet, but it was an exciting place to be, and perfect for working on my mathematical modelling and delving into the brave new world of physical interfaces”.

In the meantime, João left GASA to pursue other projects, but late in 1999, Prof. Câmara encouraged him to apply for scientific research projects. He received funding, returned to GASA and embarked on research for EU projects and his PhD thesis in numerical modelling and tangible interfaces applied to environmental simulation.

Between 2001 and 2005, João lent a helping hand by collaborating with YDreams on proposals, brainstorming sessions, and programming for interactive installations that led to the Virtual Sightseeing scenic viewer and I-Garment. Taking on the role of Project Manager at YDreams seemed like a natural progression in his career given his history. But that wasn’t the only reason; turns out João loves working with people, as much as he enjoys ubiquitous computing and interactive interfaces, so Project Management seemed like the natural course.

As far as free time goes, João can be found ‘tinkering’ with the project he is most proud of: his son André. He also makes time for reading, music, sports and loves partying hard and travelling to off the beaten path locations!

We say, do as the kid says, and “keep making magic”.

The iFest ’08 event, organized by Infonomia, had its fourth edition held in the Forum Building in Barcelona between the 10^th and 12^th of July. After the amount of attention attracted at the 2007 edition, YDreams Med returned as an interactive technology partner, with the yFaces. Participants would write down free comments about the event on nearby post-its, that would then appear almost instantaneously on a giant 103” plasma, gently provided by Panasonic Spain.

iFest aims to accelerate business growth through innovation and creativity. There were over 25 speakers present including: Hiroshi Tasaka, David Weinberger, Alberto Alessi, Peter Watson, Tom Kelley, Antonella Broglia, Ricardo Baeza-Yates among others. Our own Miguel Remédio made a brief presentation about YDreams.

Some interesting bits:

- The Sustainable Dance Club (vid 1) (vid 2), from the Roosegaarde Studio (2). A dance floor geared with sensors and piezo-electric components that can power an entire disco, sic, and make it interactive. Opening next September, at the Watt in Rotterdam.

- Just rub yours against mine and we’re done. It’s “E“, the gadget set to replace business cards.

- A lot of content on fabrics and textiles: the entrepreneurial Sensing Fabrics with stylist Joan Fabregas, the free-minded XS Labs (vids) from Joanna Berzowska and two Dutch girls and their Taeppedyr that keeps babies from crying. Even Philips had something to say on the subject.

- Unlock your cell-phone just by staring at it, with VFacer (download available for the N70), from Visual Engineering.

- Philips’ drive for innovation was put forward by Emile Aarts, founder of Philips Home Lab. See if this sounds familiar in any way.

- And then there was the toy section. ALAVS (Autonomous Light Air Vessels) and their funny Blubber Bots. Goofy looking toy robots that look paradoxically vintage, from Fadisel. Download a bed-time story and stuff it into the storytelling Nabar teddy-bear. The oddly real and sensor filled Pleo dinosaur, 2007 Engadget Robot of the Year, from Ugobe.

- Telefonica I+D showed off a very prototypical Visual Search Engine, where a photo taken by your own cell phone can act as the “key word” for the search: take a photo of a CD cover on a shop-window and immediately buy that CD online…

- The solar powered scooter, from Sun Red.

Wired’s June issue featured an inspirational letter by Louis Rossetto, one of the magazine founders, addressed to his children. The letter ends with this note:

[…]we were often accused during my time at Wired of being overly optimistic. But optimism is not false hope, it’s a strategy for living.

It’s interesting to think of optimism as a strategy for living (and, why not, business). We live in times where some people regard optimism as some kind of delusional behavior or, on a different angle, relate it to an esoteric outlook on life.

It’s important to realize that being optimistic doesn’t mean that you won’t fail. Nevertheless, if your long-run strategy is built on optimism, it means you will keep on trying and, eventually, increase your chances of attaining success.In this article about Top Gun Salespeople, based on Psychological studies, optimism is listed as one of the three critical elements that make a great salesman. And if you conceive “selling” as something larger than getting people to buy products or services, while also encompassing the promotion of ideas, values and yourself, well, a good chunk of optimism (and hard work, of course) can prove adamant to your success.

YDreams has occasionally been described as a company far too optimistic for its context. Well, we’ll take that compliment.

Last Wednesday, YDreams held the 2008 in-house summer party. This was the perfect opportunity for YDreamers to let loose from all their hard work, and welcome the summer with open arms. It also showcased the flexibility of the new YBuilding.

The sunset on Wednesday afternoon was everything anyone could ask for. Everyone was basking the ambiance, lounging around in bean bag chairs while the YBand was already warming up for their great series of performances.  This was topped off by a delicious barbeque, a variety of drinks and our traditional relaxed atmosphere. As the night progressed, the YBand treated us to wide diversity of musical styles entertainment, from hip-hop to funk, cheesy eighties pop to hard rock.

