Ynvisible (YDreams’ first spinout company) in collaboration with Enfucell and IDTechEx, produced close to 1600 interactive badges to distribute to participants and attendees at the upcoming Printed Electronics USA 2011 tradeshow.

Ynvisible's Interactive Badge for the Printed Electronics Tradeshow

The badges contain three interactive graphic layers, activated by the push of a button. Each layer, designed specifically for the event, conveys IDTechEx’s marketing messages. Technologically, the interactive badges are a hybrid solution, based on a combination of printed electronics  ̶  Ynvisible’s electrochromics-based interactive graphics and Enfucell’s SoftBattery®  ̶  and traditional electronics, namely the printed circuit boards, buttons and wiring. Designers from Ynvisible and IDTechEx jointly designed the interactive badges, with the final assembly of badges carried out by Ynvisible.

“The combination of established color printing and printed interactive graphics brings new levels of interaction and communication power to everyday items. Consumers who enjoy the interactivity of on-line content and services will now increasingly start to find such features also in printed products”, said Jani-Mikael Kuusisto, Chief Business Development Officer for Ynvisible.

IDTechEx Printed Electronics USA 2011 conference and tradeshow is the biggest event in the world on the topic. This year’s tradeshow will be the largest Printed Electronics exhibition to date, with 105 exhibiting companies already confirmed. The tradeshow is on from November 30th to December 1st, 2011 at the Santa Clara Convention Centre.

The following video gives us a comprehensive overview of printed electronics spin-out Ynvisible and its relationship to parent-company YDreams:

A few posts ago I mentioned that the YDreams Group was expanding; turns out our family across the Atlantic has also been growing. Both YDreams Brasil affiliates (Rio de Janeiro & São Paulo) have taken on new members over the past months and in part because of it, they’ve decided to implement the Close Encounter (CE) sessions originally launched here at Lisbon HQs a few years back.

Close Encounters are small internal weekly conferences whose format varies; it can be a round table discussion, a talk about a specific topic or an artistic presentation. Speakers may be volunteer YDreamers or invested guests. Nuno Artur Silva (Produções Fícticias), Artur Arsénio (Robotics), Manuel Lima (Data Visualization) or Prof. Rui Aço (Oficina do Desenho), are some of the wonderful speakers we have had the privilege of having at our CEs. Internally we’ve also had folks talk about ‘Interactive Narratives in Cinema’, the ‘Power of Collaborative Tools’, ‘Digital Art’, and ‘Managing Your Personal Finances for the Financially Challenged’, among others. As you can see the idea is as much to discuss themes related to our core business as to inspire and inform!

Brazil’s first Close Encounter is underway in São Paulo as I write. It’s actually been a day and a half affair, and from looking at the program it sounds much like Orientation meets Team-building Seminar! The session includes an inspirational interview from co-founder and CEO. António Câmara, presentations of the company’s more emblematic cases and talks about, amongst others, “how we as a society have moved away from a ‘heavy’ and ’solid’, hardware-focused modernity to a ‘light’ and ‘liquid’, software-based modernity” (from Zygmunt Bauman’s ‘Liquid Modernity’).

Sounds like interesting stuff! Here’s to the first of many CEs in Brazil!

O Concurso «Realize o Seu Sonho» é uma iniciativa que apoia a estruturação de ideias e projectos em planos de negócio viáveis. Temos como Júri o Dr. Francisco Pinto Balsemão, Prof. António Câmara (CEO da YDreams), Prof. António Gomes Mota, Dr. Manuel Forjaz, Dr.ª Vera Pires Coelho, Prof. Tomaz Morais, Dr.ª Isabel Jonet, Dr. José Miguel Queimado e Dr. Paulo Taylor.

Candidate já o seu projecto! Inscrições grátis até 15 de Maio em www.sonho.org. Demora só 30 segundos! Prémios até 60.000€. Pode ver aqui o vídeo promocional do Concurso. Os parceiros deste projecto são IBM, Ericsson, Grupo José de Mello, SIC Notícias, Metro Porto, Metro Lisboa, Carris, NYSE Euronext, entre outros.

