New Media/Technology Exploration

Hi all,
Here is my last post. It's about a video game called Atmosphir that is in development. In an earlier blog I talked about one of the creators of this game, Dave Werner. The game is actually a game within a game. What I mean by that is the point of the game is to design your own adventure games. It's a great idea. I mean who doesn't get tired of playing the same levels and scenarios in a video game over and over. Now you can create different adventures play them, destroy them and build new ones. So not only do you get to enjoy the creation and hard work that goes into creating a fun interesting game; you also get to play the adventure you create! I encourage everyone to check out the website. There's some cool videos about it. http://atmosphir.com/

New Media Exploration - Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is one of hottest buzzwords in computer and internet technology from the past few years. What is cloud computing and how may it affect the average person in the future?



Cloud computing is not an entirely new concept. It is a basic extension of a prior concept called grid computing. Grid computing is essentially the use of multiple computers at the same time to solve a single problem, or to perform a single process. Rather than one single supercomputer providing the processing power, multiple computers combine their processing power to handle the same task. Grid computing has been used successfully for years to tackle major problems such as earthquake simulations, climate modeling, protein folding and other massive scientific tasks. It has also been used by popular programs such as the SETI@Home program. Millions of individual computers have provided their power to SETI in an attempt to locate intelligent life outside of Earth. Grid computing systems generally use a centralized infrastructure with external computers providing the processing power.

So how is cloud computing different? One of the main differences is that cloud computing has little or no centralized infrastructure. They also usually have no billing systems in place, where computing power is sold similar to that of electricity or other utilities. Cloud computing is instead a loose connection between users where computing resources are shared among the users. Some current examples of cloud computing include BitTorrent, where users connect to the cloud and their computers are then used as part of the processing power of the entire cloud.

There are many arguments on where cloud computing will take us in the future. Some see cloud computing changing the electronic landscape the same way that the electricity grid changed the power landscape in the early 1900s as it replaced localized electricity generators. In this metaphor, the old electricity generators are the personal computers individuals currently use, while the new electricity grid is cloud computing. So in the future, will users simply have a user interface (monitor and keyboard, virtual reality with voice control, etc) and simply plug into the cloud for their computing needs? If so, this would dramatically change the IT landscape. In this vision, personal computers would disappear and individualized software would be gone forever. Users would likely pay for their usage, whether by time, processing power required, or maybe bandwidth usage. There would likely also be costs for use of certain "programs", as software companies would likely provide licenses or sell users access to the programs by time. In addition, users would need space to save their personal data.

This would also bring about major privacy issues, as individuals data would suddenly be located outside of their home computer. Governments would suddenly have even greater ability to see what individuals are doing. Data privacy would suddenly become extremely valuable...

The next decade will likely determine if the cloud computing model will take over the current structure, or if it will stay on the sidelines and continue to serve a niche purpose.

The following resources were used in writing this article:

Cloud Computing: A New Horizon
Cloud Computing on Wikipedia

Design Exploration - Bioshock 3, Nissan

In the design exploration I will look at two different flash websites and explore and analyze the how and the why of the design. The first website I will explore is the flash website for Bioshock, a hugely successful and critically acclaimed game from 2K Games.



The website is designed for a very specific audience... gamers. To this end it uses high quality graphics, immersive sound, podcasts, video and the latest technology to wow the gamer and convince him or her to purchase the game. The main goal of the website is to sell the video game, while secondary goals would include getting the visitor to join their mailing lists and to sell the 2K games brand.

So when designing the website, the designers attempted to create an experience similar to what the visitor would experience in the game. This is not an easy feat, as video game consoles are designed to handle graphics and sound that the average computer would have great difficulty with over the internet. So the designers had a very difficult challenge of trying to recreate the game experience while minimizing the size and bandwidth requirements of the website. They were able to do this using flash and creating a mini environment where the visitor could experience the basic gameplay interactively, or where they could watch videos and trailers of the gameplay. The designers used ominous sounds from the game, as well as very dark colors to relate to the dark, underwater environment the game takes place in. Overall it appears as though the designers were very successful in this design. If sales are any indicator of their success, they did very well indeed.

The second website I will explore is from Nissan. I have always noticed that car companies seems to be along the cutting edge of flash design and technology. Why do car companies spend so much time and money on flash and other highly interactive websites? I believe it all comes down to the need to create and design an experience for the visitor where they can actually feel as though they are seeing, feeling and interacting with the vehicle. It is as if the designers are attempting to create a virtual test drive of the vehicle. This makes perfect sense from a marketing and sales standpoint. When a potential buyer of a car actually test drives a vehicle, their chances of purchasing the vehicle goes up dramatically compared to a potential buyer who does not test drive the vehicle. So if designers are able to recreate the experience of test driving the vehicle, they might be able to increase the sales conversion rate dramatically. So what did Nissan do to create this virtual test drive?



