Robots, Video Games, Gesture Controls…. Players went head-to-head, using their bodies to control a robotic arm in a virtual data pipeline to collect data in a trade show installation. Tibco Software, a global leader in business intelligence software, needed a way to demonstrate its intensive line of real-time and post-processing analytics products at their annual user conference in San Francisco. Future Colossal's challenge was to create a fun experience that would entertain, generate buzz, draw users to the showroom floor, and generate loads of fast data to showcase their product suite’s capabilities.
TIBCO
BrandTIBCO NOW
Design & Development
To rise to the occasion, we created a custom video game using a Kinect depth sensor to read body movements and mimic those motions with a robotic arm.
Two players went head-to-head, using their bodies to thrust the robotic arm around a virtual data pipeline and collect events (ie. points). Different power-ups were also present, giving one player a potential advantage over the other. Power-ups could speed up or slow down a player, magnetize points, or on the more extreme – shock their opponent's robotic arm to zap it out of action for a few seconds.
The robot arms were programmed to display players' emotions at the end of the game, with the winning robots pumping up and down in celebration, and the losing robot hanging its head in defeat.
Connected to the Tibco SDK, the game sent a constant stream of data, tracking everything from player movements, performance against a competitor, score ranking, where motion paths differed between players, load on the robotic arm servo motors, and much more.
The data was parsed in real-time, displayed using custom charts and graphs for each player on large monitors at either side of the experience. The game was a blast to play and made it easy for brand ambassadors to demonstrate the value of Tibco’s offerings in an entertaining setting while up-selling their userbase on their additional product offerings. The biggest challenge we faced was clearing the crowd at the end of the day!
