This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
SMARTPHONE TECHNOLOGY


STREET SMART M


obile overlays are primarily experienced using a mobile device, such as a smart- phone or tablet. They require the user to be in a specifi c


location to trigger content, answer ques- tions or perform some other type of activity. I looked at a range of projects – from an independent alternate reality game, to an emerging gaming platform backed by the big players Google Ventures. One app promises to add a new adven-


ture to a classic theme park. Two other projects reutilise archival materials to make history come alive on the spot. All of the apps I looked at run on at least a 3G iPhone. However, I’ve noticed that there’s also an Android version.


THE SURREAL STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO The Jejune Institute game requires players to go out into the streets, explore the city, and complete tasks that unlock clues to other tasks. The San Francisco-based crea- tors of the game, Nonchalance, describe themselves as a hybrid art consultancy with expertise in situational design. I had a fantastic time decoding their rid- dles and searching for clues ranging from bizarre to whimsical. While the Jejune Institute experience doesn’t use an app per se, it is heavily location and web based. It takes a low-tech approach to location- based storytelling, and this is its charm. The quirkiness of the Jejune Institute sto-


ryline matches the eccentricity of the tasks and plays brilliantly against the backdrop of everyday downtown San Francisco.


74


As smartphone technology becomes more widely adopted, a whole new world of possibilities is opening up for storytellers to take their shows into the streets. Mark Hayward reviews some of the latest apps


The city has another Bay Area overlay


– Time Shutter. The app allows you to recre- ate historic photos of San Francisco on the spot and create “now and then” transitions. Using the iPhone’s GPS-enabled Google Map, it tracks your progress as you navi- gate among 250 historic photographs located on your map. These images are taken from the major postcard publishers that were active in San Francisco in 1900. When you come upon an image you’d


like to recreate, the map directs you to the best location to reshoot the image from. One view I chose to recreate was Down Sutter Street. By standing on the corner of Sutter Street and Grant Avenue and look- ing through the camera on my iPhone, I was able to view a transparent overlay of the historic image on the current view through the phone’s camera. I could scale the current image to match the historic one almost exactly before snapping the picture. Time Shutter blends the present and the


past in an interesting visual way. All the functions are intuitive and work well, but I can’t help but feel that a narrative or game element might make it more compelling. Still, it’s easy to spend an afternoon walk- ing around Union Square, imagining the San Francisco of long ago.


Read Attractions Management online attractionsmanagement.com/digital


CHASING HOLLYWOOD STARS Now let’s zip down the West Coast to Tinsel Town. Tens of millions of fans walk the star-studded terrazzo sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard every year. But how many of them realise that they’re walking on a 15-block-long public monument to the achievements of the entertainment indus- try – the Hollywood Walk of Fame? The Los Angeles Times decided to


try to make this realisation easier with its Hollywood Star Walk app. This app is essentially a complete location-based guide to the 2,400 honorees, including bio- graphical information and photographs, all culled from the archives of the LA Times. The app includes an augmented reality feature that helps you locate specifi c hono- rees by using the iPhone camera. I chose to track down Marilyn Monroe’s


star. I used the search function of the app to fi nd her name and map her star. By activating the augmented reality func- tion, I was able to use my camera to fi nd the virtual star hovering near the intersec- tion of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Once I arrived at her star, I opened her biography on the app. It included a photograph and description of her life and work. A link at the bottom allows you to see


AM 3 2011 ©cybertrek 2011


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86