Camera Mapped New York City from Andrew Price on Vimeo.
Camera Mapping from Joel Wagner on Vimeo.
camera map from VALETTE Thierry on Vimeo.
If this post inspires you to create a clip, do let us know...
2010-01-29
Camera Mapping and Projection: New York and Tutorials
Camera Mapping, also known as camera projection, is a quick and easy technique to apply a quick '3d' look to a scene with the camera moving while minimising the amount of actual modelling. The clip below by Andrew Price of detailing a quick flight path of New York city illustrates the point:
If this post inspires you to create a clip, do let us know...
If this post inspires you to create a clip, do let us know...
Digital City / City 2.0 Video
We don't have much information on this one but its really nice. Sometimes thats the best way, finding neat clips that only have a few views (32 in this case) and giving them a showcase. We have added a 'retweet' button to the top right of our posts as a test, the movie below deserves a wider viewing:
The clip seems to of been created by http://insoc.co.uk/
The clip seems to of been created by http://insoc.co.uk/
Augmented (hyper)Reality
The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it:
The clip above was produced by Keiichi Matsuda a final year Masters in Architecture over at The Bartlett, here at University College London, as part of a larger project about the social and architectural consequences of new media and augmented reality.
Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.
The clip above was produced by Keiichi Matsuda a final year Masters in Architecture over at The Bartlett, here at University College London, as part of a larger project about the social and architectural consequences of new media and augmented reality.
2010-01-28
Tweet-o-Meter adds San Francisco, Barcelona, Tokyo and Oslo to its Data Mine: Urban Tweets per Minute
Due to various emails asking 'where is xxx' we have added four more cities to the Tweet-o-Meter which means more data to collect and analyse. Is it true that, New York is the city that never sleeps? Do Londoners send more Tweets than New Yorkians'? Is Oslo a bigger Tweeter than Munich? Is Tokyo into Tweets as much as Barcelona? Has San Francisco calmed down after that
Apple Event?
The Tweet-o-Meter measures the amount of tweets (measured in Tweets per Minute or TPM) received from various locations around the world. The gauges are updated every second giving you a live view of the TPM's in each location.
Apple Event?
The Tweet-o-Meter measures the amount of tweets (measured in Tweets per Minute or TPM) received from various locations around the world. The gauges are updated every second giving you a live view of the TPM's in each location.
Tweet-o-Meter is designed to mine data for later analysis relating to furthering our understanding of social and temporal dynamics for e-Social Science within the Twitter demographic. The system is under development here at CASA as part of a wider survey tool as part of the NeISS project in association with Urban Tick and coded by Steven Gray.
See yesterdays introduction to Tweet-o-Meter post for full details and the music video behind the original choice of cities or head direct to the Eight Cities Head-to Head Tweet-o-Meter Page.
2010-01-27
New York, London, Paris, Munich: Tweets Per Minute via our new Tweet-o-Meter
‘New York, London, Paris, Munich everybody talk about Pop Musik’ – that was 1979 and the catch line by the group M. As such we thought it would be interesting to mine what people are talking about in 2010.
We are planning to log all geolocated Tweets in NewYork, London, Paris and Munich over a 24 hour period via the Twitter API as part of research under the NeISS project in association with UrbanTick and ourselves here at Digital Urban, part of CASA, University College London.
The system is running in beta mode over the next week with visualisation of the Tweets per Minute provided via our Tweet-o-Meter. While the reference to the 1979 is all well and good the system is actually designed to mine data for later analysis relating to further our understanding of the social and temporal dynamics of cities within the Twitter demographic. These can be mapped allowing us to capture 24 hours in the life of the city.
Below is an example of the type of base output we expect, as we are also extracting the social data and retweets we can map this in both time and space. UrbanTick has a nice tutorial on how to the do the timelapse of Tweets below:
See http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/tom/ to view New York, London, Paris, Munich via Tweet-o-Meter and if your in one of those cities and want to take part, simply make sure you have geolocation turned on in your Twitter preferences.
For those too young or perhaps simply nostalgic for the late 70's/early 80's hit that inspired the work, here is PopMusik via YouTube (its great...).
