At Laval Virtual, I fell in love with a japanese installation called Kobito: Virtual Brownies (videos available).
“Virtual creatures called “Kobito” interact with real objects and real people.”
A real tea box is pushed by the (virtual) Kobitos, which you can see only on the screen, augmented reality style.
If you block the box, the Kobitos will try to push harder. If you slap the box, the Kobitos will fall … Pure magic =)
Useless you say? No, this is interactive art! As said in this article :
‘ “Device art”, the latest craze in Japan at the moment, “is often gadget-like”, Kusahara continues, “but with carefully designed artistic intention.
Artists produce commercial products for available in daily life… (they) try to reach the widest possible audience.”
“Japanese culture does not draw a firm distinction between noble, “fine art” and “low art”, Kusahara explains.
Device art reflects the importance of aesthetics in daily life, or “beauty in the tools”. ‘
There were lots of artistic japanese installations, and that added poetry to the rather pragmatic “european” industrial applications.
But I was very surprised by the “western” students creativity. I was a member of the jury for the Interactive Fantasy competition,
in which students had 30 hours ( no sleep and caffeine included 
to create an innovative game.
All the presented games had a very original way of interacting with the virtual world :
a home-made touchscreen to move ennemies with each of your fingers, a drum to set the speed of your horse, an organ to create fireballs ..
‘ “Virtual reality opens up a whole new space, where the work of art becomes dynamic”, where “the artist is no longer unique”, explains Alain Grumbach,
a virtual reality specialist who teaches computer science at the national school of telecommunications in Paris. ‘
Now you see VR is not only for geeks
Tags: Conference, lavalvirtual, tradeshow, Virtual Reality
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Game, VR Applications, VR Devices, VR Displays, Virtual Reality, Virtual Reality DIY
