IBM
Celebrating Apollo's 50th Anniversary
Celebratin Apollo's 50th Anniversay in the Oculus, NYC
Summer 2019 marked the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. IBM played a pivotal role in this historic achievement and they expressed interest in celebrating with an interactive digital activation. Our creative team dreamed up a larger than life installation at the Oculus in downtown Manhattan which allowed any passerby to envision themselves walking on the surface of the moon.
Partnering with Volvox Labs, a Brooklyn-based vendor, we created an entire pipeline for markerless tracking using a unity game engine to present photo realistic graphics on a complex network of LED displays. At the end of the experience, the were sent an animated GIF via an SMS message.
Responsibilities
Technology Management; UX; Quality Assurance; On-site Training and Trouble Shooting;
Technology
HTML5, NodeJS, CSS, Unity, BlueMix, Cloudant, Twilio
Challenges
The overall scope of the creative vision was easily the most challenging aspect of this activation. It contained many separate, complex pieces of technology that needed to be networked to perform seamlessly to accommodate up to 5 simultaneous users. Finding the best solution to achieving photo-realistic graphics while maintaining a responsive system required multiple iterations and reconfigurations. Additionally, the ever-changing light conditions at the activation space required constant tinkering and adjustments to make sure the tracking software was responsive.
Results
The activation was something to behold! People, young and old, were amazed and entertained when watching other interact with the display, and when it was their turn, laughed as they saw their avatar displayed on the twenty foot wall. Over the course of three long days, the wall was used by thousands of would-be astronauts. Social visibility and engagement expectations were exceeded and IBM’s legacy in space exploration was solidified.
The crowd gathering to celebrate the anniversary
Our retro installations were a hit
Fun for all ages
A birds-eye view of the installation