We are planning to log all geolocated Tweets in NewYork, London, Paris and Munich over a 24 hour period via the Twitter API as part of research under the NeISS project in association with UrbanTick and ourselves here at Digital Urban, part of CASA, University College London.
The system is running in beta mode over the next week with visualisation of the Tweets per Minute provided via our Tweet-o-Meter. While the reference to the 1979 is all well and good the system is actually designed to mine data for later analysis relating to further our understanding of the social and temporal dynamics of cities within the Twitter demographic. These can be mapped allowing us to capture 24 hours in the life of the city.
Below is an example of the type of base output we expect, as we are also extracting the social data and retweets we can map this in both time and space. UrbanTick has a nice tutorial on how to the do the timelapse of Tweets below:
London Weekend on Twitter from urbanTick on Vimeo.
See http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/tom/ to view New York, London, Paris, Munich via Tweet-o-Meter and if your in one of those cities and want to take part, simply make sure you have geolocation turned on in your Twitter preferences.
For those too young or perhaps simply nostalgic for the late 70's/early 80's hit that inspired the work, here is PopMusik via YouTube (its great...).
2010-01-26
Aquarama: CASA's Fish Tank on a Chumby
We have a feeling people will be talking more about The Chumby and its various apps in the coming months as Sony launches its 'Dash'. As such we are proud to announce the availability of Aquarama direct from the digital urban offices:
We are aware that after just putting up a post complaining about work load and a lack of time to write entries, the appearance of the CASA fish tank on a Chumby could be seen as a bit of a time waster and to be honest you would be right...
You can get hold of Aquarama or just see it working online via the Chumby Widget Page.
We are aware that after just putting up a post complaining about work load and a lack of time to write entries, the appearance of the CASA fish tank on a Chumby could be seen as a bit of a time waster and to be honest you would be right...You can get hold of Aquarama or just see it working online via the Chumby Widget Page.
Research Fellow Position: Salford
The University of Salford is advertising the final position on the TOTeM project.We are biased (being a Co-i) but the project is one of the most exciting pieces of research we have come across in a while and one we have been itching to blog about but unable to until we hit 'beta'. We are working towards a late March preview, so if you would like to be the last member of the team, full details are below:
University of Salford
Research Fellow
"TOTeM: Tales of Things: Electronic Memory"
University of Salford - Faculty of Business,Law and the Built Environment
Ref: 1126787
£29,704 - £35,469 PA
Fixed Term for 2 years Full time
Applications are invited for a full time Research Fellow to undertake research within the context of a Digital Economy EPSRC funded project "TOTeM: Tales of Things: Electronic Memory". The purpose of the project is to revolutionise existing social and business processes, using technologies available to us through the digital economy. The digital economy is defined by the Research Councils as "the novel design or use of information communication technologies to help transform the lives of individuals, society or business". In this context the objectives for the TOTeM project are to provide the necessary platform for people to tag existing objects with stories that describe a personal and social value.
In addition, TOTeM also offers significant new avenues to business, both in terms of practice and in terms of gaining efficiency through time and cost savings. The use of tagging business objects creates the possibility of fundamental new applications and uses which will be explored and harnessed throughout this project. This aspect of the work will explore the impact of the digital economy on commercial organisations and has the potential to transform how businesses operate in the future.
This role will support and assist the work of Dr Maria Edith Burke on the TOTeM research project.
The successful applicant will be required to start ideally in March 2010 for 2 years, to work as FTE Research Fellow for the EPSRC funded TOTeM project.
To apply for this vacancy please visit: https://jobs.salford.ac.uk/vacancies.php
Closing date: 11 February 2010
City Timelapse: Dubai
Another in a series of shorter posts due to an annoyingly high work load - that said we have some exciting 'urban twitter' maps coming soon with work currently going on behind the scenes.
Which brings us to the post - the timelapse clip below was filmed in Dubai over 5 days and nights, shot using a Canon 7D, 2x5DmkII and a Panasonic GF1:
See philipbloom.co.uk for more info.
Which brings us to the post - the timelapse clip below was filmed in Dubai over 5 days and nights, shot using a Canon 7D, 2x5DmkII and a Panasonic GF1:
Sky from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.
See philipbloom.co.uk for more info.
2010-01-25
Making maps with NAVTEQ - A Video Guide
Who said making maps was fun? The movie below details Making Maps with NAVTEA via Nokia Conversations:
I only got halfway through to be honest...
