To promote Kia’s new three door Pro_cee’d Inition created a MagicSymbol package for a custom kiosk that promoted the car, 7 year warranty and Kia’s new advert, supporting the “Designed to change your mind” campaign.
AR and VR Open Day with InterSense Vcam and IS-1200
Ford C-MAX Launch Outdoor Augmented Reality Campaign
Red Stag Launches Augmented Reality Party Powered by MagicSymbol
Beam Global Spirits & Wine is launching an interactive augmented reality campaign for Red St
AR for Oral-B Pro Expert Launch
Inition were approached by GPJ to create an engaging Augmented Reality piece of animation that supports the launch of the new Oral-B tooth paste
The AR was shown at an industry launch of the new Oral-B Pro-Expert toothpaste, showcasing the revolutionary technology involved in creating the new product.
The AR piece was used to reinforce the key messages about the product from the presentations and videos shown at the launch, as well as allowing the user to get a quick and easy understanding of the key ingredients of the paste and what areas it tackles
Interactive Touchscreen Poster
To back up the launch campaign and the Augmented Reality piece, Inition developed and created an interactive touchscreen poster, allowing the user to navigate through the benefits of the new product and watch videos highlighting the 8 benefits that the new paste provides.
BBC Merlin AR Launch
For the launch of the BBC’s flagship Saturday night TV show Merlin, Inition were briefed to recreate the magic of the show using our MagicSymbol technology, for a joint cinema and website download campaign.
Installed in 10 cinemas across the UK, Merlin MagicSymbol Kiosks wowed thousands of cinema-goers with magical animation and exclusively shot video content featuring actor Colin Morgan in the title role.
Over the 3 week cinema campaign period MagicSymbol was deemed a highly successful campaign when compared to other marketing campaigns in the same environment, with 45% of cinema goers directly interacting with the Merlin MagicSymbol installation. Sample the magic yourself by downloading the software here(PC+webcam+printer required), or on the BBC’s Merlin site.
BMW Augmented Reality Campaign
BMW initiated an online augmented reality campaign to promote the launch of the BMW Z4. Inition worked with Dare to create a unique interactive online brand experience supporting the TV campaign in which a roadster is steered across a blank canvas with the tires providing paint trails and colourful ‘expressions of joy’.
Powered by Inition’s augmented reality technology MagicSymbol, users create their own ‘expression of joy’ online. Users can test drive a virtual 3D Z4 and record their paint trails via the webcam and upload images and videos of their creations to YouTube and Facebook.
Inition's / Dare's BMW AR campaign was rated number 1 in a run-down of the best AR campaigns in Brand Republic. See the run-down for yourself here (we also got the number 6 slot for our Toyota IQ campaign).
Read Revolution magazine's feature "Behind the scenes: BMW's augmented reality campaign" here.
Test drive your own Z4 here.
Grant's Whisky Augmented Reality Bar Promo
Platypus Productions approached Inition to create a unusual competition to support the new “Grant's, try a different angle” campaign in various clubs and bars in cities across South Africa, including Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. Participants were invited to try their luck at winning various prizes, from free drinks to iPods, to link with the campaign. Winners were determined by the angle at which a spinning Grant's Whisky bottle landed on their symbol card.
Ford C-MAX Campaign: AR with Gestural Interface
AR without the Markers
The Ford C-MAX augmented reality campaign ran for two weeks across ten shopping malls with over 125,000 curious shoppers interacting with Ford’s Grand C-MAX vehicle. A selection of on-screen icons allowed participants to explore various features of the car including 'Door Slide', 'Seating', 'Power Tail' and 'Spin' with a 'Minority Report' style gesture-controlled interface.
The brief demanded us to track users in the most natural way possible and allow them to ‘play’ with an interactive product advert. No markers or other symbols could be relied on. It also had to ignore people walking past while allowing precise control and selection from the interface.
Proof of Concept
Inition were approached by digital production company Grand Visual who asked if this was possible and thanks to our recent distribution agreement for the Panasonic D-Imager (a Microsoft Kinect-like depth or Z camera) we provided a simple proof-of-concept demo within one day which secured the project.
