GM...green?!?

OK, you may not think "green" when you think of the guys that make the Hummer, but that is a perception that they would like changed. The fact is, GM has one of the largest corporate responsibility "green" programs in the world. Not only are they developing vehicles that run more efficiently, use less fuel and produce fewer emissions, but they are focused on clean and renewable energy in all of their plants and corporate offices. I know, its hard to believe, and they were having a hard time communicating their message, so they turned to Obscura.



We developed a 3 siloed multi-touch display wall that allowed users to pick a feature that is interesting to them and drill down into the depths of content that GM has regarding that subject. The wall was divided up into "Plants and Facilities", "Vehicles" and "Environmental" sections.

The wall debuted at the GreenBuild show in Chicago in November, 2007, and is now on tour with GM on their nationwide awareness campaign to highlight the GM corporate responsibility message.

Wheeew, that is a big dome

OK, so Google came to us and wanted us to build an environment that would blow away their VIP guests at their annual Zeitgeist conference. We came up with a 90 foot diameter video dome. This was only for a one evening event, so it had to be amazing. We sent photographers and videographers to the ends of the Earth to capture the most amazing content that nature could dish up.

The video dome used 11 Christie S+20K projectors synchronized and blended through our servers. The surface was over 12,000 square feet, which is a screen just shy of an entire football field of solid video. This was the worlds largest, full surround video environment ever created. Chalk up another worlds first for the kids at Obscura.

Tech Expo at Obscura

So, we got together with our production partner InVision Communications to showcase some of our technologies to our clients. Chk out the video to see what kind of stuff we threw out there.

X-Ray car projection

So I am bringing this one back out of the closet in light of some of the new attention that has been brought on this technology. AdAge just did a quick profile on us All the World is Your Video Screen. It is a pretty cool article that really highlights our vision that media can be displayed almost anywhere.

As with a lot of our more fun projects, we worked with Goodby Silverstein and Partners out here in SF. Together, we were just awarded a New York Festivals 2007 Gold WorldMedal for Alternative & Innovative Media: Video Projections, which is nice.

Also, this exhibit won a Silver Clio Award and a Silver OneShow for this project.

AdAge also did a feature on Obscura’s Projects Why You May Be Using X-Ray Vision the Next Time You Go Car Shopping -- High-Tech Display Tools Become Affordable for Dealers, Other Retailer

Anyway, I think the video is a great example of both of the AdAge articles and really gives a look into the future of marketing and advertising.

HP at the D5 Conference WSJ

We got the call from our friends at Goodby Silverstein & Partners to put together something totally unique for HP at the Wall Street Journal's D conference. The concept was to create the largest interactive screen and to create an additional installation piece inside of the conference to add a digital environmental effect.

We came up with two of the coolest installation pieces we have done. The first was the world's largest multi-touch screen with dynamic content. The second and equally as challenging was an integrated projection and LCD environment that was set up temporarily in the hotel.

Big shout out to Darren David, without whom this project would not have been possible. He programmed the WPF framework for the UI on the interactive canvas to integrate with our backend and screens.

Vids of those are below.

Interesting Projection Mapping mixed with Holograms

So, here is something you don't see every day. Here we have mapped projection to some columns in the warehouse and integrated it with some of our holograms. This is just a test to see how we can blend 2 projectors across a surface and then integrate content across that 2K pixel surface.

Virtual Dog on a real couch

So, we are really into ways to integrate the virtual world with real physical space. Im not talking about things like Second Life, but things like our Virtual Dog. Basically, this is just an example of a single channel starter kit for what we refer to as "Augmented Reality" (AR).

When we use AR, it is acutally the opposite of the type of thing that a lot of people are used to. People like T-Immersion map 3D graphics into a video feed in real time using tracking software to maniuplate the video feed.

We like to use AR that is visible to the naked eye, and actually fools people to make them ask "did you just see something over there?"

The next step for this type of application is to map an entire space in projection and then build interactive projected elements into the space. Applicaitons for this type of technology are unlimited and luckily, we are kind of leading the charge for bringing this type of thing out of the lab, and into practical applications.

check it out



Oh, and that is Fortune, our Jack Russell.

Blend of art and conference room table

Ever wonder what happens when you map your boring old conference room and map it with HD video? Well, this is what we came up with.

The real trick to this is where the projector is placed. We are able to hit the table at such an angle as to not cause shadows.

Ultimate Video Environment

So, one of our favorite corporate clients, Symantec, came to us and asked us to build something that would blow their clients away as they came into their conference. We thought about it and came up with the concept of a video tunnel. The problem was, well, there were many:

1. How do we build a perfect surface to project on? Answer, you dont. solution: fabricate a tunnel screen that is as taught is it can be, and then calibrate the projectors to match the surface.

2. How do you design video to span a 4,000 pixel screen that has both sag and tension in different areas? Answer: pre-design the space in 3D then remap the video to the new mesh. Complex? you bet.

3. How do you fly 4 16,000 lumen projectors at different heights, at different angles and with different areas of coverage for the screen and expect a seamless image? Answer: you dont. That is where the Obscura magic comes in.

Check it out:

Interactive Video Wall

When our friends at Goodby Silverstein and Partners came to us to collaborate on the NextFest 2006, we knew what we were going to put together would have to be really bad ass.

Along with a bunch of other cool elements, we wanted to focus this blog posting on the interactive wall that we put together. Now, interactive video walls have been around for a while, in one form or another, but the we and kids at GSP decided that we needed to raise the bar.

What we put together was a fully interactive, and reactive 45 foot video wall that allowed users to input their thoughts and then interact with them as they appeared.

The trick here was to seperate from the herd. There are a ton of players in the "interactive" video space.....Reactrix, Gesturetek, T-Immersion, etc. What we were doing, however was category defining. We were taking 4 channels of HD video in real time, blending it together, allowing users to input their data, and then making it interactive over a 45' surface.

Try that one at home.

Anyway, until we post the video, you have to look at our web site for the outcome.

Obscura Digital to see how it worked.