Top Gear Live, the action-packed live version of the TV show, launched the first leg of its 2010 World Tour at Earls Court London earlier this month. This year the live show has been given another interactive makeover by Inition featuring a Mobile SMS Text competition and an interactive Cool Wall where the audience can rate cars and post comments.
The text-based competition is hosted by Inition and enables the crowd to text in answers to questions posed on the big screens on stage for a chance to win prizes. Top Gear’s Cool Wall also allows the audience to vote on whether cars are "cool" or "uncool" and post live comments which the presenters interact with. Inition also provides on-hand technical expertise to the International show which will play to over 300,000 spectators across seven cities around the world in the forthcoming months.
On previous shows Inition has worked with the show's producers to create a 3D animated dragon to do battle with the Stig. Last year Inition created the world’s largest mass audience participation driving game consisting of two on-screen supercars which were collectively steered left or right by audience members holding up red or green cards, with speed controlled by how much noise each side made – the louder the audience the faster the cars go.
This is now the fifth year in which Inition has collaborated with Top Gear Live to bring cutting edge interactive technology to the show format. Inition is involved at every stage of the project from concept development through to technology provision, customising software, content creation and programming. Full details and locations here: http://live.topgear.com/.
Ford C-MAX Launch Outdoor Augmented Reality Campaign
Inition Brings Mass Interaction to the Gadget Show Live
MagicSymbol Augmented Reality Application Launches Audi A1 Across UK
MagicSymbol AR: Launch of the Audi A1
The Brief
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.
Solution
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”.
Results
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.