Augmented reality: it’s like real life, but better

Augmented reality Charles Arthur investigates in The Observer [Sunday edition of The Guardian] how the ways in which we watch sport, read magazines and do business with each other could change for ever.

“Augmented reality – AR, as it has quickly become known – has only recently become a phrase that trips easily off technologists’ lips; yet we’ve been seeing versions of it for quite some time. The idea is straightforward enough: take a real-life scene, or (better) a video of a scene, and add some sort of explanatory data to it so that you can better understand what’s going on, or who the people in the scene are, or how to get to where you want to go.”

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March 21, 2010 | Experientia | Tags: | No Comments »

Digital Nation, in-depth documentary, online in full

Digital Nation In Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, FRONTLINE presents an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st-century digital world.

Continuing a line of investigation she began with the 2008 FRONTLINE report Growing Up Online, award-winning producer Rachel Dretzin embarks on a journey to understand the implications of living in a world consumed by technology and the impact that this constant connectivity may have on future generations.

Joining Dretzin on this journey is commentator Douglas Rushkoff, a leading thinker and writer on the digital revolution — and one-time evangelist for technology’s positive impact.

Watch documentary (90 mins.)

See also this article on Salon.com.
February 2, 2010 | Experientia | Tags: | No Comments »

Book: Pervasive Information Architecture

Pervasive Information Architecture – Designing information space in ubiquitous ecologies is a book being written by Andrea Resmini and Luca Rosati for Morgan Kaufmann-Elsevier which promotes a holistic approach to information architecture and user experience.

“Information is going everywhere, bleeding out of we thought was cyberspace and back into the real world: increasingly, many tasks we perform every day not only constantly require us to move between different media, but actually have us move from the digital to the physical environment and back.

Computation is everywhere, and so are search and interaction. It’s time to move beyond the computer screen to design information space in these new ubiquitous ecologies.

The book presents an holistic, heuristics- and methodology-driven approach to information architecture and user experience for the design of ubiquitous ecologies, emergent systems where old and new media and physical and digital environments are designed, delivered, and experienced as a seamless whole.”

- Table of contents
- Manifesto
- Anticipatory papers

(via InfoDesign)
January 19, 2010 | Experientia | Tags: , | No Comments »

Ubiquitous computing bridges devices and services

ThingM Mike Kuniavsky of ThingM was a speaker at XD Forum, Intuit’s internal user experience design conference, last week. His half-hour talk focused on the relationship between ubicomp devices and services.

The talking points and slides can be downloaded from his blog, Orange Cone.

December 17, 2009 | Experientia | Comments Closed

Augmented Reality is overhyped and abused

USPS Augmented Reality is overhyped and abused, writes Matthew Szymczyk in Advertising Age, and we’re in danger of killing off a rather useful technology.

“As web-based augmented-reality applications have exploded, it’s more important than ever to remember AR is a technology based on utility and not gimmicks.

Unfortunately, as with most new and emerging technologies, it’s quickly becoming overhyped and abused. Usability and user experience have been thrown under in the stampede of agencies and brands saying “Hey, look — me too!” Even more disturbing is that most marketers are overlooking the most unique aspect of AR itself: that it’s a technology that can create innovative and sustained engagement between a brand and its target consumer through utility.”

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December 11, 2009 | Experientia | Comments Closed

Augmented Reality is overblown

AR Chris Dannen writes in Fast Company that Augmented Reality is overblown, and doesn’t expect apps like Layar to drastically change the way we live our everyday lives.

“Talk to the people doing AR research, and they seem to think that the awkwardness of using AR — holding your phone up in front of you; holding your Esquire in front of your computer — will work itself out. But they may be underestimating the power of human habit. We have been ingesting information the old fashioned way for hundreds of years: by looking at a static image and using our brains, not our smartphone cameras, to meld it with reality. Maps, newspapers, books, computers — they’re very different “technologies,” but they all work essentially the same way: our brains provide the milieu. AR wants to derail that relationship. That’s going to be a tough sell.”

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November 2, 2009 | Experientia | Comments Closed