Through a combination of software, hardware, data analytics, 3D printing and art, members of a local tech company have created a fascinating, engaging installation in their Downtown Boulder office — showing off their technical skills, but also their creativity.
After years of focusing on development, design and strategy for their clients, interactive agency Viget has recently branched out to work on hardware projects, such as a Twitter-powered brooch for the Kentucky Derby.
The company’s latest project is their “Ye Olde Future Temper-O-Meter,” a data visualization project that combines disciplines to display a chart indicating weather predictions.
Whereas the brooch was for their client, NBC, Viget’s team created the Temper-O-Meter in their spare time.
“We were looking for a gap filler,” said hardware developer Justin Sinichko. “We wanted to create a project we could use in our Boulder office to showcase our creative thinking on the analytic side of things. We wanted to make data more compelling for our clients, and we eventually landed on the idea to make a giant, steampunk-y thing to put in the office.”
After writing a proposal and bringing in other members of the team, Sinichko got the go-ahead to create the display. The team used the company’s client discovery process to determine what questions they wanted the project to answer.
“When it came to what data we could present, we looked at traffic, commute times, the weather,” said Sinichko. “It began as a flexible chart that could show anything.”
Even though the project required a significant amount of hardware work, it couldn’t have happened without the team’s software experience.
“Our software chops definitely helped,” said Sinichko. “We could easily change this to any other kind of data you’d expect in a line chart. The software behind it is incredibly flexible.”
The team ultimately chose to display temperature data, combining a custom API and Weather Underground’s open API to chart temperature predictions for the next 15 hours, every hour on the hour.
In addition to the moving, lit-up installation, the team developed a custom mobile app that gives users the power to enter a custom location — including the company’s other offices in North Carolina and Virginia — which will then automatically display on the installation.
[video:https://vimeo.com/187890010 width:600 align:center autoplay:0]
The project was helped along by some other Colorado players, too. After modeling everything in CAD, the Viget team used Loveland-based Aleph Objects’ Luzlbot 3D printer to manufacture most of the project’s parts. They also sourced some hardware elements from Longmont’s Sparkfun Electronics.
“Both have been really helpful in the past in general,” said marketing manager, Ben Travis. “It’s really nice to have a local connection.”
The company recently relocated to the long-vacant former Kava Lounge space on Broadway in Boulder. They realized the former club’s old DJ booth was the perfect place to install the six-foot-wide project.
While the office’s location makes it hard for them to let anyone just walk in to check out Ye Olde Future Temper-O-Meter, Travis said people interested in trying it for themselves can contact him to set up a time to stop by.
Photos via Viget.
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