I only got halfway through to be honest...
2010-01-21
Google Earth - Live Building/Billboard Texturing from Webcams: Live3D
We have just spent the last 30 minutes wowed by 'Live 3D' sent to us by Austin Abrams, a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis. In short Live 3D is a Google Earth-powered web application that allows users to transform photos into 3D geometry in Google Earth - ie you can drap webcams onto the buildings for a 'live view' of a city and it has notable potential for a live Google Earth.
The camera is automatically calibrated, revealing its location and orientation (take a look at, this scene, the position and orientation of the camera is automatically generated, which closely matches the real webcam image).
The group has been archiving 1000 webcams for the past four years, as the Archive of Many Outdoor Scenes. If the user gives Live3D an AMOS camera, the application can re-texture the scene based on time-lapse imagery. So, you can see what the scene looked like a week, a month, or a year ago.
Urban scenes seem to work particularly well, because billboards and other advertisements aren't as static as the Sketchup models suggest. For example, the model for Times Square still advertises Spiderman 3.
To see if live goto: http://amos.cse.wustl.edu/live3d/
The camera is automatically calibrated, revealing its location and orientation (take a look at, this scene, the position and orientation of the camera is automatically generated, which closely matches the real webcam image).
The group has been archiving 1000 webcams for the past four years, as the Archive of Many Outdoor Scenes. If the user gives Live3D an AMOS camera, the application can re-texture the scene based on time-lapse imagery. So, you can see what the scene looked like a week, a month, or a year ago.
Urban scenes seem to work particularly well, because billboards and other advertisements aren't as static as the Sketchup models suggest. For example, the model for Times Square still advertises Spiderman 3.
To see if live goto: http://amos.cse.wustl.edu/
Adverts in Street View - Could be Video?
We noted last week via Gizmodo that Google has Google's filed a patent entitled "Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising," which in short allows them to paste media (adverts) onto the images.
Its interesting how the mouse in Street View follows the 3D space, we assume to allow any data to be tagged to buildings etc. With data of course comes the ability to provide click throughs and advertising. We dont think it will limited to simple images however as video can also be embedded into panoramas as one of our previous examples shows:
San Francisco Panorama with Embedded Video from digitalurban on Vimeo.
The example was quite easy to produce, we used the real estate of Twin Peaks in San Francisco, but this could of easily been an advert above Buckingham Palace and then that's when things get interesting...
View the live version of the San Francisco video embedded in panoramic space.
Its interesting how the mouse in Street View follows the 3D space, we assume to allow any data to be tagged to buildings etc. With data of course comes the ability to provide click throughs and advertising. We dont think it will limited to simple images however as video can also be embedded into panoramas as one of our previous examples shows:
San Francisco Panorama with Embedded Video from digitalurban on Vimeo.
The example was quite easy to produce, we used the real estate of Twin Peaks in San Francisco, but this could of easily been an advert above Buckingham Palace and then that's when things get interesting...
View the live version of the San Francisco video embedded in panoramic space.
2010-01-14
iPhone 3G Signal Map via Twitter
Expanding our work on gathering geographic data via Twitter Steven Gray here at CASA has created our latest version - this time showing the signal strength levels of iPhones on the 3G network around various places in the UK. The data is collected data via Twitter users using the #iPhone3GTest tag as started by Jason Bradbury from The Gadget Show on Channel 5.
The map updates every 3 minutes and a list of Tweets in icon form should go online this afternoon.
You can add to the map by tweeting the hashtag #iPhone3GTest with the first half of your postcode, your Operator, your 3G signal, and how many bars of signal you have e.g. Glasgow G12 O2 3G 5 bars and we will map your response. Remember to include your postcode or your tweet will not be shown.
Otherwise, use our handy link to post your very own signal tweet: Click here to tweet your own Signal Strength.
What is now needed is a global version, we are on the case....
The work is funded as part of the part of NeISS (National e-Infrastructure for Social Simulation) providing a platform to meet the demand for powerful simulation tools by social scientists, public and private sector policymakers.
