DigIn! Blog

Interactive Imagery Using Web 2.0 To the Max

by Limor Schafman

Two new visual technology products hit the market last week that are completely different.  What is unique about them is they extend what we as users can do with digital imagery both to produce and to play.

First, we have Gigapan robot that attaches to most digital cameras (you don't even need a fancy SLR) on a stand and tripod.  Give it an hour and it will take over a thousand frames (in one shot of Hanauma Bay it took 25 rows and 70 columns of 1750 frames) to create a perfect fully pixelated image. The onboard computer calibrates and synthesizes the images automatically within the GigaPan producing a high rez, panoramic view.  The result - no compromise in the image that is a full scale panorama which you can then slice and dice to pick apart the aspects of the scene from which you want to create additional high rez images.  Check out the GigaPan website to see some incredible images and play with them yourself.  Developed by Randolph Scott, senior systems scientist at Carnegie Mellon West and NASA, and Illah Norubakhsh , an associate professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, and their respective teams, the  GigaPan will be released commercially by end of 2008 for under $500.  [See NYTimes , "Sweeping Panoramas, Courtesy of a  Robot", Anne Eisenberg, 7/20/08]

Next we have a very cool use of LIDAR 3D laser scanning.  Normally used for scanning of large spaces, such as landscapes, cityscapes and buildings for architectural capture or film special effects [one use: LIDAR captures millions of points of data in 3D surround that enables animation special effects to be dropped in and placed exactly where desired], the system, which revolves 360 degrees with 64 lasers, was used to produce capture a close up of Thom Yorke singing , "House of Cards" for their In Rainbows record .  Using different effects like water and mirrors to distort the data capture, adding in background scenic, color, melding it all together, they created a psychedelic video.  Even more fun, we can play with the imagery.  Of  all the views, I like the 3D face of Thom Yorke which, as you move it around, seems to drip digital data.

With this data in hand, Radiohead did something which every good content producer does - maximize the long tail uses of it and, in today's day of Web 2.0 user generated content, let the people play with the brand.  They created the video using known technology in a unique way, created a music video innovative in look, let the assembled data imagery be moved around by users, let people who want to interact even more download the data files and create their own movies, and then, upload those movies on YouTube at the House of Cards YouTube Group.  The one comment I would have is that generating your own movie requires a bit more tech knowledge than most have, so including more instructions would be helpful.  All in all, a mind stimulating look at how data can be revisualized.  As James Frost, Director of the non-video music video says, this video is a "reflection of where we are in society where everything is...data driven is some shape and form.  It seems that our lives are digital so in that way it felt apt."

Washington DC Abuzz With A Merger

by Limor Schafman

A merged party of two allegedly disparate networking groups, that is.  Last night the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) and iStrategy Labs combined forces to bring together the 'old' and the 'new'. Inspired by Zach Goldfarb's Washington Post article on events each organization held separately on June 23rd, Peter Corbett of iStrategy Labs (standing left with Lisa Anna Brunner) and Bobbie Kilberg of NVTC decided to join forces. Result: vetted, serial entrepreneurs dressed mostly in button down shirts, mixed last night with Web 2.0 budding entrepreneurs in a sweltering gathering at Local 16 in the trendy U Street section of Washington D.C. 

I arrived 30 minutes into the event and it was already well on its way to meeting its 600+ projected attendees.  Some NVTCers seemed a bit out of their element for a moment as they considered the crowd of young Webbers before them, but that lasted, for about 20 seconds before they plunged in.  Consummate networkers, they didn't hold back. Some wanted even more Web 2.0 companies to be present, others saw value since they could offer their expertise from years of hard knocks experience to new business people that still haven't quite realized that they need a market and execution strategies together with great ideas.   The Web 2.0 side of the crowd seemed to talk among themselves quite a bit, but were not shy either.  They are ambitious after all and they saw the potential of finding funding sources.

For my part, this gathering was a chance to see known faces from the NVTC and listen to new ideas of people pushing the edges of the web [Jeremy Epstein, FOJ Blog and Shawn Scott, Geekycyberdad].  The most interesting story I ran across was actually from an 'old' company, StackSafe.  Talking to Loren Burnett, the President & CEO, he told a great story of having a tech team, talking to 30+ companies in the IT sector and finding an unaddressed gap of virtualization for IT testing.  Now, three years later, with press in Forbes and InformationWeek among others, the company, which released its Test Center offering in January of this year, has signed its fourth client.   Now that is the kind of story I like to hear about.

Because of the blending of the groups, there seemed to be more diversity in the crowd, particularly in gender.  Some attention has been given in the past weeks to greater diversity in ICT arising because Web 2.0 is drawing more women, and this gathering showed the fact of it. [Cheryl Dickison, R2i and Peter Hause, Integer]

Will cross border business generate from TwinTech?  Time will tell. But with the gathering continuing well past 9pm, there was certainly a lot of talk going on, and fun going on [Richard Lipski from the Washington Post]. And I look forward to the next merged party that Peter and Bobbie throw together.

