Showing posts with label locative media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label locative media. Show all posts

Apr 9, 2010

Interesting journal: Aether- The Journal of Media Geography (A convergence of disciplines)

Aether is hosted by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, Northridge. The April issue is editied by Tristan Thielmann, and "explores the spatial turn in media studies and the media turn in geographical studies, providing a sketch of the subject area "geomedia" from a phenomenological perspective and the field of "media geography" from a disciplinary perspective".


Aether the Journal of Media Geography



Tristan Thielmann, from the University of Seigen, introduces this topic in "Locative Media and Mediated Localities: An Introduction to Media Geography" (pdf)


Thanks to Anne Galloway for the link!


By the way,  Anne Galloway has been blogging since 2002.  Her blog chronicles her intellectual path as she worked on her Ph.D., and more recently, her experiences teaching courses such as "Design Anthropology".    


Her dissertation, "A Brief History of the Future of Urban Computing and Locative Media" (pdf) was completed in 2008. If you are interested in ubiquitous computing and interesting theories, its worth reading, especially if your brain needs some deep feeding.  


I plan to re-read it this summer.


Here is an excerpt:

"The types of ubiquitous or pervasive computing of primary interest in my thesis are those that openly seek to create unique forms of inhabitable space and means of habitation—thereby raising issues of spatialisation, temporalisation, embodiment and affect. So-called mixed reality technologies are explicitly concerned with such questions, and mixed reality environments refer to spaces that combine elements of the physical and virtual worlds. According to Milgram et al. (1994:1), “rather than regarding the two concepts simply as antitheses, however, it is more convenient to view them as lying at opposite ends of a continuum, which we refer to as the Reality-Virtuality (RV) continuum.” At one end of the continuum are seen to be “real” objects that can be observed directly or "sampled and then resynthesized via some display device,” while at the other end are “virtual” objects that are “simulated” through “some sort of a description, or model, of the object” (Milgram and Kishino 1994:1).



SOMEWHAT RELATED
I plan to find out more about the editorial board of Aether:    

Paul C. Adams • University of Texas at Austin
Stuart C. Aitken • San Diego State University
David B. Clarke • Swansea University
Christina Dando • University of Nebraska, Omaha
Deborah Dixon • Aberystwyth University
Marcus Doel • Swansea University
Colin R. Gardner • University of California, Santa Barbara
Ken Hillis • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Sarah F. Ives • Stanford University
Ed Jackiewicz • California State University, Northridge
John Paul Jones III • University of Arizona
Christina Kennedy • Northern Arizona University
Minelle Mahtani • University of Toronto
Susan Mains • University of the West Indies, Mona
Kevin McHugh • Arizona State University
Christopher M. Moreno • San Diego State University
Wolfgang Natter • Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Joseph Palis • University of the Philippines


Brent J. Piepergerdes • University of Kansas
Rob Shields • University of Alberta
Amy Siciliano • University of Wisconsin
Paul F. Starrs • University of Reno, Nevada
Dan Sutko • North Carolina State University
Jonathan Taylor • California State University, Fullerton
Stefan Zimmermann • University of Mainz
Leo Zonn • University of Texas

Nov 21, 2009

Video: DROID & Interactive Display in Times Square; Droid Voice-activated Search

The video below shows people in NYC's Times Square using their Verizon Droid phones to interact with the Verizon Wireless digital signage billboard:


The Droid offers a voice-activated search feature. Users can ask a question, and the search engine, powered by Google, will provide the search results from the web or from items stored on the phone. One feature I like is that it provides turn-by-turn directions from Google Maps, as well as other helpful geographic information. This would be a great tool for city dwellers and visitors alike.

The video below is a demonstration of how the Google Maps Navigation feature works on Android-based phones:


RELATED
Verizon, Motorola Unveil the Droid
Marguerite Reardon 10/29/09 CNN Tech

Verizon Droid Gets New Google Innovation: Real-Time Internet-Linked Navigation
Michael Hickins, BNET

Announcing Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0
Google Mobile Blog

DRIOD by Motorola Fact Sheet

Cross posted-The World Is My Interface

Aug 7, 2009

Foursquare: Interactive Local + Social Media Coming to a City Near You.

