Hello

 Hello!

No, you're not crazy if you talk to the lamppost! 

• Note: I'm still working on this post....here's where I am so far.   WORKING DRAFT..

Proximity Location Aware Cities Lampposts and Furniture and more.

• QR Codes, Will we even need them or need to see them?

Will everything have embedded IP information and interactivity in the future live or inanimate?

• and a gesture brings the content to you by audio, video, and more..
• a personal virtual display projection or group display
• your choice of how you want to process the information?

http://www.good.is published an interesting story, gets you going on other ways people can interact and learn in the real world.

From www.good.is - Pan Studio

Do you remember the Helen Keller story where she felt items to determine what they were and learn more about them? (She was blind and deaf.) This isn't about touching, but by proximity and if you think about meshing this application below with accessibility, how great would that be?

From the www.good.is commentary.  I looked for the writer's name to credit them here, but alas, I couldn't find a name at http://www.good.is/posts/hello-lamppost-talking-street-furniture-and-a-playable-city/

"Like a real-life version of a Pixar movie, the streets of Bristol, England will soon be filled with seemingly-inanimate objects that can talk.

Mailboxes, storm drains, and lampposts will be enabled with a system that allows passerby to chat with them by text message. The project, created by experiential design studio PAN, was the winner of the Playable City Award, a contest that invited designers from around the world to imagine street art or street games that could engage the community and bring people together.

A counterpart to the "smart city," the contest leaders say a "playable city" is one where people take part in reimagining and reconfiguring city services, and where they're encouraged to be playful in public. Inspired by this challenge, the designers wrote:

• The sensory extremities and appendages of a smart city are its utilities and street furniture—objects so ubiquitous that they have become invisible to us.

• They include (but aren't exclusive to) street lights, post boxes, bus stops and fire hydrants. 

• If these human 'touchpoints' are going to be smart, can they also be open, hospitable and played with at the same time? How can they be open to interpretation, surprising, and personable?

The www.good.is story continued..."PAN based their design on the codes that are stamped on objects throughout the city for management and maintenance, and made them reference points for their version of a city-wide game. By texting the "Playable City" phone number, along with the object's unique code, someone walking by can "wake up" the object and start asking and answering questions."

For a directional challenged person, I would love to talk to something on a street directing me to my next location or giving me more information.

This reminds me a little bit of the signs that you see in Asia that tell you where you can find parking in what buildings in the city, and the number of parking spaces. The signs on the road (or in front of each building) change dynamically with capacity.  The parking lot, number of available spaces is displayed on signs when approaching the city.

Combine all these ideas, or pick and choose one or the other, and think about how you could do something very different and also provide a service, give something back to the community, help others. How would you take these ideas and make them your own, and so much better?

• And if I'm waiting for the bus, Metro, is there a game to play to keep me occupied?

• and of course, I need the arrival time of 'my' next bus  or metro car and how many seats are available on the bus would be most helpful, and should I wait a few minutes for the next car since I'll get a seat?

The DC Metro is confusing at some of the stations, and I never thought their metro map was easy to use.

DC Metro Map Confusing - How would you improve it?

Underground, you get turned around as you try to find the right platform for the Metro.  You have to determine what level, and if you are on the right side of the platform, where the doors open and the train is going the right direction.    The Rosslyn Metro is an example, since it's multi-level.

I'm actually surprised that the DC Metro doesn't have video on their digital signage/advertising in the stations as well as on the Metro trains.    I'm sure they have done something, but I haven't seen anything in the last six months.    It must be a matter of cost.

• There's also a lot of wall space in the Metro, and wouldn't it make for a great, oh, consider this, mobile art display.  I mean mobile as in art hanging from the walls, or like that over a baby's crib.  Think Calder, or even colorful fabric or large ornaments created by students. 

DC Metro

Consider the fun multimedia display applications and exhibits that could also teach or that you could interact with in a game. 

 A treasure hunt or putting together clues at different Metro stops in a puzzle type environment or whatever one determines is a fun idea would be great to distract you and make your experience a little more pleasant during your transit connection wait.  A combination of proximity, visual, and who knows what?      In TaiPai as you go into an exhibit, they take your photo and display it with different backgrounds while you are waiting to go up the elevators to one of the tallest buildings in the world.  Where in the world is Waldo morphed or reverse engineered, so to speak could be a blast to play in the Metro.

