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UCLA Design|Media Arts' Mobile Media Lecture Series continues tomorrow at 6:00PM with expanded storyteller and ARG designer Jordan Weisman. From the UCLA website: "Jordan has been the creative force behind a number of entertainment companies, including his newest venture, Smith & Tinker (connected toys), FASA Corporation (roleplaying games), Virtual World Entertainment (networked virtual reality entertainment) acquired by the Disney Family, FASA Interactive (PC games, including the MechWarrior franchise) acquired by Microsoft, WizKids (collectible games) acquired by Topps Inc., and 42 Entertainment (alternate reality gaming). During his career, Jordan has created some of the largest and longest-lasting franchises in the gaming industry, including BattleTech/MechWarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies."

These guys use an an HTC Magic running the built in Google Street View and a box to make themselves a primitive pair of VR goggles....minus the whole 3D part.

Wellness Partners is a collaborative research project about exercise habits and perceived wellness designed by the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Keck School of Medicine, and School of Social Work. The study is coordinated through a partnership with USC's Center for Work & Family Life.

You are invited to help us test a newly developed intervention by participating in very brief activities via the Internet and/or mobile phone over the period of 10 weeks. We will also be taking in-person physical measurements (height and weight) and asking you to answer questions online.

As a token of our appreciation, you may receive up to $45 for participating in the study.

Your participation is voluntary and any information collected during the study will be kept confidential.

Support for this study is provided by a grant from the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

If you have additional questions please read the
Frequently Asked Questions

If you are interested, please email:
WPSTUDY-L@USC.EDU
Phone: 310-933-6648

Lifelogging has been a constant interest for many of us in IMD and there are a few posts around the blog such as here and here. More recently, Professor Mark Bolas did some research with Microsoft on their prototype Sensecam. Here's an update on a new commercial version by UK company Vicon (via New Scientist):

New camera promises to capture your whole life

13:10 16 October 2009 by Kurt Kleiner

A camera you can wear as a pendant to record every moment of your life will soon be launched by a UK-based firm.
Originally invented to help jog the memories of people with Alzheimer's disease, it might one day be used by consumers to create "lifelogs" that archive their entire lives.
Worn on a cord around the neck, the camera takes pictures automatically as often as once every 30 seconds. It also uses an accelerometer and light sensors to snap an image when a person enters a new environment, and an infrared sensor to take one when it detects the body heat of a person in front of the wearer. It can fit 30,000 images onto its 1-gigabyte memory.
The ViconRevue was originally developed as the SenseCam by Microsoft Research Cambridge, UK, for researchers studying Alzheimer's and other dementias. Studies showed that reviewing the events of the day using SenseCam photos could help some people improve long-term recall.

(following Peter Brinson's example, I am shamelessly promoting my class)

Preliminary Syllabus Outline*


draft syllabus

CTIN492L - Experimental Game Topics (TTh 5-6.50pm - with serious coffee break...)
Instructor: Marientina Gotsis

Overview. This course will prepare students for designing interactive media-based health “interventions”, such as sensor-based games on mobile platforms. We will review priority health areas in the US health system, as well as emerging markets and technologies, key topics in public health, behavior, neuroscience and social networks. Students will be mentored through project case studies in focused areas (e.g., obesity, autism, cancer, rehabilitation). Students will be given the opportunity to generate ideas, design and playtest paper and digital prototypes in their area of interest, as well as randomly picked topics during lab exercises. Assignments will be individual and group-based.

Goal. The goal of the course is to increase student awareness of healthcare challenges from individuals to groups and communities, cultivate design empathy from multiple perspectives (consumer, patient, health professional, designer, engineer) and foster a spirit of understanding toward collaborative design. Whereas pure entertainment may focus more on the player experience rather than the message, health interactives require equal consideration to both user/player and message. Students will be challenged to think beyond pure entertainment and understand holistic issues of design that take into account the user/players’ overall mental and physical health, environmental factors, social networks, and scalability issues, as well as the economics that govern healthcare issues. Students will be required to communicate issues based on their diverse perspectives in order to help identify stakeholder interests in health interactives.