It wouldn’t have been a YDreams party without a spoof surprise. We were treated to a hilarious pimba*-style music video. All in all, a great excuse for YDreamers to have fun together, enjoy good music, better food, and the best company. It won’t be long until we’re all out on the deck again, celebrating the winner of the Battle of the Corporate Bands. And by the winner, I mean the YBand.

For more pictures, check out our Facebook page at here

*Pimba (noun, adj) - Type of Portuguese pop/folk music. Lyrics usually have double meanings. Beware.

Our Architek software is now ready to be released. Architek is a platform that allows users to create their own interactive installations, without having to deal with programming and algorithms. Basically, we’ve rounded up some of our most successful products, like the yWalk (Interactive Floors) or the yMagic line, and integrated them into a web-based content manager. Interesting to note, Architek started as an in-house project that was aimed to bring more efficiency to programming work on some of the less elaborate types of interactive installations. We will start by licensing it to authorized distributors and partners, expect more information about this product on our website soon.

Picture this: you walk into a store and take a ticket for customer service. A462 is your number. You glance at the screen, and A391 is flashing. You look around the store, and all you see are walls that used to be white and 100 people dispersed, some sitting down, others asleep, and a vast majority chatting away on their mobile phones. What to do?

This is the worst-case scenario of a bad shopping experience. The Internet has completely changed the way we shop, and traditional retail is suffering because of that. Many companies have already taken this into consideration, and have altered their stores’ concept, to give people a reason to buy things off of the World Wide Web.

Portuguese telecommunications giant TMN is opening what Portuguese newspaper Expresso is calling “a state-of-the-art shop with distinctive experimentation.” YDreams transported the concept of an interactive playground to a ‘normal’ store, giving people a reason to get off online points-of-sale, and go to the new BlueStore to experience things first hand.

Once inside the store, people will almost be thankful (”almost” because they aren’t crazy) to have their A462 number. The store itself will keep people occupied and interested until their number is called out. There is something for everyone, like the interactive slide that uses sensors to measure speed and will make children want to run even more errands with their parents, which can be considered a minor miracle.

If renewing my passport was this fun, it wouldn’t have expired in 1996.

Freddie Yauner created an animated version of that traditional and lifeless Exit Signs. It was displayed at the Royal College of Art School (UK). (via We Make Money Not Art)

Antão Almada and the Luso-American (Y)Dream

Eight years ago, Antão Almada was sitting in his cubicle as a Senior Software Engineer in Palo Alto thinking, “what next?” He was already happily married and had begun venturing into the world of fatherhood when he received a call from António Câmara asking him to come on board a new project, which would eventually become YDreams. Knowing from the start of his Silicon Valley adventure that he wanted to return to Portugal, he also knew that working with Professor Câmara could be an even greater experience than Paraform, and the laid-back environment he had become accustomed to would certainly be maintained. Eight years later, Antão is the Strategic Software Development Director at YDreams R&D unit, YLabs, where he is responsible for investigating and keeping up-to-date with up and coming technologies, and then applying them to YDreams products. Most of his day is spent on his computer, applying the most recent technologies to keep YDreams in the technological vanguard. All this is done using his ergonomic keyboard - a living relic from his Silicone Valley days.

His quiet and reserved exterior can fool the mere onlooker. When I arrived at YLabs to chat with Antão,, he was sitting behind a computer, surrounded by five YLabers while he cracked some sort of complex code using C#, his favourite computing language.

Antão has been at YDreams since its founding, has many prospects for the future and accomplishments from the past. To date, his favourite project has been the development of YDreams proprietary platform, in which all of our latest interactive installations are based. The development required a great amount of teamwork, and the result was an extremely innovative platform. Antão hopes YDreams continues to innovate in the field of reality computing and become a world leader in augmented reality. Projects that are underway are obviously top-secret, however, Antão assured me that we haven’t seen the last of Flapi yet. “Flapi is only a stepping stone for greater things to come.”

Computers aren’t everything for our Strategic Software Development Director. When I asked him what his main hobby was “Family” immediately shot-out. Having two small children is a full time job. Collecting miniature cars also captures his attention when he’s not out riding his BMX.

No need to wait for those sliding doors to part to be greeted by family, friends or the friendly driver holding up the huge sign with your name on it.

Barclays has done the next best thing. Along with YDreams, they’ve crafted an interactive walkway that welcomes passengers to Lisbon in 12 different languages. The 32-meter long walkway extends throughout most of the baggage claim section of Lisbon international airport and reveals the welcome note in a multitude of tongues as people stroll over the animated pathway.

For more details read here.