The track in question 'This is My City' is by Timothy Victor:
We really like the track and the good news is you can download for free from Timothy's iLike page.
2010-08-27
This is My City: AMV (Timothy Victor)
AMV in this case stands of Animated Music Video, a scene where users mashup animated shorts and link them to music.
The track in question 'This is My City' is by Timothy Victor:
We really like the track and the good news is you can download for free from Timothy's iLike page.
The track in question 'This is My City' is by Timothy Victor:
We really like the track and the good news is you can download for free from Timothy's iLike page.
2010-08-26
London Cycle Hire in Google Earth
Adrian Short, the person behind the fantastic Boris Bikes API which serves live data about bike and docking station availability has created a visualization in Google Earth detailing current bike availability across London:
To view the live version and see full details on how it was done - head over to Adrian's blog post. For more about design, citizenship and city keep an eye on http://adrianshort.co.uk/
To view the live version and see full details on how it was done - head over to Adrian's blog post. For more about design, citizenship and city keep an eye on http://adrianshort.co.uk/
2010 U.S. CENSUS: Latino Advert
While working as Associate Creative Director at Shilo, Changethethought partner Mike Slane co-directed and lead animation efforts for this fun and playful broadcast spot for the 2010 U.S. Census. Focused on the latino audience, this spot combines live-action, character design and inventive animation to create a city made of clay.
The advert targets America’s Latino population, which consists of nearly 47 million people and comprises the country’s second largest (and fastest growing) ethnic group. It would be nice to see a similarly creative advert for the forthcoming UK Census, perhaps developed by squintopera or such like...
The advert targets America’s Latino population, which consists of nearly 47 million people and comprises the country’s second largest (and fastest growing) ethnic group. It would be nice to see a similarly creative advert for the forthcoming UK Census, perhaps developed by squintopera or such like...
2010-08-25
Walk Through Time: London 1890
Walking Through Time is a SatNav for historical maps: A phone app that combines GPS technology with old maps to allow users to literally walk through time. It is one of the best apps we have used and the good news is it now covers the whole of London.
T
he concept is great, rather than look at a Google maps you can pick London 1890 and see what London was like from your current location. Of course it could be that your in a field or a marsh and that's the beauty of the application, it brings history to life.
The app has been developed by the Edinburgh College of Art to look at how smart phones are beginning to change the way that we navigate physical and social spaces. Platforms such as the Apple iPhone and Google Android that contain GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technology are becoming a powerful research platform for exploring rural and urban landscapes.
T
he concept is great, rather than look at a Google maps you can pick London 1890 and see what London was like from your current location. Of course it could be that your in a field or a marsh and that's the beauty of the application, it brings history to life.The app has been developed by the Edinburgh College of Art to look at how smart phones are beginning to change the way that we navigate physical and social spaces. Platforms such as the Apple iPhone and Google Android that contain GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technology are becoming a powerful research platform for exploring rural and urban landscapes.
At present the technology tends to provide a series of primary services; satellite navigation to allow users to travel effectively from one place to the another, or ‘locative’ services that allow users to find people or places of interest close by them. However, the systems sustain a technological and temporal determinism to show users in maps of the present as though they should feel that they are navigating a simulacrum of ‘actual’ space.
The London edition is only available for a limited time so we recommend grabbing it now and walking through the streets of London as they were in 1890. The developer Dr Chris Speed is hoping to extend the project and include more maps to eventually include global coverage. If you have a historic map you would like include then do get in touch with Chris via the Walking Through Time site.
You can download the free app from iTunes.
2010-08-24
Sky-Watcher/Papymerlin Panorama Robot
Below is a demonstration by Aaron Estrada of his panoramic Sky-Watcher/Papymerlin Panorama Robot. The system is based on a Sky-Watcher alt-azimuth non-goto telescope mover with a shutter release port built right in to the the head. The head is controlled wirelessly via a Papymerlin serial to bluetooth adapter module, all controlled via a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet (very neat):
Aaron states that the kit, all-in, is still less expensive than any other dedicated panorama robot on the market yet in many ways more flexible. For example, it can be programed to do custom shooting patterns, "gigapans" and even time-lapse. The software has a great GUI and integration on the N810. On top of it all, the Papywizard software is open source and written in Python, so if one has the chops they can hack it to customize it anyway they like.
You can see more of his panoramas here: 360cities.net/profile/hyperfocus, the majority of Aaron's panoramas are usually produced with Virtual Sets and Image Based Lighting in mind. As a result, most of the his panoramas are available as floating point HDR images.
We like this a lot, especially the bluetooth link to the N810 and the results speak for themselves.
Aaron states that the kit, all-in, is still less expensive than any other dedicated panorama robot on the market yet in many ways more flexible. For example, it can be programed to do custom shooting patterns, "gigapans" and even time-lapse. The software has a great GUI and integration on the N810. On top of it all, the Papywizard software is open source and written in Python, so if one has the chops they can hack it to customize it anyway they like.
