Mobstuff
Projects
The field in which locative media is applied is immense, so therefore I've tried to categorise the projects I read about this past year in order to be able discuss them separately. The project listing including a short description can be found at the end of this document as references. This is very definitely not "the definitive list" so If you have come across other projects please let me know. Below I single just a few projects per category.
Art
Art projects such as .walk that combined computer code and "psychogeographic" streetwalking, the Milk project, a personal narrative provided by the international trade in milk between Latvia and the Netherlands, Urban Eyes that wants to provide an alternative view on the city by using pigeons as the messengers of camera and other imagery overlooking the main streets and back alleys, use location each in their own specific way. A project called TaggedSpace even claims to be the first RFID art project working with active sensing. In Tagged Space the movement of the participants and their groundingtime at one of the 15 artobjects placed in three parks of the Trienal exhibition 'Vormen van Aarden' in Apeldoorn, is translated into an individualised work of art on their own generated website and a by all participants generated story about grounding told by one of the birds from the park.
"This .walk example shows the classic generative psychogeographical algorithm, that urban exploration haiku, written down like a pseudo-computer language ." (http://socialfiction.org/dotwalk/dummies.html)
Storytelling
Although storytelling can easily be a characteristic of a locative media project instead of a category, I've put it down as a category to bundle the more theatrical projects such as Embedded Theatre in which a person becomes a participant in a context-specific story that evolves based on their position, movement, and choices, Hidden natures which is halfway between a theatre play and a novel, with something of experimental audio, a narrative that you make. These projects lean heavily on psychogeography, a kind of meditative walking practice through the urban landscape. The walk encourages the drifter to "get lost" in order to break with ingrained patterns of routine and see the landscape as a source of endless possibility in which a multitude of paths open for remapping the city.
From the Embedded Theatre website: "In this scenario a man is experiencing Embedded Theater for the first time. He enters a shop, gets the garment, and upon exiting the shop begins to understand the interface as the experience begins. Because the story takes place in various fictional Cities, it best illustrates the concept of navigating from to different nodes of the story." (http://www.interaction-ivrea.it/theses/2002-03/r.genz)
Blogging
In the world of blogging the use of location has now also penetrated in several ways. Some blogs like Blogmapper and SpaceNameSpace allow for geo-locative semantic information to be incorporated related stories to locations while other blogs like The Where project consist solely of personal posts about locations.
Image from the Mudlondon site explaining the semantic geographical model that is proposed. Read more at http://space.frot.org/mudlondon.html.
Gaming
Locative Gaming seems to be an unstoppable trend. It's an undoable task keeping up with the number of projects that are taking place all around the world. I've summarised a bunch of them in the references so take your time to go through them. To single out a few I'd like to mention Demor which is a location based 3D audio first person shooter for the blind and La Fuga held a former bank in northern Madrid in which up to 300 players at a time must try to escape solving RFID triggered quizzes.A minor trend can be see in creating locative games out of those "old" games we used to know. (for instance Pacmanhattan, Monopoly live and GPS:Tron)
"RFID tracks La Fuga players as they make their way through the Mazzinia complex, trying to escape." (http://www1.rfidjournal.com/article/view/1986/)
MoSoSo's
Over the last few years we have seen a lot of social networking sites emerge such as Orkut, Friendster, MyPlace etc. A MoSoSo, or mobile social software, is software that associates geographical location and time with such a social network. Most projects help you find and communicate with "kindred spirits" based on your profile (hobby's, work and sexual preferences). Dodgeball got a lot of attention this year because it got acquired by Google. One I still really like is the JabberWocky which helps you engage with those "Familiar Strangers" you see every day. For more see the references.
