This year’s Top Gear Live show hosted by Jeremy Clarkson was given an interactive makeover with help from Inition, allowing the audience to participate directly in the show for the first time.

We have worked closely with the show's producers for the last three years, bringing cutting edge technology to the show. Previously we have been responsible for the large-screen stereoscopic 3D section of the show, last year creating a 3D animated dragon to do battle with the Stig (the show’s in-house driver). This year, we decided to pitch something completely different: giving the five thousand strong audience a chance to participate directly in the show.

Two elements were devised that would allow the audience to vote on the coolest cars and try their skills in a timed lap around the legendary Top Gear track. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to beat the lap time of Lewis Hamilton or Jamie Oliver or have their say on what they thought of the Morgan AeroMax?

Clockwise from top-left. 1.The entire audience of 5000 people show the green side of their cards in the warm ups. 2. And the red side. 3. During the race - chaos! 4. A screenshot from the game and some enthusiastic audience members from the opening night! The Top Gear Lap Each audience member was given a special card on arrival, which they used to turn the virtual car left and right by showing one side or the other to the stage. The speed of the car was controlled by the amount of noise the audience made (i.e. scream to go faster!). The infamous Top Gear test track was modelled in 3D in all its glory by the team at Inition using TV footage from the show, satellite data and a few hundred stills taken by us around the track. We then gave it some extra spice by introducing elements from the Top Gear TV shows: the Reliant Robin Space Shuttle, caravan conkers, car catapults and the Stig all putting in an appearance.   Top Gear test track as seen from space Track modelled in 3D The live interactive experience First, a practice session helped the audience grasp the controls: how to be quiet to slow down and make it around the sharpest bends; and how to make as much noise as possible on the straights. As the countdown to the lap started there was a deafening roar: five thousand people shouting to reach top speed whilst "voting" to turn left into the first bend and find the racing line. In-game screengrabs Jeremy and the presenters egged on the racers as they crashed through tyre walls, picked up speeding penalties and tried to get the ultimate "go faster pimped up Lacetti ride" by collecting Stig helmets placed on the track. After crossing the finishing line, in the best tradition of the TV show, Clarkson kept the audience waiting in anticipation to find out where they had come on the leaderboard in relation to other audiences... each audience represented by a photograph of one of the audience members who had their picture taken by Jeremy after the lap. The show will travel the world with each audience given the chance to beat the others and become the ultimate Top Gear Lap champions of the world.   Cool Wall Democracy, Clarkson Style Using the same tracking technology, the famous Top Gear Cool Wall was given a "democratic" makeover allowing the audience to vote on whether cars were "cool" or "uncool" for the first time. A huge interactive image of the Cool Wall allowed the audience to watch as their collective decision was made. Then, in typical Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson style, the presenters could override the audience if they disagreed with them (this happened a lot!). Screenshot of interactive "Cool Wall", where we bring democracy to Top Gear A young lad in the audience giving his views to Jeremy Clarkson, only to be predictably ridiculed by the host.   Inition and the project The whole project was completed in-house at Inition in just over two months, from first concepts to going live in front of 5000 people at Earls Court. It has now been seen by over 50,000 people and will go on to entertain over 350,000 people world-wide in the coming year in Birmingham, Dublin, Sydney, Auckland, Hong Kong and Johannesburg. Final corner on lap Our in-game version, modelled from photographs and video we took of the track. Inition developed the image-recognition gaming technology, and programmed the whole game, as well as developign all 3D models and animation of the track, cars and other props, drawing on our background in real-time 3D and video processing. The custom software runs on PCs backstage fed by digital cameras looking at the audience. We believe it may hold a record for the largest audience to play a live interactive game together.   James Marks, one of our 3D technical experts, monitors the system back stage. Screenshot of our custom-developed audience chroma-detection software For more information or to see live how Inition can bring interactive magic to your audience, contact us at inition@inition.co.uk or call +44 207 613 5004.

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