Body-tracking, Thought-provoking

The idea was simple and catchy: Track people as they stand or walk along a 32′ video wall at a tradeshow, and link them to randomly generated thought-bubbles that contain fun, client messages and that move on the wall as the people move. That’s what 3D Exhibits asked Perfect Prototype (PPT) to create for its booth at the Exhibitor 2012 Show.

The Specs

Interactive Video Wall

The tracking wall comprised five, 2×2 monitor abutting sections, each with 1360 x 768 resolution that formed one continuous screen. That meant five computers and five Kinect systems running the same program to present a unified image. The thought-bubbles were overlaid on a single video that stretched the entire 32 feet and constantly played behind them. To add variety while controlling complexity and cost, the content of the more than 50 thought-bubbles changed as each one moved from screen to screen.

Anticipating Issues

Exhibitor 2012

A replica of the wall was set up in Perfect Prototype’s Philadelphia shop for testing camera placement, programming, and other tasks. Camera placement was critical to accommodate: The correct distance for tracking people in front of the wall; variations in lighting at the show; sudden motion; and camera wobble;

At a pivotal point in the project development, we produced a video of the wall in action for the client’s review.

Client Collaboration

The client supplied the fabrication, hardware, background video footage, and graphic design of the thought-bubbles. Perfect Prototype handled the hardware specification, graphic production, interactive and electronic motion-sensing programming, site replication testing, and installation. PPT’s interactives technologist Matt Browning attended the show to calibrate the unit and provide technical support, if needed.

Booth visitors were intrigued and responded intuitively, playing with the thought-bubbles by moving and reading the varied messages as onlookers watched them.

Using Smart Devices without an App

Those seemingly passive people meandering about your exhibit space have something in their hands or pockets that will activate their interest: a smartphone, most likely an iPhone. All they have to do is respond to your local Wi-Fi connection invitation – there’s no App to download — and the multi-screen display in front of them becomes their private interactive experience.

Perfect Prototype has developed a clever technique – we call it SmartSource — for exciting curiosity and engrossing visitors. SmartSource links the operating software on the visitor’s device with a computer’s software to create two-way communication.

That means someone can use her smartphone to easily control content on an exhibit. In turn, the computer can broadcast the exhibit content to the device. What’s even more exciting is that multiple exhibit viewers can interact with each other through their devices and on the exhibit. Now, that’s true interactivity.

What are the applications? Let’s say…

• You want to show off a new product that is too big or too awkward to move from tradeshow to tradeshow. You could display a 3D image of it on a large screen and have the visitor, on her iPhone or iPad, resize it, zoom in on a specific section, and have information – words, illustrations, videos, etc. — pop up either on the screen or on the iPhone or tablet.

• You have several people waiting to interact with your exhibit. With a smart device, there’s no waiting. The individual can view and manipulate the same presentation on his device as the person involved with the actual exhibit.

• You want to know what an audience thinks about a certain issue. Post survey questions on a screen and let the audience register their answers through their smart devices. As responses are made, a graphic can chart the group’s views.

• You want visitors to know about various geographic locations. Perhaps you are selling homes in retirement communities. Again, using iPhones or other such devices, visitors can maneuver helicopters to land on particular sites, which triggers videos and other information. Several visitors, each with his or her own helicopter, can interact at the same time.

• You want to draw more visitors to your space or a particular exhibit, and you devise a game that is played with smartphones by several visitors on a large overhead screens – or outdoor billboard — that can be viewed from anywhere.

• You want to generate additional income for your museum. Consider installing a number of SmartSource – based exhibits and charging a separate fee for “renting” a smart phone or tablet.

• You want to extend your tradeshow or museum interactive out to the visitor’s office and home. SmartSource can be used at any time over the Internet at any location to replicate the on-site exhibit.

SmartSource allows for easy updating of content. Change the content on the exhibit and all smart devices reflect those changes.

Find out more about SmartSource and other edge-technologies by writing or calling us.

A Multimedia World on a Table

Columbia, Maryland’s new Robinson Nature Center offers an escape into reality – the real and networked world of trees, rivers, wildlife, and humans. This 25,000 square foot, energy-smart and environmentally sensitive, education facility, nestled beside a 1,000-acre forest, simplifies and teaches the rich complexity of nature to visitors of all ages.

Making the complex simple was also the challenge for Perfect Prototype. Working with Lynch Exhibits, we engineered and blended the mechanics, software, and visuals, and packaged it all into a compact, easily accessible exhibit.

Users intuitively maneuver the exhibit’s circular table to fly a 3D game-like helicopter around a topographical map. Landing the copter on various sites generates text and videos that detail the natural dynamics of each location.

What makes the exhibit especially effective is Perfect Prototype’s skill at staying focused on the user’s experience while keeping the technology transparent. And, as always, other priorities included quality,reliability, and on-time delivery.

The Visual Flow of Ideas

Turn just about any surface – a building wall, for example — with just about any shape – flat, curved, multi-tiered – into an all-absorbing, bigger-than-life theater event.

The exciting software technology, called Augmented Mapping, flexes the video image to match and flow perfectly over the contours of irregularly shaped “screens.”

• Pressing a button on a computer or wireless tablet brings down the lights and brings up an amazing interplay of sound, and motion from compact and conveniently positioned HD projectors.

• Select a different video from the play list, and the visual experience changes.

The presentation can be produced for interactivity, and can be integrated into an AMX system or custom-control panels.

The cost is determined by such factors as:

• the complexity of the video/animation;

• the amount of ambient light around the screen surface; and

• the client’s timetable.

Turnaround is about 8-12 weeks.

• Other Augmented Reality creations you should know about: The Heart and The Brain.

• Don’t fully understand Augmented Reality? Watch and listen to a brief explanation by Perfect Prototype CEO, Matt Browning to discover what augmented reality is.

Augmented reality offers exhibitors an innovative, eye-catching way to attract and educate prospective customers at trade shows. Perfect Prototype plied its AR expertise to do just that for a consumer products company (confidentiality required) by using the client’s products and building four augmented reality scenarios for two kiosks at a major show in Atlanta.

Two highlights of the four-part experience included:

Packaging Promotion

To immerse visitors in the company’s current promotional campaign, Perfect Prototype used a client product as the marker-object for augmented reality. When the product was held in front of the camera, the visitor saw his hands and the now animated, 3D product pulsating. When the user pushed a button on the product, a full-screen flash of white pulled back into the video image, the character on the package disappeared, and sand began leaking from the package.

The user could rotate the product graphic and play with the falling sand. As he did that, a U.S. map emerged onscreen with stars indicating hot-spot cities. When the user moved the hand-held product over any of three designated cities, the package graphics changed into new city-specific promotional packaging, and location-specific music – jazz, for example, for New Orleans — played.

Fill the Fridge

A card held up in front of a camera triggered a 3D product that appeared to “frost over,” crystallized in space, and then morphed into a branded refrigerator. The user was invited to open the fridge by pressing a virtual button, which caused four varieties of the product to animate out in 3D with special effects. Pressing the button again moved the products into the fridge, which closed and reopened fully stocked.

• Other Augmented Reality creations you should know about: The Heart and The Brain.

• Don’t fully understand Augmented Reality? Watch and listen to a brief explanation by Perfect Prototype CEO, Matt Browning to discover what augmented reality is.