Structure. The class will spend the initial part of the semester understanding key concepts, reviewing current literature and evaluating prior art in this area. The class will also cover basic skills in prototyping, playtesting, study design and evaluation. The class will create a series of small prototype exercises from which to draw ideas and experience for individual and group projects. During the final half of the semester, the class will work together in groups to design, playtest, and produce, one or more class projects depending on class size and expertise.

NO PREREQUISITES REQUIRED.
BOTH GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATES ELIGIBLE FOR CREDIT.

* The course will be quite different from last year - focused more on hands on design and critique/discussion with an eclectic readings list reviewing special topics in design, health, behavior, technology, and interactive media including games (no book). Many thanks to the students who helped us pilot this class last semester. Suggestions very welcome so long as you're honest but nice :)

Holographic Interface - round interface - Ringo from Ivan Tihienko on Vimeo.

"this short feature demonstrates the simple of the possibilities of having the holographic shadow (?) instead of a pda or a cell phone, or a computer for that matter."

Hey y'all.
It's been awhile and I've missed you.

This spring, I stumbled into the Van Alen Institute, a funded organization in NYC that explores projects on the borders of art and architecture. By the end of the summer, I had ended up as the primary interactive designer of two of the Van Alen's three summer fellowship projects. It was truly great working with architects - highly skilled, educated and creative people - and being able to provide a perspective and skill set that their projects would otherwise not have.

The Projects

The Aurora Project

An amazingly ambitious work of interactive archisculpture wherein every piece was designed in some form of CAD and cut on a laser cutter. Each item is custom, hand made, and based on buoy data from the Arctic. There are 24 IR distance sensors placed around the perimeter of the field, which are tied to LEDs embedded in the base of the sculpture, and cold cathode tubes extruding from its top. As participants approach the sculpture, the LEDs dim and the CCTs brighten, to simulate the experience of the Arctic melting as more humans pay attention to it, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. I designed and soldered the circuits that power the electronics, and designed the Arduino software that provides the interaction.

Museum of the Phantom City

A walking tour through unbuilt architectural proposals for the "other futures" that could have happened in NYC, had visionary architects gotten their way. There are many documented proposals from big-name architects that were a bit too forward thinking for their time, from a 19th century pneumatic subway to a Bucky dome over all of lower Manhattan. This project, a combination of iPhone app, scavenger hunt and website, is a location-based walking tour through all of these. I did all of the iPhone programming, and much of the user experience design. This project marks my first published iPhone app.

ok!
I hope this is informative to those wondering what IMD students do when they graduate.
<3 U, IMD.
/noha

"Players who install the Viz application on their phone can expect an ambient 'always on' play experience that exists within the flow of their everyday lives. Players engage with Viz when they have spare moments in public spaces..."

Here's the link to my casual mobile augmented reality game treatment:

http://remotedevice.net/projects/viz/

Check this mobile app out, especially if you are in the San Francisco area!
You can currently get on the list for a private beta invite.

Cabulous and Find my Friend Presentation from John Wolpert on Vimeo.

We're looking for pairs ages 25-44 to start! Please forward widely!

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WP-M wishes you a Happy 4th of July!

Columns work.

Thin, quick,
easy to read,
back and forth,
left and right,
columns.

e-paper,
designed in a nice,
1/4 size newsprint form -
buttons on the back,
maybe sides,
heck maybe a dismissive
accelerometer-sensed shake.
Skimmed with a glance,
while standing
shoulder to shoulder
in a crowded subway.

Not a big kindle, but
a blast from the past .

Referencing: The Sixth Sense

The first thing to notice about the Sixth Sense is that it allows the wearer to use any surface around them to view information and edit media. In the replacing space article, Harrison says “the structure of the space around us moulds and guides our actions and interactions.” This is very true in regards to the Sixth Sense. While using the device, any surface can become part of the device: a wall, a newspaper or, if nothing else is available, even your own hand. Whatever you end up using for the display depends completely on where you are at any given time.

The Sixth Sense is also a great example of ubiquitous computing. With its ability to turn any real-world surface into an interactive space, the person wearing the device can view and edit photos or browse the web on whatever is in front of them.