The map updates every 3 minutes and a list of Tweets in icon form should go online this afternoon.You can add to the map by tweeting the hashtag #iPhone3GTest with the first half of your postcode, your Operator, your 3G signal, and how many bars of signal you have e.g. Glasgow G12 O2 3G 5 bars and we will map your response. Remember to include your postcode or your tweet will not be shown.
Otherwise, use our handy link to post your very own signal tweet: Click here to tweet your own Signal Strength.
What is now needed is a global version, we are on the case....
The work is funded as part of the part of NeISS (National e-Infrastructure for Social Simulation) providing a platform to meet the demand for powerful simulation tools by social scientists, public and private sector policymakers.
N Building - iPhone, QR Code Facades and Architecture
The N Building is a commercial structure located near Tachikawa station, Tokyo, Japan. Being a commercial building signs or billboards are typically attached to its facade which undermines the structures' identity. As a solution teradadesign+Qosmo decided to use a QR Code as the facade itself. By reading the QR Code with a mobile device the user is taken to a site which includes up to date information. In this manner they envision a cityscape unhindered by ubiquitous signage and also an improvement to the quality and accuracy of the information itself:
On December 15th, 2009 the team held an opening which included the limited release of an iPhone application made specifically for N Building inline with their proposed vision of the future where the facade of the building disappears, showing those inside who want to be seen.
See Sonasphere for more info...
N Building from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.
On December 15th, 2009 the team held an opening which included the limited release of an iPhone application made specifically for N Building inline with their proposed vision of the future where the facade of the building disappears, showing those inside who want to be seen.
See Sonasphere for more info...
2010-01-13
Immersive/Panoramic Video: Are we Missing Something?
Ten years ago we drove a car around London capturing immersive video linked to a GPS unit and portable GIS system. Little did you know then that Google would take the concept a step further with their Street View system. Back then the resolution was poor and while we are huge fans of panoramic imagery we simply don't 'get' panoramic video.
A still panorama can be a work of art, it is a full 360x180 degree moment captured in time. We have over 100 such images dotted around the blog but we gave up on immersive video as a bad job. That said, its nice to now see the ability to look around such scenes via Flash as the embedded clip from http://demos.immersivemedia.com/ demonstrates:
Perhaps with an increase in resolution its time to take a second look at immersive video, but part of us simply cant quite see the point.
A still panorama can be a work of art, it is a full 360x180 degree moment captured in time. We have over 100 such images dotted around the blog but we gave up on immersive video as a bad job. That said, its nice to now see the ability to look around such scenes via Flash as the embedded clip from http://demos.immersivemedia.com/ demonstrates:
Perhaps with an increase in resolution its time to take a second look at immersive video, but part of us simply cant quite see the point.
The Scalable City
Scalable City creates an urban/suburban/rural environment via a data visualization pipeline. Each step in this pipeline builds upon the previous, amplifying exaggerations, artifacts and the patterns of algorithmic process.
The results of this are experiences such as prints, video installations and interactive multi-user games and virtual environments. We really like this, its an extremely impressive demo:
Scalable City is a project by Sheldon Brown and the Experimental Game Lab. There is a 1.27 hr talk on the concept available via YouTube which is well with a look, it is also worth checking out the 'Construction Process' page over at http://www.sheldon-brown.net/
Thanks goes to Andrew Leahy from the University of Western Sydney for sending this in.
2010-01-12
Connected to Everything: Else Mobile (The Time Has Come)
Overlaying data driven graphics is a neat yet relatively quick and effective way communicate a sense of connectivity - as the clip below demonstrates. The advert was created for Else Mobile Phones as half viral campaign, half official website content and commissioned by The Visionaire Group in LA. 'The Time Has Come' acts as an intro for the new mobile device. The entire campaign was shot on location in downtown LA and California:
We are becoming increasing connected - soon there will be a way to connect every object to the internet and every object to everything else. More on that in the coming months, we would like to say more but sadly we are not allowed to, simply watch this space, work is going on in our lab as we type...
Else Mobile (The Time Has Come) from Rob Chiu on Vimeo.
We are becoming increasing connected - soon there will be a way to connect every object to the internet and every object to everything else. More on that in the coming months, we would like to say more but sadly we are not allowed to, simply watch this space, work is going on in our lab as we type...