To read more about who was there and what they thought of the event, see Zach's article about the evening.  And to see more great pics, check out photographer Nick Strocchia's pictures from the party (client iStrategy Labs). 

 

Web 4.0 Redefined

by Limor Schafman

Web 4.0, or as Seth Godin shortens it, Web4, is coming upon us fast.  Godin's description of it covers the foundation:

"Web4 is what I'm really waiting for. And it's entirely possible that Web4 will get here before the semantic web even though Web 3 makes it work a lot better.

We start with this:

• Ubiquity
• Identity
• Connection"

I propose adding a fourth to the power of Web4, a vital component, and that is "Presence."

Environmental context has always made experience more compelling.  Whether it is visiting a new city which makes an environment more noticeable because it is unusual, or reading a well written book that describes place in a way that make you feel like you are there, or playing a video game, an MMOG or in a virtual world that involves you in a digital environment. As humans, we generally like to be in a place that feeds our senses.

What makes our experience as humans compelling is that we are hooked to a location.  Meditators and Zen masters may float in blissful unattachment [very restorative], but if you want to do, act, live, then you are naturally tied to Place.  Presence adds to the context in which we live.  It grounds us to something so that we can effect impact in some way.   

What makes our current world so exciting, however, is what Presence does beyond providing an environment.  In our world, where 'real' and 'digital' coexist, Presence is the bridge that unifies our real and digital lives.  It draws us from our real world into a connected experience of digital worlds, and it brings the digital into our real world lives.

Presence in the digital present and future adds parameters we in the digital industry need to consider: 
>  It means where becomes central to content delivery. Geospacial or geolocated applications which find us, are able to deliver to us information that we need given our particular location.  If I'm in NYC and am free for lunch, on my mobile phone I can find restaurants located near me, coupons can be sent to me [at my request] for lunch specials in the area, I can see who else of my Linked In or Facebook friends are in the area and available to break bread.  The possibilities are infinite.

>  It means giving consumers what is relevant to them, specifically, for who they are at that point in time as defined by what they are doing and where they are doing it.  Identity is fed by the context of location.  At 7:00am I am a mom in my car dropping off my kids in school and I need to the moment and place weather and traffic reports.  At 10:00am, I am a corporate executive leading a team meeting and needing the latest news breaking on a client.  At 4:30pm, I'm off to soccer with 4 kids in tow needing directions to the new field.  Content modified by every changing identity as defined by context.

> It means the why of human behavior will be digitally identifiable [almost ] by machines.  Already it is understood by anyone in any aspect of the digital media universe, that the Holy Grail for businesses is to deliver to consumers what they want [content of any kind], when they want it [instantly...or other time of their choosing] , where they want it [the interface], and, again with the added relevance, of where they are located.  This added component, when taken with the others, supplies the why of their need.

>  It means customer satisfaction will become even more exacting because expectations will be higher.  Consumers will be expecting more and have more demand control.  Consumers will own the question of to what extent they want to take advantage of the digital world.  They will control the types of content they receive; on which billing systems they are charged for it; the level of communication they receive from content owners, advertisers, retailers;  and how best all this ubiquity, identity, connection, and presence can serve them.

Just as 4D experiences in theme parks is that added shpritz of water in your face, or wind whispering by that adds real world dimensional hook to a 3D movie experience, Presence adds that hook to Web4 by interlinking our real world to what is fast becoming the global digital experience.

Ecological Rant

by Limor Schafman

We must be dumb.  I mean truly.  Have you read the NY Times article today on "Promise of Biofuel Clouded by Weather Risks"?

Here we are spending dollars proliferating adoption of an energy source that is inefficient in energy yield, costs plenty, whose processing harms the environment, and it has straight implications to our food supply and hence cost of food.

It is true that we could actually use this to get our population slimmer by not using corn syrup in all our processed foods - but that is asking for too much apparently.  Instead we just have food producers complain about the rise in cost, and buyers still buying that food even if it is no longer cheap, and getting that healthy Twinkie glow.  I don't understand that either.

And this is happening b/c we don't want to be in the hands of another outside fuel supply source in the hands of 'those dang Brazilians' - how dare they have sugar cane fields that yield 8:1 more energy than corn.  It's not our fault we don't grow corn in the mid West.  We don't want our energy to come from foreign sources that force us to go to war with them and overtake their countries.  We're tired of war.  Truly.

Is there no one, no one, thinking about an overall alternative energy strategy for this country [and for the world] that envisions and employs multiple energy sources which together will solve our issues?  Why do we continue to put the majority of our energy source eggs into one basket?  And have we not learned what it costs us to be in the hands of powerful lobbyists who lead us down energy reliance paths that only benefit them and their clients, and not the people of the United States, let alone the World. 

We, all of us humans,  breath the same air and are inextricably connected in the energy and environmental ecosystem.  We need to think beyond the typical human reaction of controlling energy resources [if you weren't calling me naive before hand, you can certainly do so now] and find a global solution. If we are to continue as thriving economies and livable environments, we all have a stake in finding a solution - dare I say it - together and which benefits us all.