Image from the jabberwocky website (http://berkeley.intel-research.net/paulos/research/familiarstranger/index.htm)
Spatial Annotation & Geodrawing
In this category I've put projects that have been inspired by possiblities of Google Maps, such as Frappr, Plazes, Rabble, Geoskating and Semapedia and projects that allow you to post personal media at locations. I'd still like to mention Yellow Arrow; you've probably heard about it before but I just love its simplicity (for more details see the ref). Another project I'd like to mention is VoiceNote with which blind people can receive or record audio notes and pinpoint them to GPS locations. Voice commands tell him/her what direction to go in, where and when to turn, and how far away (s)he is from his/her destination at any given time. In the recording mode the device tracks and records an exact route, which can be stored and shared with other users or uploaded to a database or website.
Image from the yellow arrow website (http://yellowarrow.net/index2.php)
Service
This category lists the typical location based services which let's users pull information such as Google Local Mobile and JOCA (wikipedia for your mobile).
Featurettes
[murmur]
[murmur] is an archival audio project that collects and curates stories set in specific Toronto locations, told by Torontonians themselves. At each of these locations, a [murmur] sign with a telephone number and location code marks where stories are available. By using a mobile phone, users are able to listen to the story of that place while engaging in the physical experience of being there. Some stories suggest that the listener walk around, following a certain path through a place, while others allow a person to wander with both their feet and their gaze.
[murmur] believes interesting things don't just happen at the Rogers Centre and Nathan Phillips Square -- the city is full of stories, and some of them happen in parking lots and bungalows, diners and front lawns. The smallest, greyest or most nondescript building can be transformed by the stories that live in it. Once heard, these stories can change the way people think about that place and the city at large. These are the stories that make up Toronto's identity, but they're kept inside of the heads of the people who live here. [murmur] brings that important archive out onto the streets, for all to hear and experience, and is always looking for new stories to add to it's existing locations.
Uncle Roy All Around You
BlastTheory
http://www.uncleroyallaroundyou.co.uk/
Uncle Roy All Around You is a game played online in a virtual city and on the streets of an actual city. Online Players and Street Players collaborate to find Uncle Roy's office before being invited to make a year long commitment to a total stranger. The city is an arena where the unfamiliar flourishes, where the disjointed and the disrupted are constantly threatening to overwhelm us. It is also a zone of possibility; new encounters. Building on Can You See Me Now? the game investigates some of the social changes brought about by ubiquitous mobile devices, persistent access to a network and location aware technologies.
Uncle Roy All Around You is where the console game breaks out onto the streets; a game that pitches Online Players around the world alongside players on the real streets of the city. Street Players use handheld computers to search for Uncle Roy, using the map and incoming messages to move through the city. Online Players cruise through a virtual map of the same area, searching for Street Players to help them find a secret destination. Using web cams, audio and text messages players must work together. They have 60 minutes and the clock is ticking...
Members of the public play as Street Players using a handheld computer. They have 60 minutes. Uncle Roy sends directions, gives instructions and makes observations along the way. Street Players can see Online Players exploring this same area of the city on the map on their handheld computer. They can send audio messages to Online Players to ask for help. If they trust an Online Player they may lead them to their final destination.
The game drops Online Players into a virtual city. Street Players appear in the virtual city as black figures in a column of orange light. Other Online Players appear as white figures. A postcard is hidden somewhere on the streets of the real city. Using arrow keys to navigate, Online Players must search through the virtual city to find its location. Online Players can then send messages to Street Players; guiding them to collect this postcard from the real city. If they succeed, players are invited to Uncle Roy's office.
I like Frank
BlastTheory
http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/bt/work_ilikefrank.html
I Like Frank took place online at www.ilikefrank.com and on the streets using 3G phones. Players in the real city chatted with players in the virtual city as they searched for the elusive Frank. Whether playing on the streets or logging from around the world, players built relationships, swapped information and tested the possibilities of a new hybrid space.
The game invited players to search for Frank through the streets of Adelaide. Online Players moved through a virtual model of the city, opening location specific photos of the city. One photo revealed the location of a hidden object. Online Players then had to enlist a Street Player to go to that location and retrieve it. In the Exeter Hotel, in a pool hall and in saddle bags on bicycles were four different postcards each with a question for the Street Player to answer such as, 'Who do you think of when you feel alone?'Once an Online Player had achieved this they entered a new virtual Adelaide saturated in red where Frank was waiting in a photographic 'Future Land'.
