WALK INTO A TIME MACHINE

Take out your phone, scan the QR code, and as you carry your phone camera into the hutong, information about exhibitions and events linked to the Beijing Design Week being held in the Dashilar Design Community pop up.

Push the button on your screen, and you can use the “time machine” to wander in the alleys of Dashilar area.

The Beijing Design Week has been an annual event since 2009, while Dashilar, one of the city’s most historic quarters, joined as a partner focusing on arts, design and lifestyle in 2011.

This year’s theme for the Dashilar Design Community is Design Enriched Dashilar, and it is on through Oct 5.

Maps can be thrown away this year as the interactive visitor guide programs are teaching visitors about the history, present and future of Dashilar.

The three-dimensional liveaction navigation program designed by OppenFuture Technologies is being used by the Dashilar Design Community for the first year.

Technologies such as 3D-tracking, computer vision and 3-D reconstruction were used to build this program that combines mixed reality and augmented reality.

“The Dashilar hutong area can get confusing for visitors as there are more than 100 events going on in the area at the same time. So we want to use this program to help them easily find where they want to go,” says Jia Meng, the co-founder and chief operating officer of OppenFuture Technologies.

Besides exhibitions, upcoming events will be shown on the screen, and the detailed information will show up after an event is selected.

The time-travel mode lets you view Dashilar from another perspective.

If you choose the “past” mode, the streets look like they were 100 years ago with people pulling rickshaws, residents walking with their birds and peddlers wandering around.

People can hear the hawks of peddlers in the old time and old photos of the current area.

“The ‘future’ mode is what we imagine our future hutong life will be like with robots making deliveries and robot dogs to play with,” says Jia.

“Mixed reality is getting popular, but most users need to download an app. This program just needs you to scan the QR code, which lowers the threshold to experience mixed reality.”

Totally 16 QR codes have been placed in Dashilar, with nine in the hutong area and seven in Beijing FUN, says Jia.

Beijing FUN, which was opened on Jan 16, is a classic of urban and architectural design in Dashilar, in an open neighborhood system.

Seven architects were invited to design eight buildings in Beijing FUN, under Chief Advisor Wu Liangyong’s notion “Harmony in Diversity” while keeping its original streets.

The history of the Beijing FUN area is shown in a Visual Reality show at an exhibition in the Urban Revival Pavilion, which is located in Beijing FUN area.

The exhibition on the theme “Renewing the city, empowering its future” comprises five parts — Interactive city renewal, Experience Dashilar with data, Guang’an City Renewal Exhibition, Impression Courtyard and Moveable Feast in Virtual Reality — Dashilar VR Zone.

The VR show puts the audience in a 3-D space, with a sand table presenting the historical and current appearance of Beijing FUN and showing the construction by floors.

The VR show is designed by Noitom Ltd using Project Alice which is a scalable commer- cial VR solution for multi-users with physical props and motion capture developed by Noitom.

Speaking about the event, Wang Junyi, the leader of project Beijing FUN from Noitom, says: “In the VR show, you will see a short video on the history of the Beijing FUN area on an IMAX screen and then the sand table where you can walk around and interact with other people in the show.

“You will experience immersive virtual reality without any delay.”

Each building on the sand table whether from the past or the present can be selected and brought to the audience with a scroll to learn detailed information about the building.

“Noitom has worked with many projects and industries, but this is the first time we have combined VR with traditional art,” says Wang.

In the Interactive city renewal part of the exhibition, a large screen on the floor demonstrates the renewal process of Dashilar.

Guo Qingmin, the city renewal project manager of Beijing Dashilar-Liulichang Culture Development, says: “The audience can walk on the screen of the digital sand table. When you step on the trigger point of each building, the background and history of the building will pop up in both English and Chinese.

“And when you leave the spot, the information will automatically disappear,” says Guo.

The other parts of the exhibition use different multimedia tools such as touch screens and recorded audio.

is allowing visitors this year to explore exhibitions and events in the city’s Dashilar area through interactive experiences by applying advanced technology such as virtual reality.

Beijing Design Week