[061120] Mobiglobe is a large installation for Autostadt. Three touchscreens controls a large wall mounted display, showing interactive visualisations of automobility.

UPDATE: view Apple.com's profile on shiftcontrol and the Mobiglobe project. Also see the description of the updated Mobiglobe/UPDATE

Markus Schaefer writes:
Conceptual background
Since its invention the car has always been about more than just movement. The automobile and auto-mobility have brought about a whole range of phenomena that, to a large extent, define our society. It has produced new infrastructures, innovations and cultures. In many places in the world, life without a car is not thinkable or worse, as in the large suburban developments in the industrialized nations, not possible.

While cars are getting more secure, comfortable and attractive for individuals, on a global level automobility reaches its limits. Industries are changing. Resources and spaces are becoming scarce. Global risks, like climate change, are becoming apparent.

In order for individual mobility to retain the role it has today, automobility needs to be reinvented fundamentally. New efficiencies, multi-modal transport systems, energy sources, behaviours and cultural values need to be developed, especially when faced with the huge potential demands in emergent economic powers like China and India.

The project shows in encyclopaedic breadth topics that define contemporary mobility. The topics are organized in three large chapters (culture, economy and system) and twelve themes ranging from mobile space to fuel. Each theme again is examined in the scale of the car, the region, the world and time. Throughout the themes, the project intends to show the link between individual experience and global effects.



  
Screens
The little app below shows still images captured from the main display.



Team
Based on research conducted by Hosoya Schaefer Architects and graphical language defined by B�ro Destruct, shiftcontrol was asked to define the interaction concepts, develop a runtime platform and realize the project - from conceptual sketches to actual deployment to support service throughout the 3 years lifetime of the installation.
We were working closely with the conceptual team from the very beginning, devising internal production work-flows spanning from modelling techniques and data formatting to techniques for production of screen based graphics like pixel precision and alpha channeling.
We developed numerous php-cli based tools for dataparsing, automatic build routines, graphics generation and Package making.
We worked closely with the team behind the Unity gameEngine based in copenhagen from the very start of the project. (Joachim coded one of the key shaders on a airplane toilet on our way back from shanghai.) The collaboration resulted in new features being added to Untiy.

Platform
The installation consists of four stations, each powered by 2 high-performance Apple QuadCore G5's, three 19" touchscreens and one wall mounted 56" LCD running at full HD (1920x1080px). The four applications connect to a custom socketserver (perl) (configured by a little cocoa app) and relays communication data across the network in realtime. The installation was developed and deployed entirely using Mac OS X.

Curious?
For more info on this project, please contact founding partner Jørgen Skogmo, +45 23 25 49 97, office@shiftcontrol.dk