“Our goal is to make possible that everybody [in Spain] gets (his or her) own 3D model for free,” said Ángel Llavero, CEO of Grupo Sicnova. To accomplish their feat in Torrequebradilla, Grupo Sicnova invited every resident to step inside the Clonescan 3D, which can scan a person in just 15 seconds. All a user has to do is enter the model’s height, and four infrared sensors work simultaneously to render an image within 90 seconds. The image is then converted into a file in a cloud-based storage system, which participants can later access through Clonescan’s website.
Harbisson wears the "eyeborg" headset to overcome a visual impairment called achromatopsia, which means he sees the world in shades of grey. The eyeborg turns colours into sounds, allowing him to "hear" them and meaning he qualifies as a cyborg, or cybernetic organism - a living being with both natural and artificial parts. "Feeling like a cyborg was a gradual process," he said. "First, I felt that the eyeborg was giving me information, afterwards I felt it was giving me perception, and after a while it gave me feelings.
Now Matadero is evolving into a cultural laboratory, where a new arts financing strategy is being tested. Companies and institutions are providing financial support to supplement dwindling government arts subsidies, but with a twist: they don’t just send checks, they move in. Within the walled 59,000-square-foot center, there are public theaters and exhibition spaces that last year drew more than 500,000 visitors for music and art events and avant-garde plays.
As an interactive design team within a larger architecture firm, the LAB seeks to blur the line between the physical and virtual in all of Rockwell Group’s projects. The LAB’s process relies heavily on iterative prototypes that we build ourselves. Through making and experimenting with interactive experiences, and embedding that software and hardware into things and places, the LAB creates narratives and new design opportunities that provide deeper and more valuable experiences for visitors and inhabitants.