iPhone
The Museum of London has launched a new Augmented Reality (AR) application for the iPhone platform that, when launched, allows the user to view historic images superimposed over the visible world (via iPhone camera and screen). The following illustrations were posted via Gizmodo as possible views one might see:
This is an exciting illustration of the power of “collective memory” a concept we use to describe the knowledge management-like capabilities presented by spatialized AR data. Depending on the amount of stored detail one could rewind a specific view through multitudes of perspectives of a single area to see information from yesterday or a few centuries ago. This concept is a key component in the architecture of our iARM ecology.
Because our system is vision based, we have an extensive amount historical footage for areas of interest and the daily use of our system continuously adds to our model making for an amazingly powerful captured dimensional recording of our world.
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on May 26, 2010
If we caught your attention with our last post but you’re having a difficult time understanding what’s so exciting about a little research and some images narrating a potential future rest assured we have a lot to talk about.
The first thing we need to address is one of the “Hows” of the visualization technology. Even though we have several patents pending, we are still too sensitive to expose the ‘whole tomato’ to the masses, but suffice it to say we have cracked the Augmented Reality visual registration nut. The following is our first delving into the details that are under development.
What is this nut? Let me explain…
If you’ve ever used the current lineup of “AR Apps” available on Android or iPhone platform you’ve seen a neat portal into the world of Augmented Reality. You typically see a camera view of the world around you presented on a hardware screen with digital information presented (most often clumsily) on top of the view. As you move the phone around you see that information move accordingly as if it’s locked to some physical location. Sometimes you see that information move or ‘drift’ for unknown reasons and that is really the problem with current tech AR.
Registration is the accuracy by which the computing platform can “lock” the digital world onto the physical world and up to today, that technology has been susceptible to all sorts of errors and interference. One of the reasons registration is still immature is because developers are relying on hardware improvements to solve their problems. We believe that while hardware, especially heavily funded hardware (thank you Apple), may eventually get accurate enough to solve the registration problem we don’t have the time or patience to wait. We instead spent our time researching and testing an elegant and simple solution that would work with today’s hardware capabilities.
If you look at the narrative slides below you can see our User Experience Model relies heavily on pixel-accurate digital registration. We can “paint” anything including highlighting objects, manually marking the environment and even embedded three-dimensional models. I can assure you these aren’t the crazy vision of a designer with no insight as to how the technology works but are based on our registration system (U.S. Patent Pending).
Our system is primarily vision-based, but leverages gross measurements (with error detection) of GPS, Cell/WIFI triangulation, and digital compass hardware. That means that it uses cameras, models, and some other fancy wizardry to rapidly identify the observed view and paint objects within that domain accordingly.
That’s all for now but we’ll be presenting some more details on the system at ARE2010 and are excited to continue this discussion.
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on May 24, 2010
We seem to talk a lot about Nike and Nike+. Maybe it’s the tanagramster team’s passion for running or Nike’s well rounded approach to digital ecology. It doesn’t really matter because we, the consumer, want more. The following list is a summary of features we’d like to see on the iPhone 3GS version.
1) Emergency response – As an urban runner, on of my biggest fears is an attack or accident that renders me unable to seek help. I would feel better if I had an option to alert loved ones or authorities with a simple button press or even better, after an accelerometer detected shock followed by no movement (accelerometer or sensor). Perhaps we could use MobileMe Find-my-phone or the GPS to send coordinates to those who need to know? Even a quick access link to a speakerphone dialed 911 call would be appreciated. Obviously there are risks with auto dialing emergency services, but I think safety catches could be engineered into the solution. I wonder if Nike could partner with these guys?
2) Notes Transcription – This one is a little quirky, but I do some of my best thinking during a run and would greatly appreciate a capture device more secure than my memory. Mic-in-headphones technology would likely be required for this, but we’ve got that. Speech-to-text tech would make this better, but I’m not holding on to his idea because I’m pretty sure the noise of the run would confuse the system pretty quickly.
3) Telemetrics – I have no doubt the folks at Motorola want or have something like this, but us pro-sumers would love live run streams for loved ones and trainers as we slog through our local runs. Consider the opportunity for coaches to monitor multiple runners’ performance against individual profiles. It’s an easy connection to make for team efforts, but what about sports consultants coaching paying individuals through a Marathon.
