SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 8, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TrueCar, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRUE), the negotiation-free car buying and selling mobile marketplace, celebrates the kickoff of the Twilight Concert Series today with the launch of TrueCar L.E.D. (Light Emotion Data), a crowd-powered intelligent sensory experience that captures real-time emotive information and creatively displays data with a dazzling, interactive LED light show to transform the traditional concert experience.
Interacting with concertgoers in real-time and controlled by their collective emotions, TrueCar L.E.D. will become the heartbeat of the weekly concert series, showing a living and ever-changing visual representation of the sentiment of the crowd. It will bring a new level of participation to the concert-going experience, allowing the artist and audience to interact with each other in ways not previously possible.
Utilizing technological innovations spun out of the renowned MIT Media Labs and visual artistry by GMUNK, TrueCar is melding the company's data analysis and visualization abilities with new, unprecedented entertainment technology. The TrueCar L.E.D. experience will be free and open to the public on Thursday evenings from 7:00-10:00 p.m., July 9 to September 10, as part of the company's sponsorship of the 31st Annual Twilight Concert Series at the Santa Monica Pier.
"TrueCar L.E.D. is the visual embodiment of what TrueCar stands for. This platform takes our web-based technology from the computer screen to the concert experience, as L.E.D. mirrors how we algorithmically assess data," said Scott Painter, CEO and Founder of TrueCar. "We're aiming to achieve something that's never been done before, and as a Santa Monica-based technology company, we felt there was no better place to debut this than in our own backyard."
"TrueCar is truly taking the Twilight Concert Series to the next level," said Jay Farrand, Executive Director and Administrator, at Santa Monica Pier. "Our concerts attract up to 20,000 people weekly and we are excited by this technology, its impact on our many concert goers and the potential to transform the overall concert experience."
Using over 70,000 LED lights, TrueCar L.E.D. creates an epicenter for the concert experience that is ever changing based on crowd participation. In order for the lights to activate, there are four points of input:
- Crowd Density – Infrared technology tracks and displays the collective audience movement.
- Audio Reactive Control – Achieved by analyzing the audio frequencies of the performance.
- Emotion – A custom mobile site (truecar.com/led) featuring emotional intelligence, powered by Affectiva, measures the emotional sentiment of a user by analyzing the facial expression of a user's selfie in real time and creating an immediate and noticeable color variation in the centerpiece, all while categorizing the 'true' emotions into one of the 18 different categories.
- Gesture – Concertgoers' gestures directly control the centerpiece.
"Having utilized fabrication mixed with lighting design for major brands throughout my career, I can definitely say that this installation is by far the most advanced," commented GMUNK, Interactive Director for Tool. "First it is the largest and most complex, scaling at 15' wide by 16' tall and containing 70,000 single LED components. Then throw in the fact that we've taken this immense scale and authored interactive inputs controlling the entire installation allowing it to be driven by The Individual, The Crowd and The Music makes this by far the most complex and mesmerizing installation I've ever had the pleasure to conceive."
"For the team, this has never been simply about infographics. This is about pushing the boundaries of what is possible with light, emotion and data," said Jennifer Parke, Executive Creative Director, at Tiny Rebellion, the creative agency of record for TrueCar. "TrueCar brings transparency to consumers through data every day, and now they are making the audience's True emotions come to life through visualizing inputs as light on a massive scale, creating a positive feedback loop between human and installation."
The activation on the Pier will be composed of a number of different elements including:
- "The Centerpiece," which acts as the lifeline of the entire experience. The Centerpiece is a volumetric sculpture, which is designed like the TrueCar curve and seamlessly interacts with inputs from the audience.
- Interactive web app that guests can interact with to upload images, determine facial sentiment, and translate that sentiment into data that is then visualized and animated throughout the TrueCar L.E.D. installation.
- Lantern Curve - Comprised of LED lanterns formed in the signature TrueCar curve.
- The Entrance - Features fifteen 10-foot tall LED towers which will emulate a forest of trees but are actually made up of lights controlled by an interconnected lighting universe.
About True Car
TrueCar, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRUE), the negotiation-free car buying and selling mobile marketplace, gives consumers transparent insight into what others paid and access to guaranteed savings off MSRP from TrueCar Certified Dealers. TrueCar's network of more than 10,000 trusted Certified Dealers is committed to providing upfront pricing information and a hassle-free buying experience. TrueCar powers car-buying programs for some of the largest U.S. membership and service organizations, including AARP, American Express, AAA and USAA. Not all program features are available in all states. TrueCar is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, with offices in San Francisco and Austin, Texas. For more information, go to www.truecar.com. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
About the Santa Monica Pier Corporation
The Santa Monica Pier Corporation (SMPC) is a non-profit, public benefit corporation dedicated to preserving and enhancing the Santa Monica Pier experience for all visitors. For more information, visit http://santamonicapier.com
About RH &S Concerts
RH &S Concerts, Music Curator for the Santa Monica Pier and co-producer of the Twilight Concert Series, is a joint venture between independent Los Angeles-based concert promotion firms Rum & Humble and Spaceland Presents, both of whom have played a key role in bringing a wide variety of cutting edge and heritage talent to venues throughout the Los Angeles area.
About Tiny Rebellion
Tiny Rebellion is an advertising agency in Santa Monica, California that exists to create purpose-driven work. Tiny Rebellion partners with corporations, organizations, individuals and communities that want to do things that matter. They are a collective of thinkers and doers, artists and nerds, inventors and leaders, content creators and number crunchers who all believe in having a meaningful impact on their clients, each other, the industry and society at large. They're passionate about positive change and they're not fulfilled unless they're making stuff that makes the world a better place. Tiny Rebellion's vision: a world where business is the most powerful force for positive change. www.tiny-rebellion.com