Outside the Expo proper, next to one of the entrances, was the brilliant Digital Water Pavillion (DWP). Part of a future technological park project called Milla Digital (designed by MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning), the DWT showcased an array of interactive water curtains.

By means of asking the pavilion’s staff, you could have a word of your choice appear written in the curtains.

Specially at night, when lighting played a big role, the effect was very unexpected, seamless and poetic (except for the “slippery when wet” yellow signs). Video here.

Find the complete credits here.

Check out the video below of YBand’s stellar performance at the semi-finals of the Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands last Saturday, the 23rd.

Our guys came in a notable second, but from what we hear it was a pretty close call! You represented us well and made us proud!

Also congratulations to The Consumer Republic and good luck to them at the U.S. final!

YDreams Virtual Grafiti is being used as an alternative media to activate and promote the Guaraná Antartica Street Festival (GAS), an event created for lovers of action sports, street art and music. The line up, which includes artists like Bad Religion and Pitty to name a few, will take place next September 6 th at Chácara do Jockey in São Paulo, Brazil.

The Graffiti gives event-goers the opportunity to paint, draw and interact with a digital wall, promoting a unique experience between the brand and campaign concept.

Before moving onto the street festival, the Virtual Graffiti will be on exhibition for experimentation at Morumbi Shopping Center in São Paulo till September 4th. The entire campaign was created by DM9DDB in partnership with B/Ferraz, the company responsible for organizing the event.

Tomorrow, Saturday the 23rd, the YBand will rock for a place on the American final of the Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands 2008 edition. Those of us unable to attend London for the European semi-final, wish the band the best of luck! If anyone wants to stop by: The University of London Union - ULU, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY, starts at 6.pm.

SXSW Interactive 2009 is already gearing up and we’ve got some YDreamers applying for panels. Though not as widely popular as its Music counterpart, SXSW Interactive is one of the most conceited interactive media festivals around. From March 13 to 17, Austin will be buzzing with media entrepreneurs, curious geeks, technology evangelists and any other interactive aficionado variants you’d care to make. We’d really appreciate it if you’d give us a hand by voting for our panels.

Marta Vieira has two submissions for the Mobile / Wireless category. Since her early days at the company, as an Account Manager for our Entertainment division, Marta has amassed a profuse knowledge on location-based systems and gaming, both panels propose to put some perspective into current state-of-the-art and future trends.

Ivan Franco, our Research & Development Director, is set for the New Technology / Next Generation category, where he sets to share his expertise in new interfaces, DIY concepts and his own musicianship (check out Ivan’s blog for more info).

More info and voting links below:

Inches vs Miles – What Makes Location-Based Games Fun? (Marta Vieira)

Is accurate location what makes a location-based game “real”? Or can we broaden the concept of location until it fits our idea of what a fun game design would be? In this panel experts will discuss location-based gaming, its present and possible evolution.

(click to vote)

Location-Based Applications – Dead on Arrival? (Marta Vieira)

Location based applications have long been hailed as the wireless industry’s “next killer app”. But will they disappear before they’re ever big? In this panel the experts will discuss if location is likely to emerge as a powerful genre or be used as a feature boost for applications.

(click to vote)


New Interfaces for Performance (Ivan Franco)

Realtime computation allowed new media artists to develop interactive performances but typical computer interfaces don’t offer appropriate interaction models for these contexts. In the DIY generation artists learned new techniques to build their own instruments. Novel interfaces have surfaced and this presentation is a reflection on New Interfaces for Performance.

(click to vote)

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.

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.

UM is one of Portugal’s first experimental and mixed media art festivals. The International Festival for Experimental and Mixed Media joins national and international artists under one roof. All of these artists are interested in creating different forms of media where interactivity and liveliness are the protagonists. The theme for the 2008 edition of the festival is Gesture and Movement.

Not only is YDreams sponsoring the event, but Ivan Franco, YDreams’ Research and Development director, will be one of the main speakers of a panel that focuses on gesture and movement based interfaces.

The Festival is going to be held throughout the city of Lisbon from the 19^th to the 22 of June, 2008.

For more information, check out: http://www.1um1.net

YDreams’ interactive installation at the Portuguese pavillion in Zaragoza’s international exhibition is drawing a lot of media and public recognition. An 18-meter wide wall projection, allows visitors to ‘grab’ words that fall from the sky directly into a Guadiana River image. The public interacts by moving their hands over the screen, selecting and watching as the words splash in mix of sound and light, amounting to a better understanding of sustainable development issues.

You can read all about it in our press release and, judging from all the comments featured in the media so far, it’s a definite highlight of the whole exhibition. Even the Portuguese Republic President, Cavaco Silva, interacted with it on the inaugural day and seemed to enjoy himself.

And please do check João Vitória’s, our Zaragoza project manager and in-house illusionist, interview to SIC tv channel, which you can find right here.

“Now watch closely as I make your logo disappear!” João Vitória, Project Manager at YDreams, offering to use his incredible magical skills to make SIC’s logo disappear into thin air.

By António Câmara’s request, YBand applied to fight in the 8th edition of the Battle of the Corporate Bands - a contest promoted by Fortune magazine, seeking to find the best band formed mainly by amateur musicians working in a given company.

