Considering I had literally no idea what I was getting myself into only a few days prior to accepting the invitation and heading out to The Playa, I was (beyond) pleasantly surprised with my experience in Black Rock City. Across the board, I could not believe the amazing amount of collaboration that went on between attendees. For those who are not familiar with the overarching concepts of Burning Man, there are ten principles that everyone is to uphold; among them are radical inclusion, decommodification, communal effort, and gifting. These guiding principles create a friendly atmosphere like no other place on earth.

I also thoroughly enjoyed how much innovation there was in such a desolate place. The mad scientists come out in full force with mutant vehicles, towering structures, and eye-catching art displays galore to display for the masses. Because their efforts, for the most part, are only enjoyed one week out of the year, it is clear that they do it out of passion. It made me feel good inside to think about how everyone who built one of these things was doing it for the greater good of the festival. I truly believe now that some of the best things ever built are not for compensation but are out of selflessness and compassion.

Our contribution to the festival was a 12-piece band that played almost every night. Although I was not able to contribute to the actual musical portion of our camp, I tried to help in other areas so that things kept running smoothly. In all honestly, my favorite part was seeing the smiles of those who stopped by to listen, many of whom stayed for the remainder of the set. I must say, our band was undoubtedly one of the most entertaining stops to see in the whole city.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my Playa family, The Crossroads Camp, as well as all of the other great people I met that made my first burn an experience that I will hold on to for the rest of my life! You guys and gals were absolutely amazing and the sum of all our parts was truly a force to be reckoned with. Thank you all SO much and I look forward to seeing you all again in the near future!

Love, ya boy, Casey.

We had the opportunity to attend SIGGRAPH 2011, Vancouver this past week and were really happy with what we saw. It takes a certain level of innovation to excite us at this stage of the game but the exhibitors this year definitely did not disappoint. The video above is a compilation of just some of the things we got to see in the Emerging Technologies section of the event.

Since it is not entirely clear what the functions of everything in the video is, I will do my best to explain each briefly in order here:
(please keep in mind that some of these names are not official)

Face-to-Avatar: A blimp that houses a projector, microphone, and camera for new age telepresence applications. It can display either a static image or a stream being sent to its on board wireless receiver.
Cyclone Display: A display that spins disks with different patterns on them. The speed of the disk, along with the speed that the projector is flickering at, determines what colors you will see. Essentially each disk is a sort of pixel.
ISCAN3D: A 3D scanner for your iPhone that works in a few minutes on just input from 5-30 pictures.
InteractiveTop: A twist on the game of tops with graphics and sounds galore. It tracks the collisions and features a magnetic controller for each top too.
Mommy Tummy: A strap on tummy that is used to simulate both the joys and stresses of pregnancy.
Recompose: Actuated Surface: A series of actuators that can be controlled using gestures as well as direct manipulation.
Vection Field: A device that can influence pedestrians to walk in a certain direction by displaying a certain dynamic pattern.
Toucheo: An immersive multi-touch workstation that can be used to easily manipulate 3D assets.
Telenoid: A telepresence robot that can transmit voice and facial movements and is neither male nor female, young nor old.
Virtual Crepe Maker: A haptic representation of fluid dynamics that has been made fun by the crepe making game.
True 3D Display: A 3D display that uses laser-plasma technology to output a virtual object with the amazing resolution of 50,000 points per second. (A part broke in transit and they only were able to operate it at half of its capability.
Thermal Interactive Media: A display that senses the temperature of its input and reacts accordingly.
PocoPoco: A new age musical interface and sequencer with 16 solenoids that are loaded with sensors.
HAPMAP: A sort of haptic navigation in which the user holds a device in their hand which simulates the feeling of sliding your hand along a railing. The “rail” is on a pivoting actuator so that it can steer the user in the right direction.

Here are some pictures and videos from the Mobius 8 show on Friday at the Vortex Immersion Dome.

All media is courtesy of our good friend Sam Joos of www.joosbox.tv

Mobius 8 and other special guests will be performing at the Vortex Immersion Dome from 7:00-9:30pm this Friday, July 29th. Vortex is located at 450 S. Bixel St., Los Angeles, CA and you must RSVP to info@vorteximmersion.com with the full names of all attending.

I had the pleasure of seeing Mobius 8 perform a demo recently at the dome and boy was I amazed. Mobius 8 (John Laraio) has invented a multi-dimensional instrument/controller called the Hydra; it is a rack that has infrared sensors mounted to it that can be “played” by passing your hand through its field of view. The sensors can pick up how fast the hand is moved into and out of its view and at what distance. This information then gets translated into MIDI which can be used to control sounds, lights, lasers, video, you name it.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Mobius 8 perform because you get more than just the listening aspect of a DJ. The video does not really do this guy justice, but when he is on stage your eyes are locked on how he is controlling the Hydra. Not only is it cool to look at the correlation between his movements and the music, but the lasers are just cool to begin with!

