(In)Sights interlinks real objects and digital information in a way that’s fun to use. It enhances the use of the object by adding an interactive level. Coded postcards enable installation visitors to access multimedia content that appears as texts, images or films on adjacent screens.

Leading an environmentally friendly lifestyle can be so simple. If you’re going to leave a room for more than three minutes in the evening, it pays to turn off the light. Or: regularly checking your tire pressure increases driving safety and saves gas. These are only two of the 40 solutions in the areas of mobility, energy, everyday habits and retail consumption that are easy to put into practice immediately, 40 suggestions that you can playfully explore on a Touch Table. Users can also ascertain their own CO₂ footprint. The original version of this installation is part of an exhibition entitled L’Oracle du Papillon in Fribourg, Switzerland.

ZeitRaum [TimeSpace] is an interactive art installation Ars Electronica Futurelab developed for Vienna International Airport’s new Skylink terminal. It interprets arriving and departing flights in real time. ZeitRaum consists of several individual stations that accompany passengers on the way to their gate. Ars Electronica Solutions recently added From Austria to the World and Drei – Es geht auch anders—gigapixel images of New York alternating with textscapes and visuals that react to passengers’ presence. The Airport Wall on display in Future Playground not only links the respective presentation spaces of the Futurelab and Solutions; it also symbolizes Ars Electronica’s successful competence network.

This exhibit developed in cooperation with the MED-EL company stages a virtual journey through the human ear. Installation visitors produce a sound that they can then follow in a virtual 3-D depiction as it makes its way from the ear to the brain. The original version of this exhibit is on display at the Audioversum in Innsbruck, Austria.

Laser Game, an installation designed for an upcoming exhibition in Berlin, sets up a scenario à la “Mission: Impossible” for users to test their agility. Have you got what it takes to go all the way without getting zapped by a laser beam?

In cooperation with Umdasch Shopfitting, Europe’s leading shop design firm, fashion retailer RAG and electronics giant Samsung, Ars Electronica Solutions developed this interactive Shopping Wall that lets customers browse a product portfolio in a variety of ways. They can interact with the Wall via RFID codes on physical objects, and an entire line of merchandise can be examined close-up via an intuitive interface.

The Festival version of this product presents a broad spectrum of content—for instance, a “best of Ars Electronica Solutions” – and there are various versions to illustrate the product’s scalability and modularity.

Shadowgram brings out visitors’ own creativity. Silhouette images reveal an entire world of thinking about current issues. With playful ease, opinions materialize into a real picture.

A video camera, a large illuminated panel, image analysis software and a vinyl cutter go into producing a silhouette of a person or an object, which is then printed out as a sticker that, together with a speech balloon, is applied to a picture, board or map. Visitors can then write their personal thoughts and opinions about topical issues in the speech balloon. The sum of all silhouettes and accompanying speech balloons speak loud and clear about current opinions and trends.

Future Playground is a showcase of notable new developments by the Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ars Electronica Solutions. Visitors are invited use this perusal of what’s happening at the nexus of art, technology and society as an opportunity to give some thought to this year’s festival theme, change, at an interesting array of interactive exhibits, live performances, speeches and round-table discussions. The substantive spectrum includes research on human-robot relations, participative stage-based works, innovative interfaces, unconventional methods of conveying content, and presentations in the area of digital entertainment technologies.

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