Mar 25, 2014This year, Pennzoil released its Platinum line of motor oils featuring PurePlus Technology, which it describes as a revolutionary process that converts natural gas into the first-of-its-kind, high-quality full synthetic base oil. To coincide with its launch, the company sought to use technology in an exciting way to promote its new product. It accomplished that during this year's South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival, by means of a motorized race that joined the real world with the digital game of Mario Kart 8. The race featured RFID readers installed on a racetrack, RFID tags mounted on the racing vehicles and a large screen that displayed racers at key points during the competition. By using an RFID wristband, event attendees participating in the race were also able to share recordings of the event with their friends on Facebook and Twitter.
The solution was provided by marketing company JWT Atlanta, with consulting services from RFID firm Fish Technology and software and hardware development company David Whiteman Enterprises (also known as DW Technologies).
The race, known as Mario Karting Reimagined—a real-world version of Nintendo's soon-to-be released Mario Kart 8 game (made for the Wii)—accommodated a total of approximately 450 racers during the two days of the festival. RFID readers provided "power-ups" based on the number of times a vehicle's tag was interrogated, while each read event also prompted the automatic displaying of an animation-enhanced version of that individual's racing experience on two large video screens, aimed at entertaining other visitors—one mounted facing the street and shuttle drop-off point at the front of the festival, and another facing the race track's check-in line.
"We were looking for something that would be big, something that would be unexpected from a motor oil company," explains Chris Hayek, Pennzoil's global brand director. To that end, Hayek and his team began working with JWT Atlanta to devise a system that would use RFID technology to allow real-life game play to mimic that of a video game. The system needed to prove that today's technology could bring video games beyond the confines of "spots and dots" on a screen, Hayek explains.
The group envisioned a game in which real go-karts could drive over a track in the same way that the digital vehicles do so in the video game, with participants playing by the same rules and earning points in the same way. "We were familiar with RFID, but not sure how it would work on this scale," says Jeremy Jones, JWT Atlanta's creative director, referring to the need to monitor go-karts on a 1,000-foot-long track—and to do so at speeds of up to 35 miles per hour.
The racetrack's RFID system consisted of 10 Impinj Speedway Revolution readers installed on the sides of the track. Five were represented as Pennzoil icons pasted to the roadway, each providing points over which racers needed to drive in order to boost their speed by 10 miles per hour (from 25 to 35 mph), once they'd passed over five icons. Two other readers were known as Mario icons. When driving over these icons, racers would experience a drop in speed, enabling others to potentially pass them. A single interrogator represented an anti-gravity icon (depicted by an infinity symbol), at which time the racer would appear upside-down on the video screen. Finally, JWT installed two readers, one at each side of the finish line, to detect when each car completed the race.
Upon signing up for the race, each participant picked which character he or she wanted to play (options included Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach and Bowser) and provided an e-mail address where a video of his or her performance would be sent, as well as that person's Twitter or Facebook account name. That data was stored in software dedicated to the race and provided by JWT. The player was provided with a wristband containing a built-in NXP Semiconductors Icode high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz RFID chip. Staff members read the wristband using a Samsung Galaxy Note 2's built-in Near Field Communication (NFC) RFID reader. The Galaxy Note 2 then forwarded that ID number to the software, where it was linked to the participant's e-mail address or other identifying information.
Once the participant was assigned a go-kart, workers used another Galaxy Note 2 tablet to read that person's wristband again, and then read another HF tag applied to the front of the vehicle, thereby linking that go-kart to that specific player. In addition to the HF tag, each go-kart had an ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) Alien Technology Squiglette inlay with a Higgs3 IC, attached to its fender. The unique ID number on that vehicle's tag was also stored in the software, where it was linked with the ID encoded to the vehicle's HF tag. Every participant was also provided with a helmet equipped with a camera, enabling players to film the race from their own perspective.
Each race consisted of four competitors. Every time a driver moved his or her car within range of an Impinj reader, that device captured the unique ID number of the vehicle's Squiglette tag. Each reader was wired via a power-over-Ethernet (PoE) cable to transmit data back to the server, which then forwarded the information to a game server operated in the trailer. The software determined which points the individual had earned, and also fed video images to the large screen—but not before the video was overlaid with animations, timers and the participant's name.
One Pennzoil employee was assigned to each car in the command center trailer and oversaw the streaming of video and overlays, in order to ensure they were done properly. In addition, a worker watched the track and manually increased or reduced each player's speed accordingly after the software indicated that he or she had passed specific icons.
When the race was over, each participant received a digital video link to the Mario Karting Reimagined race via e-mail, or at his or her social-media account.
At times, Hayek says, the race attracted so many people hoping to participate that the wait time was about four hours. "When the idea [to create such a race using RFID] first came to us," he states, "I thought I'd have to temper my enthusiasm since we've never done anything like this before." The company's previous experience with RFID involved simpler solutions, he notes, such as parties in which people could be connected, via an RFID wristband read, to pictures taken of them. However, Hayek says, the Mario Karting Reimagined race proved that RFID could be taken much further. "When I saw it, though, I was completely amazed at what we accomplished, and what RFID allowed us to do."
According to Hayek, Pennzoil may try to provide a similar event next year, though with greater functionality. "I'd like to do it again," he states, "but bigger and better."
