Obscura mesmerizes thousands with mosque and fort Shows in Abu Dhabi.

The results are in for the annual World’s Coolest Office competition. Co-sponsored by Architizer, Inc., and Autodesk. Obscura’s San Francisco headquarters, designed by IwamotoScott Architecture, was selected as the 2011 winner.

Architizer’s feature:
http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/31597/and-the-winners-are/

Inc.com’s feature on us:
http://www.inc.com/articles/201110/coolest-offices-obscura-digital-by-iwamoto-scott.html

The finalists:
http://www.inc.com/ss/201110/worlds-coolest-office-winner-and-honorees

Fast Company likes our opportunities in the health care industry.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1785668/obscura-digital-brings-its-creative-magic-to-health-care

Obscura Digital created a physical, social, augmented reality experience dubbed “Connections” at F8, Facebook’s developer’s conference. Attendees swipe in to the experience using their RFID enabled event badge. Multiple overhead projectors map visuals to the floor and an array of 3D cameras are used to reliably track any number of people within the space.

For more information visit the project page.

Obscura Digital achieves the tallest and brightest projection display to date, for the Coca-Cola Company’s 125th Anniversary event on May 6, 2011. Obscura Digital beamed a high-resolution cinematic show reaching 26 stories high on all 4 sides of the Coca-Cola Tower at their headquarters in Atlanta, GA. For more information visit the project page.

An amazing night at the YouTube Symphony Orchestra event in Sydney, Australia.The Sydney Herald had some nice things to say. A growing list of articles and blogs are chiming in: Forbes, NPR, The Seattle Times.

Some photos from the event:

On Sunday, March 20th at 8pm Sydney, Australia time (2am PST, 5am EST, 9am GMT), Obscura will unveil one of its most creative innovations to date, when it will fuse live experiential technology with a masterpiece of modernist architecture. The iconic Sydney Opera House will become an augmentation of a live symphonic performance, amplifying the artistry of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra event with real-time audio-reactive graphic projections that will simultaneously canvas the interior and exterior of the iconic building with parallel projection shows. Learn more and tune in live at http://www.youtube.com/symphony.

A sneak-peak of the external projection from this evening’s test run.

Obscura win recognition for the CueLight Interactive Pool Table in this year’s Communication Arts Interactive Annual.

“A delightful and innovative addition to a classic game that’s guaranteed to draw eyes.”  —Adrian Belina (CommArts Judge)

The One Club, the world’s foremost non-profit organization devoted to elevating creative work in the industry awards the best in branded entertainment. The One Show Entertainment Awards recognized our YouTube Play event at the Guggenheim Museum with a Silver Pencil Award. Obscura wrapped both the interior and exterior surfaces of the iconic building with real-time 3D graphics and processed event video for the inaugural YouTube Play awards event. See photos/videos and learn more about the event here.

The “Yahoo! Bus Stop Derby” is an integrated marketing campaign which challenges locals to play LCD touch-screen games at 20 high-traffic Muni shelters scattered around San Francisco. This innovative campaign boasts the first-ever interactive digital transit shelters in the U.S. From the early stages of the conception process, the Obscura Digital Team played a leadership role in the consultation, design, and creation of the system’s specialized digital content management system and real-time user-metrics collection system. Obscura Digital also developed and implemented the innovative process integrity service which dials in remote access control for each screen and monitors and updates critical content. The Obscura / Clear Channel Program is projected to grow to over 100 displays by Q2 2011.

Our new office in Sweden is open for business. Our Swedish team will focus primarily on R&D and software development. You can find location and contact information here.

At 8pm EST, YouTube will stream the event “Play” live from the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Obscura will wrap the inside and outside of the iconic space with mind-blowing 3D visuals, while YouTube shares the winning video submissions.

Tune in and learn more at http://www.youtube.com/play.

A little preview:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/guggenheim_museum/sets/72157625086415733/with/5102552446/

Some press:
http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/news/3758
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/20/guggenheim-museums-youtube-play-shortlist-announced/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/arts/design/14video.html

Nat Geo Amazing, National Geographic’s new show about all things unbelievably cool, features Obscura Digital in the episode entitled “Jesus Lizard and Ghost Science”. The show aired last Friday, the 3rd of September, but will rerun a few times this week. Check it out!

“I have to believe the beauty and simplicity of the installation itself said at least as much to consumers about Kodak’s brand as the content it displayed.”—Judge Brian Williams

Our work for Kodak, with partner Mirror Show Management, won Design Distinction in this year’s I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review - one of the most prestigious awards in the design world. The traveling trade-show experience features the “Pipeline of Innovation”, a 24 foot long multi-user, multitouch table, plus numerous touch kiosks and Microsoft Surface tables. Next stop Germany for Photokina in late September 2010.

http://annualdesignreview.id-mag.com/category-winners/interactive/?album=61&gallery=1531

Obscura hosts Google’s second annual West Coast Creative Sandbox. Google invited the industries most creative people to come and experience all of Googles new technologies and to be immersed in our creative new warehouse.

Obscura Digital announces Live, a web-based map tool for finding current and upcoming projects and events. The map will maintain an active list of public and accessible locations featuring Obscura technology. You’re invited to visit the RockWall, our 18 foot multi-user, multitouch memorabilia experience installed in three Hard Rock Cafes, with more locations coming soon. If the RockWall isn’t close by, look for our Hard Rock Cafe Solo experience, a single user version that’s a smaller size but with the same big multitouch experience. Or find the next stop of the Pipeline of Innovation, Kodak’s epic 24 foot long multi-user, multitouch table. We’re spreading innovative technology around the world - now you can find out where and when.

View Obscura Live!