You can see more of his panoramas here: 360cities.net/profile/hyperfocus, the majority of Aaron's panoramas are usually produced with Virtual Sets and Image Based Lighting in mind. As a result, most of the his panoramas are available as floating point HDR images.
We like this a lot, especially the bluetooth link to the N810 and the results speak for themselves.
2010-08-23
Times Avenue, Kuala Lumpur by metamosaic
The architectural visualisation below details Times Avenue, Kuala Lumpur. It is an exclusive corporate building that brings work and lifestyle together for a perfect working environment (that's marketing talk for you can live above the office).
The company behind the visualisation is metamosaic, a design studio setup in 2003 to focus on spatial visualization. We like the approach, the voice over is so calming and hypnotic we have just signed up for two flats, its going to be a long commute to work...
The company behind the visualisation is metamosaic, a design studio setup in 2003 to focus on spatial visualization. We like the approach, the voice over is so calming and hypnotic we have just signed up for two flats, its going to be a long commute to work...
Interactive City: A Virtual World of Endless Possibilities (?)
ICYou is a Swedish-based company with the business idea conceived out of the growing need for individuals to meet and socialize with others in virtual communities. Take a look at their demo trailer for their forthcoming Interactive City:
The question 'do you want to buy for virtual or for real life' is interesting. Shopping in virtual worlds has been talked about and demonstrated for many years, indeed back in our ActiveWorlds days in 1999 the next big thing was 3D supermarkets. Of course it turns out that buying real world goods in virtual worlds proved too difficult and simple web based browsing is simply more effective.
ICYou are asking people to 'take part of the evolution and exceed limitations! In Interactive City - A virtual world of endless possibilities. Interactive City is now under construction. When complete it will be the world´s largest global city where anything can happen- And you can take part in its creation!'
Personally we think it will be a few years yet before another virtual world system takes off on the scale of Second Life and the technology still has some way to go. Indeed the current offerings are not far off where things were in 1998, see our post Virtual Worlds Circa 1998, How Much has Changed?
ICYou see their Interactive City being linked via a mobile client (iPhone) representing as the first piece of a mobile communications revolution. In short, their allocation is descirbed as an interactive, instant messaging (IM) service in 3D with avatars that will change phone-to-phone communication forever.
We like virtual worlds a lot, don't get us wrong, there is just something about the 'dating' section of the clip that makes us cringe. At least it was not full of dancing circa Second Life videos but in terms of mass appeal and changing phone-to-phone communication forever we would of thought systems such as Apple's FaceTime are more of the way forward....
The question 'do you want to buy for virtual or for real life' is interesting. Shopping in virtual worlds has been talked about and demonstrated for many years, indeed back in our ActiveWorlds days in 1999 the next big thing was 3D supermarkets. Of course it turns out that buying real world goods in virtual worlds proved too difficult and simple web based browsing is simply more effective.
ICYou are asking people to 'take part of the evolution and exceed limitations! In Interactive City - A virtual world of endless possibilities. Interactive City is now under construction. When complete it will be the world´s largest global city where anything can happen- And you can take part in its creation!'
Personally we think it will be a few years yet before another virtual world system takes off on the scale of Second Life and the technology still has some way to go. Indeed the current offerings are not far off where things were in 1998, see our post Virtual Worlds Circa 1998, How Much has Changed?
ICYou see their Interactive City being linked via a mobile client (iPhone) representing as the first piece of a mobile communications revolution. In short, their allocation is descirbed as an interactive, instant messaging (IM) service in 3D with avatars that will change phone-to-phone communication forever.
We like virtual worlds a lot, don't get us wrong, there is just something about the 'dating' section of the clip that makes us cringe. At least it was not full of dancing circa Second Life videos but in terms of mass appeal and changing phone-to-phone communication forever we would of thought systems such as Apple's FaceTime are more of the way forward....
The Cycle of the City: London City Life
The movie below is a degree short piece written, filmed and edited by James Varty & Andy Hippisley of Last in Line Productions.
Filmed on Sony z1 and edited in Final Cut Pro it portrays life in the city and the endless cycle of travel, work, sleep:
The cycle is a bit Reggie Perrin, but deep in there are some interesting questions on how cities have a natural rhythm and cycles linked to economics, geography, societal constraints etc. For more on these lines of thinking head over to urbantick for a look into research on cycles and rhythms with a focus on space-time related technologies.
Filmed on Sony z1 and edited in Final Cut Pro it portrays life in the city and the endless cycle of travel, work, sleep:
The cycle is a bit Reggie Perrin, but deep in there are some interesting questions on how cities have a natural rhythm and cycles linked to economics, geography, societal constraints etc. For more on these lines of thinking head over to urbantick for a look into research on cycles and rhythms with a focus on space-time related technologies.
MILF Mapping Service: Not What You May Think
In these days of global projects a good acronym is crucial, of course picking the right one can be tricky as terms and sayings cross global boundaries. We are not going to say anything here but welcome to MILF Mapping: Missing Items Location Finder a new mapping service for missing items from Gowalla collections.
