Razorfish + Emerging Experiences

We’ve been very busy since the Windows Phone 7 Series experience launch in Spain, and there’s plenty more excitement over the next couple of weeks. We will be announcing the Razorfish Vision Framework at this year’s SxSW Interactive Conference. We have created a prototype application that is a mixture of Augmented Reality and Multi-touch called RockstAR and will be showcasing it at the Razorfish hosted cocktail party on Saturday the 13th at the Paradise bar. Come by and augment your reality!

Also …

Below is a quick list of the conferences we’re at in March. Please let us know if you are also attending and we’ll make sure you get a chance to check out our experiences.

• GDC 2010 (March 9-13, SanFran) - Lesley just returned from San Francisco, CA where we helped Microsoft showcase the WP7S experience in their Game Developers Conference booth.
• SxSW 2010 Interactive (March 12-15, Austin) - We’re hosting a panel on the 12th, please come interact with us as we discuss “Touch + The Holy Grail of Delight” at 2pm http://my.sxsw.com/events/event/6124. We are also launching a fun new AR experience for the Razorfish cocktail party. Finally we will be at the Microsoft Speakeasy event showcasing the WP7S experience.
• MIX10 (March 15-17, Vegas) - @stevedawson and @hulljon will be attending the conference. The WP7S experience will also be making an appearance … with updated content!
• CTIA (March 22-25, Vegas) - WP7S experience will be out in force at this international wireless conference.

A quick thanks to all the peeps that helped out with RockstAR:

• Steve - @stevedawson
• Luke - @lhamilton
• Alex - @alexn
• Dung - @dungtienle
• Sara - @saragiessen
• Heather - @heathergately
• Jonathan - @hulljon

Neue Digitale / Razorfish developed the first realtime 3d configurator for Microsoft Surface which was showcased at this year’s IAA - the world’s leading automotive fair.

Developed in collaboration with Realtime Technology AG, the application allows multiple users to configure an Audi A4 simultaneously by changing the car’s paint finishes, rims and by selecting and coloring style package components. The configured A4 is experienced in an immersive 3d environment, in which users can navigate seamlessly by zooming and panning using a multitouch-enabled interface. Special perspectives allow a more detailed view for specific components, for example for configuring rims or taking a closer look at interior details.

To control the actual car configuration process users can place multilingual tokens on the table. All available options appear around the token and can be selected by touching or rotating the physical token.

The final car configuration is projected on an external High Definition display, attracting and engaging other visitors.

Check out the above technology demonstration of the multi-touch Virtual Earth control and the Razorfish Touch Framework. This video demonstrates a weather experience and the cross-platform capabilities of the framework on Microsoft Surface or other touch-enabled devices.

At the 2009 Razorfish Client Summit, the Emerging Experiences group announced the availability of the Razorfish Touch Framework. This framework allows for rapid development of rich and engaging touch-based experiences. These experiences can be deployed across a variety of hardware platforms allowing for re-use of code and content.

We have been using the framework on a number of confidential client projects and internal prototypes since early 2009. For the client summit, we were given the opportunity to create a touch experience, we named “Razorfashion,” using the framework and targeted the experience towards the fashion industry. This application is an easily customizable and deployable fashion retail solution which also serves to demonstrate the capabilities of the framework to the public. Be sure to check out the video of the Razorfashion experience. Check back soon for videos and posts about our other cross-platform, multi-touch experiences.

The Razorfish Touch Framework runs on Windows XP and Vista - there is no need to wait for the availability of native multi-touch support in Windows 7. The framework is built on Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and provides a core set of touch-enabled controls to jump-start touch-based application development. The complexities of interfacing with specific touch hardware platforms is handled by the framework, allowing the designers and developers to focus on creating rich, engaging next-generation touch experiences.

The following platforms are currently supported:

• Microsoft Surface
• NextWindow
• N-trig
• Single-touch (Elo, single-touch capacitive, mouse & HID-based hardware)
• TUIO-based custom multi-touch hardware (touch wall, table top)
• Multi-point “touchless” platforms

The cross-platform support of the framework is an industry first. Stay tuned for future videos and posts showing the framework in action.

model photo credit: *katanaz-stock

DaVinci is a Microsoft Surface application that blurs the lines between the physical and virtual world by combining object recognition, real-world physics simulation and gestural interface design.

One of the important design and technology considerations around building direct manipulation interfaces is to ensure virtual objects behave like real-world objects. The real world physics behavior of these objects is a type of visual affordance, which aids in delivering an intuitive user experience - users know what to expect when they manipulate objects in the virtual world when they behave like objects in the real world. The physics engine used in DaVinci is being applied to our other applications to create interfaces which have natural real world physics.

The DaVinci experience could easily be extended to teach Newton’s laws of motion, gravity, friction, orbital motion and other physics concepts in a classroom setting.

The Microsoft Surface technology offers such great possibilities. Consider how we solved one of man’s greatest challenges – how to watch multiple NCAA March Madness games simultaneously. These are the wonders of what you can create while working at the office late. Notice how the interface allows us to easily switch between live feeds as the games are in progress. This is just another example of how Microsoft Surface technology can deliver an innovative and engaging customer experience.

With an abundance of plan and phone choices, shopping for cell phone service can require a lot of time. However, this award-winning in-store solution streamlines the sales process by enabling customers to make informed decisions around wireless technologies. The solution combines Microsoft Surface technology with an innovative and engaging user interface. It is the first Surface application to be deployed and remains the largest deployment to date (50 tables in 12 stores).

Check out the video walkthrough of the AT&T Retail Surface Experience above. We provide an in-depth walkthrough of the experience and cover some of the environmental, user experience and technology considerations when developing applications for the Microsoft Surface platform.