Projects where our team members executed with Hardware

Technology isn't just about software, in the internet of connected things many clients need integration with numerous devices and sensors for interaction with users.

For the 2013 SXSW festival Razorfish put Drawnetic, an application they had developed for kinetic drawing initially for smartphones, and looked to feature it at an event as a kiosk. A team had created the Drawnetic app, and even updated it so that it could work with a Leap input device, but at that point it needed to still be operated with a mouse and keyboard. Our developers supported this program by modifying the application to not require having a mouse or keyboard by relying on timers, distances and gestures to help reset between users. It was also updated to have newer branding displayed that was more appropriate for the event.

Celebrating the new Razorfish Chicago office at the Merchandise Mart, shiny technology for the reception area featured a 60″ multitouch screen. But just displaying video isn’t a fair use of the screen. Our team members with the motion team worked together to push experience to the limits with a touch experience that responds to temperature, touch and sound.

JPMorgan Chase supports the US Open Tennis tournament and partnered with Razorfish to market the JP Morgan Global brand. This project featured a multiple prongs; one which featured a web site that was mobile optimized and one which consisted of large touch screen installations.

Our developers supported the project by through leading the touch screen implementations. The screen content was created using Flash as one of the partners, which has specific partnerships with Airports, required that their platform be flash based. New versions of flash player were used to create a multitouch experience that tapped into the GPU of the host computers. Various sensors including Kinect, web cameras and IR laser scanners were used for tracking users and their touches.

These sensors were tapped into to track people as they moved past the interfaces and changed the interface from an informational loop to attract people to come closer and interact. Parallax environments richly updated to the motion of people around. Relevant stocks and weather services were also integrated to provide up to date relevant tertiary information.

Some of the installation hurdles to overcome included the calibration of the lasers as well as rogue IR from other lighting systems and sunlight, not to mention an installation during Hurricane Irene.

There was an additional station created for an airport installation in Heathrow London. After the success of the massive 3×3 and 2×2 stations, they were relocated to JPMorgan Global offices in NYC. Our teams assisted with the installation and calibrations at all three locations.