Well, that’s an order any of us at YBand were more than happy to fulfill! Not only there’s a personal joy to it, but a huge marketing potential as well, if we go any far in the competition.

So, we embraced the challenge with a sense of responsibility towards the company, and a great dose of childish excitement, for having an opportunity to do something different with our amateur skills for music.

First step was to decide how we would start the whole process. Each band needed to send 3 songs to the promoters. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Keep in mind that there are 32 members in YBand. We needed to pick 3 songs, and that meant leaving some of us out of the fun.

Through a voting pole, we decided that we would pick the 3 songs without worrying about who would eventually record them. Luckily, the 3 songs that were selected in that pole were songs that we already recorded for the Xmas CD. Thus, some of us went back to the studio to either remix, retouch or even re-record the song altogether.

Next step: send it to the jury. In order to participate, we were required to create a Sonicbids EPK (www.sonicbids.com/yband2006) and wait for the results. I was always very confident that we were going to be selected, and we all started believing when the promoters sent me some emails asking whether we need to have 32 members on stage.

And then, bingo! We got the news that we were selected! You can check for yourselves at www.sonicbids.com/yband2006 how our re-recordings worked out for the jury – (please do, it sounds a lot better than the CD, I think)

Next step in the competition is to play live a 20 minutes gig in London, August 23^rd, were other 5 bands will also be playing. If we win that competition, we will play the final in Cleveland against yet another 7 bands, selected throughout the United States.

I got the confirmation that we could not change band members during the London semi-final, so we went through the unpleasant task of selecting who will go and who will not. Democracy played an important role again, as we voted the formation that will represent YDreams in the London gig: Petra Pais, Luis Ferreira, Fernando Gomes, Luis Vargas, João Afonso, Octácio Rodrigues and Bruno Neto are the lucky ones.

This week we finally got toghether to agree on a set list. Here it is:

1 - Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out 3:30

2 - When Love Comes to Town 6:00

3 - Head On 2:00

4 – Everlong 4:00

5 - Mojo Working 4:00

Rehearsals will start in mid-July. If any of you can be in London next August, 23^rd, please do, we appreciate your support!

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 25^th edition started last April 26^th and runs till May 4^th. For more information please go to: www.ovibeja.com. And for more news about Mértola municipality check their website.

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.

Microsoft Techdays, one of the biggest tech-events in Portugal, is underway at the Lisbon Congress Center from the 11th to the 14th of March. The four-day event is aimed at “IT professionals, programmers and students” in related fields and is expected to draw over 2000 visitors.

YDreams will be on hand with their ubiquitous Magic Book, a yWalk (interactive floor projection) and one of their latest developments yFaces, an augmented reality-based app that manages to positively surprise users everywhere.

YDreamer Pedro Matos will be participating in a key-note speech about Virtual Coast, a prototype developed by the creative technology provider that runs on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth platform, and will be used by IGP (the Portuguese Geographic Institute) to develop a series of next-generation geographical applications. Antão Almada, from YLabs, the company’s R&D unit, will also give a talk about “building support infra-structures and applications for events such as Techdays” tomorrow at 17:15 in Room A7.

Techdays 2008, March 11th - 14th
Venue: Lisbon Congress Center (Centro de Congressos de Lisboa) Portugal

More information: www.techdays.pt

Trying to keep up with the geeky spirit, I’m posting directly from SXSW!!! Everyone is sporting an iPhone, a Mac computer and a t-shirt with some clever coding/tech innuendo…

The lines for getting the conference’s pass, which is no longer mailed to participants, ran close to 2 hours. I was happy to get my pass from the speakers’ booth in 2,5 mins (now that is what I call a benefit!.:)

2 sessions today:

How to rawk SXSW 2008 – The basics of the festival: how to deal with alcohol during parties, how to pick your panels, how to go with the flow of the whole thing, how to meet people and where the cool stuff is at in Austin. Panelists: Min Jung Kim (minjungkim.com), Ian Lloyd (accessify.com), Matt Mullenweg (Founding Dev, Automattic/WordPress), Jason Toney (Disney Online), Rannie Turingan (photojunkie.ca), Tim Ferriss. These guys drank a bottle of Jack Daniels during the 1,5 hour session (apparently a tradition at this specific session) . The session ended with one of the panelists dancing on the speakers’ table while the Accordion Guy (seriously) played Britney’s “Baby one more time”…

Battledecks II –Powerpoint meets Karaoke in a battle of wits – some of SXSW’s favourite speakers got on stage to deliver 5 minute presentations using crazy slides they’d never seen before. 3 judges gave them marks based on criteria such as use of jargon, gesturing and credibility. Very entertaining and educational!

Several opening parties tonight. Tomorrow we have the real deal. View the schedule here and let me know if there’s something you’d like me to check out for you (one of the correct answers is “please tell me all about that really interesting panel on Location-Based Entertainment!”)

Most of us have heard of South by Southwest but think of it exclusively as a music festival. SXSW is that and much more. It is a 2 week long event that takes Austin over and it’s starting on Friday!

