Prototype application research

Most people today don’t read poetry or know much about poetry. Many teachers are shy about teaching poetry and writing, partly because creative writing, writing poetry, is messy and slow. So it’s redundant in the modern frenetically paced, MTV- digitalized world.

Or is it?

How is it that music in the digital age has been refined and reinvented and effectively metamorphasised from Sibelius to Snow Patrol? Popular music assaults our ears at the switch of a car radio, or from the TV, even in the Supermarket.

How is that art has successfully transitioned from the canvases of the Old Masters to the TV, Cinema, Computer and Games Console screen in a highly digitalized and now widely accepted art form?

How is it that the written word has palpably failed to engage the attention of modern man? Does poetry have to possess a “street cred” that is only acceptable to modern youth in the form of the violent rantings of rappers?

Can modern poets ever hope to make Joe Public stop for a second, put down his iPOD, think, reflect and wonder at the power of the written word?

Or is the only realistic way to engage the modern reader likely to be through the synthesis of written word, music, and graphic art?

Others have tried, but are you convinced?

Posting

To anyone who has yet to post their assignment task, please make an attempt to post images and movies directly rather than links to them. The difference between those who have and those who have not is clear in the number of comments. Also tag your post with your name by selecting it in the categories on the post page – then we know who you are!

To post an image is easy, its like attaching an image in a web mail client. To post a youtube video please see the “Posting” tab on the weblog – it’s really easy!!

Volume at V&A

Volume is at V&A Victoria and
Albert
Museum in
London. Garrett showed me this. Looks amazing on video. Love to go and see this at
London. I think I will take a trip up there soon! 

The volume is a interaction sculpture which is made up from columns of shaped like obelisks. They are positioned for a dramatic effect to capture the eye’s attention and imposing feature. The columns interact with passers by.  This creates a range of visual and audio reactions and experiences for the visitors. Going in further in the Volume triggers light and sound to what you have done. This gives the visitor to admire actions and interact in this staged environment.

Idea

As a lot of you know, I work at a theater during the holidays and on some weekends when I go back home. It’s a big place with three floors (three bars, two levels of the theater, a snack shop, box office etc) and as well as showing performances and films, it can also be hired out for weddings and other functions.
Here is the web page for it.

My idea is to produce an interactive map that people can use to view all of the facilities that the theater has to offer and to help them find places in the theater itself. The three levels could have clickable sections, which bring up photos and information when clicked on. It would be a new way of advertising the venue.

I also noticed over this Christmas holiday that a lot of people were upset with the view they had of the stage from the seats they were given. So I thought that there could be another section on the map where people could click on each seat and have a view of the stage from those seats appear. They could then make note of which seats they liked and book them specifically. There could also be a section where they could reserve seats on the interactive map itself. There also may be room for a section that advertises upcoming shows and gives the prices.

I decided that the best way for people to see the interactive map would to have a touch screen kiosk near the box office in the foyer. The theater itself is in the center of town so it would get a lot of notice from passers by.

I looked at the interactive map of The Tate Gallery which can be found here and I liked the way it presented all the information. I would like to do something similar to that.

I also during my research found a couple of videos of kiosks that I found interesting. I obviously wouldn’t be able to do anything like the second one, but the first one was inspiring.

(This last one is more corporate)

Oh and during my search I also found this really funny Jay Leno video about a Photobooth. If anyone is interested, they can find it here!

ETA: Sorry to anyone who saw the big mess of code I just made now – never used this blog before.

Prototype research

Prototype application research

For my prototype I plan to use a brief from the YCN awards. I doubt Id actually enter it but it’s a good brief. My chosen brief is for Virgin, the link will show the brief:

http://www.ycnonline.com/0607_virginmobile.php#

The gist of the brief is that I will make an interactive display for Virgin stores to show their mobile phones, the idea is to add “a touch of glamour, fun and humor to everyday things such as in store brochures and handset displays.”

The prototype would be fun gimmicky and very easy to use; it would be intended as a CD-Rom to be used in store perhaps on a touch screen display by the mobile phones.

As research for this brief I’ve visited Virgin.com and Virginmobile.com, both are interactive sites with good flash work but there is a lot of information in a small area and its quite obvious why Virgin are looking to redo their phone marketing.

I knew I wanted to do something like this so I researched more corporate interactive screens instead of looking at installations.