Street Players received messages onto their phones that reveal that the creator of the game and Frank spent time together in Adelaide in the past. By walking through the north eastern part of the city Street Players followed in their footsteps. The game culminated with an interaction with a glimpsed figure at 'Future Land', a leafy sunken atrium between four mirrored office blocks. Via a video call on their phone they were invited to answer the question on their postcard and address it to an online player.
Can you see me now?
BlastTheory
http://www.blasttheory.co.uk/bt/work_cysmn.html
Can You See Me Now? is a game that happens simultaneously online and on the streets. Players from anywhere in the world can play online in a virtual city against members of Blast Theory. Tracked by satellites, Blast Theory's runners appear online next to your player on a map of the city. On the streets, handheld computers showing the positions of online players guide the runners in tracking you down. With up to 20 people playing online at a time, players can exchange tactics and send messages to Blast Theory. An audio stream from Blast Theory's walkie talkies allowed you to eavesdrop on your pursuers: getting lost, cold and out of breath on the streets of the city.
Yellow Arrow
Yellow Arrow is a spatial annotation project that started in Brooklyn (NY) in which anyone can mark places of interest with sticker and tell a story about it.
People print out and place yellow arrows in a public place of their choice. They make a digital photo and post the images with a personal description on the site; these are linked from a map on the website.
When other people come across a yellow arrow in a public place, they can call from their mobile phone and access the information from the site.
GPS Drawing
Jeremy Wood
The work is rooted in an interest in the processes and methodologies in the field of drawing. GPS drawings are exhibited as printed editions and sculptures as part of ongoing research into writing over the earth and drawing with ourselves as we move.
Amongst the documentation and representations on the site are contributions and collaborative material. The work and enthusiasm of the software developers has been instrumental in the unique representation of the drawings. As the visual mechanic of the project Hugh Pryor developed the GPSograph software for 3D representation and animation of GPS tracks. Alex Garfitt is developing an online database for the management and viewing of GPS and GIS data.
The idea of using GPS as a tool to draw with grew from recording the holding-pattern of a commercial airline flight from Berlin to London in October 2000. It has since been developed to incorporate the recording of all my trajectories as a digital trail. Recent work includes the presentation of my tracks as cartographic journals in a study of my movements over the past few years.
The raw GPS data is the material for digital and physical representation. The drawing takes place as and when one is being recorded by the GPS. We draw with ourselves as we move and map our experiences along the way. Much like the compass, theodolite and sextant before it, it is being used to identify new aspects of our journeys. The project considers our travels, from the trivial and the routine, via the special and the ordeal. The ways in which we approach and treat our travels can reveal a great deal about us. The qualities of our tracks, like the traces drawn by a pen, are determined by our movements and expressions.
http://www.gpsdrawing.com/gallery.htm
Amsterdam Realtime
WWaag Society & Esther Polak
For the exhibition Maps of Amsterdam 1866-2000 at the Amsterdam City Archive Waag Society together with Esther Polak have set up the Amsterdam RealTime project.
Every inhabitant of Amsterdam has an invisble map of the city in his head. The way he moves about the city and the choices made in this process are determined by this mental map. Amsterdam RealTime attampts to visualize these mental maps through examining the mobile behaviour of the city's users.
During two months (3 Oct to 1 Dec 2002) all of Amsterdam's residents are invited to be equipped with a tracer-unit. This is a portable device developed by Waag Society which is equipped with GPS: Global Positioning System. Using satellite data the tracer calculates its geographical position. Therse tracers' data are sent in realtime to a central point. By visualizing this data against a black background traces, lines, appear. From these lines a (partial) map of Amsterdam constructs itself. This map does not register streets or blocks of houses, but consists of the sheer movements of real pepole.