The Sixth Sense requires a lot of “performance” by the wearer in order to use many of the functions. The most obvious is when the user is taking a picture. In order to take the photo, the user holds up their hands as if to create a “frame” around what they want to save an image of. It is very quick and easy, but passers-by who see this, don’t see someone with a camera, but rather someone who looks like they are pretending to take a picture. With these photos, the user can go up to any wall and use hand gestures to browse through their albums or edit them. The personal keywords that are displayed on the front of someone when you go up and talk to them, is also an example of performance. Thanks to the Sixth sense, these people are now wearing a dynamic costume that can change depending on who they are talking to or even information they have posted on their blog.

The ease of the picture function seems to be exactly what Matt Jones had in mind when he came up with the idea of "bionic noticing”. All someone needs to do is use their fingers to frame a picture and the Sixth Sense takes it. There is no other hardware required. This makes for an easy time of “obsessively recording curious things” around the user. Adding an upload function to the Sixth Sense seems very easy and logical. Every time someone uses their fingers to take a picture, it could be uploaded to a photo site such has Flickr as well as saved on the device to be viewed or edited later.

The Sixth Sense, in a way, makes everything connected to the internet. Any book you pick up, person you look at or item you buy at the store activates the device, which then uses the internet to find more information on them. I really love how looking at a person brings up keywords about them. It seems like a great idea for networking and a fun way to find out interesting and unusual things about people. While the future probably holds a world with every object having access to the internet, this is a nice stepping stone that is probably more cost effective.

PoolLoop
A Mobile Mixing Experience

PoolLoop is an iPhone app that uses material generated or captured by the user/users to create a unique experience of time, space, sound and visuals.

Context

This application is intended for on-the-go creativity and collaboration. Designed to be accessible to all users, it can be operated easily and quickly to channel creativity.

Design

PoolLoop enables an interactive/creative experience between one or more users. It can reshape a moment in time, alter the way of thinking about an audio/visual relationship, and create a virtual place as the user(s) select and manipulate material specific to their own cultural and social contexts.

The virtual musician(s) are given multiple sources of material to choose from. There is the option of uploading your own generated content from your computer. This can include any sound/visual relationship, as well as the freedom to encode an alpha channel. Also, users can sample their own sounds and images from their phone’s camera, or download them from online (ex. youtube), to manipulate into their creative compositions.

In game play between users, the images and sounds are mixed and fused together, generating a true harmony of the elements. When these elements are combined, the result is an artistic mold in time and space that would have otherwise never existed. This allows the users to truly collaborate and combine their ideas, creating a social labyrinth of audio and visual. The results serve to be a representation of merging virtual identities.

Play Experience

Each player has the ability to load two sets of content each (a video/graphic with audio attached). If one is composing alone, they can activate the content with the select screen and manipulate it using the tilt (up and down) of the phone and its rotation (door knob motion) while selecting the clip they want to manipulate.

Sources of content include recording it with your iPhone or downloading from an online site you are browsing. You can use the select screen to activate your clips and tilt and rotate the phone to manipulate the elements. Tilting up and down increases and decreases the speed of the clip while rotating displaces the pixels of video. For example, if you are using more than one video clip, they will be layered, with the most recently loaded image on top. When you rotate the phone, it will use the bottom layer of video to displace the top layer, creating a new video, which is a merging combination of the two visually.

Interactive Play: Two users can interactively create a composition by loading their own elements and using the app’s features to merge and distort their sound and video. In order for the two users to play, one must invite the other to a creative session, and then the two players must upload their content into each others libraries. Once each player has the resources from the other, play can be initiated.

At the end of each session the user has the option to save their composition and can also email it to themselves or post it on the internet. The result is an easy and fun creative venture into the virtual manipulation of a moment and experience.


Collaborators: Steve Day and Diana Reichenbach

PoolLoop PowerPoint

Check out the link to a realization of a dream! And it doesn't require the use of costly and dangerous nuclear weapons!!

http://www.intomobile.com/2007/09/28/palm-phone-jammer-fits-in-your-hand-annoys-everyone-around-you.html

Sorry this took so long... finally was able to access the lab and use the computer. Enjoy!