Here is a sneak peek of what to expect:

Mobius 8′s Demo Set

And check out their websites:

http://www.mobius8.com

http://www.vorteximmersion.com

For those who are unfamiliar, the inaugural Electric Daisy Carnival: Las Vegas took place a couple weekends ago on June 24, 2011. The official definition of the event is an annual electronic dance music festival that has historically taken place at the end of each year’s month of June. Electronic dance music festival? You mean a massive? Or *gasp*, a rave?

Well, sort of, but not really.  For this first Vegas year, I had an amazing opportunity to attend as a fan, and also to cover the festivities on behalf of the LA Music Blog (check out coverage of the music and events here!), and I noticed something this year.  It was something prevalent from last year’s event but definitely more noticeable at this particular one; something that this festival’s great location and over the top production value really helped to highlight.

And for those who are a bit confused as to why we are even here discussing an electronic music festival and pondering the question, “what does this have to do with immersive technologies anyway?”.  I’ll get to that in a second.  Promise.

For a complete photoset for EDC Las Vegas 2011: Click here!

But in order for me to explain that, we once again bring up that dirty word.  When you hear it, certain feelings of controversy rise to the top of our attention, and for good reason: images of underground warehouse parties where people take recreational substances and dance all night to techno music come to mind almost immediately.

“Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.” (Kristian Wilson,  Nintendo, Inc, 1989)

Cheeky quotes and quirky references aside, I did have a point to all this.  And that is that the Electric Daisy Carnival was definitely MORE than a rave in the traditional sense, moving beyond a simple music festival to a fully immersive experience.  And this is where we’ve been seeing the use of technology and art aid in the evolution and growth of live shows and events. Promoted by Insomniac productions as “an absolute indulgence of the senses”, Insomniac’s marketing has got it right.  Lights; music; live performers and art; and immersive installations like the festival-hopping Heineken Dome (which employs 360 degree dome projection technology), the Rabbit Hole (a tunnel of thousands of twinkling lights enhanced with kaleidoscope specs), and the Lily Pads (a meadow of softly glowing circular platforms that change and interact with the weight of curious hoppers);  and of course, much, much more.

Just walking throughout the carnival grounds proved to be a fantastic multi-sensory experience:  smelling the carnival food, seeing the twinkling lights coming off of carnival rides, feeling the conflicting sensations of cooling misters vs. the heat from blazing fireballs, and finally hearing the music from multiple large-scale stages meld perfectly together inside the Las Vegas Speedway grounds to the point where one could make out a single synchronicity of deep thumping bass.  An immersive experience: making use of art and technology to create experiences that tap into multiple neural pathways to conjure mental, physical, and emotional responses.

This is definitely the kind of stuff we are excited to see!  From the LoveTech Interactive Dome at May’s Lightning in a Bottle (which employs gesture tech and haptics exhibits), to the various iterations of the Cubitron (a man-made light tunnel made of ping pong balls and sequenced LED’s), immersive installations are becoming a staple at large scale festivals.  For example, Coachella, a highly accredited music festival of equal size sees no shortage of tech-art immersive installments.  Even the prominence of VJ’s (Video Jockeys) with custom-programmed light shows and stage effects has grown exponentially in importance over the years; having a great visual aspect to a DJ/music set can be the difference between memorable and “meh”.

A suggestion to everyone reading to check out live videos of Richie Hawtin presents Plastikman; a show that employs ambient (minimal) techno with dark undertones synced PERFECTLY to a 360 degree cocoon projection set up.  Really amazing stuff as Hawtin has been known to be a pioneer in terms of his music and employing different technological innovations into his live shows.

What else we’re excited for is the growing employment of these sorts of technological showcases at future events.  Before seen only at offbeat festivals and events like Burning Man, it’s great that these technologies and installs are being experienced by larger populations (an estimated 240,000 attendees throughout EDC’s three day lineup).  Personally, we’d love to see the employment of 3D projection technology to power the show of a world class musical artist like Tiesto or Deadmau5.  And honestly, it’s only a matter of time.

For a complete photoset for EDC Las Vegas 2011: Click here!

Have you ever been in a place that you know you have seen before, even though you literally have not been within miles of the location? Augmented Reality Cinema is soon going to have the solution to your problem available on your mobile device. After first figuring out your location, this app promises that it can show you scenes from movies that were filmed right where you are standing. Although not a true augmented reality where the characters would be laid over what your camera is seeing, you will be able to view the clip on your cell phone or tablet while visualizing where things occurred in the actual scenery around you.