Gowalla MILF to find spots around you which contain any of these items. Just connect with your Gowalla username, and you’re good to go.
I guess their hits will be quite high, but not sure how long the visitors will stay around for....
Gowalla MILF to find spots around you which contain any of these items. Just connect with your Gowalla username, and you’re good to go.
I guess their hits will be quite high, but not sure how long the visitors will stay around for....
2010-08-18
Spark of Genius Series: TalesofThings QR Codes and Life Logging
We are proud to of just been featured on Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Below we give full details of TalesofThings, how you can start 'life logging' your stuff and how you can tag architecture and make buildings tweet.
Quick Pitch: Adding memories and stories to objects and places via the Internet of Things and read/write QR codes.
Genius Idea: The Internet of Things is a growing trend; the term defines the idea of objects that are tagged, web-connected and endowed with the ability to relay data. This startup is all about the Internet of Things; in fact, it helps ordinary people add objects to the Internet of Things with just a few simple tools, such as a smartphone and a printer.
Tales of Things has developed read/write QR codes that helps preserve memories that people have attached to objects or places. Once an object is labeled with a scannable QR code, its movements can be tracked, as well as any subsequent stories. Each object has the ability to tweet when its memories are scanned, as well.
All the user has to do is photograph the object or place to be tagged, write a few words or upload a video about it, print out a site-generated QR code and affix the code to the item or at the place. From that point forward, the place or thing can be tracked through TalesofThings.com.Think of the site as an “antique roadshow of the future.”
Every object in existence can be tagged with any media, linked to tell a story, to recount its memories in a read/write environment and tweet when its interacted with.
Its a concept that takes a bit of time to take in, for example a wall in Camden Town, London, tweeted me last week when someone replayed its memories of having a Banksy painted on it. That wall is part of the Internet of Things via our free printed qrcodes.
The best part is, its incredibly easy to add objects. You simply sign up at talesofthings.com and then take click on 'add a thing'. This takes you to a form where you give your object a name, for a example 'Andy's Mug' or 'BBC Broadcasting House' are some of things we have added so far. You then type in a short story, or tale, linked to that object and upload a photograph to the site.
Everything has a location so we are creating a 'Geography of Everything', a brave claim perhaps but one that develops a new a new kind of geography, the geography of things. Simply click on the map to set a location, your object will now become part of the 'World of Things' map.
Thats it, your object will now become part of the Internet of Things and will be able to tweet, have new stories/tales added as its passed on, sold or interacted with. It is all part of a Social Web of Things or SWOT as its known.
Each thing created gets assigned a unique 'qrcode' which can be attached to your object. For example, we have attached a qrcode to our office here in CASA which visitors scan using our free iPhone app. This 'virtual guest book' allows our office to recall the story of CASA and the people that pass through our doors. You can print out your codes via the site and attach them to anything.
Any media can be added to you object, the clip below provides a glimpse of the system running via our recent link up with Oxfam via Future Everything, complete with the iPhone RFID reader:
We have recently pushed an update that introduces 'groups' so all objects of interest can be viewed in one place. As all things urban are close to our heart, one of the first groups is 'Architecture' and we would like you to add your own building with a story.
Its simple to do, just sign up, upload a image of your building of choice (under 2mb) and add a story. Your building will then go live and your be able to add it to the architecture group. If you want you can also print out a QRCode that you can stick to the building allowing anyone to scan the code and add to the story/history of the building via the free iPhone/Android apps.
Your building will also be able to 'Tweet' everytime it is scanned or a new comment/story added, it will also become part of the 'World of Things' map - a place to view all the objects added so far to the site.
We are working on ways to make the objects more location aware and aware of near by objects, it could be interesting over the next few months to see how this develops. We look forward to seeing some of your buildings on the site and will sort out some sort of prize for the best stories...
Finally TalesofThings.com allows any object to be given its own webpage and ability to tweet, i.e. it allows any 'thing' to become connected. As such we have built an 'Arduino Thing' that welcomes all new objects joining the Internet of Things with a 'Hi' in Morse Code - the movie below reveals all:
Genius Idea: The Internet of Things is a growing trend; the term defines the idea of objects that are tagged, web-connected and endowed with the ability to relay data. This startup is all about the Internet of Things; in fact, it helps ordinary people add objects to the Internet of Things with just a few simple tools, such as a smartphone and a printer.
Tales of Things has developed read/write QR codes that helps preserve memories that people have attached to objects or places. Once an object is labeled with a scannable QR code, its movements can be tracked, as well as any subsequent stories. Each object has the ability to tweet when its memories are scanned, as well.
All the user has to do is photograph the object or place to be tagged, write a few words or upload a video about it, print out a site-generated QR code and affix the code to the item or at the place. From that point forward, the place or thing can be tracked through TalesofThings.com.Think of the site as an “antique roadshow of the future.”
Every object in existence can be tagged with any media, linked to tell a story, to recount its memories in a read/write environment and tweet when its interacted with.