4) VOIP Push-To-Talk (PTT) – Technology similar to Skype (not the PTT part) would allow a coach or teammate to provide real-time insights / conversation regardless of distance.
5) 3rd Party Integration – In a world where services are currency, Nike has still not embraced allowing third-party developers (hardware or software) to add their personal twists to the plus ecology. If they offered a SDK, the market could take their hardware and grow it into all sorts of interesting spaces. Perhaps their lacking revenue model is to blame?
5) Playlist Sync OR Local Area Music Broadcast – It’s nice to run with friends, it’s extra nice to run to the same music (same tempo). The ability to sync music or share music via bluetooth or wifi would be awesome. I could use the same tech on the ski slope. Extra credit for developing a networking architecture that expands distance as the number of paired machines increases.
6) GPS Integration – This one is a no brainer. The Nike+ system needs to be manually calibrated (i.e. you type in a distance after a run). Instead we think it would be great to intermittently start the GPS chip (every 1 min to save battery) to determine actual progress. Not only would this data be useful for calibration but it would also be nice to automagically draw routes. Clever web services monkeys might even be able to create a function that alerts you if you are approaching another Nike+ user and allow you to contact them, race them, etc.
7) Digital (virtual) Running Mates – Illness kept me from running the last Human Race, but there is another opportunity for Nike+ to network their communities. Imagine as you are beginning your run, your Nike+ app speaks into your ears that there are X number of runners of similar skill starting at the same time. After being presented the option, you opt to join the group and during your run you can chat with them via VOIP technology. Imagine those runners are scattered across the world. WOW! “Hi, what’s your name?” “I’m Roy from Manchester, and you?” You get it…
I hope the fine folks at Nike don’t consider these ideas as criticisms. More than half of our office is wired into their service and we adore their smart combination of style and tech. As fans for life we just want to help. See you all at the Bank of America Shamrock Shuffle!
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on February 4, 2010
Once again, Tanagram is growing. We are looking for a curious individual with a passion for the future of interaction and deep experience working with HTML, AS3, and XAML. Our newest member must also rock. This isn’t a confidence thing for you or us, we aren’t prima donna designers and don’t work well with individuals who can’t collaborate intensively. Rock to us means to be REALLY REALLY good at what you do. It means you understand the implications of aesthetics and beauty on complex functional design. It means you understand and are relevant with the “fashion” of design. It means you wake up in the morning thinking about visual and systemic gorgeousness and strive to create it. You must have a great portfolio that is relevant and shows you are actively pursuing the issues we are passionate about.
Here at Tanagram we actively look for ways to escape the world of WIMP interaction and I’m proud to say we are very very close to realizing it. We design complex interactive experiences, systems that make most designers cringe. Systems that allow users to touch and manipulate data with hands not abstractions. We abhor refresh-encumbered interaction and enjoy individuals who understand that there is a better place.
While we can’t share project specifics, our current assignments include redefining geospatial hyperlocal media planning as a SaaS product*, inventing the the future of Augmented Reality interaction (no it’s not a silly iPhone app, think heads-up display technology and daily wear), and creating / refining online communities that are meaningful and truly help people. Our clients work with us to help them create the future and we are steadfast that our future is a better one.
In our process the UX designer’s role begins at project inception. She participates in client discussions gathering information and providing references to current and leading edge design approaches (visual, haptic, etc) that may benefit the client’s requirements. She references new trends, hot topics, and examples used by like and non-like competitors. Once requirements are gathered, she works with the project team as an artist, innovator, and strategist representing concepts and prototypes that are desired by her target audiences. Design aesthetics are always as important as simplicity and relevance. Our newest member must be a communicator, actively seeking and spreading inspiration. She is constantly challenging herself and the status quo.
Experience working with Industrial Design is a plus.
If you feel like she could be you and have 10+ years of experience please send your resume and portfolio to careers@tanagram.com and we can start the discussion.
We look forward to meeting you.
* apologies for the buzzword attack.
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on December 30, 2009
We love iPhone applications. Heck we may even be making one of our own, but here are a few of our absolute favorites. Most are free – some are fee – all are worthy. (we are not).
- GeoPedia – GeoPedia is basically a location-based Wikipedia interface for your iPhone.
- AmazonMobile – The note/snapshot feature is still pretty cool!
- iTransitBuddy – a robust, easy to use public transportation schedule application. Multiple cities including Chicago.
- enCamp – BaseCamp application for the iPhone. Best of breed so far.
- Facebook – We hate and love this app. Mostly love it.
- GuitarToolKit – Guitar players this has chords, an accurate microphone-based tuner, metronome and more. Very cool.
- Kindle for the iPhone – You don’t carry your Kindle everywhere but you carry your phone. The UI is super easy and readable.
- NowPlaying – Movie listings, ratings and more.
- OmniFocus – It’s expensive but nothing does GTD better.
- PhoneFlix – Netflix client for iPhone. Very useful when a movie idea hits you on the train.
- Skype – VOIP for your iPhone. We eagerly await SMS capabilities in the upcoming releases.
- SpeedTest – Cuz we’re paranoid that our bandwidth is less than it should be. This app tests WIFI and EDGE/3G bandwidth speeds.
- Tweetie – Absolutely the category killer for twitter clients. Worth the money.
- Weatherbug – The best weather information we’ve seen to date.
- Wordpress – If you’ve got a blog post that needs to be up now. This is the app for you.
- FSS Hockey: Because when you’re waiting for half an hour to be seated at a restaurant, it’s time for a few games of air hockey.
- ICanHasCheezBurger: Lolcats and LOL generation optimized for the iPhone.
- Labyrinth – the most beautifully designed game application. This person knows physics.
- Remote – if you have wifi, this app works with keynote.
- CTABusTracker – really a web page, but use it alot and is very accurate.
- Shazam – this music analyzer works surprisingly.
- New York Times – they have made it more sophisticated, but it is also more unreliable.
- Pandora – use it every day and very easy to use.
- WunderRadio – great streaming radio application.
- Units – the best designed measurement application
- Bejewelled 2 - It’s addictive like crack.
- Ocarina. $.99 turns your iPhone into a flutelike musical instrument.
Honorable mention (not quite applications)
- TrafficGauge – Very easy to digest traffic info for your favorite major metropolitan areas. I use this web app EVERY day.
- Meebo – use it every day
Do you have favorite apps that you can’t live without? Do share!
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on April 29, 2009
The dust has settled, we’ve caught up on our sleep (Rudy is a sleep camel), and now we would like to reflect on the Phizzpop competition. We really had a blast “Phizzing” and “Popping” the challenge. While we don’t usually share intimate project details with the public, Phizzpop was purely conceptual work so there are no lawyers to hunt us down. That said, we’re thrilled to share the gory details with you.
Assignment
Our assignment, from a high level, was to engage teens between the ages of 13 to 18 and get them excited about the 2016 Olympic bid. We were to build a system that would empower them to show their support, build a community, and create momentum showing the world that the 2016 Olympics could be held no where else. The result had to include a rich interactive experience using Microsoft Silverlight technology, three days to design and build it and 8 minutes to present it. You can download the full assignment document here. It’s a great read, very well prepared.
Method
Tanagram, with development partner Geneca, responded to the challenge using the same processes we use to develop social architectures for clients like Tribune Interactive.
- Understand target demographic and project goals
- Define quick-convert subset(s), key penetration points and growth/sustain model
- Prototype, test and evolve
With three days to produce results we didn’t explore the situation with our typical rigor and we didn’t have the opportunity to field test prototypes but initial feedback on the results has been very strong and we’re very satisfied.
Understand target demographic and project goals
During our presentation I joked that Rudy spent the weekend hanging out at American Apparel watching teens. Truth be told the internet and some high-level research from our friends at Ogilvy provided us with our pool of insights. Obvious findings included teens are extremely socially motivated. They care a great deal about social status, peer recognition, and to a large extent fame. Interesting findings included 97 percent of today’s teens carry a cell phone and do a great deal of connecting via SMS or text messaging. The phones they carry are not rich media devices like the iPhone but instead hand-me-down Motorola Razors, or cheap carrier-branded phones.
Project goals included:
- Building a large community rapidly (the Olympic bid decision is October 2, 2009)
- Designing a system that would be valuable before, during, and after Olympic events (we added 2012 AND 2016 to our goals)
- We added building a system that would capture and execute upon the goals of WorldSportChicago, an Olympic bid leave behind organization dedicated to encouraging youth to achieve athletic excellence
- We added help change the U.S. perception of exercise and athletics including motivating people to get out and burn a few calories
- We added pushing the social networking domain by exploring real-time connectivity experiences
Define quick-convert subset(s)
The key to rapidly growing a social network is to leverage the power of multiples for expansion. This is done by identifying those members of your demographic set that are most easily captivated and converted to use your system and giving them tools to recruit new members for you. We chose “athletically inclined youth” as our champion subset because we found they were most likely to have knowledge of and be interested in the Olympic institution, they were already participating in an athletic program, and likely had some form of basic support network (meaning potential recruits) already in place.
Key penetration points
Key penetration points are valuable offerings that enhance the lifestyle of the champion subset. Key penetration points for our system included:
- A place to record and publish athletic achievement
- A place to voice opinions and build integrity among a community of peers
- A platform that provides easy addition and presentation of text, audio, photos, and video streams
- A mobile component that leverages available technology in ways currently unavailable to our champion subset
- A system that encourages real-time participation and interaction multiple times daily
- A brand association that improves the desired perception of the athlete
Growth/sustain model
We found that one of the keys to the degree of success of an athlete was a strong support network. Friends, family, peers, and even competitors connected to give support and guidance for the athlete in training. We designed our system to enable athletes to recruit a support network by adding fans to their distribution list for their training blog. With a meager goal of converting 1 million athletically inclined youth each recruiting an average of 10 fans we were satisfied that we had a model that would expand appropriate to our needs.
We built a ranking competition / reward system into our model to help motivate the recruiting process. The athlete’s ranking in our system would be determined by the number of fans in their network, the amount of interaction with the system, and donated calories provided by exercising fans.
Fans, once signed up, would receive both blog and statistics (i.e. new best time) updates from the athlete and could respond with messages of encouragement (improving ranking). Fans could also “donate” calories burned doing basic exercises to athletes to further add to the athletes ranking score. It was critical that all of these activities be tied to the Olympic bid. At the very start, sign up as an athlete or a fan includes a digital petition showing support for the 2016 bid. Athletes could also flag themselves as Olympic potentials in the system and in doing so gain additional ranking points and benchmarking capabilities.
Athletic training requires dedication and daily commitment. Our system was designed to be a key component in the training process and because of that it would be very relevant to our champion subset’s daily needs. We designed our system so that athletically inclined youth could capture/monitor their training progress, share it with their supporters and even benchmark it against peers and Olympians. Our system would provide connections between athletes at various levels of training; novice athletes could connect with Olympians for inspiration and guidance, expert athletes could connect with others for support and to share best practices. To maximize the value of the interactive system we built a rich-media blogging platform that enabled athletes to post (in addition to text) audio, image and video streams of meets and other events. The video blogging system was enabled by Microsoft’s Silverlight Streaming cloud service, a system that allows simple upload, conversion, and hosting of video files (up to 10GB for free). Our goal was to develop a system that enabled athletes to build a digital record of their career, a monument of their effort.
Finally and perhaps most exciting to us, we built our system to be fully enabled through SMS. For the demonstration we used a 3G GSM modem connected to an ActiveSMS server to show a small scale version of what our system was capable of. For purposes of the presentation we did not expose the full feature set (even though we sent and received ~300 SMS messages in a period of 8 minutes) but our system was designed to enable subscription, bi-directional communication to multiple subscribed circles (perhaps by sport) for both athletes and fans, performance statistics entry by the athlete on the field, and the ability to send cheers to athletes as they compete. We thought it would be cool if athletes carrying a cellphone on silent could get occasional nudges (vibrates) from fans wishing them well. Testing would determine if this was annoying or distracting. We were on the fence.
Why Big Shoulders?
Carl Sandburg has had his poem “Chicago” associated with far too many initiatives but for us we referencing it allowed us to talk about Chicago without making our concept about Chicago (the Olympic bid is a U.S. initiative) and it also allowed us to talk about a support network in an interesting manner. Big support comes from big shoulders.
A note about athletics in the U.S.
It will probably not come as a shock that athletics in the U.S. are in decline. We found one study tying the decline in athletics to the tripling of obesity in teenagers since 1974. Another study found that today’s teens are less able to get and hold jobs because of lacking athletic experiences. Obviously studies all have their slants, but it’s clear to us that athletics in America need our help. We built our system to allow fans to donate calories with the hopes that if one person did 10 push ups and it wasn’t that hard and did it again, perhaps they might consider a regular exercise routine, maybe even develop over the years to have Olympic aspirations of their own. Physical fitness is a key health issue in the U.S. increasing fitness will reduce health care costs, improve stamina and positive attitudes in practitioners and even teach values like honor and commitment. The value of hard work is a lesson being lost on today’s teens and America will benefit if we can find a way to teach it.
Big Shoulders screen shots
Big Shoulders home screen pristine
Big Shoulders home screen with SMS text flowing in background
[caption id="attachment_439" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Big Shoulders home screen with Rudy hot state"]
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Big Shoulders home screen with Rudy Details open
[caption id="attachment_441" align="alignnone" width="150" caption="Big Shoulders home screen with Rudy Stats screen open"]
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Big Thanks!
Special thanks to the folks at Microsoft (Chris, Bob, Josh, Brian, Sara) for inviting and supporting us. Thanks to our team-mates at Geneca for their support. Supreme thanks to Rudy Chou and Matthew T. Boeke for staying awake for three days to develop this awesome concept. You guys rock!
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on December 2, 2008
We, the city of big shoulders, enjoyed more than 10 inches of rain this weekend. It was a gift from our deadbeat friend Ike (so like him to stop by uninvited…). In past posts I’ve talked about how we as a society still have not realized the full potential of our coupling with Digital and unfortunately this story adds further proof.
The rains started falling sometime Friday night. By noon the next day, our basement carpet was soaked by water that was coming in through the outside walls. I, in my typical “I’m on a mission” manner, went out to Home Depot to purchase a Wet/Dry Vac and a sump pump. To my dismay, Home Depot was enjoying a run on all things flood related. People were fighting for bags of leveling sand. There were no vacs or pumps left in stock.
So I think to myself, “Here’s where we test Digital!” To maximize my effectiveness, I logged onto consumer reports on my iPhone (the site works well except for Flash callouts) and found out who made the best Wet/Dry vac for the money. It turns out it was Sears / Craftsman. So off to Sears.com I went. (I’m doing this all in my idling minivan in the Home depot parking lot). I was able to determine that Sears did have the model I sought in stock at a location that was 6 miles away. Yay Digital, I’m now more informed than the hordes of shelf stormers rampaging through Lowe’s down the street. Unfortunately this is where Digital falls down. Sears.com crashed my iPhone before I could purchase the equipment online. I was attempting to purchase the items with in-store-pickup because Digital (Sears really) promised me a special entrance intended for the Digital elite and a dedicated attendant to help me load my minivan. No such luck, however. Digital failed me again when the online store lookup became unavailable. Imagine this drama unfolding at slow-mo EDGE network speeds…painful. I decided to ditch Sears.com and try 411. Perhaps AT&T’s Digital could help? The number the system gave me (even with operator assistance) was a fax line. Not willing to give up I had called my wife, had her look up the store phone number online and read it to me and then called them directly. About halfway through the call with my wife, I start driving to the Sears location hoping to get one of the last items before the hordes pillage the entire place. I dial the number she reads me and I get a computer (hello Digital) telling me that they are experiences call problems and to call back another time. I call three more times and get the same thing.
When I finally get to the store, the hordes are just showing up. The store manager has got all of the pumps and vacs they have in stock and out on dollies ready for the mayhem. I grab my stuff and get in the line for checkout (starting to get long). When it’s my turn to pay I mention that the phone system is having problems and the register clerk tells me that it’s not the phone system it’s that there are only 4 people in this department and they are being overwhelmed by calls for vacs and pumps so they stopped answering the phone.
It’s clear that natural disasters stress all systems, especially digital. It’s also clear that Digital is still too brittle to be relied upon and is only providing marginal benefit when it works. I won on Saturday, but not without an extreme amount of effort. We at Tanagram are continuing our quest to make this better, but we need your help. Please?
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on September 14, 2008
You know we have to have this!!! Tangram is a puzzle game for the iPhone and at the low price of $2.99 you can’t beat it. Now we just need to find an Anagram application, buy them both drinks and lock them in a hotel room.
Posted by Joseph Juhnke on August 22, 2008
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