This first one is for a car, the screen reacts with a sensor that changes the images as people walk closer so that they can see further into the cars design.

This next link is for a giant interactive wall which displays information about a building (presumably the building its in) it has an option where the user can take a panoramic look at the view from the building which I think is very cool and is something I could defiantly implement with the Virgin phones brief.

Although I tried to only look at corporate work this really stood out as being amazing work, the videos a bit long but the work is fantastic and if I can think of a way to make something this good and then fit it in with my brief I would be very happy.

http://www.ycnonline.com/0607_all.php

Ideas and Research

Idea

The product that will produce is an interactive Kiosk for a majorArt
Gallery. The gallery will be the Tate Modern as it was one of the places discussed when thinking about the concept. This would be availble in the main sections of the gallery to be fully used.

Kiosk will provide a map and information of different gallery locations. So the vistors can plan their visit and go to where they want to go, rather than going everywhere to find what they want. The Kiosk will have a interactive gallery of pieces of work by artists at the chosen sections. For example the surrealist art.I would should artists work such as Salvdor Dali and Marcel Duchamp. That you would pull and drag from the selection of paintings and sculptures of your chose. This would fill a demand that not everyone can understand what the work means. And you could click a element of the piece at a highlighted section. It would give a brief decribtion of the work as a whole. And brodern the general understanding of the indivdual person.

Research Motion Wall

www.nanikawa.com

Motion wall was created by Nanika. They were hired by Projector to make interactive designs for a Japanese gadget store Beyes. They have explored many areas of interactive design pushing to the limits. They did this by doing projects of Nokia and Sony. Because of this they have created some beautiful work that shows colour and shape as spectacular art forms. All the interactive displays have a individual mesmerising impact. It works by using motions of people acting in front of the screen or passers by. The store is equipped with a projection system and sensors to capture every movement of the individual. It creates a range of endless shapes and colours. Lets visitor in the store interact in the environment and creates buzzer organic imagery. Looks fun!

Argos Kiosks

Fresca a web agency was appointed to design and produce a self service kiosk for
Argos. This came about as many of Argos’s customers wanted to have the same experience of buying items from the internet in their high street stores.

This solution lets Argos customers to check stock availability and place their order, pay for the item using the kiosk, avoiding the need to visit a till point. This saves the customer time and hassle.Argos as well saves time and money.

The kiosk enables their customers to escape the busy queens inside the store. It also has a feature to have certain items to be home delivered. Rather than queued in store to find out if it could be delivered. This I found has been a worth wild trip, rather than getting stressed out waiting.

Fresca designed and built the interface with easy to use navigation for anyone to use. They integrated the application with Argo’s EPOS system which they use in store.EPOS system is needed to operate the store tills; this is an efficient point of sale whilst at the same time enabling you to keep track of the stock available in store and overall business activity. The system can also look and check customer accounts, stock control and report on facilities that are available for staff and cutomers.

This gives the company control of the store, stock, staff and money. And customers one on one with the brand to get what they want when they want it.Epos system can be used by Pc’s, Pc’s-tills, Stock computers, billboards, cash machines, touch screens, chip and pin and barcode printers.

Magazines

Found some good magazines that could help us with this assignment. Very read, helpful articles and tutorials! Nice!!!! Computer Arts Projects Interactive Design It’s got a cool cover uniquely interactive cover which will react to your touch! How is that!

Did some research it’s thermochromic’ printing technology! oooooooooooooooo!

Colour change effect where it reacts to repeatedly to hot and cold temperatures. And different light sources.

Has useful flash tutorials to make work interactive. Articles about companies that make interactive products.

Computer Arts Projects Packaging Design Has a range of templates and tutorials. And articles about different packaging and companies. Books Couple of books I think are great for this! Designing Interactions Bill Moggridge Comes with DVD with interviews from IDEO designers. Interesting how they cam up with the concepts, ideas and designs. How the end product has made a impact. It interesting how the product evolved. DVD Art: Innovation in DVD Packaging Design Charlotte RiversCD – Art: Innovation in CD Packaging Design Charlotte RiversBooks about packaging of popular and unusual CDs and DVDs from the global. Worth a look! Mapping an Illustrated Guide to Graphic Navigational Systems Roger Fawcett-Tang Essays by William Owen

 

Multimedia Research

This is going to be a rather long post I’m afraid, so be warned – or just don’t read it. Rather than just showing you what I’ve researched, I’m covering process too. I think the development of the idea is as important as the idea itself, so to have a thorough understanding of what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it. Far from just wanting to learn things, I’m very much an advocate of critical thought, as I think knowledge in itself is almost worthless without application, and to thrash out yet again an age-old saying that I use/plagiarise quite a lot: “Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit, Wisdom is knowing not to put it in fruit salad.”