Another successful oversees install this month for the Obscura Digital team at the IPEX conference in London, England. Focusing on the theme of, “It’s Time for You AND Kodak,” the techs set-up a 24 ft multitouch table, Mitrix display, Microsoft Surface tables & information kiosks for an interactive experience. The technology helped the attendees grasp Kodak’s vision and goals for professional business use.

Learn more about our work for Kodak.

A featured entrepreneur profile of CEO Patrick Connolly was published last week in the San Francisco Business Times. Check out the publication for the full article and to see what Pat says about says about the “Off the chain” craziness inside the office.

CEO Patrick Connolly spoke at the Institute for the Future at their Future of Persuasion Conference. He participated in a panel focusing on three key areas of our Future of Persuasion research - Health, Advertising, and Learning. His time in the spotlight explored the evolving relationship between consumer, brand and all the middlemen in between. The main questions were used to reveal what technology and agents will be most trustworthy and useful.

At it again, Obscura showed off its own elegance at the concourse by highlighting the newest Rolls Royce Ghost models and Parmigiani watches on a 65” mFrame mutlitouch display. The private event was the second annual fundraiser for the nonprofit Hospice by the Bay.  The VIP reception allowed donors to have a firsthand glimpse at rare Parmigiani timepieces and successfully support the cause. 

Obscura Digital, a market leader and award winning developer of multitouch solutions, introduces mFrame, a plug-and-play multitouch presentation platform that is powerful, flexible and easy to use. The mFrame can be used for a broad range of presentation and entertainment uses, and is ready to be installed in conference rooms, living rooms, retail stores and public venues. As seen on some of today’s most popular television shows, the mFrame is currently the world’s largest commercially available multitouch platform.

Available in sizes from 40” to 82”, the true multitouch platform (20+ touch points) supports HD resolution (1920 x 1080) and ships with a suite of professional presentation and creative applications. The mFrame is built on Windows 7, can run all standard Windows applications, and is well-suited for mulltitouch development.

Complete details and ordering information can be found here.

Surrounded by the glitz and glamor of the Roosevelt Hotel, Obscura assisted in capturing the images of the Nylon Magazine Young Hollywood edition. A pool side KIN phone sponsored photo-booth, attracted the beautiful people to have the portraits taken and see themselves in high-res on our mFrame multitouch display screen. Not to be out-shined by the “scene and be seen” the touchscreen was still the life of the party. 

The TedxSoma event, held at the Academy of Sciences, provided a unique backdrop to showcase examples of Obscura Digital’s past projects, such as the award winning Hard Rock Café Memorabilia Wall. Members of the Obscura team were on hand to demonstrate a multitouch display screen at the post presentation reception for the conference and chat one-on-one with the motivating panel.

TEDxSF opening video featuring Obscura technology.

Obscura assisted in an event launch for Microsoft’s new phone, the KIN.  Featuring our 65” mFrame multitouch display, the KIN lounge provided concert goer’s at the Coachella Music Festival a break from the desert elements.  Besides the welcomed air conditioning, they provided an interactive space for the music lovers to strike a pose and have their image pop-up instantly onto the touch screen.

The Hard Rock Cafe RockWall just won the prestigious 2010 Communication Arts Interactive Annual award for entertainment. Details can be found at Communication Arts or in the forthcoming print magazine.

“The physical space has barely been tapped and the RockWall is a perfect example of what’s to come. Beautiful design, animation and a huge achievement.” —Mathew Ranauro (one of the judges)

LA-based photographer Alexx Henry uses our 52” HD multitouch display to show off his photos and motion reels.

The City of San Francisco was asked by ChinaSF, the business development agency responsible for relations between the Country of China and San Francisco to find a technologically advanced venue to host a summit.  They naturally turned to Obscura.  65 people, including the head of San Francisco’s economic development office, China’s Council General and businessman Vincent Lo were in attendance.  Our studio is a virtual playground of emerging technologies and the crowd was wowed.  The Luncheon focused on technology, as well as the benefits of doing business in and with China.

They discussed the new payroll tax exemption, and discussed all the new technology Obscura is cooking up in the shop…

Obscura’s cuelight and immersion tech gets talked up in the NY Daily News. Check the article.

Google wanted to introduce the Nexus One. Who else but Obscura could come up with something like this?  Check it Out Here.

The C02 Cube, Obscura’s collaboration with Millenium Art and Christophe Cornubert, is unveiled in Copenhagen.  Read the LA Times Article Here.

Need help visualizing your carbon footprint? Check out Obscura’s upcoming installation in Copenhagen… Visualize your carbon footprint.

Obscura’s showing off our stuff on the Science Channel tonight at 8 pm! Check out the show’s website.

SF Business Times shows Obscura some love in print… Read the article.

The German edition of Millionaire Magazine is on newsstands now featuring the Cuelight pool table!

Wired magazine dropped by the shop to do a little video piece on Obscura… See the video

Obscura took home the “Best Use of Technology” from the Biz Bash Awards for the YTSO event that immersed Carnegie Hall in multi-channel projections. See the full list of winners.

Obscura brings technology to Soho’s Esquire House. Read the full article.

Obscura’s technology featured at Hard Rock Cafe Grand Opening! Read the full article.

Obscura’s Cuelight featured in gizmodo’s tech blog. pool table.

AdAge credits Obscura with being one of the few agencies who “have melded art and science to create new, digitally driven experiences.”  Read the full article.

AdAge credits Obscura with being one of the few agencies who “have melded art and science to create new, digitally driven experiences.”  Read the full article.

“I have seen a lot of cool technology, but this still makes my jaw drop whenever I see it in person.” Said Joe Tenczar, CIO for Hard Rock International, when discussing the 18’ multi-touch wall Obscura created for them.  Read the full article.