Foursquare is a locative-mobile system/game/social media game/activity that is starting to grow in popularity in a number of urban settings, such as NYC. It hasn't arrived in Charlotte, so I can only share what I've gleaned about it from the Foursquare website and a few reviews:

"We're all about helping you find new ways to explore the city. We'll help you meet up with your friends and let you earn points and unlock badges for discovering new places, doing new things and meeting new people."

"It's foursquare! Think: 50% friend-finder, 30% social cityguide, 20% nightlife game. We wanted to build something that not only helps you keep up with your friends, but exposes you to new things in and challenges you to explore cities in different ways. There's a lot of experimenting here, so bear with us as we try to figure it all out (and thanks!)"


"We have an iPhone app, a mobile-web site (Blackberry! Treo!) and an SMS shortcode (50500) that you can text check-ins to. For more info, look here." (For more information, visit the Foursquare NYC website.)

RELATED:

Foursquare: Check In, Tweet....Money on Beer (Jennifer Van Grove, Mashable, 8/7/2009)

"Foursquare is poised to be a prime player in the location-based social networking space."

Forsquare: Why it May Be the Next Twitter (Jennifer Van Grove, Mashable, 7/25/2009)
"The Game: To those of you not playing, it may sound like a joke, but don’t knock it till you try it. You earn points for every check-in — unless of course you check-in at the same locale all the time. You’re rewarded with more points for being adventuresome (exploring different parts of the city), for hitting up multiple spots in one night, and eventually for the tips other people try and the to-dos you complete."

Screen-shot from Jennifer Van Grove's Foursquare App:

http://ec.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/IMG_1446.PNG

Building an Army of Hyper-Local, Mobile-Connected Advocates: Or, Why Marketers Should Pay Attention to Foursquare (Allison Mooney, Ad Age Digital, 8/5/09)

"Co-founder Dennis Crowley puts it this way: "I think Foursquare found some kind of sweet spot between the intersection of social utility (Hey, I know where my friends are), sharing/oversharing (I log everywhere I go/everything I do) and gaming/rewards (every check-in gives you a little piece of candy)."

Foursquare is designed with these game dynamics in mind, and it's the absurd appeal of its reward that makes the service so "sticky.""

Naveen Selvadurai (Foursquare Co-Founder)

Cities: Amsterdam, Atlanta,Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, NYC, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Franscisco, Seattle, Washington D.C.

(Also posted on the Technology Supported Human-World Interaction blog.)

Aug 6, 2009

Touch Screen and Interactive Displays Biz News, Part II - LocaModa

From LocaModa:



The above picture shows Viacom's MTV screen located in NYC's Times Square, linked to the web. User-generated text messages and photos can be submitted by mobile phone or the web, and displayed for 5 minutes an hour. Email notifications are sent to the senders when messages and/or photos have been approved and are on the giant screen.

Take a look at the website, and view the screen in real time.

"Wiffiti publishes real time messages to screens in thousands of locations from jumbotrons to jukeboxes, bars to bowling alleys and cafes to colleges.You can interact with Wiffiti from your mobile phone or the web."

"Wiffiti 4 by LocaModa has been used at thousands of large-scale events (concerts, gallery openings, corporate conferences, nonprofit fundraisers, several major inauguration events, South by Southwest, and political conventions -including both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions). It is also used extensively in digital signage networks ranging from huge jumbotrons in Times Square to thousands of screens in bars, cafes, schools, entertainment centers and even churches! We've used our deep understanding of user experience in digital out-of-home, web, and mobile to distill your feedback and requests for new features into this latest release."

JUMBLI


"The game is displayed several times per hour on Clear Channel’s Spectacolor screen in New York’s Times Square, located at 48th Street and Broadway. When Jumbli is live in Times Square, all other connected screens (including those on iPhones and in Facebook) indicate that the game is live in Times Square, and all plays made during that period are displayed in real-time on the Spectacolor Jumbotron, giving players one of the world’s most prominent screens for their plays."