The opening page has two vehicles on moving treadmills, creating the look of live vehicles in action. There are small strings attached to each vehicle and as you mouse over them, you seem to be able to move the vehicle somewhat. This interaction with the vehicles may be minor, but it does much more compared to looking at images of the vehicle. Once you click on one of the vehicles, you go to the next page where you can "experience" the vehicle and control it through keyboard or mouse presses. It also has an interactive gallery where you can turn the vehicle and then look at various images from that angle. With these design features, they are able to recreate the test-drive experience, at least to a certain extent.

From these two explorations, it is obvious that for some companies, creating an experience of the product is one of the most design goals. If the customer cannot be there and experience the product in person, creating an experience that most closely resembles the real thing will surely lead to a positive visitor experience (and sales!).

Design Exploration - Coraline, Flash of Genius

For my final post, the design exploration, I picked out two flash sites based on two very different movies, Coraline and Flash of Genius.

Coraline is a spooky children's story about a parallel world where parents are always fun and everyone has button-eyes, but it turns out that her "other parents" are actually trying to trap little kids that feel neglected in their real lives.



When constructing a website for this film, the designers wanted to build an eerie site that would still appeal to kids. They chose a creepy soundtrack with whispering and chanting children, and for the setting a dark and rainy night featuring a button-shadowed moon. Realistic images and multi-pane camera techniques immediately make you feel drawn in to the story. Moving the mouse around the screen lets you explore the world looking for places to go and things to click on. To draw the kids in, there are lots of fun activities appealing to younger audiences. You can build your own flowers, spell your name with bugs, or put buttons over your eyes.

The second site is much less gloomy, but because it's for a more mature audience, there are clips and trailers but no games or activities. The movie, Flash of Genius, is about a college professor who invents the intermittent windshield wiper, shows it to Ford, and then has to spend 30 years in the legal system fighting them for the rights to his own invention.


In order to capture the feel of the main character in the story, the designers of this site chose a very simple-looking style with a lot of white sketches, a fair number of photos, and a splash of red to help you find where you are in the navigation system. The sketches are detailed, complex and animated, giving you a feel of the depth of thought that the college professor puts into his inventions. At the same time, he lives in a real world, and so the inventions are mixed with stills and animated clips from the movie. As a finishing touch, certain buttons have animated sheens that run left to right and then back again like the windshield wipers on a car, reminding the audience what it was this guy invented.

Design exploration: Flash eCards

I don't recall seeing any postings on this blog about eCards -- those short animations you can send to family and friends on special occasions such as birthdays and Mothers Days -- which is odd because Flash animation on the internet really comes into play here. American Greetings lets you send a number of humorous Flash greeting sentiments, as does Hallmark. Jib Jab is another site that provides the service. Even MoveOn.org has a site to dispense such eCards!

JibJab and the MoveOn.org sites also allow you to put a mug of you or your loved one into the eCard sentiment. Such personalization is effective. The recipient can see his name and face splashed across a tongue-in-cheek faux news story and get an extra bang.

I was clued into this Design Exploration when I checked out the portfolios of a couple of Flash artists (Ben Lane and Chris Georgenes) and saw that they have done eCards in their job histories.

The more I think about it, that would be a great job -- to creatively cook up short Flash cartoons for greeting card companies (and like newspapers, card companies are scrambling to move with the tsunami of new technology).

But on to the serious business of analyzing these interactive multimedia concoctions. My analysis concludes with the observation that 'anything goes' with these eCards. Slapstick works. Dry English humor works. Political satire works. 3D clay puppets work. Barking dogs really works. And 3D clay puppets of dogs barking works best of all. (Is there such a thing as a clay puppet?)

A search engine better than Google?

(this is a New Media Technology Exploration posting)

About a week ago I was checking my bookmarked websites for news stories of general interest and came across an article about the WolframAlpha search engine system that debuts this month. The new system is being touted by some as a quantum leap forward in search engine technology.

I am sometimes (often?) frustrated with Google -- my search inquires turn up an awful lot of irrelevant (and unreliable) material. I realize it's something of an art to get good search results. You have to understand Google's limitations and 'game' its system to get what you want. Still, you can waste a lot of time trying out different combinations of key search words.

The WolframAlpha system aims to weed out a lot of the chaff of search inquires. It searches for "curated" information -- material that has been assessed first by experts. According to an article in a British newspaper (The Independent) "The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out 'on the fly', according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in "10 flips for four heads" and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out."

The New York Times says that traditional search engines like Google and Yahoo, by and large, excel at finding information that already exists online. If there are Web pages that include the words used in a query, the engines will find them and rank them in order of relevance. WolframAlpha is different. For starters, it does not gather data from the Web. Instead, its “knowledge base” is made up of reams and reams of data — ranging from the kinds of facts you would find in a World Almanac, to highly specialized data from physics and other sciences — that some 100 employees at Wolfram Research have gathered, verified and organized over several years.

A limitation to the Wolfram search engine however is its focus on quality information and not on frivolous popular culture topics. When the term "50 Cent" was submitted to the engine it confused a discussion on currency with the rap artist.

