Fin Design selected to exhibit NRMA Car Crash experience via Whybin/TBWA at SIGGRAPH, LA

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titleCard.jpgFin Design’s virtual reality department is off to sunny Los Angeles in August as part of the world’s largest computer graphics conference.

SIGGRAPH, now in its 42nd year, has invited Fin in partnership with the Whybin/TBWA Sydney group to exhibit its NRMA Car Crash experience in the Emerging Technologies pavilion.

Attendees can sit in the driver’s seat of a real car wearing an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset for the two-minute journey.

A graphics workstation feeds the goggles in real time with imagery of what a crash test dummy would see during a violent vehicle impact test scenario, complete with shattering glass and exploding airbags.

A powerful set of speakers mounted on the back seat will supply the sounds of the crash while a haptic feedback system, attached to the driver’s seat, will shake the user’s body to provide a tactile simulation of rolling down the test track and slamming into the concrete barrier, minus the bruises!

Originally commissioned by forward-looking client NRMA for a pop-up experience on Sydney’s George St, the virtual reality demonstration has taken on a life of its own.

 

After its successful run on George St, the setup then travelled to the Royal Easter Show where the Crashed Car Showroom exhibit won Best in Show. It was shortlisted in the Innovation category at the Cannes Lions, before being exhibiting 
at SXSW festival in March.

This year’s SIGGRAPH conference will feature an all-new version of the NRMA Car Crash experience, with the software re-written to take advantage of a more advanced version of the Oculus Rift headset and a new generation of graphics engine technology.