IAAPA (The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) published their February Funworld Magazine last week with an article that prominently mentions Snibbe Interactive’s new technologies for interactive digital signage. Of most interest is the new SocialMirror platform that uses LCD screens and a three-dimensional depth-sensing camera to measure people’s full-body movements without any special background; the platform also precisely tracks the number of impressions and dwell-time of people in the experiences. The article also discusses the SocialShare platform’s ability to share personalized experiences created in digital signage applications online in Facebook and other social networks. SocialNet allows hundreds or even thousands of SocialMirrors to be connected into an interactive digital signage network for stores, franchise, or advertising networks. These new technologies show great promise for high-traffic, low-space environments including retail, public digital signage networks, theme parks, and other public franchises.
Snibbe Interactive recently completed three new interactive exhibits at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry for You! The Experience. This groundbreaking exhibition creates a nonlinear social multi-user experience that mirrors the way people experience media today – through the lens of the personal, social, and online.
As the centerpiece of the exhibition, MSI commissioned Snibbe Interactive to create a twenty-four foot wide multi-projector interactive wall that accommodates dozens, and sometimes hundreds of simultaneous visitors.
The purpose of Get in the Action is simply to get people to move as if they were in an sporting class. In the center of a large screen a video coach demonstrates one of four activities: Basketball, Hip Hop Dancing, Tai Chi, and Yoga. As people follow along, magical motion effects create on-screen trails that outline their past movements, inspired by sports science analysis and visualizations similar to those that professional athletes use. These trails make the audience excited to follow along. In a free play session, people’s outlines overlap in an open-ended experience that encourages even the shyest person to dance and play with his body. Get in the Action can hold people for long durations and promotes physical exercise and social engagement.
Laugh Garden is a cluster of monitors with video faces that play on each screen. When people move in front of a monitor, the face begins to chuckle, to laugh, and eventually to roar. The greater each person’s movement, the greater the laughter. Groups of people can make the whole garden laugh together, and the laughter spreads quickly to the visitors themselves creating a social experience. The exhibit utilizes our newer depth-sensing three-dimensional SocialMirror technologies.
With Support Networks people create personalized collages about their network of friends and family. Using a touchscreen monitor, a person enters her name, which appears at the center of a large wall-mounted display. Next, the visitor enters the names of several friends. As the visitor answers questions about her social relationships, the names of people who provide more support become larger and larger. With our SocialShare add-on, the collages can be posted directly to Facebook and other social networks, or emailed to friends.
We’ve just published our 2010 catalog of interactive experiences in print and PDF formats. Our products pages will always have the most up-to-date listings of our product lines, which increase monthly. However, this compact 8-page document neatly summarizes our platforms and many products and is available in print format. You can download a copy right now, or request a print copy from our office.
Customers in Entertainment, Museums and Marketing can use this catalog to order unmodified ready-to-ship experiences; or as a basis for customized and unique experiences. Don’t hesitate to contact us about your project.
Snibbe Interactive will be exhibiting this week at the The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo in Las Vegas (IAAPA 2009). Scott Snibbe will be there in person to meet with clients and visitors, and we’ll be demonstrating several SocialScreen products, customized for entertainment applications. Come visit us at booth number 5105 at the Las Vegas Convention Center from November 17-20.
A pair of amateur filmmakers have created an anachronistic pirate movie using the Deep WallsShadowMosaic interactive installation installed at Technorama in Switzerland. Click below to watch the whole movie “Der Raub” created by Philipp Röthlin and Manuel Gübeli. Their movie is a new twist on the growing phenomenon of Machinima – creating movies from videogame graphics engines such as Doom, Quake, and Grand Theft Auto. In this case, the full-body input of social immersive media allows actors, costumes, and props to immediately become part of the performance.
Welcome to the Snibbe Interactive blog. As part of the launch of our new website, we have also launched this blog, to discuss all aspects of social immersive media. Look here for frequently updated information on our new products, new installations in science museums, new immersive interactive branding experiences, and new entertainment and theme park experiences. We’ll also be featuring articles on social immersive media platforms and technologies involving projectors, displays, and both regular and stereoscopic/three-dimensional cameras. And we plan to include articles on design principles, user studies, educational studies, interactive arts and media, positive outcomes for branding and retail to enhance sales, interviews, and commentary on this young and exciting medium.
The site was designed in-house, and implemented ably by Michael O’Neal of Daka Designs.