When the different types of users draw their lines, it becomes clear to the viewer just how individual the map of amsterdam can be. A cyclist will produce completley different favourite routes than someone driving a car. The means of transport, the location of home, work or other activities together with the mental map of the particular person determine the traces he leaves. This way an everchanging, very recent, and very subjective map of Amsterdam will come about. If you spend (or should we say move) a good amount of time within the 'ring' of the Amsterdam A10 Highway, you can apply here for becoming a testperson during rhe testing and development-stage or for becoming a participant during the time of the exhibition. Participants receive a print of their personal routes through the city, their diary in traces.
video http://realtime.waag.org/mpeg.html
MILK
Esther Polak
http://locative.x-i.net/piens/
MILK is an artistic mapping project, which, by using GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technologies, maps out possibilities of time & space representation in individual routes of several small-scale Latvian milk farms and of milk transportation throughout Europe. It is a cooperation project between artist Esther Polak (NL) and researcher Ieva Auzina (LV) and was launched in July, 2003 in Latgale, Latvia in the framework of international workshop Locative media, organised by RIXC - Riga Centre for New Media Culture.
MILK is based on AmsterdamREALTIME. A diary in tracks, a project which was initiated by Esther Polak and developed in cooperation with the Waag Society and artist Jeroen Kee. This project was realized in the municipality archives of Amsterdam in October-November 2003.
Geography of MILK frames currently shifting EU terrain: from a destitute Latvian corner - Latgale, where the milk is produced as far as Netherlands and other EU countries, where the same milk is being consumed.
By turning collected GPS data into on-line atlas of maps, Ieva Auzina and Esther Polak in collaboration with software developer Markus The (NL) and RIXC would like to discover this peculiar milk net, its explicitly local stories and complex euro-global dimensions.
Frequency 1550
Waag Society
The 11-12 year old students are invited to the Waag building, one of Amsterdam's medieval citygates, for three special project days. During network tests a Waag Society development-team has run into strange frequency problems and found the Amsterdam UMTS-network to be magically interfering with a different time period: the medieval era. A recording is made of the medieval city's bailiff getting in contact with the here and now: 21st century Amsterdam. Through some technical difficulties and religious misunderstandings he mistakes the intruders to be pilgrims coming to 1550 Amsterdam to visit the special relic: the Holy Host associated with The Miracle of Amsterdam. Because it recently got lost he suggests a deal: he can provide easy access to citizenship if we can help him retrieve the holy relic. The students take up their roles as competing pilgrims and thus step into the game's story.
For one to two days, players roam through the city in small groups. GPS makes it possible to know the position of your team (and of other players or objects). To prove they're the most worthy order of pilgrims, a team will need to demonstrate their knowledge of medieval Amsterdam by doing location-based media-assignments on the city's history. As they wander through the streets of medieval Amsterdam, they get in virtual phone contact with characters that provide information on locations and on the strange disappearing of the holy relic. In the meantime, they're competing with the other teams. GPS technology and mobile phones turn the city into a medieval playingfield. Teams can boobytrap eachother by placing bombs on the medieval streets: With a click on their gamephone the players can drop a virtual bomb at their current location that will go off in the face of a passing opponent, temporarily killing communication facilities with HQ. Running into other teams starts a confrontation between the Pilgrims - their Order determines who wins, taking away hard-earned experience points, co called Days of Poorterschap (medieval Days of Citizenship).
UMTS makes it possible for each team to be in touch with their Headquarters (HQ) by mobile video telephone and to exchange multimedia. During the pilot, HQ is located at the Waag building. Using internet-access from their special laptop-based HQ interface, information is looked up and historical references are checked out. HQ also sees the bigger picture, has the overview as to what the other teams are up to and works out the team's strategy. HQ can guide teams toward scoring locations and is responsible for processing the media made on location and sending relevant media or information to the players out in the city. After every day of playing, all teams gather at HQ to see not only who did best, but to collectively reflect on the media produced, the answers given and the strategic decisions taken during the game.
