Group 2 – Research

Pull outs from articles

Based from the previous research, my new group are now beginning to hone into a more specific topic, of public space and how wireless technologies can be used within it, as well as how they affect social behavior.

Here are some examples from some recent articles that explain wireless technologies, and how people are beginning to us them.

 

Like a street or a building, WAG zone access points actually inhabit part of the physical infrastructure, orienting the Cloud user to specific resources within the community. “A huge part of this is connecting up the information with the location and making it place-and-time relevant,” Shamp said. “To experience it, you actually have to be in downtown Athens.” Another site-specific application — customized for the social life of a student — is Friend Finder, a Cloud service designed by University of Georgia art, business and music students. “I can come into downtown Athens with a PDA, send a text message that I’m going to be in Blue Sky Coffee for two hours, then turn it off and put it in my pocket,” explains Shamp. “Then when one of my buddies comes into downtown, he can use the WAG zone to find out where his friends are.”

 

Linda Baker, Salon Media Group, 2008- Urban renewal, the wireless way
http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/11/29/digital_metropolis/print.html
Viewed on the 27th of August 2008

 

 

 

This part of information is find interesting as it explains that with the use of WAG zones which is the use of a wireless mesh network, where people can assess information via there phones, GPS, or other devices that can pick up internet information. We are starting to look at portable technologies that can access broad ranges of information, publicly and wirelessly which can enhance peoples live in some way.

Global positioning systems embedded in mobile devices add yet another spatial dimension to virtual technologies. As Townsend points out, in cellphone-packing Tokyo, GPS chips are already embedded in most mobile devices, creating hordes of “smart mobs” who navigate the densely built — and inhabited — city through use of custom maps and buddy-finder applications. More recently, researchers at Intel’s Seattle lab have developed a Wi-Fi positioning system called Place Lab that doesn’t require extra hardware to install in mobile devices.

Linda Baker, Salon Media Group, 2008- Urban renewal, the wireless way
http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/11/29/digital_metropolis/print.html
Viewed on the 27th of August 2008

 

With the use of GPS and wireless technologies, they are beginning to provide a wide range of opportunities where both navigation information and regular social information are merging.

I am particularly interested in this next part of information which is explaining how both real environments, and virtual information with the use of Wi-fi and GPS networks could allow people to annotate their environments digitally where others can actually stumble upon an area and get messages from other people.

Hewlett-Packard’s Urban Tapestries project in Bristol, U.K., takes finder and navigator functions to yet another level: leveraging Wi-Fi-enabled networks to allow users to digitally tag real locations with text and images. Thus you can wave your mobile phone at a tagged restaurant to pick up reviews left by previous clients, or download digital audio tours as you wend your way through a museum. Other labs are developing “smart place” services based on detection of embedded radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.  

 

The idea combining  technologies such as Mobile and internet technologies and Geographic information systems. Its a system that has also been designed to accommodate many different uses through a range of interfaces such as: Flash, AJEX based web interfaces, mobile phones, environmental sensors, google earth and RSS feeds.

 

URBAN TAPESTRIES, Public Authoring, Place and Mobility, PROBOSCIS, http://urbantapestries.net/

 

 

Presentation – Part 2

 

Pachube

“Pachube, a service that enables people to tag and share real time environmental data from objects, devices and spaces around the world. 

The key aim is to facilitate interaction between remote environments, both physical and virtual.” 

Simulates environments and compares experience, from real space to data / digital space.

 

(http://www.pachube.com/)

 

 

 

UrbanSonar

 

• Urban Sonar is a personal space monitoring system that senses an individual’s experience as they move through the urban environment and records that information for review at a later time.

• The sensing system is integrated into a wearable device.

• Senses placed in all areas of the wearer, eg: front, sides and back of a jacket.

(www.urbansonar.com/)

 

 

City Wide Wi-fi networks

 

Technology starting point

• In 2002, Corpus Christi “Texas” decided to automate meter reading for municipal gas and water services that supply a 147-square-mile area.    

“Meter readers often have difficulty accessing a property because of fences or dogs,” explained Leonard Scott, MIS unit manager and program manager for the Wi-Fi project. “

• With automated data collection, gas and water customers can check meter data online and view a property’s gas and water consumption history.

