Here comes a new way for advertisers to capture attention: software that turns 2D images into 3D simulations when consumers play with them in front of a Webcam.
Total Immersion's D'Fusion system is composed of a kiosk, Web cameras, and software capable of recognizing, tracking, and rendering images.
It works like this. Customers view themselves on a screen through a Webcam and hold up a 2D picture. Suddenly the 2D picture pops up and consumers see themselves holding a 3D simulation of the product in the brochure on the kiosk's video feed. Sometimes it doesn't work: the 3D image will disappear if you hold the picture at a wrong angle. Still, it's an eye-grabber for a kiosk application.
Video: CNET News.com's Hanna Sistek demonstrates Total Immersion's software. Click the image above to view.
"It's like watching a magic show; there's this jaw-dropping moment when people can't really believe what they're seeing," said Jeremiah Knight, director of digital strategy at marketing agency Tequila.
Earlier this year, Tequila used Total Immersion's technology when marketing a car at auto shows around the country. "The customers' level of engagement was exceptionally high," Knight said. "We could engage them into conversations substantially deeper than with any other advertising method."
Total Immersion kicked off seven years ago in Europe and set up shop in Los Angeles late last year. Its idea largely plays off the existing CAD/CAM and 3D models companies already have prepared in their design shops. Total Immersion takes pictures of the brochure or box and then extrapolates the 2D image into a 3D simulation. It sells kits of "magic boxes" to companies that want to amaze their customers with a new marketing tool.
The magic boxes, however, cost quite a bit and are out of range for most retailers to buy. It costs approximately $50,000 to equip a typical toy store with them, and the return on investment is hard to measure. Thus, the customers for now are the manufacturers.
Bruno Uzzan, CEO of Total Immersion, envisions many other uses for D'Fusion, assuming the price can come way down.
CEO Bruno Uzzan envisions many uses for D'Fusion.
(Credit: Hanna Sistek/CNET News.com)"We're targeting the end-consumer market," he said during a meeting at the Ad Tech conference in San Francisco last week, referring to any owner of a PC with a Webcam. "It could for instance be used in publishing. You could see a 3D character speaking to you while you're reading a Disney book," he said.
Another application could be games. "You could have chess characters go live while you're playing," Uzzan suggested.
The D'Fusion real-time visual software also does finger tracking. Point at a product in a brochure, and it starts animating that product.
The company says it also has customers in the theme park and entertainment business, as well as mobile-phone operators. Total Immersion is funded by the venture capital firms Partech International and I Source Gestion, and most recently also by Elaia Partners.
The software can be downloaded for free, together with a test printout. It isn't working very well, but if you have a Webcam it's worth checking out.
Microsoft said on Monday that it has filed suit against Immersion, a company whose technology adds tactile feedback to joysticks and other controllers.
Immersion had originally sued Microsoft, along with Sony, back in 2002., but the two companies reached a settlement in 2003. Under that deal Microsoft agreed to pay Immersion $26 million for licensing rights and for a stake in the company. However, Microsoft said Monday that Immersion has not lived up other terms of that deal, including a provision that requires Immersion to pay Microsoft "based on certain business and IP licensing arrangements."
"We entered into a binding licensing agreement with Immersion and are seeking to have that agreement honored," Microsoft Associate General Counsel Steve Aeschbacher said in a statement. "Microsoft licenses technology both in and out and relies on these agreements to be honored and enforced. Our request to the court is that all companies and industry partners should play by the same rules and that the binding agreement we signed with Immersion be honored."
An Immersion representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
Update 10:00 p.m.: Todd Bishop at the Seattle P-I has done some good digging to get at the heart of the dispute using court and regulatory filings. It appears Microsoft had a clause that it stood to get payments if Immersion and Sony settled. Sony and Immersion reached an arrangement, but Microsoft and Immersion dispute the implications of that. For more, check out Todd's blog on the matter.
News.com's Stephen Shankland contributed to this report
If you've been playing with Google's new Street View feature--that $25 billion time suck--you may well have wondered how the heck they took those 360-degree images while driving down the street.
The camera used by Immersive Media for Google's Street View images.
(Credit: Immersive Media)Well, wonder no more. Thanks to our good friend Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing, we now know that many of the images, at least those shot outside the San Francisco Bay Area--were shot using this fairly disco-ball-esque device by the outside contractor, Immersive Media.
What's not clear just yet is if Google used the same kind of camera in the Bay Area, where the company shot its own, higher-resolution images. But it must have been something similar, though we know from this image that Google used a van, while Immersive Media seems to have used a Volkswagen New Beetle.
Enjoy. Oh, and did I say $25 billion time suck? By now, it's up to $26 billion. And counting.
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