Its a concept that takes a bit of time to take in, for example a wall in Camden Town, London, tweeted me last week when someone replayed its memories of having a Banksy painted on it. That wall is part of the Internet of Things via our free printed qrcodes.
The best part is, its incredibly easy to add objects. You simply sign up at talesofthings.com and then take click on 'add a thing'. This takes you to a form where you give your object a name, for a example 'Andy's Mug' or 'BBC Broadcasting House' are some of things we have added so far. You then type in a short story, or tale, linked to that object and upload a photograph to the site.
Everything has a location so we are creating a 'Geography of Everything', a brave claim perhaps but one that develops a new a new kind of geography, the geography of things. Simply click on the map to set a location, your object will now become part of the 'World of Things' map.
Thats it, your object will now become part of the Internet of Things and will be able to tweet, have new stories/tales added as its passed on, sold or interacted with. It is all part of a Social Web of Things or SWOT as its known.
Each thing created gets assigned a unique 'qrcode' which can be attached to your object. For example, we have attached a qrcode to our office here in CASA which visitors scan using our free iPhone app. This 'virtual guest book' allows our office to recall the story of CASA and the people that pass through our doors. You can print out your codes via the site and attach them to anything.
Any media can be added to you object, the clip below provides a glimpse of the system running via our recent link up with Oxfam via Future Everything, complete with the iPhone RFID reader:
We have recently pushed an update that introduces 'groups' so all objects of interest can be viewed in one place. As all things urban are close to our heart, one of the first groups is 'Architecture' and we would like you to add your own building with a story.
Its simple to do, just sign up, upload a image of your building of choice (under 2mb) and add a story. Your building will then go live and your be able to add it to the architecture group. If you want you can also print out a QRCode that you can stick to the building allowing anyone to scan the code and add to the story/history of the building via the free iPhone/Android apps.
Your building will also be able to 'Tweet' everytime it is scanned or a new comment/story added, it will also become part of the 'World of Things' map - a place to view all the objects added so far to the site.
We are working on ways to make the objects more location aware and aware of near by objects, it could be interesting over the next few months to see how this develops. We look forward to seeing some of your buildings on the site and will sort out some sort of prize for the best stories...
Finally TalesofThings.com allows any object to be given its own webpage and ability to tweet, i.e. it allows any 'thing' to become connected. As such we have built an 'Arduino Thing' that welcomes all new objects joining the Internet of Things with a 'Hi' in Morse Code - the movie below reveals all:
Every time anyone adds an object to talesofthings our unit starts its morse code welcome, in a small way its a step towards things talking to things. Sure its not Skynet, an artificially intelligent system which became self-aware and revolted against its creators but we are working on our own protocols behind the scenes to take this further so all the objects are aware of the other objects.
You can start tagging anything and everything via talesofthings.com
2010-08-17
Virtual Brisbane: Developing 3DGIS and Online Planning
The combination of CAD and GIS produces a powerful toolkit for 'Online Planning' and Virtual Brisbane developed by the Brisbane City Council in Queensland Australia is a great example.
The model base data was produced using oblique aerial images and LiDAR data. The LiDAR data was used to generate the digital terrain model which was then textured with rectified ortho imagery. The buildings were created by taking point cloud data from the LiDAR scans and extruding the building forms. Structures were then textured using images harvested from the oblique imagery.
The model is run within a real-time system on a spatially accurate digital globe which is capable of viewing GIS information through the SHP file format. This is key as it allows any other spatial dataset to be visualised and queried within the model.
Hats off to Brisbane for putting the model to use for public consultation. As readers will know sadly our own efforts five years ago failed due to issues with copyright on the base data (see The Guardian Article for full info). Its also nice to use the term 'Online Planning' again as it was the title of our PhD thesis.
Planning is about communication, the communication of space and place in relation to built form. The advent of digital networks provides the opportunity to radically change the concept of communication within not only the urban planning system but also wider fields related to the development of the built environment.
How we communicate is increasingly becoming digital and the rise of the Internet in particular during the last decade has freed planning from the constraints of working hours and the reliance of specific locations and times to portray information.
Information can now be visualised, communicated and manipulated at any location, any place, at any time, as long as we have the political, cultural, and economic means that gives us access to the relevant technologies. These technologies are on the edge of a new revolution in our ability to design, communicate and plan at a distance.
The revolution on the horizon is one of inhabited virtual place; a place where the environment is represented digitally in three dimensions and communication is achieved through avatars, defined as an individual’s visual embodiment in the virtual environment. Avatars in these emerging environments are the stakeholders, the occupants and the commuters of the digital realm. As such they are also the citizens that will design, occupy and manipulate built form in the development of digital planning and they will have a say in the future planning process. These developments contribute towards a digital, ‘Online’ planning system, which is explored in a series of working examples throughout the thesis.
You can read the Online Planning/Digital Urban PhD Thesis here (15Mb PDF).
Take a look at Virtual Brisbane.
The project is still in its early stages and currently is utilised principally for plan scenario testing, development assessment and community engagement. The aim is to continue for the model to be utilised by Neighbourhood Planning and other City planning sections in order to communicate complex planning scenarios in an effective way.