So, pretentiousness aside, I have to admit I didn’t really have a clue to begin with what this assignment was about, so I trawled the recommended links, and read through a bunch of articles until I came to these on the ‘We make money not art’ site.

Emotional Clothing

Wearables for a Distant Society

Wearable Instrument Shirt

These three particularly grabbed my attention, I think because they make the mundane, the static and unchanging into changeable, dynamic items. Clothes that change their mood in response to your own, fashion for a future society, and interactive clothing that, although seemingly little more than an amusement in this example, show how convergence of different forms, in this case electronics and textiles, changes the experience of wearing clothing. That may sound ridiculous, but scientific development along with innovation and application, proper marketing and development, leads to an eventual but inevitable change in the lifestyles of humans. I began to wonder how we will ‘think’ about clothes if clothes become more than simple fashion or necessary requirement, but are amalgamated with technology. Not only that, but it lead me to wonder about what areas are already amalgamated, and where has that intrigue and desire for change and progress and innovation not been successfully applied.

That got me to thinking about what areas of interactive design I would most like to see developed. I’m very much a person into the development of space for interactive use, as I don’t think space in itself has any utility if not put to use. This got me thinking back to the Marketing assignment I did at the beginning of the second year, where rather than using posters to market an idea, I stuck post-it notes with messages around Thanet as an idea for making our immediate environment more interactive.

I very much dislike journeys from A to B, because of the lack of productivity, the lack of things to do and achieve, knowing that you go from A to B to achieve something at B that you couldn’t at A. All the time in between is wasted, unless you really enjoy morning strolls and listening to the birds, but those are events beyond your control and subject to varying tastes. So when I walk around my home town of Sandwich, my journeys are short but they’re a bore to me. There’s nothing to do in between where I’ve come from and where I’m going to.

I’m a fairly big science fiction fan, and I think one of the problems that science fiction writers tend to have is that while they develop future technologies, man’s life rarely changes itself. The goals are usually the same, except in some unique examples. Some science fiction writers understand that the course of life changes with scientific development of an environment, for example, in Dan Simmons’ “Hyperion”, rooms in houses exist on different worlds, implants aid memory and mobile devices give constant access to information and political decision making for people on the move. Living, movement, information gathering and processing all change, so the human way of life itself is developed as it is augmented with technology, which we have covered quite extensively in Alan’s lessons regarding technophobia and technophilia.

While all that sounds like a wonderful future to me, apart from exhibits I think actual development of areas in terms of interactivity has been fairly slow. When I move around a town, I want to constantly be able to make and do things, so that being between A and B is not a useless exercise. I believe this is down to a kind of mental inertia on the part of the majority of people – which is nobody’s fault as such, it’s just like having to break before turning a corner. So for this project, I’ve had a few thoughts on what I want to achieve.

Around my town, like many others, we have notice boards which are locked and only a few people can access and contribute to, whenever they get round to doing it. We have boards where people write on cards advertising things for sale, employees or employer required, and other various wants. We put legal notices in local papers and on the library well. You limit your audience in doing this, you limit the effectiveness of your statement, you limit the service provided to the public and you limit your potential returns.

My idea then is to take these elements, public notice boards, advertising boards, message boards, street maps, billboards, and combine them to be accessed in your environment.

I had two thoughts of how to achieve this – firstly through specified “big-screen” areas, which replace the old town board areas, that you access through a terminal in front of the big screen. The terminal has two card entry points. The first is for the upcoming ID cards. I believe ID cards can be useful in society, and in this case, the chip on the ID card is read and your personal details are accessed from the database. Secondly through a built in projector as part of a handset which you can carry around with you and project to any wall. The trouble with the two ideas being that in the first, you still have to be in the right place to use the terminal and in the second, projecting from a handset could leave the projection so shaky that unless you’re absolutely still, you may not be able to see what you’re doing, and anyway, it becomes very much like a phone or a personal organiser, only possibly more tedious. Still, I’m open to the idea of altering either idea.