If WolframAlpha works as well as anticipated it could be a great blow to Wikipedia (the online encyclopedia that relies on entries by lay people as well as experts). Wikipedia's reputation for reliability has suffered in the past because information it passes on isn't always policed properly. WolframAlpha's strength is said to be in the quality of its sources.

The inventor of the new search engine, Stephen Wolfram, downplays the competition between his creation and Google. “I think WolframAlpha has the potential to be quite important,” he said. But he also said that the two search engines could just as well complement each other.

Studio/Artist Exploration

picturesofyouiran.com

Tom Loughlin is an American artist & photographer. His recent work is called “Pictures of you-Images from Iran”, and it is a traveling outdoor multimedia installation, currently on tour nationally, that features portraits of Iranian citizens printed on translucent silk.

I’m attracted to his work very much, because I appreciate his effort in introducing a foreign culture to the American people and to make us understand that we are all one people. We may speak different languages and have different customs and practices, but as a foundation we are all the same. And it is important for everyone in the world to understand this message and may be one day no nation of this world will find it necessary to drop bombs on other countries or threaten them in any other way, such as bringing a certain style of government to them.

In his artist statement he says “I want all Americans to have a chance to come face-to-face with their Iranian counterparts, and I want to document the American responses’ to the encounter.”

I find that not only has he achieved his communication goal with his art exhibit around the country, but also his website clearly communicates his objectives.

The most import thing for his message are the images, which are very prominent throughout his site. His design elements facilitate the user’s experience and one is very clear about its message. The navigational scheme is intuitive, easy to use and understand. In fact, it is build in a very clever way in that it hides and pops up when needed. The site is clutter free and even though it offers a lot of information, especially in the Audio section, it does not feel like an overload. He has maintained a consistent visual style, with enough contrast to give the site a cutting edge look.

He engages the audience throughout his site with images, audio, video and guestbook or response section; which awake emotions.

I began my new media technology search at http://www.garage.com. This site led me to http://www.yoics.com. Yoics is an easy and free download/application for computers and iPhones. Yoics allows you to manage your computers and network devices from anywhere. Internet has become the way of doing things, everyday things. Yoics for Drobo also allows you to have remote access and share ability Yoics helps to browse documents, view photos, and your web cam when you are away from home. Drobo, a “storage robot,” is a big external hard drive- holding up to 4 hard drives at a time.

            Through Yoics for Drobo there is no need to transport documents with any external device, eliminating the need for a flash drive. This allows you to be connected to your home computer no matter where you are, as long as Internet is accessible. Yoics includes they will soon offer premium services for those that need it.

            I found these sites very interesting because I often worry about leaving my flash drive in the library or needing it while I am not at home.  I also find it interesting that these next generation products and applications increase people’s dependency on technology. Yoics and Drobo are efficient ways of managing your files without direct connection to your PC, Mac or Linux computer.

Artist Exploration - Kobra Editing

            Well as you already know, there are many flash websites and studio artists who have uniquely complex and creative flash-based webpages.  I chose this flash animator for my blog because of the fact that he has only been creating flash animations for a short period of time.  He calls his website Kobra Editing.

             From what I have seen so far from his work is pretty good for someone who didn't seem to take any classes having to do with flash animation or even graphic designing.  His first piece called Power, took him only two months to create.  In that piece, he describes how he completed this animation using the technique of step animation and motion tweening.  I took a look at his other works and was very impressed by the flash animations titled "The Anger of Animation".  That one piece of work sprouted many fans into wanting more from him on the website called Newgrounds which is one of the most popular websites for amateur and professional flash animators.

            Knowing that he created all this really inspired me because, he is just an average guy like any other person that I know of.  To know that gave me confidence in myself to do well with web designing and flash animation.  It gave me the "If he can do it, so can I" kind of confidence in myself to do well within this field.  If you want to see his other animations go ahead and check out his website.  It is pretty simple in graphics and there seems to be not much going on there, but for a guy who probably hasnt taken any flash animation classes or graphic design classes, I believe he is doing well for himself in regards to creating popular pieces of work.

New Media: Robotic wheelchair controlled by thought alone

It is incredible what technology can accomplish! New advancements everyday! A robotic wheelchair controlled by thoughts? I thought that only was possible in movies? This is great for someone who is paralyzed. They can actually live an ordinary life. There is a screen in front of them displaying what is around them. They stare at what they want and the wheelchair registers that. Then using sensors and the machine the wheelchair is taken to it's destination with out bumping into any obstacles. “In 2006 the team demonstrated that four children with cerebral palsy could use a touch screen built into an earlier version of their wheelchair, to navigate around busy and constantly changing environments during their school day.” This is great opportunity and a great advancement in technology. What else can be accomplished? Pretty soon they can figure out how to make robots to do things for humans. Tell them what to do and they do it. “It's not the first wheelchair to be controlled by brain waves, but it is the only design to incorporate mind-control in a system capable of real-time navigation, route planning and collision avoidance,” says Palaniappan Ramaswamyfrom the University of Essex in Colchester, UK. Although this wheelchair is not perfected, it is still a great start for a whole new world of using robotics for aid. I hope that these advancements are not abused and used for the better of mankind.