What was traditionally consigned to artist impressions and 2D maps can now be presented to the community in an accurate way which is easy to grasp. This fosters a more informed community and gives residents the potential to collaborate more deeply in the planning process.
The movie below provides an insight into the model:
The model base data was produced using oblique aerial images and LiDAR data. The LiDAR data was used to generate the digital terrain model which was then textured with rectified ortho imagery. The buildings were created by taking point cloud data from the LiDAR scans and extruding the building forms. Structures were then textured using images harvested from the oblique imagery.
The model is run within a real-time system on a spatially accurate digital globe which is capable of viewing GIS information through the SHP file format. This is key as it allows any other spatial dataset to be visualised and queried within the model.
Hats off to Brisbane for putting the model to use for public consultation. As readers will know sadly our own efforts five years ago failed due to issues with copyright on the base data (see The Guardian Article for full info). Its also nice to use the term 'Online Planning' again as it was the title of our PhD thesis.
Planning is about communication, the communication of space and place in relation to built form. The advent of digital networks provides the opportunity to radically change the concept of communication within not only the urban planning system but also wider fields related to the development of the built environment.
How we communicate is increasingly becoming digital and the rise of the Internet in particular during the last decade has freed planning from the constraints of working hours and the reliance of specific locations and times to portray information.
Information can now be visualised, communicated and manipulated at any location, any place, at any time, as long as we have the political, cultural, and economic means that gives us access to the relevant technologies. These technologies are on the edge of a new revolution in our ability to design, communicate and plan at a distance.
The revolution on the horizon is one of inhabited virtual place; a place where the environment is represented digitally in three dimensions and communication is achieved through avatars, defined as an individual’s visual embodiment in the virtual environment. Avatars in these emerging environments are the stakeholders, the occupants and the commuters of the digital realm. As such they are also the citizens that will design, occupy and manipulate built form in the development of digital planning and they will have a say in the future planning process. These developments contribute towards a digital, ‘Online’ planning system, which is explored in a series of working examples throughout the thesis.
You can read the Online Planning/Digital Urban PhD Thesis here (15Mb PDF).
Take a look at Virtual Brisbane.
2010-08-16
Mini Dresden: Nice Tilt-Shift and Timelapse
The next in our ongoing series of mini-timelapse is mini Dresden. The movie was captured by MoritzHL using a mix of a Canon 400D and a 7D.
It's really nicely done, there is something about timelapse, linked to tilt-shift and an upbeat sound track (Cinnamon Casers - The World is Yours, in this case) that makes such clips so likable.
It's really nicely done, there is something about timelapse, linked to tilt-shift and an upbeat sound track (Cinnamon Casers - The World is Yours, in this case) that makes such clips so likable.
City Story: iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad Is Charming
We are obviously suckers for city games here at Digital Urban and since the sad decline in the SimCity series there has been a bit of a desert in urban gaming as of late. Until that is City Story came along, free for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad it looks like a thoroughly charming and involving game.
Direct from the marketing - City Story™ is a place where you and your friends can create the world based on your imagination. Build and decorate your own dream city with cafes, boutiques, bakeries, hotels, and landmarks. Watch your population skyrocket as you create the ultimate living, breathing city.
FEATURES:
- Choose from over 50 varieties of buildings, businesses, and parks.
- Design and decorate your city with parks, roads, and rivers.
- Get notifications when your contracts are ready.
- Invite your Facebook friends to be your neighbors.
- Send exclusive buildings as gifts to your friends.
We have only spent an hour or so with the iPad version but have to say that it looks like a must have city game, it is similar in nature to SimCity yet free and currently sitting at number 2 of the iTunes Chart.
You can download the app via the app store.
Please note that this post is now closed to 'please add' comments, we included as many as we could.
Direct from the marketing - City Story™ is a place where you and your friends can create the world based on your imagination. Build and decorate your own dream city with cafes, boutiques, bakeries, hotels, and landmarks. Watch your population skyrocket as you create the ultimate living, breathing city.
FEATURES:
- Choose from over 50 varieties of buildings, businesses, and parks.
- Design and decorate your city with parks, roads, and rivers.
- Get notifications when your contracts are ready.
- Invite your Facebook friends to be your neighbors.
- Send exclusive buildings as gifts to your friends.
We have only spent an hour or so with the iPad version but have to say that it looks like a must have city game, it is similar in nature to SimCity yet free and currently sitting at number 2 of the iTunes Chart.
You can download the app via the app store.
Please note that this post is now closed to 'please add' comments, we included as many as we could.
2010-08-13
Things Talking to Things: The Internet of Things
The Tales of Things project is located within the emerging technical and cultural phenomenon known as ‘The Internet of Things’. The term is attributed to the Auto-ID research group at MIT in 1999, and was explored in depth by the International Telecommunication Union who published a report bearing the same name at the United Nations net summit in 2005. The term, ‘Internet of things’, refers to the technical and cultural shift that is anticipated as society moves towards a ubiquitous form of computing in which every device is ‘on’, and every device is connected in some way to the Internet.
