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urban computing

Chris Heathcote@antimega

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I'm an interaction and experience designer - I've spent 15 years working on this screen (computer), and the last 10 years working on this screen (phone). But some of what I've been working on tries to get away from the tyranny of the screen.

a definition

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let's try and define what urban computing is...

action / reaction

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well, at its most basic, we have actions causing reactions

input / output

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or in computer terms, input and output

inputs / outputs

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but it's more than that - a light switch has an input and output. computers let us take many inputs and process them in many different ways.

inputs / processing /outputs

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and the processing is what computers are really good at

keyboard+mouse / application /display

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so this is the traditional computer: do stuff with distinctly weird input mechanisms, and a blob moves on the screen

sensors / large databases /many outputs

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so urban computing just extends that - many more sensors, many more possible outputs + we can collate, store and process large amounts of information

why should we care?why now?

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technology changes the way people act, think, conceive what’s possible

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It's interesting that we've heard already that usage changes before thinking

the postal service

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and it's not new - the penny post (started in 1680) used to run in London up to 6-8 times a day - the speed of information processing increased tremendously

the railway

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1825 - the railway took that and made it country and continent wide - to the point where we had to redefine how time worked

telegraph / telephone

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and then we made it instant - changing the relationship with data - those in the know had absolute business advantage, it redefined what newspapers were etc.

mobile phone

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changed from ringing a place to ringing a person - and the way people live and act has changed quicker than ever before

where are we?

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near ubiquity

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of cellphones (in the first world, and a majority in the second and third world)

ubiquity of connections& connectivity

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ubiquity of computing

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people are carrying many computers with them everywherehomes are full of computers - soon every switch and socket will contain a computer

what changes?

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context

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it's a horrible word, but suddenly we can make things that seem relevant to what's happening

where you are

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what time it is

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absolute, time of day, weekday/weekend (+ other information such as weather)

who you are

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who you're with

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+ new ways to interact

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in both the private and public sphere

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BUT

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but - and it's a big but

BUT

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no idea of intention

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we still have no idea of people's real intentions

no idea of need

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or what they want or need

a new toolbox -

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so we have new things to play with - over and above the media we're used to

Sensing:

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identifying place

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GPS

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many phones have GPS now

GPS

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but actually it's not just GPS

GPS + wi-fi + Cell ID triangulation + country ...

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lots of kinds of information are used to determine location

or much simpler

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Nike Grid

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Nike Grid - a city-based running game - could have used Nike+ or GPS - but used payphones to check in and out - let everyone participate

identifying things

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barcodes

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barcodes are great to identify (things with barcodes)

barcodes

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you can only make them so pretty

basket comparison

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supermarkets have had barcode scanners for years - to tell you the price. the next step is to tell you the price at competitors - and by scanning your receipt how much money you saved on your total shop. -> uses a tremendous amount of data and computation

QR-codes

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QR-codes

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qr codes, data matrix, spotcodes.... there's no standards built into cellphones in the West unlike in Japan - so they're essentially useless

RFID

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(thanks to Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware, for this photo) RFID is becoming ubiquitous through things like public transport payment systems. NFC could take this into cellphones too.

Nabaztag

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it's a talking glowing wifi rabbit with an RFID reader in

Skål

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a super simple system for connecting media to objects

text recognition

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numberplates

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this was an ad for Castrol - people hated seeing their numberplate on the billboard (even if it's already on your car), and they worried that somehow they knew what kind of car they had

augmented reality

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Layar - using place and direction to work out what you're looking at

identifying people

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face recognition

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Japanese vending machines identify how old you areNEC's EKI digital signage network can distinguish a person's sex and approximate agecompanies can provide interactive advertisements "which meet the interest of people who use the station at a certain time,"

emotion recognition

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many cameras recognise smiles, blinks

tracking use

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chromaroma

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turning Oyster card public transport usage into a game - passive participation

chromaroma

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break records, collect stations

tracking health

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Nike+

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talking shoes! magic pebbles that talk to the Internet.... but software trumps hardware - pebbles are forgettable and need power. Location also infers speed, which infers kind of motion.

Pokemon

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Pokeball-styled pedometer that unlocks new powers in the game -> changes kids' relationship to walking

Fitbit

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more magic pebbles - but where do you attach it when sleeping?

