Remember Reach Robot – Behind the scenes of building the monument

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Have you plotted your own point on the emerging, evolving monument to the brave warriors who fought for Reach at RememberReach.com? In a unique marketing move, Microsoft’s creative design agency, AKQA, in partnership with the motion graphics and special effects house Autofuss, has brought advanced robotics to the internet and to the Halo campaign memorial. We went behind-the-scenes at the secret location housing the robot to get more details from the creative and engineering minds behind the project…

In the background of the image (above) you can see me walking behind the robot. What this may not convey is the scale. This is a big robot, probably about 10 feet high with its arm fully extended. It weighs in at 2.4 tonnes, and features a specially built laser pointer on the end that plots the points that users on the site select. The monument image itself was taken from Bungie’s key art for Reach, modeled here to help create shape and depth to each of the characters represented. The “monument” is made up of 54,439 points (or 7 x 7777 to tie in with the number infused into so much of the Halo universe lore). After allowing the Facebook Connect option to post to your wall (this is a viral marketing effort after all), users pick a spot and that spot will burn brightly, but over time start to fade through 10 levels of brightness. The reason is to keep refreshing the image, and allow more than 54,439 people to take part in the construction of the monument.

When we visited the robot, some five days into a campaign that will conclude on Reach launch day (9/15 for those not paying attention) it had already generated over 500,000 hits, with the robot at peak times wading through a queue of 4,000-plus users waiting to see their mark emerge on the monument.

During those peak traffic times the robot is jiving and swirling, pointing its laser at the cameras capturing the data every 2 to 3 seconds. That speed required the technical team to bolt the robot into the concrete floor of the studio in which it sits so it didn’t shift around the room.

But where did this idea originate? AKQA Creative Director Stephen Clements says he had been working with Autofuss on 3D shoots of the Xbox 360 for other commercial campaigns when emerged the idea of adapting the technology into something interactive. For Autofuss, led by co-founder and creative director Jeff Linnell, the company has specialized in using robotics for precise movements in motion control cinematography, special effects, and product photography. This project, completed from concept to launch in about 10 weeks, required specialized software to be built to translate the interactive data from users on the internet into plotting points as the robot laser moves and is read by the cameras.

From the user standpoint, depending on the size of the queue, it takes about 30 seconds for the video compression from the time that you stamp your mark on the monument to the time you’ll see it…assuming you can see your exact spot in the more densely trafficked areas. “Helmets, heads, and guns,” have been the most popular points that users have plotted says Clements, “which says a lot…” Adds Linnell, “we were worried that there would be no kneecaps, no feet” but users have clearly been willing to ensure that the monument retains its distinct shape, with a fairly solid outline, including the feet.

Part of the reason for the secret location of the robot is security as its very sensitive to light and color. Orange tags in a circle on the floor around the robot mark a barrier across which no-one can pass. Similarly, filming in the location was prohibited due to the light sensitivity of the laser sensor, which picks up only red lights. In order to ensure the robot remains fully functional throughout its lifespan the team built in redundancy with back-up PCs running the software, and even installing flourescent lighting so, as Linnell puts it, “no one gets a call at 4 in the morning to go change a lightbulb.”

For the robot, manufactured in by Kuka Robotics in Germany, and shipped from Detroit this artistic, memorial work is a far cry from a more likely life on an auto manufacturer’s production line, welding Volkswagons. As for life after the Reach memorial, don’t expect that to be the last you see of this use of robotics. “We’re considering ways of wrapping up this program,” says AKQA Group Creative Director Pierre Lipton, “something of a recognition of the fans’ contribution.” And Clements appeared eager to continue creative ideas with robots, “I want to control that robot with Kinect,” he says.

So hit up RememberReach.com and contribute to the memorial for humanity, and keep a robot that could have been building cars in a factory safe in its studio environment, painting a picture for the ages!

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