TalesofThings.com allows any object to be given its own webpage and ability to tweet, i.e. it allows any 'thing' to become connected. As such we have built an 'Arduino Thing' that welcomes all new objects joining the Internet of Things with a 'Hi' in Morse Code - the movie below reveals all:
Every time anyone adds an object to talesofthings our unit starts its morse code welcome, in a small way its a step towards things talking to things. Sure its not Skynet, an artificially intelligent system which became self-aware and revolted against its creators but we are working on our own protocols behind the scenes to take this further so all the objects are aware of the other objects.
Head over to TalesofThings.com to add your own object.
Survey Mapper Now Covers The United States
As part of our geographic roll out of Survey Mapper we are pleased to announce that it now includes US States and Zip Codes. You can now create a survey or poll covering World Countries, Europe, America or the UK with nation states down to post/zip code level accordingly.
With real-time mapping of the results, Survey Mapper aims to simplify the online polling/survey process.
If you are looking to set up a survey or poll do take a look at http://www.surveymapper.com
The latest survey: If an Election in the USA Was Called Today Who Would You Vote For?
With real-time mapping of the results, Survey Mapper aims to simplify the online polling/survey process.
If you are looking to set up a survey or poll do take a look at http://www.surveymapper.com
The latest survey: If an Election in the USA Was Called Today Who Would You Vote For?
2010-08-11
Huge Panorama of London in 1845
In 1845, the Illustrated London News gave away a hand drawn panorama of the Thames running roughly from Vauxhall in the West to just past Greenwich in the East.
Fortunately, a reprint made for the newspaper’s 150th anniversary, tends to be more affordable, and over at the IanVisits blog they recently acquired a copy – which has been annotated with additional explanatory text. Its really nice that they used our free ImageCutter software to place a high res/zoomable version online - its great.
If you have 5 minutes to spare then we really recommend heading over to IanVisits to take a look and zoom around.
Picked up via spatialanalysis on Twitter (worth following).
Fortunately, a reprint made for the newspaper’s 150th anniversary, tends to be more affordable, and over at the IanVisits blog they recently acquired a copy – which has been annotated with additional explanatory text. Its really nice that they used our free ImageCutter software to place a high res/zoomable version online - its great.
If you have 5 minutes to spare then we really recommend heading over to IanVisits to take a look and zoom around.
Picked up via spatialanalysis on Twitter (worth following).
be2camp Birmingham: Thursday August 12th (Free)
We are just fine tuning our talk for tomorrows Be2Camp in Birmingham - an 'unconference' about social media, digital tools and the built environment held at Birmingham Library Theatre, on 12 August 2010 from 12.00 - 8.00pm
There are tickets left and its free so if your in Birmingham or around town it looks like an event well worth going to. You can Register Here.
Part of the agenda this year will aim to explore the possibilities for the new Library of Birmingham building and discuss how digital tools might change the way we experience a 21st century library.
The speakers and topics confirmed so far are as follows:
Speaker: Brian Gambles – Head of BCC Library Services
Introduction to Library of Birmingham Project
Speaker: TBC
Second Life and the Virtual Library of Birmingham
Speaker: TBC
Wifi, interaction design and the Physical Library of Birmingham
Paul Wilkinson & Martin Brown - Be2Camp
Be2Camp Awards - The final shortlist
Proboscis – http://bookleteer.com
Self publishing + augmented reading
Andy Hudson-Smith – http://www.digitalurban.org (ie us!)
http://www.talesofthings.com
Michael Kohn – SliderStudio
Democratic Design: StickyWorld
Andy Hartwell – Substrakt
Mobile & Web Apps in the Built Environment
Nick Corbett with Geoff Henderson – Urban Living & DNA
Web2.0 & Sense of Place urban design project
Nick Booth – http://podnosh.com
The Librarian at Large
James Thomson – http://www.burohappold.com
Building Information Modelling: Virtual Reality, Parametric Geometry, Google Earth
Bob Leung – Woobius
Getting your web 2.0 fix in large companies
Alison Smith – Pesky People
Disability & Digital Accessibility
There are tickets left and its free so if your in Birmingham or around town it looks like an event well worth going to. You can Register Here.
Part of the agenda this year will aim to explore the possibilities for the new Library of Birmingham building and discuss how digital tools might change the way we experience a 21st century library.