Bouncing Cranium

University of Southern California and Nokia Announce Extensive Research Collaboration Framework Agreement

First Project to Focus on Advancement of Augmented Reality

LOS ANGELES and Espoo, Finland (April 21, 2009) – The University of Southern California (USC) and Nokia Research Center (NRC) Hollywood today announced a research collaboration framework agreement that centers on advanced mobile user experiences. The umbrella framework agreement allows Nokia and USC to work together on multiple projects in a variety of areas and will streamline the process for commercializing USC inventions.

Speakers: IMD's Mobile and Environmental Media Lab (Fisher, Stein, Watson, Gotsis, Kratky, Preuss, Carter, Yasuda)
Time: Wednesday, April 15, 6-8pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC),
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)

Title: “Mobile Storytelling”
Abstract: The overall objective of our Mobile and Environmental Media research program is to design and prototype new capabilities for unique entertainment and out-of-classroom educational opportunities available to anyone, at anytime with the added benefit of being embedded in the rich context of specific “place”. The recent focus has been on content development for location-specific museum, game, and arts installations in which the ‘virtual’ contents are embedded on site and perceived through mobile display or viewing devices. This presentation will describe several of the group's projects ranging from crowd-sourced cinema and mobile advertising to " Ambient Storytelling".

Here is my idea for sketch #5:

Laundry Mat Attack

Laundry Mat Attack is an enacted narrative, where the theme and story of the game unfolds as the character moves through the space. It is designed for players who want to pass the time in the laundry mat specifically. As players are waiting for their loads to wash and dry in real life, they are virtually venting their frustrations through the game world while trying to develop the best strategy for quick and accurate laundry mat protocol.

During the unfolding of the game the player will encounter and overcome many obstacles which happen in real world laundry mats. These include:
-Navigating through overcrowded spaces
-A plan of attack for beating other visitors to open washers and dryers
-Obtaining money (credits) and changing them out for quarters
-Buying laundry detergent and bleach
-Dividing items into lights and darks
-Developing relationships with other users and the owners to help you speed up your laundry process.

Each of these obstacles will be addressed and overcome in a separate game which can be played through a battle of the wills or a physical confrontation. Once you are near another player or a machine you will be given the option of how to address the obstacle at hand, and follow through with a game.

For example, if you and another player reach an open machine at the same time you will be presented with options which you can choose from. 1. Physical confrontation 2. Activate a battle of the wills 3. Challenge them to play a game with you 4. Give up the machine

Another example is earning credits necessary to do laundry. You can do this while laundry is washing or drying, or you must do this before doing laundry at all if you have no credits to begin with. You can choose from a few options of occupations including but not limited to: soliciting for money, folding someone else’s laundry for a few extra tokens, selling newspapers for the stand across the street etc. These tasks bring on a new realm of personal interaction and obstacles that you must overcome when you are presented with them. Your game can be saved, if your real world laundry finishes before virtual world laundry does.

You can play the game with others at a laundry mat who have this application on their phone (and log into the network), or you can play against virtual players (the computer). You can also send instant messages to other players on the network about your observations or frustrations in your current laundry mat condition.

You can win by collecting points from your various tasks. You can continue to try to beat your last score, or the scores of others. You gain points by quickness and accuracy in laundry completion, by winning fights or battles of the wills, by cultivating positive relationships with the owners and other users, etc. For instance, you can sometimes gain more points by giving up a machine than fighting for it, depending on the character that you are up against (ex. Elderly person). However, ultimately the challenge and fun in the game is about the experiences you encounter in the process of doing laundry and how you overcome them.


Here is a quick chart of a tentative laundry mat:



and the .doc file of the game plan:
LaundryMatAttack.doc

Formatted PDF version: Download file

Backseat Driver
CTIN 405 - Context-specific mobile game

Backseat Driver is an iPhone game that uses Google Maps and challenges car passengers to find the fastest route to their real-world destination in a strategic racing game.

Context

The Backseat Driver app targets iPhone users who are stuck as passengers in a car. More specifically, it targets those passengers who think they know a better way to reach their destination.