Biomapping
Christian Nold
http://www.emotionmap.net/map.htm
Bio Mapping is a research project which explores new ways that we as individuals can make use of the information we can gather about our own bodies. Instead of security technologies that are designed to control our behaviour, this project envisages new tools that allows people to selectively share and interpret their own biometric data.
The Bio Mapping tool allows the wearer to record their Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), which is a simple indicator of emotional arousal in conjunction with their geographical location. This can be used to plot a map that highlights point of high and low arousal. By sharing this data we can construct maps that visualise where we as a community feel stressed and excited.
How will our perceptions of our community and environment change when we become aware of our own and each others intimate body states?
Oscillating Windows
http://www.kakirine.com/windows
We present an application for close-proximity network communication: Oscillating Windows. The project uses physical co-location, proximity, and group interaction to move a digital image from one location to another. With this project we explore the concept of 'enforced cooperation' and the effect it has on the spatial and social behavior of individuals in public space.
The technology at the core of this project is an ad-hoc network developed by the NTRG at Trinity College Dublin. Successful transmission of data from source to destination in an ad-hoc network depends on there being a critical mass and distribution of nodes to create a path for the data. This can be seen as a weakness of ad-hoc networks as it means that communication between two nodes is not always possible. However, we leverage this perceived weakness by establishing a consequential 'reward' which capitalizes on non-verbal aspects of body language and communication.
Oscillating Windows provides an opportunity to exploit the natural formations and patterns of individuals and groups in social and public space. The way in which people sit and orient themselves while socializing, or the way in which their movement in a public space is directed/constrained in a public space can be exploited within this framework
.walk
http://www.socialfiction.org/dotwalk/
.walk (dot-walk) combines computer code and "psychogeographic" streetwalking. During the walk, participants carry out an algorithmic series of instructions derived from computer code, that "calculates" the city as a giant "periapatetic computer". The concept behind it is the clever part, based, as it is, on a metaphor for how order emerges from chaos, borrowed from the ant colony, which generates maps through the brute force, random exploration of a territory.
// T = Time (in minutes)
// E = Exportcode
// C = Counter
E = 2
C = 0
Repeat
{
X = E
1 st street left
2 nd street right
X street left
When 2 agents meet
{
Exchange E
C + 1
}
Count T 0 to 60
If time = 60
{
Abort to Root
Print C to socialfiction.org
}
}
Or in straightforward English:
"Your export code is 2
Repeat the following instructions; walk the first street left, second street right, then you take the street left that is indicated as your export code. Every time you meet another psychogeographer you exchange export codes. This new code will change the 3rth turn. Remember how often you exchange export code. When you have walked for one hour you return to the place your are supposed to meet. Once arrived there report the number of encounters to socialfiction.org."
Hlemmur in C
Pall Thayer
http://130.208.220.190/hlemmC/
Hlemmur in C is a project that was done in conjunction with a conference held in Reykjavik, Iceland in March, 2004 called "Rethinking the Interface Between Human Creativity and Technology". The organizers of the conference had decided to host some art events that would focus on or the area around "Hlemmur", the main inner-city bus terminal in the Reykjavik area.
I've been working with locative media for a few months and am currently organizing a workshop to be held in Reykjavik in July of 2004. The conference organizers got wind of this and contacted me to ask if I could create something for the art portion of the conference. After some thought I came up with the idea behind "Hlemmur in C" which tracks the movements of two taxi cabs that have their "base" station at Hlemmur. The tracking was done with two GPS devices on the evening/night of Saturday, March 20th, 2004. In the visual portion, Hlemmur is represented in white, taxi1 in red and taxi2 in blue. In the audio portion, Hlemmur itself is represented as a constant middle C. While the taxis are at their base station, they are also represented by a middle C but as soon as they begin moving, their pitch is altered. The farther they travel away from Hlemmur, the higher or lower their pitch goes. This causes the tones to vibrate and the speed of the vibrations increases as the difference in pitch increases. So things begin to sound somewhat "unstable" when the taxis leave their post. However, if the two taxis happen to meet anywhere along the way, this will also reduce the speed of the vibrations. The tone is only completely stable when both taxis are at Hlemmur.