The speakers and topics confirmed so far are as follows:
Speaker: Brian Gambles – Head of BCC Library Services
Introduction to Library of Birmingham Project
Speaker: TBC
Second Life and the Virtual Library of Birmingham
Speaker: TBC
Wifi, interaction design and the Physical Library of Birmingham
Paul Wilkinson & Martin Brown - Be2Camp
Be2Camp Awards - The final shortlist
Proboscis – http://bookleteer.com
Self publishing + augmented reading
Andy Hudson-Smith – http://www.digitalurban.org (ie us!)
http://www.talesofthings.com
Michael Kohn – SliderStudio
Democratic Design: StickyWorld
Andy Hartwell – Substrakt
Mobile & Web Apps in the Built Environment
Nick Corbett with Geoff Henderson – Urban Living & DNA
Web2.0 & Sense of Place urban design project
Nick Booth – http://podnosh.com
The Librarian at Large
James Thomson – http://www.burohappold.com
Building Information Modelling: Virtual Reality, Parametric Geometry, Google Earth
Bob Leung – Woobius
Getting your web 2.0 fix in large companies
Alison Smith – Pesky People
Disability & Digital Accessibility
2010-08-04
Invisible, Hidden, Parallel Cities: Twitter Landscapes
By revealing the social networks present within the urban environment, Invisible Cities describes a new kind of city—a city of the mind. The movie below by Christian Marc Schmidt displays geocoded activity from online services such as Twitter and Flickr, both in real-time and in aggregate. Real-time activity is represented as individual nodes that appear whenever a message or image is posted. Aggregate activity is reflected in the underlying terrain: over time, the landscape warps as data is accrued, creating hills and valleys representing areas with high and low densities of data.
In the piece, nodes are connected by narrative threads, based on themes emerging from the overlaid information. These pathways create dense meta-networks of meaning, blanketing the terrain and connecting disparate areas of the city:
Invisible Cities maps information from one realm—online social networks—to another: an immersive, three dimensional space. In doing so, the piece creates a parallel experience to the physical urban environment. The interplay between the aggregate and the real-time recreates the kind of dynamics present within the physical world, where the city is both a vessel for and a product of human activity. It is ultimately a parallel city of intersections, discovery, and memory, and a medium for experiencing the physical environment anew.
Our movie below of London's Tweets displays a similar 'hidden city':
As we posted a few weeks ago, we have been harvesting geospatial data from Twitter with the aim of creating a series of new city maps based on Twitter data. Via a radius of 30km around New York, London, Paris, Munich we have collated the number of Tweets and created our New City Landscape Maps. The maps created by UrbanTick detail the social networking landscaping.
In the piece, nodes are connected by narrative threads, based on themes emerging from the overlaid information. These pathways create dense meta-networks of meaning, blanketing the terrain and connecting disparate areas of the city:
Invisible Cities maps information from one realm—online social networks—to another: an immersive, three dimensional space. In doing so, the piece creates a parallel experience to the physical urban environment. The interplay between the aggregate and the real-time recreates the kind of dynamics present within the physical world, where the city is both a vessel for and a product of human activity. It is ultimately a parallel city of intersections, discovery, and memory, and a medium for experiencing the physical environment anew.
Our movie below of London's Tweets displays a similar 'hidden city':
Pictured above is London, below is New York:
UrbanTick has the full run down with New York, London, Paris and Munich, all available in glorious full screen mode via a Google Maps viewer - head over to take a look at the New City Landscapes.
Thanks got to Steven Gray who did the coding and Fabian over at Urban Tick for converting the data into maps. Also thanks to Dr Chris Speed who sent in the invisible cities movie link.
2010-08-03
Rubika: Animated Urban Short for Canal +
Below is an amazing extract from a short named Rubika produced for "Le Laboratoire" (Canal +). The short was co-directed by Ludovic Habas and Claire Baudeanit with 6 classmates and Guillaume Plantevin, a 2D artist, who gave them the original idea and the universe.
Extract of Rubika ( Le laboratoire - Canal + ) from Ludovic HABAS on Vimeo.
We think the clip is simply stunning and to top it all below is a 'making off' detailing the character animation and a few insights into the building of the world:
Ludovic Habas - MAXscript making Of Rubika from Ludovic HABAS on Vimeo.
Inspiring work.
We think the clip is simply stunning and to top it all below is a 'making off' detailing the character animation and a few insights into the building of the world:
Inspiring work.
Toronto: A Day in the Life Timelapse Movie
The timelapse by Robert Fisher entitled 'A day in the life of Toronto' consists of 18 hours of real time compressed to just over 3 minutes.
The movie documents the typical goings on of daily life in Toronto, from the business rush of King & Bay to tourists along the waterfront and at CN Tower to shopping in Chinatown to a human statue street performer to simply waiting for the TTC. The city of Toronto, its people and places are the lead performers:
Toronto: A Day in the Life from Robert Fisher on Vimeo.
The movie documents the typical goings on of daily life in Toronto, from the business rush of King & Bay to tourists along the waterfront and at CN Tower to shopping in Chinatown to a human statue street performer to simply waiting for the TTC. The city of Toronto, its people and places are the lead performers:
The movie consists of over 6500 still images with three HDR segments - sunrise, sunset and last 5 seconds in Dundas Sq before the end credits. Take a look at Roberts excellent blog for tips and tricks on HDR and photography in general.
Navigate Google Earth with Two Ping Pong Balls and Some LEDs
While thinking about new ways to control and navigate geographical visualisations we came back to some previous work using two ping pong balls and two LEDs to fly through Google Earth.
