Inspiring cities

Searching for the soul of the city

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Augmented freedom....

By Connie Franssen

31-10-2009 /views: 5243 in past 12 months.

The 29th October 2009 was Inspiring Cities night in Amsterdam. Approximately 40 people talked, dreamed and laughed about possible applications for augmented reality browsers like for instance Layar. Apps people dreamed about varied from birdwatching apps - which basically would mean putting a GPS device on every bird...to an application for augmented freedom: just erase the things you don't like....

Inspiring Cities Nights

During the Inspiring Cities Nights we bring together people from different backgrounds. In this case, we had a group of new media, cities and arts. It is a first of a series discovering the cultural use of new media. The aim of this first night was to create a new public cultural application for Layar.

ICnight amsterdam 29-10-09

Layar

Layar is a browser for smart phones with which you can create an extra layer of the real world (augmented reality). Through the camerafield of your phone you look at the street around you and see extra information appearing in your real environment. For instance a layer of house broker's information, so that you can see which houses are for sale around you. Layar was developed by a Dutch company and develops very fast. The platform to create layers, or applications, is open source and new, interesting apps are sent into the world daily.

The experience of the city will never be the same again. Would you like to know something, just use the camera on your phone to watch your surroundings. In your screen you can open the Layar of information you need: which houses are for sale? Where are the main tourist attractions? Of course, information about houses for sale, or where to find the next ATM or pub, are useful, but the technique is much more exciting than just that.

Layar itself gave a preview by creating a kind of time capsules, 3D objects linked to a GPS location. When you walk into them virtually with your phone, all of a sudden you are in a completely different world. On your phone, you don't see the street around you, but a busy street in for instance Tokyo, complete with street sounds. Real time, a bizar experience. Or a virtual art gallery, an exhibition only to be seen via your mobile phone.

No doubt, there will be many new commercial uses of Layar and likewise mobile phone browsers. We wanted to come up with new applications relating to the city, interactivity, culture... or something else we will stumble upon during the night.

What can we do with Layar? A look into the near future

Jeroen Meijer who works at Muzar.org gave an inspiring presentation on the possibilities of Layar and augmented reality. To augment means to add or to enrich. The information added can more and more be everything: buildings' architects, opening hours of museums, current information on trams departing, virtual 3D graffiti, looking through walls what's inside buildings or switching to Tokyo while being in Amsterdam. Even the airplanes flying over your head. No complex technology, freely available when you possess the right phone and have access to the internet with it. Below is Jeroen's presentation.

Then, Abdo el Ali and Frank Nack, Human-Computer Studies Group of the Amsterdam University told about the sharing experiences and using the 'left data' such as photos and tweets to create a new common story. Below is Abdo's presentation.

Free beer

After the presentations we pursued our dreams and possibilities in small groups. Frank Kresin of Waag Society was in a group mashing up their idea of a super hero - Monthy Python's Bicycle Repair Man - with new technology. Leading to an idea of using Layar to connect people when they need it most:

And Abdo el Ali telling of the University of Amsterdam about the mashup of democracy and illusion:

Results

Then, results of which were put on posters. Using the COCD-selection technique, the most important blue ideas (quick wins), yellow ideas (dreams), and red ideas (inspiring and can be realised). A popular yellow idea was using emotion tags to see which part of the city gets which emotions, creating auras on Layar. Popular blue ideas were adding information on artists' works in public space; and using rich content to share different perspectives, for instance those of homeless persons. The most popular red idea was getting lost with Layar, receiving false information on purpose.