Take a look behind the scenes of the Lab at the ARIA in Las Vegas. A true manifestation of what we do in the Emerging Experiences group, the Lab set-up brings to life the ideas behind this year’s Client Summit theme, Convergence. To learn more about the ideas that drive our passions, read more about what Razorfish’s Global CEO, Bob Lord and Global CTO, Ray Velez have to say in their new book.

At the London Investor Day, Publicis Groupe’s top executives showcased market-defining tools that have been developed to enable clients to communicate more effectively with their consumers. Included was the Razorfish Emerging Experiences group and its 5D platform. Attendees were introduced to it (pictured above) during a presentation of Audi City, a next-generation dealership built with 5D.

We got a 3D printer (%#$@%!!!!!) and I think we can all safely say we have been…distracted lately. We’ll be posting our creations, augmentations and general mad-scientist meddlings all week long. Each print becomes more and more successful (like the top I printed above) and we are soaking up all the information we can to make each one better than the last.

Some of the team members have immediately started printing toys for their families (and themselves) while others are already figuring out how to print out the missing links to the Arduino puzzles that have kept them up at night. We all knew the impact these suckers would have on the marketplace, but i can’t impress upon you all just how much more amazing these things are when you are actually behind the dreaming something up one minute and holding it in your hands the next.

Have any requests? Have any tips? Want to come play? Tweet us at @razorfishEE – OK back to printing my Biplane chasis…

From the Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Razorfish Emerging Experiences group has teams around the world working on a myriad of exciting projects. We’re building our newest lab in San Francisco, working with the Audi team in Frankfurt and hopping from New York to Atlanta to Seattle, Austin and Portland. We even have someone hitting the slopes at Telluride (but we don’t think that qualifies as work). Watch this space to see how these projects unfold.

During a two day prototyping session at Razorfish’s Frankfurt office last summer, our team built an NFC-enabled gumball machine that was filled with apps, music, games and other fun content. And to help celebrate the new Galaxy SIII Mini, it was recently showcased at Samsung’s Flagship Store here in Frankfurt. Now, after a short pit stop to make a few tweaks and improvements, we’re taking it to Mobile World Congress next week. If you happen to be in Barcelona, be sure to stop by the NFC & Mobile Money Pavilion (Hall 7) to check it out.

At a recent 3D Vision & Kinect Hacking Meetup in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to learn about a particularly exciting advancement in orientation sensor technology. A demonstration by Michael Kosic of XYZ Interactive focused on low cost 3D positioning sensors that not only detect the x, y and z position of an object, but also roll, pitch and yaw. What’s particularly exciting about their technology is not what it can do to enable interactive experiences, but how its low cost could make these experiences ubiquitous. With positioning sensors that cost as little as a cup of coffee, you can imagine how their affordability could open the door to a wide array of experiences including interactive signage, in-vehicle controls, gaming and augmented reality applications. Simple yet precise recognition of the position of a hand in 3D space could be used for swipes, pushes and pulls—the kind of navigation we expect in a tablet or track pad. And the roll, pitch and yaw recognition opens the door to completely new, yet easily-adoptable user interfaces. It’s technology we’re already experimenting with in our labs, so stay tuned.

After weeks of hard work, sleepless nights and countless cups of coffee, we unveiled the latest iteration of our groundbreaking 5D Retail Experience Platform at Retail’s Big Show: The National Federation of Retail’s 102nd Annual Convention & EXPO. We had fun showing off  how 5D can customize, personalize and seamlessly synchronize the shopping experience, the biggest hits being the co-shopping feature and our synchronized transparent displays. We’re preparing a post focusing on some of the emerging trends in retail, but wanted to share some of the highlights from the two day event. If you weren’t able to make it in person, you can check out the experience here: emergingexperiences.com/5D. And be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news and events coming from the Razorfish Emerging Experiences Group.

Creating the next big thing in retail is no easy task, but when you get to work with some amazing technology, it can be a lot of fun. Pictured above, Razorfish Emerging Experiences Associate Director Ryan Kellogg is seen hooking up our brand new transparent displays.

Some of the amazing brands that received a hands-on demonstration included Macy’s (pictured above with CEO Terry Lundgren on the far right), Ralph Lauren, Lowes, Walmart, Tesco, Toys“R”Us, Estée Lauder, Louis Vuitton, Loreal, UNIQLO, H&M, Levi’s, Wells Fargo, Staples, Total Wine, Swarovski, Gucci and Moods of Norway… just to name a few.

We presented the 5D platform to dozens of international delegations, including this one from Brazil (which had to be translated in real-time).

Our experience was one of the most popular at the event and was visited frequently by the media, including American Public Media’s Marketplace (seen above with Razorfish Emerging Experiences Vice President Jonathan Hull).

And when it was all over, we had the fun task of tearing it all down (which was a lot faster than putting it all up).

Get your hands on the 5D experience by embarking on a unique shopping journey that utilizes a variety of platforms and technologies, including a first of it’s kind, seamlessly-synchronized transparent interactive display wall. It’s located in the Microsoft booth (1005) on Level 3. And to see more of 5D in action, head on over to emergingexperiences.com/5D.

Our lab is buzzing with activity as the team prepares for the National Retail Federation’s 102nd Annual Convention & EXPO in New York. On display will be the latest iteration of Razorfish 5D— the world’s first cross-device, cross-OS, connected retail platform. Launched at last year’s NRF convention, 5D has already been launched in several markets and was used to create Audi City London, a one-of-a-kind immersive virtual showroom. This year we’re showing how our platform can power customized, personalized and seamlessly synchronized shopping experiences. We threw in some augmented reality and a bunch of transparent displays as well.

Our team will be demonstrating the 5D experience in booth #1005 on Level 3 of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. If you can’t make the show, be sure to follow us on Twitter to get the latest updates.