Ultra Plush is an immersive creative technology and guerrilla design atelier in Las Vegas, founded in 2020 by award-winning creative technologist Teo Litto to pursue production of location-scale immersive art and interactive projects, and to provide a platform for exploratory leading-edge tech art experimentation, reality-hacking, and project incubation.
2023
Hello! We regret to inform you that the cobbler’s kid has no shoes: we’re too busy building the future with project work right now to build a fancy promo site! Some day, maybe 😇 In the meanwhile, feel free to peruse some writeups of recent projects below, or hit that big fancy Contact button to drop us a line. We appreciate you! Stay wild.
Selected Recent Work
2022
Obscura Minigolf & Projection Bar
Obscura is under development & in stealth mode right now! Please contact us if you would like more information.
Drink ‘N Putt
An experimental immersive minigolf popup with an edgy synthwave brand. More fun to come! drinknputt.vegas
CYOA Marketing engine
CYOA is an experimental marketing engine designed to provide “sticky engagement” and value-add marketing to select demographics via easy-to-produce minigames launched via QR code or digital channel. The beta is for Drink ‘N Putt and may be played here
Pulse Frequency
Recommended Listening for optimal viewing
Pulse Frequency was a crypto-enabled immersive ARG: EVM-compatible with built-in ERC20 and ERC721 tokens earnable through actions in gamified real-world spaces including geofenced bars with webAR; and a “temporary escape room” built using IOT devices, low-latency wireless networking, realtime signaling protocols, projectors, and web-interactives.
Ultra Plush did all story, planning, layout, design, art, tech/code (blockchain, iot, interactive), videos, misc. ARG elements, and a handful of surprises for this project.
Pulse Frequency was built for the PulseCon crypto conference in Las Vegas which unfortunately did not make it to launch and thus Pulse Frequency never got a full playthrough. RIP.
city-scale ARG in Las Vegas (under development in association with the wisdom alliance)
His name is Spike, and he’s here to listen. And help. Probably. Hopefully.
Name-restricted third-party contract with FAANG entity
Interactive work on launch projects for a FAANG entity that cannot be named due to contractual obligations. 🤫
2021
Haunted.bar Immersive experience (in association with themedream prod.)
Haunted Bar was an immersive/interactive bar and dining event at a new immersive venue in Los Gatos, CA.
Working for and with ThemeDream, Ultra Plush built an interactive control system and web app that allowed Guests to interact with/control various realtime special effects at the bar. This was primarily exposed via “interactive cocktails” – specialty cocktails that came with a stylized one-time-use QR code (“Burnables”, part of the AlterStep suite) that could be used to gain one-time-access to special parts of the web app that would let users trigger one of a set of spooky special effects located around the bar.
The app also featured realtime GPS driving navigation to the venue, voiced by a spooky child’s voice rendered with Amazon Polly. Utilizing geofencing, we were able to detect when users were pulling up to the venue and trigger a spooky sound and “welcome, come inside” message and image to replace the GPS nav.
Once inside, further geofencing in the app allowed users access to the full set of show features, which could only be used within the bar geofence. We utilized the Web Midi API to enable integration with an onsite show control system (QLab) which used LAN/WAN/MIDI to trigger/control various show systems around the bar. Ultra Plush built several web control dashboards to facilitate control of this system from the main show computer, allowing visibility into which effects were triggered and for how long, various time triggers, kicks, effect lockouts, operator manual triggers, etc.
Some of the “Haunted Cocktail” experiences for the bar were:
- SpiritMaker
- A Guest visits the experience and notices “haunted portraits” on the wall – empty frames with portraits of spirits projected into them – then, a moment of wonder when they realize that the spirit portraits on the wall are actually ghostly portraits of people around them at the event – staff and even some other guests.
- The Guest purchases a “SpiritMaker” cocktail which is presented to them with a decorative tag with a Burnable QR code, which brings them to a website which informs them that they can only use this code once, providing them with a “proceed” button.
- The user submits a selfie (enabled with FaceCutter, part of AlterStep) which is then modified in the cloud by AI to extract and colorize the Guest’s face, and presto – the Guest’s portrait is now cycling amongst the haunted portraits on the wall
- FireBreather
- A Guest purchases a “FireBreather” cocktail which is presented to them with a decorative tag with a Burnable QR code.
- When the guest proceeds they are shown a webpage with engaging graphics and buttons to activate simulated flame throwers mounted around the bar
- After a set period of time or a set period of activations, the site changes to show “Time’s up!” with follow up message and Guest can no longer control the flame throwers
- RedRum
- A Guest purchases a “RedRum” cocktail which is presented to them with a decorative tag with a Burnable QR code.
- The Burnable code takes them to a website which provides them with a place to submit a message of up to 256 characters. The message is moderated, and once approved is written (projected) on a wall in dripping blood
- Lights from Beyond
- Some of the primary lighting around the bar consists of colored lights and colored LEDs
- Guests can change the colors of the lighting at the bar by purchasing a “Lights from Beyond” cocktail which is presented to them with a decorative tag with a Burnable QR code.