A Acredita Portugal é uma organização sem fins lucrativos que tem como objectivo estimular o empreendedorismo e apoiar na realização de projectos. Mais informações em www.acreditaportugal.pt ou realizeoseusonho@acreditaportugal.pt.

Tem um projecto ou ideia por implementar?

PARTICIPE NO CONCURSO REALIZE O SEU SONHO!

Pode candidatar até 3 Projectos!

Inscreva-se hoje (em 30 secs) em www.sonho.org!

May 17th & 18th the Augmented Reality Event (ARE) is back for a second consecutive year to show off a new round of innovation to the technology, media, and marketing communities, and YDreams will be there with its very own booth, so make sure to stop on by!

About a year ago (in June 2010) YDreams headed out to Santa Clara, California, to compete for the coolest Augmented Reality (AR) demo at ARE 2010, the first Augmented Reality Event. After braving a legendary, American Idol-style judging panel comprised of Bruce Sterling, Jesse Schell, and Mark Billinghurst, plus a live audience - who by the way, actually determined the winning demo – YDreams picked up the first ever Auggies Award for their 3D AR tech demo!

Below, raw footage of the first annual Augmented Reality Event (2-3 June, 2010 in Santa Clara, California). YDreams presents their demo at minute 01:00:01

“The Auggies Unplugged” - Best Augmented Reality Demo Competition at ARE 2010 from Ori Inbar on Vimeo.

YDreams’ mark can be felt at the 26th edition of São Paulo’s International Auto Show underway from October 27th to November 7th at the Anhembi Exhibition pavilion. Car lovers of all ages who flock to the event are privy to interactive technologies that make exploring the cars on display only half the fun.

The interactive technologies specialist introduced a ‘Superman’ style X-Ray vision app that proved to be a most original way for visitors to the Fiat stand to get to know the ‘insides’ and standout features of the brand new Mio prototype, the first collaborative car in the industry. Right next to the car stands a large-sized plasma that invites people to see what event-goers have to say about the Mio on Twitter. The app picks up all Mio-related tweets and playfully displays them alongside the person’s head in comic-strip style thought balloons.

See video below:

Further along, at the Toyota stand, visitors come across another YDreams’ creative application that was developed to help create public awareness and spread the word about the work the Toyota Foundation has been doing to reforest the Brazilian Atlantic Rain forest, as well as its attempts to help preserve the Blue Macaw. At the stand, people are able to see their moving silhouettes outlined on a video wall depicting tropical settings; in an adjacent video wall, people see their silhouette set against landscapes of the Brazilian Pantanal, where a Blue Macaw soars overhead before disappearing from sight.

Lisbon City Hall is sponsoring a campaign to create awareness and educate primary school students about the meaning and significance of the upcoming holiday on October 5th, date when Portugal will be commemorating the centennial anniversary of the implementation of its first republic. To do so, City Hall called on YDreams to come up with a fun and highly interactive solution, aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 10, to pique their interest about one of Portugal’s most significant marks in history.

YDreams conceived and developed ten Augmented Reality (AR) collectible cards and a dedicated website for exploring the cards’ contents online. The AR-based cards, a total of 8,000 in packs of 10, will be distributed to students throughout Lisbon city schools on October 5th. Each card in the pack features a brief description of key events, symbols or ideals that led to the republic’s implementation, accompanied by illustrations and an AR marker that can be viewed and explored in an entirely unique way by accessing the dedicated website lodged on Lisbon City Hall’s homepage. Using a PC with an Internet connection and a webcam, children hold the Augmented Reality cards up in front of the webcam and watch as the respective marker comes alive on the screen in the form of a 3D model that they may observe from several angles by turning and tilting around.

Children may choose to collectively explore the card’s AR contents at school, or at home. Although the website was designed specifically for Magalhães net books, the 1st PC designed and produced entirely in Portugal, and aimed at predominantly young audiences, it will run on any computer make or model. Anyone interested in learning about the fledging Republic’s earliest moments may digitally browse the cards and 3D images online at http://cartoesdarepublica.cm-lisboa.pt/.

