Ynvisible, YDreams first spin-out company, and Inês Henriques, its CEO and Virgina Tech alumna, were recently profiled on the university’s website. To read the article click HERE.

(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.

António Câmara, our CEO, will present the book tomorrow at Culturgest, in Lisbon. One of the collective plays (.txt) that was part of this project featured the technological support of YDreams (and the talented work of some YDreamers).

Razorfish’s 2008 Consumer Experience Report is a really interesting read for anyone interested in emerging trends related to digital consumer experiences. It covers subjects like social media, ubiquitous computing, gaming and ambient technologies, and is available for download right here (via How to Change the World).

If you jump to page 75 on the .pdf and read the chapter dedicated to “Beyond the Browser, Designing for the Ambient Technology Revolution”, there’s a clear link to what we define as Reality Computing and YDreams Life projects’ scope. Interactive Environments are much more that a digital consumer experience. In the same way that the CD-ROM and the Web presented new paradigms in the way we perceive and explore information, these intelligent ambients will set new standards for interaction with our surroundings, may it be in a store, a museum or even our perception of urban space.

As if there weren’t already plenty of gadgets and gizmos out there for us to choose from, check out this article on Top 10 technology wonders that don’t exist yet.

A quick glance at one or two:

B–Membrane Computer: personally it reminds me of a kitchen appliance gone askew, but this oddly shaped contraption will dispense with monitors and beam images onto any surface via a built in projector. Cool, huh?

Timeflex Stick on Watch: at first glance wearable tattoo came to mind but no, apparently it’s a real bonafide watch you can stick anywhere on your skin. Kids are bound to love this one!

OFFF, design conference, multimedia trade fair and digital animation festival all rolled into one, is described as an “enthusiastic celebration of a new visual culture” and “one of the essential meeting points for the international scene of post-digital creation”.

Next spring sensational OFFF is coming to Lisbon 8, 9 & 10 May. The event promises sensorial exercises in synesthesia, stage performances comprised of computer code and legendary participants from the fields of graphic design and visual communication.

I am personally looking forward to OFFF Lisbon 2008 and would love to see YDreams amongst the headlining participants because from the sounds of it, this one is right up our alley. Read more about OFFF.

Time Magazine’s “Best Inventions of the Year” feature has some really interesting applications / gadgets:

Xerox’s self-erasing paper, on the Environment section, seems to go on a less ambitious direction than our own interactive paper R&D, but nonetheless it could be a very interesting application (I think my desk would be really appreciative if I could reuse the same paper over and over).

pink is the new white?

Very interesting things also on the Fashion inventions section (not talking about the models, erm), such as the Philips SKIN Dresses that we already know of, but are still quite impressive and good-loking (again, not talking about the models) while reflecting the user’s mood

‘Today I woke up feeling very bubbly’

or this augmented reality type of interactive mirror developed by IconNicholson (try to say it fast) for Bloomingdale’s store

from now on cross-dressing will never be as easy

Apparently there are also very important developments in the field of fiber-optics cables, and I’m just including it here because I really like the picture they use to illustrate it.

it looks like someone had his morning fiber

And in case you are wondering, the iPhone - yes, yes - grabbed both the Invention of the Year and the Gadget awards. Jump here for the full article.