Design

Backseat Driver’s gameplay consists of selecting routes for the player’s three cars in order to reach a particular destination as fast as possible. The player must then modify the routes in real-time as the cars run into traffic.

The player’s goal is to reach the destination using the virtual cars before he or she reaches the destination in real-life (determined by the iPhone’s GPS).

Beyond directing the routes of the cars, the player can use special “reckless driving” abilities to make real-time play more exciting. These abilities include “sidewalk driving” and “run a red light.” When a player uses an ability, he or she plays a short arcade mini-game in the vein of Frogger or other simple 2D retro game. The more an ability is used, the more difficult the games become. Failing to complete a mini-game results in a time penalty.

The primary challenge in developing this game is determining the traffic density and speed of surface streets. Google Maps only covers the general speed of freeways. The temporary solution to this problem to create general speeds for different surface streets on a city-by-city basis for the different times of day—morning-peak, morning off-hour, midday-peak, midday off-hour, afternoon-peak, afternoon off-hour, evening, early morning.

If enough users participate, the program could track the users and record their speed on a given street at a particular time. With enough data, the average speed of different routes could reflect this data. This information could even extend to Google Maps database similar to Google Image Labeler.

Play Experience

After the player enters the application, the destination is pulled from the Maps application. The player must confirm this destination. If the destination is denied or no destination is found, the player must enter a destination using the Maps app interface.

The player then enters a route using waypoints, similar to the route creation on the web version of Google Maps. Once the route is determined, players may alternate between the different cars.

The user sees the selected car’s location (a red icon) and speed. The other cars’ locations are marked by green icons.



The user may expand this window and select “Change Route” or one of three abilities: “Run red light,” “Sidewalk drive,” or “Illegal maneuver.”

If an ability is selected, a new view is opened with a top-down view mini-game. These mini-games can be decided at a later time. If the player loses, the car is slowed down and the player receives a message, such as “Stopped by a cop!” If the player succeeds, the car increases in speed. In either case, abilities for that car are given a 15 second cool down. Every time an ability is used, the associated mini-game becomes more difficult.

If a car reaches the destination before the user, the player receives a win-screen and score. If the player reaches the destination in the real-world first, the player loses and receives an end-game screen celebrating the talents of their driver.

LoveTAP

The scene:
Today is a beautiful day, and you have a few things you would like to finish up. You're feeling pretty good, and, if you do say so yourself, you're looking pretty awesome too. What better place to go do this work... and be seen than the local Starbucks or Coffee Bean? That way you can enjoy a beverage, bask in the sun (or the indoor air conditioning) and perhaps catch the eye of a stranger.

The problem:
Say you do in fact find a stranger who catches your eye... and you're too shy to simply march up to them and try to break the ice. This is where this iPhone application comes in. Whenever you are in a Starbucks or a Coffee Bean you are able to access this application. The location based mechanic allows you to view the "blue-print" like set up of the location, showing you the tables and locations in the store. You can tap on your phone where the location of this desirable stranger is, and thus the game begins. In a 20 questions style fashion, you invite the object of your momentary affection to look around the room and by asking yes or no questions, try to figure out who you are. While this application could be played simply as a game it also enables the players to break the ice between one another, and perhaps the end result will be a face to face exchange.

How it works:
You open up the application by tapping on the icon.
Up comes a layout of your current coffee location.
There is an "X" to mark your location, and then flashing icons wherever there are people who also have this application.
You tap on one of those individuals locations on the map, and it sends a "You've been tapped" buzz notification to them and then they accept and begin playing the game.
They ask questions which show up on your phone like text messages and you are allowed to select "yes" or "no" in response.
Eventually after enough of these questions have been exchanged the player who is guessing also can access the map of the store and click on the location where they think you are. If they guess correctly, they win, and if they don't manage to guess in 20 questions or they guess wrong, you win.
If at any time you wish to end the game, you simply select "Quit" and it is over on your phone, and the other player is notified that you have removed yourself from the game.
You can also block certain players from reaching you as a safety/comfort precaution.

Images:
Download file