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/.

(The BTEK project is particularly close to the hearts of our fellow YDreamers over in Barcelona, as well as our neighboring country. Therefore the post that follows is in English and Spanish.)

Last year we announced the official kickoff of the BTEK Interpretation Center project; this past June 9th it was officially inaugurated and is now open for business! BTEK is the first technology interpretation center in the Basque Country. It is located within the Bizkaia Technology Park in Zamudio (on the outskirts of Bilbao) and after the creation of the Visitors Center at Ciudad Grupo Santander in Madrid, another major project in Spain.

YDreams conceived and delivered 24 interactive solutions and two sound environments that welcome visitors before entering the center until they reach the first hall. Ain3Team studio was responsible for the interior design and exhibition scenography.

We collaborated closely with the Elhuyar Foundation, the entity responsible for managing and overseeing the project from start to finish. We developed all contents for our interactive installations, contents that ranged from computing and consumer electronics to communications, the Internet and the social implications technological development has on product life cycles.

The significant deployment of technology and creativity involved the concerted efforts of a team of over 15 professionals, as well as artists and external studios, which after many months rendered a result we are all extremely proud of. Technologies employed included Augmented Reality, image processing and gesture based technologies, as well as effects such as 3D contents, illustrations, videos, sound and musical theme creation. In addition to this furniture to support the numerous apps had to be designed, adapted and assembled as is the case of the sci-fi ‘Gene Workshop’!

Take a look at the video below for a peek into the BTEK Technology Interpretation Center:

Al inicio del año pasado anunciábamos el comienzo de los trabajos en este proyecto. El Centro BTEK se inauguró el pasado día 9 de Junio. Para lo que es el primer centro de interpretación de la tecnología del País Vasco, ubicado en el Parque Tecnológico de Bizkaia, en Zamudio (en las afueras de Bilbao), hemos entregado 24 soluciones interactivas, además de 2 ambientes sonoros que acompañan a los visitantes desde el exterior mismo del Centro hasta la primera sala. El diseño del museo ha estado a cargo del estudio ain3Team.

En colaboración y bajo la dirección de la Fundación Elhuyar, responsable de la dirección de proyecto, fuimos responsables por todos los contenidos científicos de nuestras instalaciones, en temas como la computación, electrónica de consumo, comunicaciones, Internet, las implicaciones sociales del desarrollo tecnológico o el ciclo de vida de los productos.

El importante despliegue tecnológico y creativo ha implicado a un equipo de más de 15 profesionales, así como artistas y estudios externos, a lo largo de muchos meses, en un esfuerzo conjunto del cual estamos muy orgullosos. Se han aplicado realidad aumentada, procesamiento de imagen y tecnologías basadas en gestos, la Wii de Nintendo, contenidos 3D, ilustraciones, vídeos, efectos sonoros y temas musicales. El paquete se completa con el diseño industrial y montaje de algunas piezas de mobiliario, como la Célula (“Taller de Genes”), así como las componentes mecánicas y electrónicas de diversas soluciones.

Más info en la página de YDreams. Vídeo del Centro, cortesía de Teknopolis. PDF con fotos y descripciones de todas las soluciones.