Creative tech companies to meet at Bath Digital Festival

Tomorrow is the day! Bath Digital Festival (BDF) is back on the historic streets of Bath for three days, categorised by three internationally impactful themes with strong connections to the city. We are absolutely buzzing over at techSPARK HQ; make sure to come say hi to any of the team you spot in the iconic pink tees this week.

There are some truly special individuals and organisations featuring at the festival this year, including a host of creative tech projects. To honour the intersection of CreaTech Month, sponsored by our friends at Zubr, and BDF 24, we’ve highlighted what creative tech enthusiasts you’ll catch at the festival this week and where to find them.

There will be an opportunity to get hands on with a range of immersive kit with MyWorld Creative Technologist, Naomi Smyth at all three BDF Showcases. Demoing live motion capture and immersive audio in collaboration with The Studio, Bath Spa University’s Innovation and Enterprise Hub.

At the Space Showcase, you’ll find Hinterland by Pell Ensemble. Created by choreographer Rebecca Evans in collaboration with creative technologist Clemence Debaig of Unwired Studio. This is a unique and magical interactive Mixed Reality dance experience that uses live motion capture to animate and explore the future of evolution being human, digital and extremophile.

Check out Biba Dress of the Year 1972, a prototype developed by MyWorld Fashion Fellow Gabby Shiner-Hill in collaboration with Fashion Museum Bath. Using a snap chat filter, try on FMB’s Biba dress of the year 1972 in Augmented Reality.

There will also be a VR Tiltbrush and dance demo with Bath Spa University’s dance lecturer and Studio Resident Zhi Xi, exploring a virtual world of painting and dance.

We’re super excited to welcome CAMERA back to BDF this year. Despite having an extremely unflattering slow-motion shot of myself, I’m eager to try the tech once again at the showcases. Firstly at the Sports Showcase on Tuesday 14 May, CAMERA will be showcasing a series of demos that combine computer vision and biomechanics for performance enhancement, here’s the breakdown:

• Marker-less Motion Capture – Looking at pose estimation using a 2D key point overlay of anatomical locations from machine learning and computer vision system to highlight CAMERA’s development of a Marker-less Motion Capture system for use in Sports Biomechanics.
• Jump testing – Introduction to capturing and interpreting force data including jump height, strength, and asymmetry.
• Outdoor Motion Capture – Using optical motion capture outdoors to validate a novel Mountain Bike Jump height detection device.
• CAMERA’s health and sports biomechanics – a video loop showcasing CAMERA’s health and sports biomechanics projects including rehabilitation, sports performance & injury prevention.
• Scrum Machine – Showcasing CAMERA’s scrum machine developed for research with the Department for Health which detects forces during the rugby scrum and links with spinal injuries determined through musculoskeletal modelling.

The team will also be featuring at the Cities Showcase to shre demos that illustarte how CAMERA can digitise cities & environments for the entertainment sector.

• Lidar Scanner – Showcasing CAMERAs Faro Lidar Scanner and how it is used to create realistic environments used in Virtual Production and game creation.
• Queens Square Fly through – A video loop of CAMERAs high-quality scan of the famous Queen’s Square in the centre of Bath.
• Handheld Artec Scanning – Have a go at scanning objects small and large, to demonstrate the application used for a project with the fashion museum.
• Commercialisation – Sharing information of how CAMERA work with commercial clients, from motion capture, virtual production and scanning.

IAH is a diverse community of researchers, policy makers, entrepreneurs and educators using technology to enhance and improve the physical and cognitive abilities of individuals. They believe in a holistic ecosystem for the development and deployment of human augmentation that considers the technological, ethical, societal, moral, and regulatory aspects. 

The world-leading research institute brings together more than 50 academics from disciplines including robotics, engineering, computer science, health, neuroscience, and psychology. They want to push the limits of our natural capabilities, and work with industry partners, patient groups and others, to find new and imaginative ways to integrate machines with our bodies and minds, improving our quality of life.

You can find them at Beyond Boundaries: The Future of Human Augmentation. 

A team of three Bath University graduates, Hearplay was born out of a shared passion for music. Its mission is to enable anyone to express themselves musically by making learning music more intuitive, fun, and creative. Fundamentally, Hearplay is crafting a new learning style for playing music to remove blockers that so many people face when taking up an instrument for the first time. The tech teaches you to play by ear without all the sheet music.

You can learn more about how they’re offering this at the Cities Day showcase.

For a piece on the world of AI here in Bristol and Bath, I caught up with fiction podcaster, David Sloly, who has created the first ever AI sitcom, Made in AI. The show, which was Voted in the Top 5 AI podcasts by Goodpods, follows an artificially intelligent family running riot in the real world, a concept that has been described as “funny and terrifying in equal measure.”

David will be presenting at BDF to teach you how to leverage the power of AI in three easy steps. This is the story of how a simple fun experiment into generative AI achieved the most unexpected outcomes. Prepare your city, your business and yourself for the uprising of AI and see first-hand how a simple experiment in AI opened up a new business opportunity. Filled with practical insights so you can get in on the AI act. This talk is perfect for AI beginners and those looking for new ideas. Jargon free. No technical skills required. Sign up here!

SLiNK-TECH was founded in 2018, with the vision to make the benefits of drone logistics available across all industries and applications. Today SLiNK-TECH is an Innovate UK backed SME pioneering automation technology for the future-of-flight economy.

Based in Bristol, UK, the award-winning company has received over £1.3M in grant and development funding for PORTAL, its vertiport air-traffic control system. Beyond developing and deploying enabling hardware and software, SLiNK-TECH also provides flight and operational logistics modelling tools and drone technology consultancy to prepare forward-looking companies plan for the future of flight economy. You can find them at the Space Day showcase!

Co-creating the Future of Bath is a fringe event taking place on Space Day, hosted by founder of Polymathic, Nigel Fryatt. The creative technology agency is officially launching during BDF24, and is set to be offering workshops, consultancy and technical services to the Arts, Cultural & Higher Education sector. Nigel is a resident at The Studio in Bath, Mentor at EMERGE and a regular guest and associate lecturer for Bath Spa University.

In this relaxed, interactive workshop, you will collaboratively envision the future of Bath, utilising playful and democratic decision-making techniques inspired by those used in the tech sector.

You can find Adam Walker, Chief Innovation Officer at Rocketmakers, on the panel of The Future of Sport Debate, tackling the core question: Will the Olympics be in the Metaverse in 2044? This session will delve into how the metaverse could offer a financially viable and environmentally friendly alternative, potentially transforming the way we conceive and experience the Olympics. The debate is not just about the future of sports but also about how technology intersects with tradition, culture, and community on a global stage.

Our friends at Zubr happen to be one of the top studios in the UK for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) innovation. Over the past few years, the award-winning studio has been busy building state-of-the-art immersive experiences for everyone from academics to heritage sites and marketing agencies. You may have encountered their AR binoculars at last year’s Bath Digital Festival, or at the SS Great Britain. Their AR social media filters have also been in use at the likes of Upfest and as part of a project to bring Bridgwater’s history to life.

You’ll find Zubr at a few events across the festival on Cities Day, including the showcase. Zubr is hosting the Future Places Toolkit with Uninvited Guests. This enjoyable and entertaining activity is accessible to all and engages young and older people with consultation. It takes place outside, lasts for approximately 30 minutes and is for 12 people at a time.

Zubr is also running the Bridging Time and Technology event with the Bath Preservation Trust. This discussion will be questioning how the rise in digitalisation intersects with preserving our history – does it lead to a loss of authenticity or pave the way for new connections?