Based on the Atlas Gloves system we utilized a projector displaying Google Earth and the control software in a blacked out lecture theatre. This allowed a clear view of the lights which are turned on and off in combination with various hand gestures to remotely control Google Earth.
The movie below demonstrates the trial, we were going to leave the movie audio free but couldn't resist dubbing in the The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Stokowski.
Linking Google Earth to a remote vision based control interface is quick and easy and the fact it worked first time is testament to the teams clear instructions and software.
Take a look at Atlas Gloves to try it out yourself.
Based on the Atlas Gloves system we utilized a projector displaying Google Earth and the control software in a blacked out lecture theatre. This allowed a clear view of the lights which are turned on and off in combination with various hand gestures to remotely control Google Earth.
The movie below demonstrates the trial, we were going to leave the movie audio free but couldn't resist dubbing in the The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Stokowski.
Linking Google Earth to a remote vision based control interface is quick and easy and the fact it worked first time is testament to the teams clear instructions and software.
Take a look at Atlas Gloves to try it out yourself.
CG Animated Short: Going Green
Going Green is a 4minute animated short created by Thiago S. Aranha as part of his Digital Film and Animation MA at the London Metropolitan University.
The course is practice based course providing a broad-based approach to digital moving image and animation technologies. Students are encouraged to explore the growing range of genres and applications of work from within the arts and industry.
We really like the short, its impressive.
The course is practice based course providing a broad-based approach to digital moving image and animation technologies. Students are encouraged to explore the growing range of genres and applications of work from within the arts and industry.
We really like the short, its impressive.
2010-08-02
Augmented Reality for 3D Max and SketchUp
Augmented Reality can be very impressive within office, museum and gallery based environments. It provides a hands on way to visualise cityscapes, architecture and urban animations displayed directly onto a physical desktop.
With the plugin for 3D from AR-Media it is also extremely easy to create:
We like the way all the animations are held with the file and move beyond the tag.
If you have not tried out tag based Augmented Reality yet then now is your chance as AR-Media also have a plugin for SketchUp:
Head over to http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/ to download the plugins. We have been working with AR for a while now and it really does offer a lot of 'bang for the buck'.
With the plugin for 3D from AR-Media it is also extremely easy to create:
We like the way all the animations are held with the file and move beyond the tag.
If you have not tried out tag based Augmented Reality yet then now is your chance as AR-Media also have a plugin for SketchUp:
Head over to http://www.inglobetechnologies.com/ to download the plugins. We have been working with AR for a while now and it really does offer a lot of 'bang for the buck'.
News Telescope: Augmented Geography
The 'News Telescope' is an augmented reality device which allows the user to navigate through a 3D visualisation of the world navigable through geolocated place names. When selecting a location the telescope searches numerous web feeds and data api's to find 'news' relevant to that location, whether it be text, video or audio based.
There is something about looking through a telescope that intrigues us, especially as its all geographically referenced and digital. The movie below shows the scope in action:
More images can be found at http://www.newstelescope.co.uk/
There is something about looking through a telescope that intrigues us, especially as its all geographically referenced and digital. The movie below shows the scope in action:
The News Telescope from pete Rogers on Vimeo.
More images can be found at http://www.newstelescope.co.uk/
China's 60th Anniversary National Day - Timelapse and Slow Motion
The timelapse movie below is simply stunning, detailing China's 60th Anniversary National Day in a way that is both beautiful and yet slightly chilling (the tanks) at the same time:
China's 60th Anniversary national day - timelapse and slow motion - 7D and 5DmkII from Dan Chung on Vimeo.
The movie was created by Dan Chung of The Guardian using a 7D at 720p/60 for the slow motion sequences and Canon Eos5DmkII / Nikon D700 for the timelapses. The final sequence was edited in Final Cut Pro.
Dan is one of the best in the business, something we are proud of as we went to college with him while he was starting out taking photographs, for more details on how the movie was shot, head over to dslrnewsshooter.com
The movie was created by Dan Chung of The Guardian using a 7D at 720p/60 for the slow motion sequences and Canon Eos5DmkII / Nikon D700 for the timelapses. The final sequence was edited in Final Cut Pro.
Dan is one of the best in the business, something we are proud of as we went to college with him while he was starting out taking photographs, for more details on how the movie was shot, head over to dslrnewsshooter.com
iPhone App: Walking Through Time - Edinburgh Edition
Walking Through Time is a SatNav for historical maps: A phone app that combines GPS technology with old maps to allow users to walk through time. The Map set is for central Edinburgh and allows the user to see a variety of Historic maps from 1740 to 1960. The application also comes with a set of narrated walking tours from the Edinburgh College of Art and Edinburgh.
Its a great concept, the movie below provides more details:
We hope to see more cities become available over the coming months, get in touch with Chris Speed from the Edinburgh College of Art for more details.
You can download the free app from iTunes.
Its a great concept, the movie below provides more details:
We hope to see more cities become available over the coming months, get in touch with Chris Speed from the Edinburgh College of Art for more details.
You can download the free app from iTunes.
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