I could go on and on in relationship to ideas for different demographics and psychographics.   What do you think?

Now, who would see the most value in this and how could we use this technology and live interactive information for profit, and also for civic good.    

Are you creating a playable city idea or something else?

I'm all ears and eyes and love to present visions of the future at presentations.


I hope to post about your project very soon.

Notes on My Blogging!  I have been away.    

I don't know if I'll be back to blogging regularly since I post on facebook stories, have pearltrees curation and teams (free education is one of them) and use scoop.it and magnify and who knows what for my work, and others, and check out new apps.   I decided to not worry about editing and post ideas.   Notes for myself, so to speak.   

The organization of my thoughts and notes are simply that, and I apologize for not having the time to put the lead where it goes, and tell the story in the best manner.  The alternative is not having time at all to post, and if nothing else, I can look back on posts and get ideas.   

As an author of books, and former executive editor of a magazine, (secondary to what I do!) these notes are terrible, and need editing, and not publication ready.  I have friends that can write and everything is organized and they have the thoughts in order in their head and viola - a story is almost ready for print, or on-line in the first draft.  I'm not that lucky.  I struggle to write.  I love presenting in person.    I also haven't used blogger for the longest time...so here goes...and let me know if I have incorrect information or if you have an idea.  

Goodness, I appreciate all the folks who have edited my work and other work in the future.   Some folks have a great talent at that, and it makes all the difference in the world.  

DC photo: peg

 I love connecting with folks on the Net.  Maybe I'll meet you at the corner lamppost, some technology might tell me that you read this post, and we meet and become new friends! Or I meet the person who I quoted above who wrote about this!

And, darn, I didn't keep this short and I didn't use enough photos, and I don't have an infographic...but one day the user interfaces for blogging and online or mobile publishing will be intuitive enough to bring in photos, references, build an instant infographic, and make sure that the content is accessible to all, in whatever language.  I can't wait!    peg

....

Digital Media - Digital - Excellent Presentation Worth Viewing

This has to be one of the best designed, and compelling presentations on the digital hemisphere that I've seen in a very long time. It's worth your giving it a view. David Gillespie did this and he did a great job.

Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

View more documents from David Gillespie.

Ultimate Gadget - Internet, Radio, 10,000 Channels in your ear

I'm amazed at what we'll be hearing in the near future!

There's a video at the link at the end of this snippet from Lab Spaces with one of the investigators if this story interests you.

"MIT engineers have built a fast, ultra-broadband, low-power radio chip, modeled on the human inner ear, that could enable wireless devices capable of receiving cell phone, Internet, radio and television signals.

Rahul Sarpeshkar, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and his graduate student, Soumyajit Mandal, designed the chip to mimic the inner ear, or cochlea. The chip is faster than any human-designed radio-frequency spectrum analyzer and also operates at much lower power.


"The cochlea quickly gets the big picture of what's going on in the sound spectrum," said Sarpeshkar. "The more I started to look at the ear, the more I realized it's like a super radio with 3,500 parallel channels."

Sarpeshkar and his students describe their new chip, which they have dubbed the "radio frequency (RF) cochlea," in a paper in the June issue of the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. They have also filed for a patent to incorporate the RF cochlea in a universal or software radio architecture that is designed to efficiently process a broad spectrum of signals including cellular phone, wireless Internet, FM, and other signals.

Copying the cochlea


Above: Rahul Sarpeshkar discusses research and education in his group and the intellectual challenge facing engineers at the frontiers of bioelectronics Credit: MIT
The RF cochlea mimics the structure and function of the biological cochlea, which uses fluid mechanics, piezoelectrics and neural signal processing to convert sound waves into electrical signals that are sent to the brain.

As sound waves enter the cochlea, they create mechanical waves in the cochlear membrane and the fluid of the inner ear, activating hair cells (cells that cause electrical signals to be sent to the brain). The cochlea can perceive a 100-fold range of frequencies — in humans, from 100 to 10,000 Hz. Sarpeshkar used the same design principles in the RF cochlea to create a device that can perceive signals at million-fold higher frequencies, which includes radio signals for most commercial wireless applications.