http://130.208.220.190:8000/playlist.pls?mount=/map&file=dummy.pls
UnderSound
3 million people each day travel through London by means of the Underground, the oldest subway system in the world--people hate it, people love it. Still, the Tube is one of the most widely recognized symbols of the city, and practically one of the most used transport systems. With the project undersound we are exploring the experience of riding the Underground and the mediated perception of the urban space through the design of a highly contextualized interactive system--a music-based application that encourages people to interact with others and with the Underground itself. The aim of the project is to make people reflect on their experience through the use of music, to see people's behaviours and patterns of movement in new ways.
A sense of place
undersound will be spatially distributed at individual stations and throughout the wider tube network. I can add music to the system at upload points in the ticket halls , and I can download tracks on the platforms. Architectural configuration of the stations affects my experience of contributing and downloading music as the proximal nature of the interaction with these situated points require s myself and other undersound users to congregate at certain locations within the station for the purpose of interacting with the system.
Each track in the undersound system will be tagged with its place of origin (the station where it was uploaded) and this information is visible as the track is being played. This may trigger memories and musings around my personal relationship to that place. Is there also a correlation between the flow of people around the tube network and the flow of music tracks around the undersound network? What might a sense of place for these digital artefacts be? Do they care about geographical location too or might their sense of place revolve around the quality and type of network and the technological devices they pass through?
localized interpersonal interactions
While in the carriages of the tube, I can browse undersound music of other people in range. Because the system will be gathering metadata on the stations where the track has been (via uploading/downloading at the transfer points) and thus its spread within the network, the time it has been in the system, the number of times it has been played, the number of people who have played it, and so on, I will be able to see this information when I look at other people's music. I can browse through other's tracks anonymously, but if I decide to download a song from someone else an alert will be triggered on their phone letting them know that I am grabbing one of their tracks.
In this way, I cannot take a track from another passenger without them knowing--there is a social cost. It is possible for them to ignore the act altogether, but in keeping with much of the tacit interaction which tube riders engage in, we hope that this will provide an acceptable social opportunity to connect with another person. This sharing of music would not violate current social practices and would ideally afford new ones.
Emergent large scale flows
Each of our local interactions contributes to a broader trend, and undersound embraces that fact. Every time I listen to a track, drop one off at transfer point or download music from someone else, I have an effect on the overall state of the system. Not only is this reflected in the rankings of the tracks that I see as I browse through the lists of available music from download points and people's mobile phones but it will also be incorporated into public displays which are installed in each of the stations. These displays will serve to convey the most recent state of the undersound network - the journeys and lifetimes of the tracks.
Each station's display will uniquely reflect information pertinent to that station so that users are presented with a quick visual overview of what the station has to offer. The display will function as a visual representation of the sum of all the individual actions that shape the undersound network. Through the stories that each of the tracks tells us, I can now see that my personal choices have a global effect and, if I so desire, I can alter my course of action with this new knowledge in hand.
PacManhattan
Pac-Manhattan is a large-scale urban game that utilizes the New York City grid to recreate the 1980's video game sensation Pac-Man. This analog version of Pac-man is being developed in NYU's Interactive Telecommunications graduate program, in order to explore what happens when games are removed from their "little world" of tabletops, televisions and computers and placed in the larger "real world" of street corners, and cities.
A player dressed as Pac-man will run around the Washington square park area of Manhattan while attempting to collect all of the virtual "dots" that run the length of the streets. Four players dressed as the ghosts Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde will attempt to catch Pac-man before all of the dots are collected.
Using cell-phone contact, Wi-Fi internet connections, and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team, Pac-man and the ghosts will be tracked from a central location and their progress will be broadcast over the internet for viewers from around the world.
Rules
Objective
Pac-Man attempts to clear the game board of dots before getting caught by ghosts.
