the intertubes, everywhere

"the future is already here, it's just not well distributed yet"

or, just “everyware”

By the wayI’m not going to talk about museums

so this is?

ubiquitous computing data mobile web QR-tag internet virtual reality API network effects invisible technology usability services location devices identity RFID barcode feed

real-world virtual experiences

★ virtual content is rich, clever and quick

★ ..but we don’t live in a virtual space, we live in a real one (mostly)

★ “everyware” means looking at content merging and flowing between the two

which means what?

★ extra layers of information

★ easily accessible

★ starting (as we’ll see) to be easy...

★ ...which means the virtual is an adjunct rather than a replacement to the “real” experience

examples?

★ tikitag / violet / nabaztag

★ botanicalls

★ “ambient umbrella”

★ wikitude

★ layar

tagging and flagging

★ barcoded objects > barcoded environments

★ RFID (hello, UKMW09...)

★ Bluetooth (Cityware / Facebook)

★ ..and, yes, mobile web browsing

“Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all before..”

“ Our preliminary approach: Activate the world. Provide hundreds of wireless computing devices per person per office, of all scales”

Xerox PARC, 1996http://sandbox.xerox.com/ubicomp

..but now is a special time

★ finally beginning to see a convergence of several factors which make a real, non-clunky, “invisible technology” solution possible

★ ...or at least some exciting hints which look like they’ll become everyware-like

devices

locationnetwork

services content

computingpower

invisible and everywhere

devices

Source: Tomi Ahonen Almanac 2009 http://tinyurl.com/mobile-ref-1

★ we all have “a device”

★ 1.15bn new handsets last year

★ (of which 90% have colour web browser)

★ cheap, small, replaceable

★ 1.2bn “mobile web” users

★ devices themselves as sensors...

network

★ GPRS, EDGE, 3G

★ WIFI and (possibly) WIMAX

★ cheaper

★ faster

★ more available

★ more marketed

location

★ cell(+) location

★ gps (if you’re outside)

★ + some WIFI location

★ mobile OS starting to be location aware

★ ..but more to the point, many geocoding services available

★ ..and millions of geocoded resources

computing power★ (mobile) computing power is

increasing at a huge rate

★ mobiles will be (are!) the platform of choice

★ at the same time, the services themselves are fast enough to cope

content★ vast swathes of stuff is now available

via API’s, which effectively means “on any device”

★ example: 100 million CC’d images on Flickr, many of which are geocoded

★ not to mention Google..

services★ real-time access to services

★ realistic access times across our (nearly) ubiquitous networks

★ availability of these services is high, and they are usually free or cheap

devices

locationnetwork

services content

computingpower

now these are in place...we can go nuts thinking about the potential

"vastpoint sensing"★ twitter as sensor grid

★ weather

★ hayfever

★ current mood

★ ...not to mention news

★ ambient / non-ambient crowd-sourcing

devices as sensors★ how about:

★ traffic reports based on real-time movement data (density, speed and direction)

★ weather data based on real-time brightness, temperature, etc

★ self-correcting maps based on crowd-sourcing gps data

★ camera? audio? altitude?

predictions (dangerous..)★ we'll see further increases of network

and device speeds

★ ..perhaps rolling out of city-wide networks

★ ..but also understanding and embedding of the possibilities into the psyche of users

★ the tendency to move away from geek and closer to invisible

thank you for listening

★ @m1ke_ellis

★ slideshare.net/dmje

★ electronicmuseum.org.uk

thanks to these people too

★ “Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing”Adam Greenfieldhttp://www.studies-observations.com/everyware

★ “..the future is already here, it’s just not well distributed yet”Bruce Sterlinghttp://boingboing.net/images/blobjects.htm

★ Tikitag (http://www.touchatag.com/) / Violet (http://www.violet.net/ ) / Nabaztag (http://www.nabaztag.com/ )/ Botanicalls (http://www.botanicalls.com/ ) / Ambient Umbrella (http://www.ambientdevices.com/products/umbrella.html ) / Wikitude (http://www.mobilizy.com/ ) / Cityware (http://www.cityware.org.uk/)