Withings

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everything is on the Internet, everything has a Twitter account

even bus stops weigh you

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Dutch billboard that displays the weight of whoever's sitting on the bench

communal use

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we can aggregate hundreds or thousands of data points in real-time

Nuage Vert

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a stark visualisation of how much energy a city is using

Nuage Vert

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that actually got people to try to reduce consumption on a particular day

public data

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public data is opening up, realising that 3rd party developers and hackers can find new ways of combining and interacting with data better than organisations

Helsinki live tram map

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London live train map

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maps are the hello world of Open Data

Computation:

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Arduino

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connects sensors together with computation, plus it can talk to the Internet

Pachube

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and it talks to things like pachube - a switchboard for data

Outputs:

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Virtual Reality

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this is not being in the world

Augmented Reality

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three problems: people don't have strong arms, instant mugging target, and you look like a dick

text messages

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and alerts - people are used to receiving them - but don't overload

coupons

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the urban computing cliche - "you walk past starbucks and get 5 cents off a latte"

screens

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screens are everywhere. they're being deployed really quickly, especially in new public buildings (stations, airports)

screens

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in the UK, we don't have planning permission for movement in traditional outdoor sites. Other cities have sold off the right to install screens across the city. (thanks to Adam again for this video)

screens

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BT Tower - 850,000 lumens, visible for miles - too bright to photograph

hand from above

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Chris O'Shea's installation - reacts to people walking below

2nd screens

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souped up Internet connected real time alarm clock - also interested in 2nd screens next to the TV

3rd, 4th & 5th screens

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turns out the fridge computer lot were right

what’s next?

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artificial intelligence is dirt cheap (check out Argos or JCPenney catalog - kid's toys have amazing intelligence)

face rec

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your average compact camera recognises more faces than a 6 month old baby. why do computers and phones need passwords any more?

voice rec

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It's never going to be perfect *and* real time. But I'm convinced there's a lot we can do with constrained vocabularies.

haptics

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vibration and touch - we can start to make electronic surfaces have a "hand" or feel.Haptic compass - had 12 cellphone vibra motors and the one closest to north kicked occasionally. What's interest is that the body internalises this really quickly - superpowers are easy to acquire.

projectors - big

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we've all seen the videos of architectural mapping and projections

projectors - big

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this is Robert Lepage's The Image Mill projection in Montreal

projectors - big

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but (with few exceptions) we have the technology and no idea of how to tell stories using it

projectors - small

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why doesn't your alarm clock look like this?nanoprojectors are information torches (and will be in your cellphone soon)

projectors - small

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or - even this

wearables

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This is the Looxcie Wearcam. looking more like a Bluetooth headset.Need to work out how to mount and wear technology.

sonification

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Sound in underused - probably thankfully. but what information can we convey, especially with headphones and audio location.

rjdj

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takes all a phone's inputs - microphone, accelerometer, location and makes and changes music based on them

ruricomp

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I don't actually like the term 'urban' - as lots of this can help and connect suburban and rural communities too. (this is a mockup by paulpod)

so what does this mean to marketing?

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becoming real-time

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creating and keeping data fresh is hard - but we need it to be real-time to feel interesting and connected

1 ad = 10,000 ads

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if we can change what we show or say based on context, we're going to need a lot more executions - maybe even written, distributed and shown in real-time

how to scale

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a lot of this currently only exists as events or location constrained experiences

new forms of media are needed

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screens aren't vertical tv ads (or banner ads)

need new platforms

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new platforms are emerging - but they're layers on top on phones or computers (layar). platforms in the real-world (digital outdoor or DOOH) are disconnected, small and all with different tech specs

need to understand the materialness

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these new types of media need to be designed - we don't have 50-100 years of experience

entering the era of magic

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you want a harry potter clock showing where people are? sure, no problem.

you can read minds(for a bit)

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new technology that's magic quickly becomes mundane

hit the uncanny valley of ads

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the uncanny valley is a term from robotics - robots that seem human but don't quite feel right - fight or flight. ads that shout your name are exactly the same.

B.A.S.A.A.P.

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Matt Jones coined the term - Be as smart as a puppy.If you can't be human, fail gracefully (with puppy dog eyes)

you'll still freak people out

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it's a spectrum of understanding privacy concerns - "if we don't get on the front page of the Daily Mail we're not trying hard enough"

urbn bacn

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bacn is the name for email you asked for but don't really want - newsletters, offers, etc. If every company knows where you are, do you want your phone vibrating every 5 yards? (this is a frame from Keiichi Matsuda's Domestic Robocop film)

re-engage with discussions of public & private realm

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city by city, country by country there will be a reassessment of how marketing and advertising impacts our daily lives

Thanks.

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Questions?

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task Teams of 3 or 4 or whatever.Pick a brand.Think of the what they could create in the real world -public space, subway, in car, in store, screens, projections, appsWhat context can we infer - place/places/time/time of day/things/usage...Push it as far into the future as possible.

Elevator pitch - 30 secondsI want to know:What data are they sensing / using? How does it manifest? What do people experience? What's magic about it?

NikeStarbuckscouponsprojecting on the moon

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@antimegachris@metaloca.comweblog: http://anti-mega.com

Making. Thinking.metaloca.com

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