Theoretically, it should be able to also point you in the direction of where different portions were filmed or display a database of locations near by so that users can get their fix. The video only depicts UK locations so hopefully support for US locations will be added if the concept materializes.

The video is copyrighted by Augmented Reality Cinema: http://www.augmentedrealitycinema.com

We recently stumbled upon the front page of the Science & Entertainment Exchange’s website with a fantastic feature on Jeff Silver, the producer behind mega Hollywood blockbusters 300, Terminator: Salvation, and TRON: Legacy.  In the article, Silver gives some information on his own story, his inspirations, the moment of his ‘big break’, and discusses why the TRON: Legacy production team sought the guidance and advice of a team of scientists and physicists.

Why would a Disney movie about users entering a digital fantasy world possibly need to take advice from real-life scientists into account?  Shouldn’t the viewers simply accept the fact that fiction is fiction and enjoy unbelievable physics (such as molecular  transportation into a computer system?)  Not necessarily.  But on the other hand, does a science-fiction movie need to strictly adhere to absolute realism?

Absolutely not.  It is, science-fiction after all.  While you would imagine the scientists’ role in the production process for a movie of this nature to be like a real-time fact checker, ringing a red buzzer and throwing out error codes every time the impossible happens, Silver explains that the advisors were put in place not just to ground realistic concepts, but to expand the creative potential of the film with a scientific base.  In short, inspiration vs limitation.

TRON: Legacy set photo on ScreenCrave.com

“When someone wants to suggest that an idea is far-fetched, they’ll often say, “only in the movies”! But I find the opposite is true. Filmmakers are perpetually in desperate search of original ideas. But when we open ourselves up to exposure to ideas from outside our movie realm, the real imaginative stuff happens. One way of doing so is venturing into the realm of science. I find that my mind is expanded nearly every time I speak to a scientist about his field. They suggest ways of looking at the world that I wouldn’t have dared imagine. Maybe next time, when we want to describe something truly out-there, we should turn the old adage around and say, “only in science”! Hopefully, the real science filmmakers apply in the creative process will be equally inspiring to the filmgoer.” – Jeff Silver

This close tie between science & entertainment, emphasis on innovation, and openness to experimentation is what we really enjoyed. Silver goes on in the article to advise filmmakers to utilize unique reference points (in culture, art, or science & technology), and to bring different perspectives and methods in to tackle new problems.

In line with this thread, we had a great afternoon a little while ago with the TRON: Legacy production team (Joe Kasinski, Jeff Silver, and Steve Gaub) as they came by the ImTech loft to check out WorldViz’s immersive HMD system.  Immediately, you can imagine the possibilities of seeing and experiencing the digital world of TRON: Legacy in a fully immersive 3d environment.  As a viewer, imagine sitting right alongside Sam Flynn on his lightcycle, or taking part in a real-time ID disc battle.  As a creator, imagine building and interacting with your vision… piece by piece, pixel by pixel.

For Jeff Silver’s full interview on The Science and Entertainment Exchange page, click here.

The video, shot by the Social Animal team (with the SA9 360 degree camera) allows the viewer to fully interact with the video by scrolling through the 360 degree plain. Neat and novel, but already done by Will.I.Am on a Black Eyed Peas song. The added dimension here though, is the ability to purchase certain items and clothing you see in the video. Immediately, scenes from Minority Report when Tom Cruise is walking through the interactive mall are spurred in my head. One of the first examples that I’ve personally seen of shopping inter-mixing with an otherwise passive activity of video watching, it makes us wonder how close we to that scene from Minority Report.

Either way, enjoy the cheeky Devo track called “What We Do” and equally quirky video. Their album, Something For Everybody will be their first album release in 20 some odd years. What a way to display their forward thinking!

We’re excited to see this follow up teaser video on the Immersive Cocoon concept, but left desiring to see much more. I-Cocoon is an immersive and naturally intuitive digital dome experience that provides an entirely new interface to interact with technology in a three dimensional space. The Immersive Cocoon’s design was conceptualized by NAU, lead by Tino Shaedler a production designer, art director and trained architect. The film is produced by Oliver Zeller, demonstrates the idea behind an intuitive multi-sensory experience in a setting inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

At the core of Immersive Cocoon is a 3D motion tracking system developed by John Underkoffler, a former fellow of the MIT Media Lab, inspired by the technology seen in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. This system would track body positions utilizing a series of motion tracking cameras and floor pad sensors.

Monitoring these points allows realistic motion of the user to be recreated in virtual space and lets the user navigate menus through predetermined hand gestures or voice commands. These movements are fed through compact processor units in the base, and the visual output on the LED display domes is refreshed instantly. Users can fight a kung-fu game or swim through a sea of jellyfish, with the display responding in real-time with surround vision.