Guardian VR: 6x9
6x9 is an innovative virtual reality experience created by the Guardian about solitary confinement. 6x9 places viewers in a virtual cell, telling a story of the psychological damage extreme isolation. Right now, more than 80,000 people are in solitary confinement in the US. They spend 22-24 hours a day in their cells, with little to no human contact for days or even decades. The photo-realistic cell is made in CGI referencing real solitary cells. Inside, as you turn your head, are the contents of a typical cell: the poured concrete bed you are sitting on, a poured concrete desk opposite, a combination sink/toilet. Five books are on the desk, a letter, a roll of toilet paper. All the voices you hear are real. We interviewed seven people who were in solitary in California and New York. The sound design in the piece is from a Secure Housing Unit (SHU) in Maine. It was recorded for a Frontline documentary called Solitary Nation.
Guardian VR: Underworld
Beneath London lies a vast network of Victorian sewers – hundreds of miles of ornate brick tunnels. They are still in use today, although few people ever get to experience them. Underworld reveals this subterranean world. Plunged into darkness, your Daydream controller is your lifeline, your torch and your navigator. Guided by urban explorer Bradley Garrett, you make your way down the old river Fleet, one of London’s lost waterways, walking through the blood sewer under Smithfield meat market to reach the floodgates of the river Thames. Along the way learn of the perils of exploring – if it rains the sewer system will fill to the ceiling, and if your torch goes, you will never make your way out. Historian Richard Barnett joins to explain the impetus for the building of the sewer system – the Great Stink – and Will Self tells of the mythological allure of underworld as a place for the dead. Don’t get lost!
Rewind VR: Project Falcon
Rewind was asked by headset manufacturer FOVE to develop a showcase project to highlight some of the key benefits of its eye-tracking technology. Enter Project Falcon, a realtime VR experience that marries groundbreaking HMD technology, eye tracking, navigation and rendering techniques.
In the game, the player battles through the streets of a futuristic city, destroying robots, in order to overthrow the mysterious Project Falcon. The user can explore the scene, control their weapons, uncover narratives and control the user interface, just by gazing at different areas of the experience.
Unreal Engine was used to provide AAA quality graphics and deliver a best-in-class experience not only of the FOVE technology, but of VR as a whole.
LIX Pen
LIX Pen is a 3D Printing Pen that enables you to make free standing structures in the air. With LIX you can create anything from small to big, from details to prototypes, complicated and high detailed creations. It allows you to express your creativity on a whole new level. This is possible with plastic filaments used by LIX instead of ordinary ink. Straight plastic rods are heated and extruded already melted which is how you can create volumetric creations in the air. LIX Pen works with straight plastic rods (ABS/PLA). They are 20cm long and with a diameter of 1.75mm. Extrusion is 0.7mm.
Candy Mechanics
Candy Mechanics create customised candy from the future. The food tech startup brings together new technology, engineering and traditional chocolate making techniques to make wonderfully unique candy products.
The team will showcase the ultimate in product personalisation by 3D scanning customers and carving chocolate heads in a matter of minutes. Called Lolpops - because what’s funnier than a miniature chocolate replica of your own head?
You’ll never look at a sweet treat in the same way again.
Flash Drives for Freedom
It is HRF’s belief that information and education (rather than diplomacy or military action) are the keys to change inside North Korea. Once enough of the population learns about the outside world, the Kim regime will no longer be able to survive. That’s why HRF created the Flash Drives for Freedom campaign. HRF is collecting flash drives to donate to local partners in South Korea that are helping guide the flow of information into, and out of, the hermit kingdom.
CrowdEmotion
Campaigns and advertising have traditionally measured success based on clicks and shares, despite poor correlation with genuine brand uplift.
CrowdEmotion’s cloud-based facial coding + eye-tracking detection software provides an unobtrusive way to measure emotional engagement and gaze path. Meanwhile, implicit reaction testing measures subconscious brand associations.
By layering our e-score on top of existing business metrics, we help clients co-create a proprietary emotion data model. Think content effectiveness, emotional journeys and customer segmentation by emotional profiles.
Recently, we have just launched our Alpha Programme where we package the award winning methodology into a rinse-and-repeat process. Clients like the BBC, Telegraph and NFL have been asking us to help them restructure how customer engagement is measured.
Elysium
In 2002, British inventor and furniture designer, Dr David Wickett, set out to create a chair that would simulate weightlessness. In his pursuit, he completed a PhD in bioengineering, becoming one of the few designers to unify art and science. From his 10-year research he wrote an equation defining posture and gravitational force. That equation became Elysium technology.
The result is arguably one of the most advanced and comfortable chairs available. There are no electric motors or spring mechanisms. Weightlessness is achieved through an elegant array of roller bearings that follow a specific path, giving frictionless continuous balance. On a sensory level, the experience is akin to saltwater floatation. And with versions acoustically transparent above the shoulders, perfect for the audiophile and cinephile.
