Audi Mind Race FC Barcelona Event

Challenge

Audi takes part in the Le Mans 24 hour endurance race featuring its R18 diesel hybrid race car. The company is also the premium partner of the FC Barcelona and regularly equips the squad with new cars. Antiloop carried out this project in collaboration with SCACS.

To underline it’s technological image and impress current and future customers, Audi Spain wanted to put in place an installation for an event organized together with the FC Barcelona. The company was seeking something totally new for the concept “Drive mindfully” - in which technology and interactivity play a main role.

Idea

Imagine gathering some of Europe’s most talented athletes and letting them compete in a whole new way. Their career in professional sports demands exceptional mental conditioning and stamina to support their physical fitness. This challenge would test this mental strength from a never-seen perspective as the players’ attention levels would power slot cars. With this competition, Audi would not only draw the attention of car enthusiasts but also football fans and technology aficionados.

Technology

Circuit

The Audi Mind Race circuit is a custom designed, hand made slot car board. It was painted in white in order to implement projection mapping and integrated abstract pyramidal objects at predefined locations.

Audi R18

Audi wanted to shine a light on its new R18 model. This model didn’t exist on the slot car market so replicas were built exclusively for this event.

Mindwaves

To determine the attention level of the players, we used Mindwave bluetooth devices to detect the blinking of the players’ eyes as a trigger for the car’s turbo.

Units server

In order to interpret the Mindwave’s data we processed the data using an 8 nodes server.

Arduinos

Eight Arduino units controlled the voltage level of each car’s circuit.

Central controller

The central controller connected every part of the installation. It analyzed the image of the IR camera, detected the position of the cars, and controlled the race and the projection mapping.

Projection mapping

The visualization consisted of a mix of three layers: a background loop animation, a static animation of video clips, and a generative real-time art around each of the cars. We used MadMapper to map the video output.

IR Industrial camera

To detect the fast-moving cars in the circuit we had to use an industrial Mako IR camera, which permitted 120 high resolution images per second.

Professional projectors

Using two overlapping projectors, we were able to achieve the best visual experience.

IR ligth sources

In order to detect the slot cars on the track without interferences from the real-time projections, it was necessary to record in the infrared (IR) light range. Therefore, we installed 25 IR light sources on top of the structure.

Ranking and Race Times

Ranking and race times were updated in real-time.

Giant Display

The ranking and race times were displayed on a 86” screen.

Circuit

The Audi Mind Race circuit is a custom designed, hand made slot car board. It was painted in white in order to implement projection mapping and integrated abstract pyramidal objects at predefined locations.

Audi R18

Audi wanted to shine a light on its new R18 model. This model didn’t exist on the slot car market so replicas were built exclusively for this event.

Mindwaves

To determine the attention level of the players, we used Mindwave bluetooth devices to detect the blinking of the players’ eyes as a trigger for the car’s turbo.

Units server

In order to interpret the Mindwave’s data we processed the data using an 8 nodes server.

Arduinos

Eight Arduino units controlled the voltage level of each car’s circuit.

Central controller

The central controller connected every part of the installation. It analyzed the image of the IR camera, detected the position of the cars, and controlled the race and the projection mapping.

Projection mapping

The visualization consisted of a mix of three layers: a background loop animation, a static animation of video clips, and a generative real-time art around each of the cars. We used MadMapper to map the video output.

IR Industrial camera

To detect the fast-moving cars in the circuit we had to use an industrial Mako IR camera, which permitted 120 high resolution images per second.

Professional projectors

Using two overlapping projectors, we were able to achieve the best visual experience.

IR ligth sources

In order to detect the slot cars on the track without interferences from the real-time projections, it was necessary to record in the infrared (IR) light range. Therefore, we installed 25 IR light sources on top of the structure.

Ranking and Race Times

Ranking and race times were updated in real-time.

Giant Display

The ranking and race times were displayed on a 86” screen.

Design

The Car - R18 E-tron

The cars on the track were Audi R18 replicas exclusively built for the Audi Mind Race. The slot-cars have a 1:18 size ratio and they can reach 50 km/h speed in a 20 meter straight.

Projection Mapping

Circuit

The projection on the board’s surface was handled by two high-performance projectors. The event had five different stages: stand-by, presentation, race, last lap, race end. Each phase had its own animations varying in visual intensity.

Player presentation

Short individual animations were created for each player and were projected in front of the cars during the presentation phase.

Generative art

We experimented with different visual solutions in order to project real-time graphics around the cars. In order to easily distinguish between the tracks, we drew trails of different shapes and colors behind the cars which also improved the visual effect.