Forum Sintra, located on the outskirts of Lisbon, is the 12th and most recent Multimall Management shopping center in Portugal. The center, which opened its doors to the public in April 2011, wanted to offer shoppers an innovative attraction that would appeal especially to younger audiences, and help foster enjoyable memories and positive connections between guests and the center.
After brainstorming with client Multimall, creative technologies specialist YDreams proposed a giant-sized interactive virtual aquarium they dubbed Fixelândia, for the enjoyment of the center’s guests. (Note: the name is a play on words because in Portuguese fixe means cool, but also sounds like the word ‘fish’)
The experience, unique to Forum Sintra, gives guests the chance to create and thoroughly customize their own virtual pet fish. Two touch consoles, located at each end of the giant virtual aquarium, comprised of fifteen 40” monitors, invite shoppers to customize their pets. Guests use the touch screens to create their new friend from scratch – they decide on the shape of the body and fins, as well as the color of its eyes and stripes. The variables available enable guests to create up to 30.000 distinct fish, so the risk that any two fish will be identical is minimal! After determining what their new pet will look like, guests get to name it and release it into Fixelândia!
Creating their new pet fish is only half the fun; to make sure they grow into happy, healthy Guppies, the fish need to be fed and visited, a task that can only be accomplished by checking in at the touch consoles at Forum Sintra. The more you visit your virtual pet fish, the bigger and happier it grows, and the more you are able to further customize it by adding new features. In addition, a dedicated website (http://www.fixelandia.net) is also available so that guests can regularly check up on their pet fish from home to see how it’s doing.
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.
Rebellion Lab, a digital strategy boutique, had some pretty cool things to say about YDreams’ work on their blog!
The quote below refers more specifically to Sensorium, a sensorial experience developed for L’Oreal Portugal’s Luxury division, and launched in November 2010.
Nobody really knows where the future is heading, buy YDreams seems to have a better sense than most. Plus, they seem to have the combined tech + design acumen that few outside Apple seem to possess. [sic]
Sensorium is YDreams’ latest project developed in conjunction with L’Oreal Portugal’s Luxury Division for the cosmetics and beauty brand’s POS at ‘Perfumes & Companhia’ shops in the Lisbon area. The interactive app offers the public a sensorial experience that is here to revolutionize the way customers choose the fragrance, which is right for them.
The video below - the making of Sensorium - sums up how the project was conceived, designed and implemented:
Integrada na sua estratégia de responsabilidade social, a YDreams vem promovendo o conceito de Fab Labs em Portugal, tendo já participado na organização de um evento promovido pelo IAPMEI em Janeiro último: http://www.iapmei.pt/iapmei-evt-02.php?eventoID=1313.
Os FAB LABS são laboratórios de fabricação digital, que pretendem oferecer aos cidadãos e empresas locais a possibilidade de experimentar as suas ideias e materializar as suas invenções, fomentando a criatividade e educando para a inovação e o empreendedorismo.
Os seguintes links para vídeos ilustram o que é um Fab Lab e as suas potencialidades:
Convidámos um conjunto de entidades publicas e privadas para um evento de lançamento da Rede Fab Labs Portugal, evento este que irá decorrer na próxima terça-feira, dia 23 de Novembro pelas 14:00 na sede da YDreams (no Monte da Caparica) e para a qual contamos com a participação dos órgãos de comunicação social portuguesa.
Acima de tudo trata-se de uma acção de interesse social e económico que acreditamos irá contribuir para capacitação tecnológica de Portugal uma vez que num Fab Lab qualquer cidadão terá acesso a uma rede de conhecimento e tecnologia mundial sobre uma lógica de open source.
No sentido de sustentar esta actuação foi criada no passado dia 14 de Outubro uma Associação Privada Sem Fins Lucrativos, APLFD. Estamos agora perante a realidade da existência de uma entidade que irá continuar esta acção da YDreams, a APLFD.
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
