[-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 77, Issue 7

[Warren Armstrong]

If we want to extend this enclave, we need to devise ways of making AR work
on low-spec mobile phones. Smartphones may still be the purvey of the
wealthy, but the vast majority of people in this world own some form of
mobile phone. (I've read accounts by cultural anthropologist Jan Chipchase
of visits to remote villages in the developing world with no running water,
mains electricity, or phone landlines, where locals still owned and operated
mobile phones over Edge networks.)

(The limited penetration of smartphones will, however, probably change once
plentiful cheap Android-powered shanzai smartphones are available outside of
China. Shanzai is the Chinese term for domestic copies of foreign
technology, generally created at a fraction of the cost of the original.)

So, how might we make AR that worked on a phone with no Internet connection,
limited screen architecture, low computing power and a low-spec camera?
Well, first of all we'd probably need to abandon image recognition based AR,
and focus on the locative. Obviously, it would be ideal if the devices we
were working with had GPS, but even without that some form of device
location could be accomplished via phone tower triangulation. In addition to
this, we would always have another dimension that could be used to trigger
AR - time. We can safely assume, after all, that every mobile phone in the
world has clock.

And what if we have no camera and the screen can only deliver text? Well,
Newstweek shows what can still be done with content that is largely text
based (even if it is delivered as HTML and contains embedded imagery). Which
brings me to the question of how to deal with the lack of an Internet
connection if we wish to deliver dynamically changing content. Well, this
issue is currently being confronted by innovators working with what they
call "the other four billion" phone users (ie people with access to mobile
but no Internet). In that sector, sophisticated social networking platforms
have been created based solely on SMS and interactive voice response
systems.

(If we are delivering content that is static and can be bundled up with an
app that is installed on the phone, then we may not need to worry about the
issue of subsequent connectivity at all.)

And IVRs take me on to my final point. Even without cameras or graphics
capable screens, we can still deliver compelling, richly informative and
immersive experiences to users with sound. Even low-spec phones these days
have headphone jacks and support for the playback of some sound file format.
(Side note: On visits to Saharan villages without mobile phone reception,
ethno-musicologist Christopher Kirkley came across people who owned mobile
phones that were being used primarily for this purpose - as personal
stereos.)

All of this has probably taken me a million miles away from the usual
definitions and conceptions of augmented reality and naturally opened me up
to accusations that I'm no longer taking about AR at all, but if we think of
augmented reality more broadly as methods of intervention in the virtual
overlaying of information on our world by our devices, then we can start
thinking of techniques that might work meaningfully even where the available
technology is highly limited.

Warren Armstrong


On Sun, Apr 10, 2011 at 2:12 PM, Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com> wrote:

>
>
> I was fascinated by the link Paul Brown sent in,
>
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/04/new-augmented-reality-app-unle.html
>
> - because of the creativity unleashed; the iphone, whatever, becomes an
> active tool instead of a receiver. I have two questions, occasioned in part
> by my relative poverty in relation to this discussion (I can't see my own
> pieces!) -
>
> 1 - What, if anything is being done to eliminate the various headgear or
> even smartphone receivers that are current necessary to receive AR and its
> extensions? The last issue of Lusitania, Beyond Form, Architecture and Art
> in the Space of Media, focuses on the physico-inert-kinetic constructs of
> situated responsive liquid architectures, some of which have been realized.
> But even these require an over-emphasis on things. I was taken in this
> regard by Newstweek which runs interference on a wide variety of platforms,
> augmenting inscription.
>
> 2 - A vast number of people already carry smartphones etc., constantly use
> them on the move (too many walks/hikes with people staring at the screens
> etc.); for them, the media environment is already amalgamated, physical
> reality already augmented simply by the presence of the screen. So there's
> an enclave set up in the midst of the practico-inert, one occasioned by
> surplus income, local/technological accesspoints, etc. The second question
> is related to the first and my previous post - what can be done to extend
> this, breakdown the enclave? The uses are tremendous - think of a device
> that might be employed around Fukushima, directly outlining radiation levels
> as AR. This would have application for all sorts of pollutions; one might
> use it in a firefight, for example, in order to avoid oncoming.
>
> Sorry, I'm writing blurrily at the moment. ... What I'm asking - how does
> one break the enclave - the sense of privilege AR implies - how does one
> make the creative version of the $100 or $10 laptop here?
>
> Why is this important? It's not in a lot of places, but in the US at this
> point, 1% of the country owns 95-99% of the wealth (depending on the stats)
> and the relative income of the poor is decreasing quickly:
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110408/ts_yblog_thelookout/off-the-charts-income-gains-for-super-richand
> http://l.yimg.com/a/i/ww/news/2011/04/08/inequality.jpg - these are people
> who would socially benefit from AR, and yet it's totally out of reach. I
> might add that the elderly obviously fall into this category as well, etc.
>
> So is there a way for AR to reach out? Is there a technology that doesn't
> require technology? Or an AR-technological equivalent, say, of the old
> Bread-and-Puppet Theater?
>
> Finally I want to thank everyone for an fascinating discussion, and it's
> really heartening to see so much amazing work, so many directions! I
> particularly want to thank Patrick here, and Mark Skwarek, who has nurtured
> me to some extent.
>
> - Alan
>
>
>
>
> ==
> email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/
> webpage http://www.alansondheim.org
> music archive: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/
> current text http://www.alansondheim.org/qy.txt
> ==
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
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>
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