The Wikipedia description:

“South by Southwest (SXSW) is a set of interactive, film, and music festivals and conferences that take place every spring in Austin, Texas. Originating as the Austin Battle of the Bands, SXSW officially began in 1987 and is centered around the downtown Austin Convention Center. Each of the three parts run relatively independently, with different start and end dates. SXSW is one of the largest music festivals in the United States, with more than 1,400 performers playing dozens of venues around Austin over four days in March. Though it is an industry-based event, SXSW Music links locally with events such as the annual Austin Music Awards show. SXSW is the highest money-making public event for the Austin economy, bringing in more revenue than the Austin City Limits Music Festival or the Texas Longhorn home games.”

Music is cool, and we all love Film but this year Interactive is the place to be at – especially because YDreams will have a special say in how it turns out. I’ll be a speaker at one of the panels on Saturday, “Location-based Entertainment, Animating Overlooked Spaces” (learn more about it here).

I expect to take advantage of my Gold Pass as much as possible over the next week and will try to report back frequently.

Wish me luck!

Campus Party Brazil 2008 opened last week expecting 30 thousand visitors. Yesterday, the event closed its doors accounting for an incredible figure of 50 thousand people throttling around YouTube, Flickr, Yahoo!, Intel, CAIXA - Caixa Econômica Federal, Telefónica, Limão, Windows Live, and many other exhibition stands.

YDreams Brazil has took part too, at Limão (YBillboard and Bluetooth hotspots), CAIXA (YVision interactive game, YBillBoard, Step on It timeline and 1 Bluetooth hotspot) and Intel (YVision interactive game).

Both interactive games were a huge success: the Poupançudos game (CAIXA) had nearly 7,000 players (including the minister of culture Gilberto Gil), and Intel’s game was played by 4,700 people. Our 3 Bluetooth men went around with the Bluetooth appliances in a backpack.

CAIXA - YBillboard and people waiting in line to play Poupançudos game

FAQ: FUTURE ASKED QUESTIONS

“If design is by nature a problem-solving discipline, what happens when designers and other creative professionals are themselves asking questions about the present, and the future, of our societies?”

To see the programme:

http://www.inspiredlisbon.net/2008/en/0401.html

The 2008 record breaking 28th edition of the FITUR, one of the world’s biggest tourism fairs, took place in Madrid between the 30th of January and 3rd of February. The 170 country strong fair boasts some impressive numbers, with its 879 stands sheltering over 13.000 different exhibitors across 150.000 m2 of exhibition area. Some 9.000 accredited news reporters from 60 different countries and a total of 250.000 participants (150.000 professionals) crowded 12 huge pavilions for 5 days.

YDreams Med was on hand as the interactive installations provider for the Consorcio de Turismo de Madrid stand, the tourism agency for Spain’s capital region.

8 different Magic Books were set up on 42” plasmas while a 4 m wide plasma-wall hosted yLabs’ newest installation - yFaces (yes, the ‘cartoon thing’ used for the first time at Microsoft Innovation Day in Brussels). The application had speech and thought balloons with phrases promoting the region, popping up over people’s heads.

The stand was a huge success, with all the main institutional players being encouraged to explore the yFaces plasma-wall by the stand’s reps. This installation really proved to be their golden baby. Later on in the day more good news with the Consorico de Turismo de Madrid stand taking first prize for FITUR’s “most innovative and functional” space at the venue, and Portugal’s stand the prize for best stand in the countries category.

Check out this short clip (1:39) courtesy of Internet TV station Libertad Digital about the Madrid stand, where YDreams’ magic is featured in the main spotlight.

Just a reminder to all you art aficionados that ARCO 2008 is right around the corner. This year’s edition of the contemporary art fair, starring Brazil as the special guest nation, is underway in Madrid from February 13th - 18th. But take note, it only opens to the general public from the 15th onwards.

The place is huge and covers everything from historical vanguard art to modern masters, contemporary classics and high-tech art using the latest advances and techniques in painting, sculpting, installations, photography, video and new media.

In the past I’ve seen some pretty amazing stuff at ARCO. Last year I remember coming across a Fogscreen projection from the Finnish company that partnered up with us last May for ECSITE Lisbon 2007.

At ARCO, art and new media technologies come together in some really spectacular ways. Overall the ARCO puts on a good show for art and tech aficionados alike - an excellent suggestion for a weekend escapade, I’d say.

This morning I gave one more invited talk, this time at Politécnico de Setúbal in the context of an entrepreneurship seminar. The theme of my presentation was “you dream. we make it”.

They have a nice auditorium at Escola Superior de Ciências Empresariais (ESCE) and the audience was around 50-70 people. I am sure most of them, especially students, are now thinking about starting their own businesses (or sending their CVs to us ). Besides being an important MKT/PR component, these kinds of seminars can be seen as part of our social responsibility, inspiring young people to take risks, be creative, aim for the stars and run away from a mediocre & dull life.

I also liked the talk of Machado Rodrigues, Doctor at Hospital Pulido Valente, presenting a set of humanitarian activities his team has been developing in Angola. Another form of entrepreneurship: saving lives, and bringing hope where misery and disbelief rule.