SIGA (Santander Interactive Guest Assistants) designed and engineered by YDreams for the Visitors’ Center at Ciudad Grupo Santander, outside Madrid, is shortlisted for the Condé Nast Traveller Innovation & Design awards 2012 in the 8th category “Communications Technology”!

Until May 1st you can vote for the SIGA’s and your other favorites online:

http://www.cntraveller.com/magazine/innovation-and-design/

The WIRED UK August 2011 issues profiles ‘Sigas’: Santander’s friendly bank bots”, YDreams’ avant-garde project implemented in 2010 for the Visitors’ Center at Ciudad Group Santander, a gargantuan financial complex in Madrid, Spain.

Click HERE to view the article online; this edition is also available on WIRED UK for iPad.

For a complete overview of the project, click HERE to watch the video.

Engadget called it an infestation. The term infestation refers to a state of being invaded by another species. On one hand it implies an invasion, on the other hand it refers to organic stuff. It’s interesting to see our technology defined as organic because it relates with empathy, it’s more than just silicone chips – there is chemistry.

Last week, TiPb chose the word intimacy to describe the feeling of using an iPad. “If the television is a ‘lean back’ interface and the computer is a ‘sit forward’ interface, the iPad is an ‘embrace’ interface. You haven’t had a relationship with an object like this since your childhood teddy bear: you tote it around with you everywhere, you sit cuddled up with it, you take it to bed with you.”

It seems that the future of high-end digital products will bring an infestation of intimacy.

Thought I’d a round-up on interesting things recently posted by YDreamers on our internal mail forums.

Intellectual property has been a hot issue this week, as it becomes more and more relevant to YDreams’ strategy, starting with William Patry’s announcement that he was going to shut down his excellent blog about Copyright issues. IBM’s thorough IP strategy (as this example well illustrates) was also on the discussion table.

With a couple of upcoming YDreams projects related with interactive urban furniture and environments, we couldn’t help noticing REACTIVATE!!, a really interesting looking exhibition, dealing with the concept of Instant Urbanism. (via we make money not art)

We don’t do robots, but that doesn’t mean we don’t find them cool.

Data visualization is such an interesting area, especially when working with interfaces and information design, with results that go from annoying garble to stunning functionality. Take a look at this article about the ‘most interesting modern approaches to data visualization‘, some really great trends here.

To round things off, a well-polished (and funny) look at the ‘Unfulfilled Promises of Virtual Reality‘, all the way up to Augmented Reality.