AGIR
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Augmented Reality 3D applied to the sustainable architecture project Casas em Movimento (Houses in Motion)
when it is physically in situ). The products fit into sectors at right-angles to the area of Marketing, Communications and the Digital Narrative, embracing the wider public and (taking in) different physical spaces. The main customers have businesses geared to tourism, cultural heritage and property, as is the case with museums, holiday resorts, theme parks, historical sites, business and conference centres, and theatres, among others. Carlos Rebelo, who currently assumes the executive leadership of the company (CEO), already had the technical leadership in his hands and was responsible for the analysis and selection of technologies, developing the “state of the art” of the sector, the technical idealization of products and recruitment of new collaborators. Today, the challenge they face is to think about the strategic vision of 3Decide, of orientation of products to markets and clients, of participation in events and international promotion of the company and creation of technical and commercial partnerships. “Being CEO of a young company that seeks to assert itself nationally and internationally, in a dynamic and competitive sector such as that of Interactive 3D & Real Time, is tantamount to scaling Everest. It requires a great deal of training, resistance, resilience, sacrifice and passion”, he states. The 3Decide has already made a notable appearance at FITUR in Madrid, considered the second largest tourism fair in the world, has made a business trip to the Netherlands and has recently participated in the “Power to thePixelMarket” in London, [acting] as specialists in interactive 3D and in real time. It won an honourable mention in the National Award for Creative Industries, from among more than 400 nominations, with the SafeCity3D initiative, a digital educational game that aims to teach good Security, Tolerance and Prevention practices to children from the ages of 6 to 12, through a combination of teaching methods and entertainment components.
Contacts were also initiated with the British Embassy and they have a network of personal contacts ranging from the Oresund region of Northern Europe to New Zealand. One of the medium term objectives outlined is the possibility of elevating the company’s two main products (3DPlace and aLIVEPanoramics) to worldwide status, consolidating them as a new means of producing and using 3D in business terms. For the team, the strategy involves the “ability to link models of 3D environments to current information systems, which are the basis of the entire digital universe around us, and to the social platforms that are used by millions of people on a permanent basis.” Upbeat and with a good sense of humour, the 3Decide team believes in the evolution of 3D and that “the future will be made up of systems based on real-time information and digital environments that give users all the freedom they want to explore in 2D, 3D, 4D... We want to help write this future! ‘3D Interactivity... done right!’“.
HISTORY OF 3DECIDE It all started in 2007 when António Coelho, professor in the Department of Informatics Engineering at FEUP, began to develop, in partnership with Digital Porto, a project concerned with the 3D modelling of parts of Porto’s historic city centre, which also included Carlos Rebelo. On completion of this project, the assembled team decided to continue working in the area of Urban Interactive 3D and of Serious Games. Thus, in 2008 the company Reality Stages was created, and currently retains the 3Decide trademark. FEUP forms part of the company’s share capital through researchers of great significance in the area of computer graphics in Portugal. The collaboration also involves Masters students, who have the opportunity to develop dissertations in partnership with the company. www.3decide.com
FEUP HIGHLIGHTS 2012 FACULTY OF ENGINEERING - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO