Future Ideas(For this Innovation)

“AR” Codes –

By taking on the future trends in which most movie goers would have a cell-phone that possess video taking capabilities, the first step in which what the future would be like for movie goers is to introducing the Augmented Reality feature onto cinema tickets. ‘AR’ technology at this stage is quite simple and straightforward. Despite the development still at its infancy, the functions in which this innovation could provide are still quite sophisticated and would definitely benefit a large audience ranging from military individuals to tourists. This technology will further blur the line between what is real and what is not real to the way we perceive computer generated images.

The AR technology that would be implemented onto movie tickets is to have a small piece/strip of barcode attached to it. And when the piece of code is being scanned (or view upon) by an equipment with video taking functions, it will then be revealed on the screen of the device with a character from the movie (or even yourself) in which you can interact with. The different kinds of interaction range from the character providing you the synopsis of the movie to what kinds of services the cinema offers. It can even include advertisements as well. Further building onto that, it gives the audience and movie-goers to have another reason to keep the ticket they have bought.

Of course such movie-going experience could be improved by, instead of the cinema dispensing the tickets, the cinema could adopt a more environmental friendly approach to this by issuing ‘virtual/digital’ tickets.

Booths in Cinema Foyer –

This idea further takes on the earlier concept of allowing movie-goers that are waiting in the foyer for their film to have some kind of interaction with both the movies and what the cinema provides. This generic-like booth could provide all kinds of services ranging from viewing and reservation on upcoming movies. But what sets this booth different to the others is that this innovation will further take up on the ‘facial recognition’ idea proposed earlier. When entered with the ticket to the movie, the booth will have a panoramic/360 degrees angle screens surrounding the user and at the same time it will have the live trace function capturing the facial features of the user that would be uploaded onto the booth.

When the necessary information/image is being uploaded, it engages the user with various contents such as allowing them to have a feel of what behind the scenes of the movie is like to rubbing-shoulders’ with the movie stars on the set. It could even have the individual be placed in a particular scene of the movie that allows them to ‘feel’ what that particular moment of the movie is like. Whether it is the audience themselves or the ‘uploaded version’ interacting with the contents, many kinds of contents could be installed for this innovation. It will be good publicity for the makers/cinema and at the same time provide a different experience for movie-goers.

Big Screen Self Check in-Points –

By picking up certain points from both of the previous two concepts, we could have an alternate outcome to what kinds of stuff the cinema could offer. Similar to the concept of E-Tickets at the airport, the cinema would instead of issuing you a paper-ticket; you would just have to wave your phone over a scanner with the provided information (whereby the ‘tickets’ have been purchased beforehand via online or at the cinema) through the check-in points situated at the entry into the particular cinema for the show.

Upon waving over the scanner, the seat allocation will appear with your customized character/image on the big screen (that eventually shows the movie itself) which will guide the movie-goers to their selected seating. Not only does this concept promotes a paperless-environment it makes entering the movie a lot more legitimate in the event that someone else has taken your seats and also safeguard the cinema from movie-free-loaders.

This idea might not be viable to each and everyone simple because not every single movie-goer would possess a top-end cell-phone. The way to go around this is that the cinema would have an option to issuing both electronic AND paper tickets as well; and that by adopting the eco-friendly approach, paper tickets could cost slighter more than electronic tickets.

Week Two Ongoing

Advertise a productfrom a global brand in a way that was not pissble five years ago – to an audience you choose.

Think about what’s around now that wasn’t around then. As technology is constantly changing, this is your chance to come up with the next big thing. Invent a new medium. Use something traditional in a way that no one has thought of before. As long as you shatter conventional thinking, we don’t care!

What are some of the technologies that came to mind? -

• Twitter – Founded in 2006, is basically a ’social working’ and ‘micro-blogging’ service.
  Possible Targets: Useful for parents to track their children on a text-to-text basis or just audience in general; not only does the name sound ‘child-like’, users could SMS their messages across to the network via mobile phones.
• iPhone – Device originally invented in 2007, a hand-held device that has many functions.
  Thoughts: Embracing technologies that could be found on PDAs, the iPhone provided more solid functions on browsing the web and being able to download contents from it. By being able to ‘download’ the contents off, advertising could be intergrated into the downloading ‘contents’.
• ‘High End Video Game Consoles’ – The so called ‘high end’ refers to consoles such as the PS3, XBOX360 and Wii in which it enables user to have the luxury on playing their beloved video game while also have the option on surfing the Internet and interacting with others, all in one together.
  Thoughts: In-game advertising has not been carried out on a large scale but with occasional hints every now and then it was not really a successful method in the past. But seeing how nowadays the growth and popularity of gaming has increase to a high, in-game advertising would not be a bad idea.
• Google Map – Was first introduced 2005, it provided the general a ‘you-can-have-your-own’ satellite image novelty. Ever since its first development, plenty of other functions has been added to it already.

These ideas are mostly being thought of already but it would be good to serve as some kind of reference.

In terms of futuristic-product development, I find that the guys over at Yanko Design actually being quite amazing. It’s worth checking the site out.

Mapping – Ongoing

Upon having my discussion and receiving feedbacks from the tutors, I reckon I will march on with the concept of ‘mapping the sky’. The reason behind that choice is that I find the possibility of ‘things’ you could go on with is plenty with sky. The sky itself is such a vast ‘entity’ that, there are no boundaries to it. And by that taking something that is as huge as the sky, perhaps stripping its essence and simplifying them into something that is diminutive would be…’ambitious’.

By narrowing down onto the list of stuff to do, I will be focusing on:

1) Epsom itself.
2) Mapping points across the selected map/area that is ‘walkable’ within a time window.
3) Using photography as the primary means of gathering data.
4) Take images of both the sky and the ground on the designated points across the map.
5) Select ideal images that will be used.
6) Simplify and extract colours from the selected images via Photoshop.
7) Create Flash map!

Here is a map of Epsom that I will be working around with:

Map of Epsom (with points)

The reason that I have decided to work with non-horizontal points on the map is due to the fact that it makes the traveling a lot faster and at the same time allows me to cover the designated distance at a more efficient rate.

On top of that here are some of the visuals for the website:

Index -

Index Page A

Index Page B

Contents -

Contens Page A

Contents Page B

Contents Page C

Just to give a brief outline on what the visuals are about – the website might need  a new index page and so by looking at that I have decided on just twisting things around and have a background image for a change. The current index page is a little static. Simple variations for the two index visuals, an ‘Enter’ button and background variation of squares or plain. And as for the content, there will be a map on the page where one could interact with it. Nothing too fancy, perhaps just images showing the location.

Mapping – Progress

I must confessed at the fact that keeping track of ongoing process and concepts is not my strongest point. And as much as I have wrote the information down, hoping to put it down onto a blog, I never really got around to doing it. Not to mentioned getting bogged down with the tiny bits and pieces of chores. Tiny bits and pieces adds up at the end of the day. But regardless, here I am again, hopefully I’ll get around to shedding a few lights on the concept and brainstorming:

Garbage :

Around the street, there is never a shortage of people’s waste lying around; depending on where you go, the street is usually filled with enormous amount of ’stuff’. The ratio of garbage around the street differs throughout the day. In the morning, perhaps, the clean-up crew would sweep along and bringing all the waste away. And late at night, especially on a weekend, the amount will mostly be a lot more compared to regular weekdays.

Its not like it is a bad thing or anything, stuff people dropped/left behind is usually quite interesting. Mapping the garbage on a particular street would be ideal and at the end of the day, producing a tally of the variations of garbage lying around that particular perimeter would not be a bad idea as well…

Garbage Bins:

Ever had one of those moments where you are in a place and have something in your hand that you desperately trying to get rid of but could not find a garbage bin?? Further building onto the above idea, mapping the locations of a specific (ie. colour, size, type) garbage bins around a town or a city would be quite interesting as well. In short, a database for garbage bins around a certain area perhaps…?

Metal-detector:

You will be surprised at how much stuff you could find when you walk around the park with a metal-detector. Plenty of ‘’stuff’ usually go undetected under the ground and I reckon it would be very exciting to map a particular plot of land…what remains could be found underground?? Hmm…where could I find a metal-detector?

Stars/Skies/Clouds:

You know how when you were a child, every now and then you get this long distance journey to a place in a car/bus/plane where there is not much you could do but look out through the window? And usually, by looking at the sky it occupies you throughout the journey by trying to figure what each clouds represents. On top of that the colours of the sky changes throughout the day. Changes are good, mapping the shapes and colours of something that is THAT huge of a scale would be challenging. But at he same time think about the variety of information that you could possibly benefit from something like that…?

All the above ideas are highly achievable/doable at the point of brainstorming. Whether having the time of doing it or not really comes down to which one would keep my interest intact through the remaining brief.

Stuff Stumbled Upon -

First 100 Days – Came across this interesting info-graphics showing what the president of the United States does on the first 100 days in office. I bet it took a while for it to be compiled but it is quite a nicely presented piece of graphic work though!

Sprint – An insane yet very cool looking site that contains tooons of widgets….one hell of a site. You could get a mini-version of this widget down to your Facebook to even your desktop. But was wondering at the same time whether the ‘facts’ are true or not.

Burger King Studio – Create t-shirts with your own design over the web? Personally thought the interface is fantastic and straightforward at the same time.