At the giant technology fair in Vegas Samsung launched what they are calling the Smart Window. It’s a touch screen device that pretends it’s a window.

For a couple of years now we have been experimenting with transparent window film that can be projected on for our clients, but this Smart Window takes the possibilities for real world retail to another level. It’s obviously going to be expansive, but when malls are billboards, the more authentic interactivity you can offer the better.

[shot Ant]

Here’s the animation clip that we done by the highly talented folk from Motif Studios…

…and the ‘breakdowns’ video with footage from the mapped stage and grand finale.

Of course being there and experiencing it on the 14m wide x 5m high custom stage and with rock stadium quality sound is first prize, but hopefully this gives you a good idea of how a conference should be started.

Alternate reality conferencing

As well as being the year of The Protester [Time magazine's person of the year] , for us 2011 has been the year of pushing ourselves into uncomfortable new spaces.  We started this year with a mission – to take everything that we’d learnt from producing alternate reality games for our clients over the years, and packaging the unseen, fantasy mechanic for retail and event applications. In essence we’ve transformed ourselves from a marketing company, into a technology company.

This year we’ve focused on just a few key areas of specialisation. We’ve done a significant amount of work in the realm of 3D projection mapping, which on a global scale has seen a significant amount of growth as a brand presentation mechanism. We’ve concentrated our efforts on the production of 3D mapping, which culminated in the production of the Dimension Data’s Annual Sales Conference mapping on a custom built 14 x 5 meter set. We worked with the world-class team from Motif Studios to create a mixture of visual and audio delight that really blew the audience [and client] away. Having seen many of the mapping examples from around the world – we’re pretty confident that ours was right up there with the best of them, which is where we feel the most comfortable.

See our post on The re-engineering of a conference for more on what we created for Dimension Data.

The other area of specialisation that we really got some good traction with this year is RFID. It stands for Radio Frequency Identification and as a technology we’ve been exploring its uses as a means to trigger our branded experiences and integrate those real-world experiences with social media platforms like Facebook. In a very short space of time we’ve developed, prototyped and built some pretty powerful machines that talk directly to actionable applications like Facebook. The result was that we turned the recent Axe Cloud 9 Party into an interactive media space that added to the experience of being at the event and gave the Axe brand some very cool brand exposure on Facebook.

So this year has been a great one in the sense that, once again – we’ve prepared ourselves well for 2012 and our mission to help brands create fantasy experiences for their clients and stakeholders.

A huge thanks has to go to all of our business partners and clients for making 2011 the success that it was. The team from Dimension Data / Internet Solutions, Habari Media, BAT, G2, Steenberg Vineyards, You Know Who, BConfident, Go4Word, CCPP and Motif Studios – thanks for sharing the vision and pushing the boundaries with us.

The Cherryflava Team - Stefan, Heinrich, Jon and Dylan

As is tradition here at Cherryflava – at the end of every year we give ourselves a public grading for how we feel we have performed throughout the year and this time around we will give ourselves a B+ for 2011. We are exploring in a unique, niched arena not only in South Africa but globally, but with our unique background and mixture of talents we’re well set up now to deliver even more in 2012.

Thanks do much for reading and joining in with us this year – have a great holiday.

The blog will be taking a break over the festive season until posting resumes on the 9th of January 2012.

This application may appear a bit of an overkill for this demonstration, but the potential for using this kind of technology for other displays that could do with some touchy-feely is astounding.

It’s very acceptable indeed.

While thousands battle pepper-spraying police and icy weather as part of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York – movement members are lucky enjoy to take a bit of time off in Times Square with a new Augmented Reality billboard courtesy of the good folks at Disney. Stand in the designated area and Pluto, Mickey and the whole gang magically interact and play with you. Next instalment may even include Lt John Pike with his infamous red canister and a fresh supply of OC gas. Such fun. Soon there won’t be a person on the planet that has enjoyed the cooling effects of having this crap sprayed in their faces.

We have the whole projection mapping production side pretty well sorted, but we know the next step – is projection gaming. Love this concept from B-Reel for an event where multi-player interaction is a given.

Previously: Case study: The re-engineering of a conference – Cherryflava

[thanks Sam]

The XBox Kinect is potentially a revolutionary step forward when it comes to the integration of digital and real-world experiences. From education to commerce this technology has the potential to free us from physical electronic hardware. Amazing in the right hands.

The jury is still out for us when it comes to augmented reality advertising applications. At first it seems cool, but once you’ve goofed around with the things once, will you bother to play with it again?

Conferences should be fun

On of our best clients is Dimension Data. They really get it – and are dedicated to pushing the innovation envelope when it comes to their conferences. They understand that hosting a conference is a huge opportunity to demonstrate forward thinking to the people that matter – the people attending the event.

Most brands [even the seemingly progressive ones] when hosting events, surprisingly just can’t tear themselves away from the standard conference format. It’s the same ol’ format with the same ol’ tired outcome at the end. It feels like event organisers are too scared to do something different for a change.

Last year, we produced a conference quite out of the ordinary with a 2-week long game called State of Grace. This year we stayed physically in Sandton, but instead produced interactive and immersive elements for the event that enhanced the overall message and experience of innovation.

Finishing touches to the RFID stations

RFID tag technology has remarkable applications for events, allowing you to blur the barrier between physical interactions, digital tracking and social media integration. We designed, prototyped and build a series of RFID stations, which we placed throughout the conference venue -  tracking each participant’s progress between sub-venues through the day. All were build from scratch in our lab using Netbooks and Arduino circuit boards and software applications that we wrote. Tags were personalised and loaded with individual information that even indicated the preferred beverage of the conference goers to the barman at the end of it all. Unexpected touches that make a huge difference and all possible with the technology.

Our RFID-trigger photo booth

Part of the series of stations was an over-sized RFID triggered photo booth [that we also designed and built from scratch] that tagged photos with the names of the people triggering the shot based on the RFID cards swipped. These images were then displayed in real time via large projections to the dance venue at the end of the event. At one stage we had eight people crammed into the booth firing multiple images of themselves and then running through to the dance floor to revue they efforts.

RFID picture taking and tagging

Some couldn't stay away

In the repackaging of the conference content we also created a 2m high hologram [for real] and a 5-minute long 3D-projection mapping that was displayed on a partially wrapped 14m x 5m specially design stage. We used the backdrop of the mapping throughout the conference as a dynamic theme to pull all of the content together.

[Once the video of that mapping is complete we'll share more about that then.]

Projection mapping set up

Space ship masking

Mapped conference backdrop

In conclusion: Our philosophy is that an event or a conference that people have elected to attend is an unbelievable opportunity to WOW! people with your brand. We hear a lot about ‘death by PowerPoint’ these days, but in truth it’s not PowerPoint that’s putting people to sleep, it’s the company’s unimaginative intention behind that presentation that’s the crying shame. If you’ve managed to attract an audience to your gig – do them, and your brand a favour and make sure the overall experience is remarkable and unforgettable.

To infinity and beyond...

Invest the budget and leverage off the massive amount of word-of-mouth you could potentially generate. In an overcrowded global media environment it’s the hardest working investment you can make. If you’re not sure how – call us.

This video is sadly very staged which makes us question the entire thing altogether. But looking past the Oscar performance and canned sound effects, we can see the ember of a engaging interactive idea in there somewhere.

Really gotta worry about a group of people going off at the idea of a stick-figure man removing his trousers. Must be European. Those austerity measures are starting to affect them badly.