In terms of the prototype we’re to create in Director, to represent this, I would be doing something along the lines of converting the cursor into a hand, which picks up the image of a card, and places it into a virtual slot. I could make an administrator’s program seperately, though I’m not sure this is a terribly good idea in that it would be fairly time consuming. However I do it, the details of the card are read if I use the terminal, and a password or PIN is required to access the use the terminal’s facilities. The big screen, or projection, would be represented as a second movie, responding (if possible) to the use of the terminal or handset, in this case the first movie.

I think that perhaps adding an administration element to this project would be for the best, in terms of adding public service messages and advertising local events. I find that around my town, I have to be at a place to find out that an event is actually happening there, which doesn’t attract new custom, it only keeps old custom. Our town’s biggest event was advertised with just flyers door-to-door, which many people never even received.

Later on, referring to my proposal, I stated this:

“Much of my current research has been on future technologies so far – looking into such things as Panasonic’s interactive table, drawing on the idea of interactivity within our surroundings as in David Kousemaker’s “Touch Me” installation, which allows individuals to “create and contribute a personal image to an otherwise impersonal public space” through physical interaction with a glass surface, and influenced by ideas like Graffiti Research Lab’s “Interactive Architecture”, involving projecting graffiti onto a tower block.

My prototype aims to reflect a technological device that would amalgamate these three differing pieces with the communications we already see in our environments that would be a device more productive and useful than any current technology that possesses the ability to do some of these things as a mobile device – laptop computers and mobile phones for example – and to do this would require the technology offering either a more efficient service, more diverse use, or more specifically relevent use depending on its technological rival.”

Here are the three examples I stated in that section of the proposal. I had been spending a fair amount of time raping Garrett’s favourites list on YouTube, and these were the three that struck me the most, because simply put, these are the technologies and ideas I want to combine for my assignment – projection, portability, the outside environment between points A and B, practicality, all wrapped in a package that is not only informative and useful, but creative.

Panasonic Interactive Table

David Kousemaker – Touch me

Graffiti Research Lab – Interactive Architecture

I know this seems a lot to be taking on, but I’m fairly clear about where I’m going, and how to present and develop this over the coming weeks. We touched on the use of the database before Christmas, and I’m going to get into this further, look at more futuristic designs for aesthetic inspiration. Feel free to comment on what you think of my idea, and pleeeaaaase be as critical as possible, pick holes in everything. I’m not going to learn anything otherwise.

Right, that’s enough for now… comments?

Research

sorrry the images didn’t come out for some reason
but i pinned the same document up in the mac room
in the far corner to the door Phil

Interactive Director Piece

INTERACTIVE MAPS

As part of my assignment two I will be using interactive maps other people maybe having the same through for there work here some example to check out that may be of some help with ideas.

http://www.google.com/apis/maps/

This is a very simply animated map with it allow the user to zoom in and out of the map and left to right, up and down to find closer details, it maybe only simple but very effective. You can also more around the map with the use of the mouse.

http://www.multimap.com/

This is a far more complex map for the whole world, but it is very good, overly any map will not be of this scale but it good how it works by clicking on places and the map zooming in to show a particular area.

http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/ukinfo/

This is a simple map of the UK that has all of the university in the countries on it and it allows the user to click on the university web site they wish to visit very simple but very good the way it set up.

http://www.interactivemaps.org/

This is quiet interesting it shows where a woman been around the world giving you the chance to click on the different places then seeing some information about her trip there or images she taken there. I strongly recommend looking at this site for ideas, if using maps.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/world/05/bird_flu_map/html/1.stm

This map work different to the others by showing different pieces of information about bird flu by clicking on the different information required and then showing the information on the map.

http://www.journeyplanner.org/im/SI-T.html

This show an interactive based on the London Underground that show information by a drop down menu.
http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/euroquiz.html
This interactive map tests your knowledge on different countries.

HANDHELD DEVICES

Handheld devices is an area that I may well use within my assignment hear some useful websites about them.
http://oxygen.csail.mit.edu/H21.html
This looks at a hand held device called the H21.

INTRACTIVE KIOSK

Interactive kiosk or information points is what I will use to display my work here some info I found on them:
Here an interactive sell point with a touch screen in front of the display.

Here are some different examples of different types of kiosk’s used in all different places.