CTT (Correios de Portugal), the Portuguese postal service, commissioned YDreams to develop several interactive solutions to boost customer involvement and autonomy at its new HQ flagship store in Parque das Nações in Lisbon.

The flagship store, inaugurated September 12th, 2011 at its new Lisbon headquarters in Parque das Nações, features YDreams’ interactive solutions, developed and designed to offer appealing interactive platforms that promote and advertise CTT’s products and services, and foster customer involvement and promote autonomy. Guests to the new store are now able to use the latest technologies to purchase products (i.e. stamps, envelops and books) issue money transfers, customize their own postage stamps and browse CTT’s extensive financial products portfolio.

YDreams’ solutions include six large touch screens dispersed throughout the store that double as digital signage informing customers of the various product lines (postal services, telecommunications, etc.) available at the store. A sophisticated back office platform uploads dynamic content onto the tactile touch screens, which display in addition to product information and promo campaigns, recreational yet practical options such as taking one’s picture in loco and using it to create customized postal stamps, or using Augmented Reality technology to visualize envelopes and boxes in their actual size and shape.

Elsewhere in the store customers can interact with a Multi-touch table to explore CTT’s financial products such as international money transfers and certificates of deposit in greater detail. Furthermore, using the potential of multi-touch technology, users can simulate long-term savings investments and view a variety of financial product sheets that they can be forwarded to their email accounts.

Finally to round off the CTT high-tech flagship store experience, YDreams has also created a series of interactive projections featuring randomly generated contents, which are projected onto the store window display, further contributing towards drawing the attention of passersby, promoting the new venue as well as its campaigns and services.

All YDreams’ interactive apps were designed and selected to harmoniously blend into the architectural project for the venue, which was conceived by S3 Arquitectos, a Lisbon based-firm.

Interact 2011, the 13th Conference on Human - Computer Interaction kicks off today, September 5th in Lisbon and will run till September 9th, 2011.

The theme of this year’s INTERACT 2011 conference, Building Bridges, recognizes the interdisciplinary and intercultural spirit of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. The conference welcomes research that bridges disciplines, cultures and societies. Within the broad umbrella of HCI, Interact is looking for high quality contributions that will open new and emerging HCI disciplines, bridge cultural differences, and tackle important social problems. INTERACT 2011 provides a forum for practitioners and researchers to discuss all aspects of HCI, including these challenges.

YDreams is one of the event sponsors and the company CEO, António Câmara will be delivering a Keynote on Natural User Interfaces on Thursday, September 8th.

For more info on Interact 2011: http://interact2011.org/

Mayors William Wynn and and António Costa, of the cities of Austin and Lisbon, respectively, will be presiding over the launch of the Creative Cities Network in the Portuguese capital on July 7^th at the Portuguese Pavilion at Parque das Nações.

For more information go to http://creativecitieslisbon.org/

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.

Few things are more characteristically Portuguese than the famed Calçada Portuguesa or Portuguese pavement. A joy to behold, there is nothing more picturesque than a stroll along our highly recognizable sidewalks, so long as you aren’t wearing stilettos.

With this in mind, YDreams and OMG Digital made sure the very first thing visitors set foot upon when entering Portugal, was exactly that – a virtual Calçada Portuguesa - created for Nissan, and aimed at promoting the brand’s recent launch of the Nissan Qashqai.

The 34-meter walkway extends along most of Lisbon’s baggage claim area and surprises visitors by unraveling some very cool images of the Nissan Qashqai as they stroll over the virtual pavement, without the embarrassing risk of anyone getting their heels caught in the cracks of the pavement!

The first video illustrating our interactive work for Coca-Cola’s Brazillian Happiness Factory campaign has hit YouTube, this one featuring an Interactive Floor Projection where Kissy Puppies are drawn to people. (Expect more Coca-Cola videos and info soon)

The Sea Monsters Interactive Exhibition for Lisbon’s Oceanarium movie has also been made available recently:

Watch out also for Filipe Freitas (a Portuguese Computer Science student at University of Aveiro), who wrote a detailed description of Microsoft’s TechDays event, complete with some videos of the installations we had at the show, like this one: