Control real life football players with your smartphone

Not sure if this a PR effort to promote the Sony Xperia play or the new album of Kasabian, but nevertheless it is a pretty awesome execution and a lot of effort would have gone into it.

2 “users” control real life football players by selecting commands on their Sony handsets that are then send to the players who are wearing ear pieces.

I like how the headband lights up when a player gets selected!

It seems a bit lagging at times, but it is a pretty impressive attempt

Check out the video:

@maniac13

Amnesia Connect wins Silver ADMA award

Amnesia was awarded a silver last week at the ADMA awards for Amnesia Connect in the Apps and New Development category.

 

The finalists are below and well done to TBWA for Gold on Pedigree in the same category.

Big effort from Iain, Heiko, Stephan and Dan for the work.

If you have not seen connect before you may well of been hiding under a rock so here it is in action.

Great result and hopefully next year we win gold.

@maniac13

Microsoft announces new Kinect Hardware for Windows in early 2012

Since the announcement of Kinect for Windows at the start of November, many have asked if there will be PC-specific Kinect hardware coming. Microsoft confirmed today that there will indeed be a new Kinect device for Windows PCs.

Simple changes include shortening the USB cable to ensure reliability across a broad range of computers and the inclusion of a small dongle to improve coexistence with other USB peripherals.  Of particular interest to developers will be the new firmware which enables the depth camera to see objects as close as 50 centimeters in front of the device without losing accuracy or precision, with graceful degradation down to 40 centimeters.  “Near Mode” will enable a whole new class of “close up” applications, beyond the living room scenarios for Kinect for Xbox 360.

The full press release contains more details including the announcement of new support and mentoring programs for Kinect development.

Expect the new hardware in early 2012.

~@bradyohalloran

The Lexus Surface Experience

Lexus – the future of performance is clear

The Lexus LFA is the new limited edition supercar that came to Australia just a few month ago and was showcased at the Lexus stand at the Melbourne International Motor show 2011.

George P. Johnson came to us to create an interactive way to showcase the car that you can’t touch.

Straight away a few ideas popped into our heads and after presenting to the client we went with this:

The idea was simple:

We gave out a see through brochure to visitors of the motor show that will generate intrigue and drive them to Lexus stand to see what the completely clear brochure was all about.
The brochure then came to life when it was placed on the Microsoft Surface table, launching an app that gave them an interactive way to learn about and experience this amazing $750 000 car without actually touching it.

Lexus was the only stand at the motor show with a Microsoft Surface table and people from all over Australia got to experience the app and were blown away by it. On the app itself you could explore Images of the car, videos of it in action, a time line of its development and a section where you could “drive” a virtual LFA yourself. The competition gave everyone the chance to win a once of a life time experience where 1 lucky winner could drive in the LFA with a professional race driver.

Additionally we incorporated a separate section called “The Extraordinary Way” where Lexus showed off their way of developing cars to show that all the effort and research that went into the LFA is also used in all their other cars.

Check out our video below:

The results speak for themselves:

1502 people took the brochure to the table
4312 unique content views
1487 went to the competition
the virtual LFA was driven 1972.6km (that is 1472.6km more than the real LFA at that time)

@maniac13

Christmas party short film

So we revealed the short film we made for the Christmas party yesterday and thanks to Nikki Sulentics editing we had some good laughs!

Thanks to everyone who took their time to stay back and get involved! Stephan especially, his performance of the grinch reminded me of a young Brando, I suggest jumping back into that Darlinghurst theatre and sharpening that sword.

Christmas Party location revealed below…

 

Thanks for watching

 

@kreyman

 

Welcome Jay

 

Amnesia Razorfish has a new Creative Director – meet Jay Morgan.

This much we know: Jay was formerly National Digital Creative Director at Southern Cross Austereo, he roasts his own coffee beans and (perhaps surprisingly considering point two) is a really nice guy.

You can read some more about Jay’s appointment on AdNews or follow him on Twitter.

Never forget your keys ever again

Amnesia is always happy to support local talent and we are proud to show you a concept from one of our Interns, David Montero

David has been helping us with one of our Kinect internal projects while he was working hard on his own university project called dOh

Ever had a doh! moment?, that moment when the door slams behind you and you slap your forehead realising you left the house without taking the keys with you?

dOh will help you remember your keys, wallet, phone or anything else you could possibly forget.

All you have to do is “tag” your items and when you try to leave your apartment your doorknob will tell you, by flashing a coloured light at you, that you forgot a tagged item.

A really nice idea and I am sure it will help people in the future not to forget their things anymore. It could potentially even tell you that you lost your phone when you come back to your home

@maniac13

DDB: ADC Annual Awards Call for Entries Campaign

Love this! Esp as most of us can relate to it. DDB New York’s cam­paign for ADC’s Annual Awards Call for Entries.

@danKrause

Nokias future phone looks like a teardrop

we have seen how Nokia wants to bend the future of phones with flexible displays and now Nokias future lab showed us a concept video on how it could all work together.

nanotechnology, with a bendable transparent display and a fully touch sensitive casing are only some of the visions that Nokia cooked up.

Check out the video:

not sure if I agree with all of it, but there are some nice ideas in it.

@maniac13

Razorfish Outlook Report 11 (vol 10)

Our new global Razorfish Outlook Report 2011 (vol 10) is out people.

If you’re not familiar with the report it is compiled by Razorfish in the U.S. and provides an in-depth analysis of emerging trends in media, technology and creativity.

A major theme from  this year is collaboration, content and relationships defining a new approach in media.

The year in digital media is reviewed here and other hot topics include:

Game Mechanics

How the Social Cloud can Accelerate Brand Interactions

Forget Mobile, Think Multiscreen

The Importance of Agency Collaboration

The Report is also available in presentation format here and you can follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #orv10.

Happy reading.

Christmas Party Teaser

Christmas is a lively time of the year with everyone feeling quite festive and eager to have fun, last year Amnesia celebrated it whilst lawn bowling and it reminded me of a bad episode of ‘Murder she wrote’, (sorry Jessica Fletcher)

Put it this way if the grinch stole Christmas that year, I wouldn’t exactly be over-exerting myself to try and stop him.

This year a few of us decided to stir things up and let me tell you…you can never have enough sauce.

The 2011 xmas party is a secret yet to be revealed and we decided to make a teaser trailer as a lead up to our short film to get everyone excited.

Check out the youtube video below!

@Kreyman

The next generation shadow puppets brought to you by Microsoft

I have been writing about Microsoft Research quite a bit and lately it seems that they are showing off our future every few days.

Last week was no different and they gave us 3 different projectors that allow you to interact with them through shadows and augmented reality.

 

3 devices, split up into camera, room and SLAM models, incorporate pico projectors, coaxial IR cameras, inertial measurement units (IMUs) and the company’s Kinect to project augmented visions onto surrounding surfaces. The environmentally aware systems allow for shadow- and touch-based interaction with the CG overlays, offering pinch functionality, icon selection and even painting.

Pretty cool you think? Check out the video

 

One day we might all have one of those to check out the latest furniture and what they will look like in our home.

@maniac13