- Scanning the Burnable QR code takes Guests to a website with a color wheel where they may select and submit a new color for the colored lights and LEDs around the bar
- Scream
- When a Guest triggers a Scream cocktail, the bar goes dark and a woman’s scream is heard
- When a Guest triggers a Scream cocktail, the bar goes dark and a woman’s scream is heard
- Stormy Night
- When a Guest triggers a Stormy Night cocktail it triggers the lights to cut out and lightning visuals and thunder sound effects to play throughout the room
- When a Guest triggers a Stormy Night cocktail it triggers the lights to cut out and lightning visuals and thunder sound effects to play throughout the room
- Black Widow
- When a Guest triggers a Black Widow cocktail it triggers a projection map of spiders crawling all over the ceiling/walls
- When a Guest triggers a Black Widow cocktail it triggers a projection map of spiders crawling all over the ceiling/walls
- Face Your fears
- When a Guest triggers a Face Your Fears cocktail, it activates “statues to come to life” – projectors projecting faces and motion onto statues above the bar are activated.
- When a Guest triggers a Face Your Fears cocktail, it activates “statues to come to life” – projectors projecting faces and motion onto statues above the bar are activated.
- All Dolled Up
- When a Guest triggers an “All Dolled Up” cocktail, it activates a wall of doll heads who giggle, cry, and have flashing light-up LED eyes.
- When a Guest triggers an “All Dolled Up” cocktail, it activates a wall of doll heads who giggle, cry, and have flashing light-up LED eyes.
- Awaken The Spirits
- When a Guest triggers a smoking “Awaken the Spirits” cocktail, it activates various fog-projections of ghosts around the bar
Unfortunately, due to a conflict between ownership at the opening immersive venue, the Haunted Bar event only ran for a few short days before ending and thus we never got to deploy this one to a wide audience.
Name-restricted third-party contract with FAANG entity
Interactive work on launch projects for a FAANG entity that cannot be named due to contractual obligations. 🤫
2020
Name-restricted third-party contracts with a major hardware manufacturer and an advertech startup
Various interactive work for various clients
2019
Alterstep
AlterStep is an engine for MMARGs (Massively Multiplayer ARGs.) AlterStep brings the fundamentals of persistence of presence such as causation and inventory to a cloud/mobile/web platform enabling deep interactivity and storytelling across multiple locations in physical and temporal space. AlterStep phase 1 consists of multiple modules:
- AlterStep Core
- User Identity, Authentication, and Authorization via phone, email, or key
- User Identity/Auth can be used to gate access to features, experiences, etc. and to host secure communication channels for purchases etc.
- User and world state persistence
- User inventory
- User notes
- User “experience state”
- Running record of tasks completed, choices made, and events experienced that may affect outcomes or content of other experiences (causality)
- Earned badges/achievements
- Shared/global “world experience state”
- Actions taken by users may change the world experience state for all users
- Actions taken by users may change the world experience state for all users
- User Identity, Authentication, and Authorization via phone, email, or key
- BackChannel
- High-speed, addressable, “near-real-time” (<50ms latency) signaling mechanism/channel for internal and cross-experience signaling
- Can interface with web/mobile, IOT (esp32/arduino), SBC(raspi/ARM/etc) and (potentially) Unity and Unreal engines
- Can be triggered by other modules, e.g. Burnables, CloudCables, FaceCutter, PhoneTree, Front, SkyWriter, and Warehouse
- Burnables
- One-time or multi-time use codes, exposable as QR codes or links, that can provide a user with one-time/limited/timed/conditional access to an experience or experience control on their device.
- Phase 1: web dt/mobile – can trigger other systems through BackChannel
- CloudCables
- CloudCables is a seamless way for users to control an experience from their phones. All they have to do is scan the QR code on an (web-connected) experience with their device and they can control that experience from their phone at high fidelity, in seconds, with no app download required.
- Utilizes video conferencing protocols for extremely low latency “real time” controls
- CloudCables uses BackChannel for one-time at-connection setup and signaling
- FaceCutter
- Brings user’s faces into digital worlds
- Allows users to submit selfies
- Backend AI detects face in selfie and extracts it, optionally applying effects (for phase 1 just colorization), then drops the cut/colored image into moderation queue
- Human Moderator is able to review and approve/deny images
- If approved, image goes into “production” queue, where it is available to experiences to project into the world or display on props, digital assets, etc etc etc – “integrating” the user into the world. Haunted Bar used this to bring users into a “wall of ghosts” on the wall of the bar.
- Uses BackChannel to coordinate image movements between Warehouse storage and various endpoints
- The technology used to build FaceCutter is outdated and it needs to be rewritten with newer, faster face detection tools
- Front
- Some front end essentials enabling web UI integration with AlterStep
- A simple set of front end React components that integrate with AlterStep systems / provide user gateways
- 2d/3d interactive representation of inventory items for web and mobile platforms
- Access to badges, settings, notes, and other artifacts
- CloudCables “Xamtundo” and gyro controller
- PhoneTree
- Phase 1: simple authorable phone trees that can trigger BackChannel events
- Provides automated, “programmable”, and actor-manned phone systems that can integrate with AlterStep systems and effect AlterStep worlds
- Uses BackChannel to cause various effects in worlds
- Powers the Spirit Crystal Demo
- SkyWriter
- Allows users to write on new worlds
- users can submit a text string and it will be stylized, optionally moderated, and projected or displayed into an immersive world.
- e.g. For Haunted Bar, users could submit a text string, it would be moderated, and then the lights would flicker and a projector would “write the message in blood” on the wall.
- SpaceGate
- Limits a web or digital experience to a specific geographical location using GPS on the user’s device.
- Limits a web or digital experience to a specific geographical location using GPS on the user’s device.
- Warehouse
- A way for authors/users to store data in the system/cloud
- Essentially a simplified wrapper around a storage system that can trigger/respond to BackChannel events