2010-01-08
Eden - Anaglyph Version
Your need red/blue 3D glasses for this one, but with the rise of 3D content over the last few months, including old school anaglyph, 3D glasses are becoming a bit of must of have on ones desk:
The movie was produced by Tobias Keip for the first international Shortfilm Challenge
invazion.org. It was created using a combination of Adobe Audition, Photoshop, Blender, and Adobe After Effects...
eden - Anaglyph Version from Tobias Keip on Vimeo.
The movie was produced by Tobias Keip for the first international Shortfilm Challenge
invazion.org. It was created using a combination of Adobe Audition, Photoshop, Blender, and Adobe After Effects...
2010-01-05
Twitter 'Geographic' UK Snow Map - Tweets and Postcode Districts
Combine near real-time geographic rendering and social networks such as Twitter and you get a tool that can use the power of the crowd to display detailed geographic information and collect data. We are launching such a service in a few weeks time, building on our previous work for the BBC and their 'recession mood maps'. Produced as part of our NeISS project, the service will allow anyone to carry out a survey and visualise the output based on geographic areas such as 'country' 'county' 'ward' 'postcode area' etc.
As such Steven Gray here at CASA has produced a proof of concept showing the last hours snow fall in the UK as Tweets and the last 24 in postcode districts (the important part here is the data underneath, not the Tweets as such):
The map is a 'hybrid' of the excellent work by Ben Marsh with his #uksnow Map 2.0, it takes the postcodes and maps the regions with tweets, providing an interesting route to harvest data from Twitter.
You can see the map running live from MapTube - the map dynamically refreshes with fresh tweets every 3 minutes with the areas updated every hour, the map automatically resets itself at midnight.
At the moment the kml is refusing to be clickable via MapTube so if you want a Twitter Map without the postcode areas take a look at Stevens UK Snow Dynamic Crowd Sourced Maps - again it updates every three minutes with Tweets about snow in the last hour - its very neat.
As such Steven Gray here at CASA has produced a proof of concept showing the last hours snow fall in the UK as Tweets and the last 24 in postcode districts (the important part here is the data underneath, not the Tweets as such):
The map is a 'hybrid' of the excellent work by Ben Marsh with his #uksnow Map 2.0, it takes the postcodes and maps the regions with tweets, providing an interesting route to harvest data from Twitter.
You can see the map running live from MapTube - the map dynamically refreshes with fresh tweets every 3 minutes with the areas updated every hour, the map automatically resets itself at midnight.
At the moment the kml is refusing to be clickable via MapTube so if you want a Twitter Map without the postcode areas take a look at Stevens UK Snow Dynamic Crowd Sourced Maps - again it updates every three minutes with Tweets about snow in the last hour - its very neat.
2010-01-04
2010 - Back to the Blog
A quick post while we settle in back at our desk after the Christmas break. Its going to be an interesting first quarter here at digital urban and CASA, we have a 1.5 million funded project nearing beta launch which most annoyingly we have been unable to blog about due to legal restrictions. As soon as we get the go ahead we will be putting out a call for testers, all we can say at the moment is that its going to be exciting and perhaps change the way we look at everything around us.
We also have a new mapping tool launching around March as part of the NeISS project, this builds on our previous work involving BBC Radio and TV, again we can't say too much at the moment but its going to be free and quite neat.
So the first part of 2010 is looking busy on the blog front, indeed this afternoon we hope to put up a post regarding Twitter and Snow Surveys which provides a quick glimpse of what the team are working on behind the scenes.
At the moment the office is a joyful 14.1 centigrade and a mere -1.8 outside which is kind of chilly for London - you can of course view the live weather conditions from our roof in London Town either on a Chumby, iPhone or fullscreen in Flash.
We also have a new mapping tool launching around March as part of the NeISS project, this builds on our previous work involving BBC Radio and TV, again we can't say too much at the moment but its going to be free and quite neat.
So the first part of 2010 is looking busy on the blog front, indeed this afternoon we hope to put up a post regarding Twitter and Snow Surveys which provides a quick glimpse of what the team are working on behind the scenes.
At the moment the office is a joyful 14.1 centigrade and a mere -1.8 outside which is kind of chilly for London - you can of course view the live weather conditions from our roof in London Town either on a Chumby, iPhone or fullscreen in Flash.
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