Over the next few weeks, our in house team of C++ developers developed an application based on OpenFrameWorks and OpenCV SDKs to code the real-time sensing and video display engine. A sophisticated blob tracking and depth thresholding algorithm sensed the participant's hands allowing the car to follow the user's movements. A flocking algorithm gave a fluid, graceful movement around the screen with the optimum amount of 'bounce'. Full HD resolution, portrait graphics, webcam capture, depth and video camera aspect matching and alignment, gestural user interface, interaction logging for usage analysis and hardware fault tolerance were added before going live.
Fine Tuning and Feedback at Every Stage
An important part of the project was the ability to "fine tune" and "play" with all the control parameters via an on-screen interface. On-screen debugging and depth camera modes allowed us to optimise every aspect of the interaction experience. Our development team provided regular “work in progress” videos and executable versions for the client allowing feedback to be incorporated at every stage.
Inition were present for repeated on-site testing with JCDecaux prior to deployment to ensure the software could cope with the rigours of the real-world environment. Issues included reflection scatter from glass shop windows which were tackled with temporal and contrast filtering of the depth image.
Check out the video above to see the installation in action!
MagicSymbol AR: Launch of the Audi A1
After highly successful MagicSymbol augmented reality campaigns for BMW, Toyota and Kia, Inition were approached to deliver a new augmented reality campaign to launch the Audi A1 in showrooms across the UK.
Visitors were able to interact with a photorealistic model of Audi’s new hatchback before its official launch. By holding up a special Audi branded ‘MagicSymbol’ printed in brochures in front of kiosks, software would recognise the symbol and augment a fully detailed 360 degree model of the A1 as if it were parked on the brochure held by the viewer.
Inition’s skilled animators created the detailed image and animations of the car in 3D Studio Max using references from Audi’s original CAD data which were optimised for real time rendering.
Using proprietary algorithms, Inition created a fully realistic experience with no lag between the movement of the MagicSymbol and animation of the car.
Extending the experience to the home
Inition also extended the experience to the home. Users with a webcam could download an Audi logo that had been specially encoded for use with the MagicSymbol augmented reality technology. By printing it off and holding it towards their webcam, users would see the Audi A1 appear on their monitor and be able to interact with the car's features as if they were in the showroom.
By rotating the MagicSymbol, the car would rotate too and users could explore the car further by clicking on any of the on-screen icons such as “add panoramic roof” and “open the boot”.
Audi were so pleased with the results that they commissioned Inition to create a similar campaign for the Audi A7 Sportback where Inition added even further interactive features such as the ability for the user to change the paint colour and take the car for a ‘virtual test drive' using the arrow keys on their keyboard.
Portugal Telecom Augmented Reality Rebrand
Brief:
Arcstream approached Inition with a brief to unveil Portugal Telecom’s new company branding using Augmented Reality during a live stage show.
Solution:
Inition developed an Augmented Reality reveal of Portugal Telecom's new logo. This was integrated into a live presentation from the CEO Zenial Bava whereby he held the new logo in his hands on a huge 26.9m wide projection screen behind him on stage.
The very large projection display used 6 projectors and high quality broadcast cameras were utilised to enable the Augmented Reality presentation to appear at broadcase quality. An audience of 5000 people wactched the reveal including Henrique Granadeiro, Chairman of Portugal Telecom, along with the board of directors who then joined Mr. Bava on stage to experience holding their new logo in augmented reality.
Tissot T-Touch Augmented Reality Application
Holition, Inition's sister company specialising in AR for luxury retail, has produced 8 major AR projects for Tissot. Holition works with the UK and Global teams to devise strategy, projects and digital solutions for the Tissot brand.
Holition's work with Tissot is a true partnership; their collaborative projects have been deployed globally including Selfridges, Harrods, Champs Elysees Paris, Corte Ingles Madrid, and most recently in Toronto.
Effects the application for Selfridges:
- 85% increase in sales at Selfridges
- 600% increase in PR
- 50K+ hits to You-tube in one week
- Drove global digital strategy
Watch the videos above to see the campaigns in action or try for yourself at: http://www.tissot.ch/reality/
Inition and Holition work closely together to develop core AR technologies that are deployed across a wide range of applications.