The device demonstrates what can happen when researchers take inspiration from fields outside their own, says Sarpeshkar."

Here's the link to the video:
http://www.labspaces.net/97881/Video__New_MIT_radio_chip_mimics_human_ear

I typically close with
See You on the Net!
In this case...Be Hearing from you on the Net!

Sincerely,
Peggy

Roundup of Webcasting - Iraq Based Soldier Witnesses Birth across World and other webcasting fun things!

The first webcasting site noted is a pet website in beta. Along with your thinking....yep, seen that, done that. Still, it can put a smile on your face or amuse the kids (be they adult or young) for a few minutes - - Introducing My Pet Videos.TV http://www.mypetvideos.tv/

Here are some of the stories about the soldier who witnessed the birth of his child from across the world via webcasting!

Internet helps soldier witness son's birth Barron News Shield - Barron,WI,USA But Nate and Racheal are also technology savvy and were familiar with webcasting-a process by which video and audio signals can be transmitted over the ...

<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20337358&BRD=1132&PAG=461&dept_id=157667&rfi=6>

More stories about this:

<http://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm%3Fnewsid%3D20337358%26BRD%3D1132%26PAG%3D461%26dept_id%3D157667%26rfi%3D6&hl=en

No matter what you think about watching a live birth, it's fabulous that our technology today allows such to happen for those that do want to watch! We were dreaming about things like this - a parent seeing his child's first step, and other webcasts of importance to families and the world....just years ago. So Well Done Fellow Webcasters! Pat yourself on the back...and dream about what's next!

See You on the Net!
Peggy

The Internet isn't what it used to be -Pew at PM09 Atlanta

We're in a multitasking world, as if we didn't know.

For example - 58% of readers are multitasking. Research from the Pew Institute sees this group multitasking with other media at the same time...such as a TV being on in the background. I'm an example of multitasking live, blogging while listening to a presentation by the Pew Institute at the Public Media Conference 09 presented by the Integrated Media Association. I grabbed the graphic from the Net at the same time.

On virtual worlds, Lee Rainie of the Pew Center says "You haven't seen anything yet!"

And the statistics are rising on different uses of virtual worlds, including the fact that some find immersive settings more meaningful. He added there's no reason to not see more use of immersive environments in education and other areas.

The graphic from the Pew Institute shows the differences between Internet use in 2000 and the latest statistics in 2008. 5% had broadband at home in 2000, and in 2008, 55% had broadband at home.


In 2000, 50% of us owned a cell phone, and in 2008, 80% own a cell phone.

A more detailed version of this will be available at the Pew Institute website.

Internet Radio Device Adding FM (FM Adding Internet Radio?)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uh, shouldn't this be the other way around?



This new internet radio adds FM, an Ethernet RJ45, built in Wi-Fi and wpa2 wi-fi sec. protocol.

With radio becoming more and more versatile every day, Tangent has tweaked its popular and critically acclaimed Quattro Internet radio.

To everything there is a season - turn - turn - click.

NBC Olympics 2008...Pivotal Internet Video Points

I was shown a sneak peek of the NBC Olympics 2008 Beijing website set to launch this summer.

I think we'll look back and say this site launch was a pivotal point in time in the history of video on the Internet. (Another one will be the election in November in the US.)

What's in story this summer from NBC?

Hotspots in Video
In Video Navigation
Multiple Live Cameras (as in 4 or 5!) showing on your screen
Picture in Picture - where you can actually see and enjoy the small and large screen
Extensive search database - alerts of breaking news you want in video based on your preferences, and more.

I hope NBC does well with their website. It'll set a benchmark for other media companies, and I hope user generated content producers. To advance video quality and content distribution, let's hope all the bells and whistles on the website are 'best practices" for 2009 budgeting for all the media companies.

AOL and ESPN are doing great in the interactive sports race that includes video and portability on the Internet and beyond. We'll see how they cover the Olympics.

Now - this isn't web 2.0 or web 3.0 or web 4.0. It is just one of the things the net does and always what those of us in media envisioned. What will you call it? Who knows, but I hope you call it "good." Microsoft Silverlight was used to power the video portal multi-browser, multi-use Olympic website.

See you on the Net
Peggy