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.

UM, which means ONE in Portuguese, is Portugal’s International Festival for Experimental Inter-media. The one of its kind festival in Portugal includes exhibitions, workshops, talks, concerts, performances and public works, with internationally renowned artists, musicians, academics, designers and architects.

It starts today and carries on till Sunday, the 15th of November. UM had its debut in 2008, and is back in 2009 for its 2nd edition. YDreams has always been a fan and supporter of the festival and is taking part this year as a commercial sponsor.

For more about UM go to: http://www.1um1.net/

I had a great time at the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality 2009 (ISMAR09). I met lots of amazing and smart people. It’s great to see the faces and talk to people I’ve been following on blogs, twitter and videos.

I’m an engineer so I like to know what makes AR “tick” but, nowadays I’ve been more interested in the interaction side of AR. The first couple of days I attended the “Science and Technology” sessions but, on the last two days, I decided to check the “Arts, Media and Humanities” sessions.

My first reaction to the “Arts, Media and Humanities” sessions was that they had little to do with AR but, I had a great time. One thing artists do very well is question the system.

I had the same feeling about the keynotes. They were great and presented by very interesting people but, were they related to Azuma’s AR definition? At the first glance, they weren’t:

Mark Mine (Walt Disney Imagineering) – Showed how a make believe world is done. (I had the chance to ride all the attractions of “Future World” at Disney Epcot and it is AWESOME.)

Natasha Tsakos (Up Wake) – Did a performance in synch with projected videos. (I did enjoy the show and had the pleasure to talk to her. She not only did the keynote but also participated in the conference and seamed honestly interested on its technological side.)

Pattie Maes (MIT Media Lab) – Presented the famous “sixth sense” project. (Some people argue that it’s not AR.)

Was the ISMAR09 organization wrong to bring these people or was it like an artist questioning the AR state of the art?

Azuma’s AR definition is correct and I agree with it from the point of view of a computer vision scientist but, is there AR beyond it?

“Sixth sense” involves a projector just like YDreams’ interactive floor projections. In the following video you can see “Virtual Garden”, one of the first applications we created.

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