Miguel Remédio, YDreams Co-Founder and International Operations Executive interviewed (minute 2:36) by RTP International TV show at AICEP sponsored event at the Portuguese Consulate in San Francisco that brought together Portuguese companies and individuals doing business and R&D in the USA.

Watch the video:

YDreams’ Solidarity Movement has been up and running since 2007; the initiative involves raising funds and donations (such as clothing, books, CDs, bikes, computers, DVDs and so forth) from the folks at the company. The donations are then channeled to those who most need them through Solidarity and Charity Institutes in the Lisbon area.

The text below in Portuguese, courtesy of our HR department, explains in greater detail the aim and results of the project. The pics below tell the rest of the story.

“Decorreu mais uma edição, a 3ª consecutiva, do YDreams Solidarity, um projecto iniciado em 2007 pelos Recursos Humanos da YDreams. O grande objectivo deste projecto é anualmente proporcionar a pelo menos uma instituição de solidariedade, a oportunidade a todos os que por lá vivem, uma vida um pouco melhor, um dia repleto de alegria. Assim, é pedido a todos os YDreamers, que tragam roupas, livros, CDs, aparelhagens, bicicletas, computadores, DVDs, etc, no fundo tudo o que já nos foi útil e que hoje podemos e queremos dar ao próximo.

Read the rest of this entry »

YDreams’ CEO, António Câmara, Ivan Franco and Inês Henriques sat down with ‘Falar Global’, a program on SIC Notícias. which looks at the impact information and knowledge technologies have on our daily lives.

The interview covers a range of topics that include YDreams’ take on what we can expect from televisions of the future, as well as the company’s work in the field of augmented reality, and in transforming the objects and surfaces around us into screens people can interact with.

For more see video!

Our offices were still lodged in university buildings, and our CEO, Prof. Camara was already talking about the library we would have once at the new building headquarters. Our future library would serve to gather all of YDreams’ bibliographical resources, as well as large numbers of books Prof. Camara had acquired over the years.

By the time we’d settled into the new building, I had already earned a “bad reputation” as the person who would steal books from the professor’s office. Maybe as a form of “punishment”, Prof. Camara and Ivan (our Director of R&D) invited me to implement and manage the YDreams’ library - an invitation (and challenge) I accepted gladly!

Read the rest of this entry »

Early into his Memorabilia of a Company post, Sergio mentions that ‘The Häagen-Dazs years were still to come’. I thought I’d reminisce a bit and explain why he dubbed them as such.

In mid 2001, the company consisted of little more than the five founders and a handful of staff – there were maybe about 12 of us. In keeping with the spirit that we were from the get-go a less than conventional start-up, our CEO, António Câmara had a Häagen-Dazs ice-cream freezer brought in and placed at the entrance to our work-space (yes, the one Sergio refers to as ‘the main room’). That’s right, ‘in the beginning’, for close to a year and a half, everyone was free to gorge on Häagen-Dazs morning, noon and night - and some did! For the calorically-challenged it meant staying clear of the ice-cream ‘treasure trove’ but for those who could afford to indulge it was quite the treat.

I remember what a kick clients and partners got out of it when they came to visit, and since we were located at the heart of a university campus I also recall the occasional student popping in to say ‘he’d heard we were giving out free ice-cream’!

The contract we had with the Häagen-Dazs rep in Portugal required us to replenish our stock every three weeks or so. Needless to say that by the end of week one we were usually down to 3 or 4 mini-cups of Lemon Sorbet (clearly the least popular flavor in the house). I also remember that the rep would occasionally pop in to check that the freezer was being properly stocked and maintained; there was this one time when she unexpectedly showed up and we had a hec of time explaining why the thing was stocked with Manuel Costa’s fresh-fish catch of the day, and Sergio Cardoso’s Alheiras (traditional sausages from northern Portugal)! She eventually calmed down after we explained that they were being temporarily stored for the company’s 1st anniversary celebration the very next day - of course we had to place a new order right away and promise that the freezer would be adequately ‘fumigated’ Ah, the good ol’ days

(Maria la Palma made me write this post…)

In the beginning we sat on wooden chairs – the kind you find in most public schools. The Häagen-Dazs years were still to come, as we sweated out the summers and froze through the winters for lack of central air-con. During the monsoon season water occasionally dripped through the ceiling.

