Beam Global Spirits & Wine is launching an interactive augmented reality campaign for Red Stag by Jim Beam, the new black cherry flavoured bourbon hitting stores this month. The innovative promotion consists of a “Party Terminal” where participants are featured on-screen alongside virtual dancing girls at London Gatwick Airport.
Created by White Label UK and powered by Inition’s augmented reality software MagicSymbol, the ‘Party Terminal’ targets groups of lads heading abroad on holiday. An attractor video features a promo girl who beckons to passersby saying “Hi there, welcome to Red Stag’s Party Terminal. Touch-in below and join in the party!” To interact, participants stand in front of the screen where a camera captures the scene. The user is then featured on-screen with promo girls dancing beside them as if they have been transported to a virtual party.
Participants can then share a personalised video of their experience via Facebook, before enjoying a sample of Red Stag from the promotional bar. The campaign will target holiday makers passing through Gatwick’s South Terminal for the next month.
Ford C-MAX Launch Outdoor Augmented Reality Campaign
MagicSymbol Augmented Reality Application Launches Audi A1 Across UK
BMW Augmented Reality Campaign
The Brief
BMW initiated an online augmented reality campaign to promote the launch of the BMW Z4. Inition were asked to 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’.
Solution
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.
Results
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.
Ford C-MAX Campaign: AR with Gestural Interface
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
The brief from Ford demanded us to track users in the most natural way possible to 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.
FORD C-max DOOH AR campaign from Inition on Vimeo.
Solution
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.
Results
- Across ten shopping malls 125,000 customers interacted with Ford's Grand C-MAX vehicle.
- Check out the video to see the installation in action!
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.