Ontario House Pavilion

Tonight I got to check out the large tent pavilion for my home province and it was pretty impressive.

It was the first ‘tent’ I’ve been in so far for the Olympics…many are popping up all over town to accommodate large groups of people. It didn’t feel like a tent at all once inside.

What surprised me was the amount of technology inside….it was a showcase of a lot of innovation that was created in Ontario.

By far the coolest thing was the Interaxon demonstration where you wear a headset with sensors on it that allow you to control one of three Ontario landmark light shows with your mind. I chose to control the CN Tower’s lights.

Using your alpha and beta waves that the sensors pick up, I was able to slow down or speed up the lights that were on the outside of the CN Tower – there was a live video feed of all the landmarks so you could see in realtime if you were affecting the lights.

We then headed over to the 4D Theatre where we got to see a six minute movie in….wait for it….4D! Can you guess what the extra dimension is? It was a slick tourism movie that definitely reminded me of where I grew up.

There was also a number of Microsoft Surface tables and 3D TVs scattered around the House….no glasses required which was pretty wild…it truly worked. There was even a videogame you could play via Blackberries (made by RIM who is based in Ontario) that was in 3D.

Definitely an impressive showcase…and they’re planning on having a ton of free concerts at Ontario House during the Games. Rebecca has the full lineup if you want to check it out.