The Playing Area
The Pac-Manhattan grid covers a 6 x 4 block area surrounding Washington Square Park. Intersections are designated by a letter and number starting in the top left corner and continuing left to right
Power pellets are located at the intersections A1; E1; A6; E7 (i.e. the corners of the board) If they are active their intersection is colored yellow, when consumed their intersection turns white. Washington Square Park is off limits to all players.
Game Play
At the start of the game, Pac-Man runs along the streets, staying outdoors, within the designated playing area at all times. The ghosts may begin to chase Pac-Man. Pac-Man continues to run the board until all of the dots are "eaten" or one of the ghosts eats Pac-Man.
Upon arriving at a street corner, Pac-Man and the Ghosts must report their new location to their respective Generals.
When Pac-Man arrives at an intersection with an available Power pellet he automatically consumes it. If being chased, Pac-Man must touch the pole at the corner to activate the power pellet. Upon consuming a power pellet Pac-Man is "invincible" for two minutes and may eat the ghosts. If a Ghost is eaten, the ghost must return to the starting point before being able to chase Pac-Man again.
http://www.pacmanhattan.com/media/chase.mov
http://flickr.com/photos/tags/pacmanhattan/
Codex Kodanski
Codex Kodanski was held in the center of Rotterdam, Holland and can be described as an four-dimensonal interactive audio game. Walking through the city de player hears the voice of the main character in his head, the compulsive and paranoid Kodanski. Using a headphone and hightech navigation equipment the player gets access to a whole new city, hidden behind all we normally see. Facts, fiction, city history and statistics mix into a exciting story about and through the city. The project was developed by Hootchie Cootchie Mediacollectief.
All possible sources of information were used. Looking at the city as a multi-layered database, almost like glass plates of information on top of eachother. In this way each location can offer different types of information, also creating relations between locations by combining for instance geographical soil data with immigrant demographics.
ET (Embedded Theater)
http://www.cutecircuit.com/now/projects/wearables/embedded-theater/
ET (Embedded Theater) is a system that allows to interactively navigate audio-augmented environments and create mobile storytelling experiences. Is composed by an headset with sensors and a belt with embedded wireless network capabilities. While moving through a city or environment the person wearing the system receives audio files, that are dynamically adjusted in volume to create a tridimensional audioscape depending on the direction or objects they are looking at.
ParQ
Waag Society
http://www.waag.org/project/parq
ParQ is a mobile media sharing application that exposes and reinforces the social network of the communities that share a public park. Its developers are curious how social interaction is influenced by locative aspects of mobile messaging. Having installed the ParQ application on their mobile phone, park visitors are able to send, pick up, and respond to messages that relate both to locations in the park and to their personal or shared interests. A tagging system allows them to define their own folksonomy to categorize and present their self-produced textual and (audio)visual media. In addition the application builds a realtime tagged media reflection on a screen strategically placed in the park.
What is it ? ParQ is a mobile media sharing application that exposes and reinforces the social network of the communities that share a public park. Its developers are curious how social interaction is influenced by locative aspects of mobile messaging.
What does it do ? Having installed the ParQ application on their mobile phone, park visitors are able to send, pick up, and respond to messages that relate both to locations in the park and to their personal or shared interests. A tagging system allows them to define their own folksonomy to categorize and present their self-produced textual and (audio)visual media. In addition the application builds a realtime tagged media reflection on a screen strategically placed in the park.
Why a park ? In a park, people are in a relaxed mood with an open mind to their surroundings and with time to kill. Also it's a place with clearly a public function that brings together people with different interests but a shared interest in the park space. We believe that the Amsterdam Vondelpark can be exemplary for parks around the world.
What's the diff ? ParQ is not MSN on your phone allowing you to have remote internet chats. All messages are stored 'in the park'. You go there to interact with them and with their creators. You physically connect to the media space, the location of the park itself, using short-range no-cost bluetooth technology.
also see http://www.loca-lab.org/