Back then, in our old building, the overcrowded YDreams “sala principal” (main room) was half empty. YDreams, then Ideias Interactivas, was yet to be registered officially but we were already working on the company’s first project, the gig that gave us a head start and kept us financially afloat from day one.

It was called “Canal Mapas”, a Lisbon and Oporto map channel produced for Telecel. YDreams not only delivered a web version (which was all the rage back then) for their online portal, NETC, but also and more importantly a mobile version.

Although a big challenge for a new company like YDreams, web map channels were nothing new at the time. Mobile ones, on the other hand, were almost unheard of. YDreams truly pioneered the field by producing not only WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), but also PDA versions of “Canal Mapas”. So innovative was the solution that, in three months time, Motorola gave our work a 5-star rating in the mobile sector, from a very select global group of leading companies. Read the rest of this entry »

When a child looks to a candy she smiles and thinks…I would like to have that! Well, in a non scientific way, that’s who we look for out there. Someone who says, “YDreams is what I want”, someone whose eyes shine when talking about us.

Nowadays the market is extremely competitive, and we want to have the best working with us. To be the best, for YDreams it’s to put passion and creativity in everyday tasks. It’s to see the big picture and say “how can we do this, even better”.
When we meet someone who wants to join our team we consider the education, job experience and interests, like hobbies for example, everything that can bring value to the company. But, fundamentally we believe in people’s potential, in what she or he can do with everything learned, with all past experiences.

We look for YDreamers!

(*Filipa works in the Human Resources department, with a focus on personnel recruitment. For career information at YDreams follow this link)

We are currently hosting an internal photo exhibition, featuring selected shots from some of our talented in-house photographers. Here’s a little taste of what’s hanging around (click to enlarge):

Wrasse, Portuguese Coast (João Pedro Silva)

View of Lisbon from Santa Justa Lift (Pedro Cardoso)

Cape Verde, Santo Antão island (Luís Carvalho)

Mombai, India (Tiago Fonseca)

Over the summer I spent a few days in Chicago; I knew a little about the windy city by the lake, with the impressive architecture. What I didn’t know was that Chicago has a world-renowned collection of public art, which seems to abound particularly in downtown Millennium Park.

The park pretty much doubles as an outdoor gallery and concert hall with plenty of impressive stuff on display! Day or night the place was always crawling with visitors of all ages who came for concerts at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, to laugh and pose in front of the Cloud Gate sculpture, or gawk at the massive Crown Fountain glass block towers at each end of a shallow pool, while waiting expectantly for a burst of water to spout from the mouth of the Chicagoan up on the massive screen.

Granted, Crown Fountain is pretty fantastic as is, but I couldn’t help wondering how much more immersive it would be if there was a way of displaying the grinning faces of the folks actually looking on, in real-time. Ok, call me narcissistic but yes, I would’ve gotten a kick out of having my “mug” plastered on the giant glass block, and admit it, you probably would have too.

Besides heading one of the company’s most ambitious projects – the development of new interactive surfaces – Inês Henriques is now also a prized author.

Inês was recently distinguished with the notable Rudolfs Medal from the Water Environment Federation (WEF), an international not-for-profit technical and educational water quality organization, for a paper she co-authored focusing on the effects of shock loads of several organic and inorganic industrial chemicals which could disrupt the operation and performance of biological treatment systems if discharged in shock pulse patterns.

The award will be presented at ceremonies during the WEF’s 81st annual technical exhibition and conference – next month in Chicago, Illinois. For more information, visit www.weftec.org.

Kudos to you Inês!

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)

“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”.

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.