 

Technology innovation:

• Using multiple, routers to create a Mesh-network of Wi-fi, to cover an entire city

• Multi-user: anyone can connect to the network,

- businesses

- social workers

- emergency services

( Tropos Networks Case Study June, 2005

http://www.caltelassn.com/Reports06/Broadband/corpus_casestudy%5B1%5D.pdf

Viewed on the 19th of August 2008

 B net, Business Wire – Dec 5, 2006

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2006_Dec_5/ai_n27074472

Viewed on the 19th of August 2008)

 

 

 

Interactive environments play

Funky Forest

Funky Forest’ is an interactive ecosystem for multiple users,
sharing a single space.

Created with Projections and motion sensors.

Users can create trees with their body.

Divert the water flowing from the waterfall to the trees to keep them alive. 

Interaction within this environment may require team work which encourages users to collaborate in keeping the digital forest alive.

 

28. Funky Forest,

 

 

“http://muonics.net/site_docs/work.php?id=41”

 

 

 

ApartGame: 

ApartGame is a tabletop platform that supports multiple games for social environments and intensive public use.

The goal is to design a platform for games that allows participants play together in public events.

The games are to be played by multiple users to stimulate the social contact.

This makes it to be able to support up to about 10 people communicating and competing.

 

(http://www.apartgame.com/)

New technologies – Presenation

Group members:

Clint Smith,
Andrew Kupresanin, 
Sudha Marimuthu, 
Shaun Bryndzia

 

Examples of public interactive technology

 

Megaphone

A Phone call-Controlled, Real-Time, Multi-Player Collaborative Gaming Platform for Big Screens in Public Spaces

• Call the service to enable interactivity and play

• Games can be played using this public device by calling the service and using various phone features such
as the key pad, or even voice.

• Based from Older existing technologies, such as 

- mobile timetable systems

- voice or tone controlled calling systems

• Uses old technologies in new ways, creating more technology opportunities

• Could also be played with international players

 

(http://www.playmegaphone.com/)

 

 

Loopted / Awarespot

 

Location based awareness systems using both navigational systems and mobile network technologies.

• Users register on a website

• Loopt enables users to broadcast their status to a broad set of services and find interesting locations and reviews nearby.

• Awarespot also has a similar feature that people subscribe to online content, put in information that is relevant to them such as date, time, day, and travel paths, and information is sent to them via sms if they are in specific areas at the times they provided, eg Sales, travel traffic jams.

Eg: restaurants, clothing shops with sales

• Loopt aggregates local content to provide a map view of great places and star ratings.

• Enables groups of people to connect with one another by place setting there location so they can find 

each other.

• Can act as a platform for businesses to attract people

 

 

(Loopt.com/facebook/hotcellularphone.com/ wp-content/uploads/2008/…)

 

QIK

 

Qik is a new service that allows you to stream video content directly from your mobile phone 

• People can view it real time online. 

• In addition it has the feature of online viewers being able to send text based messages to the broadcaster. 

• This has the potential to create an interaction environment between audience and producer. 

(http://qik.com)

 

 

 

CitySence

A mobile phone application that displays a heat map 

of activity via a designated area. 

Visualization can show where the hotspots of social activity are, providing a data stream to the user in real time.

 Citysense

http://www.citysense.com/

 

Sensenetworkshttp://www.sensenetworks.com/

 

 

 

New technologies – research

 

Technology Enhanced, Mass Interaction 
In Communal Space

My group research has been based on the the current use of public media, which engages the user through innovative technology via interactivity.

We had looked at a wide range of current devices and technologies that are both actually in use being developed. The research involved not only how the devices and technologies work, but also how people may use these devices and how it impacts on peoples lives, wether in public social environments or on their own.

The research had been split into sections based on how the technologies were being used,

• either in social situations where the technologies are being used in public around the same place with multiple uses simultaneously,

• or whether the technologies were being used in public with multiple uses simultaneously but in separate areas

• or whether the devices were more personal where the user is interacting with a device more personally and on their own, but still have social contact with other with the device

• or whether the devices they are using are more personal that doesn’t involve any social interaction with others.

 

Current technologies

Such devices we found based on the above points used technologies such as Wi-fi (wireless fidelity), GPS (global positioning system), PDA, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).

Other devices and technologies we found also used things like heat sensing, sound sensing, motion sensing devices, all of which engaged the user in some way, mainly for public entertainment purposes.

• Mobile devices: 

Mobile phones, laptops, GPS devices, PDA

• Network devices:

Wi-fi, Internet, GPS, navigation

• Detection devices: 

RFID (radio frequency identification), motion/audio sensors, heat detection, sonar, location detection

• Display devices:
Projectors, touch screens,