Theory and Audience Analysis Blog | thoughts from Elon's iMedia students

After going back through my blog posts, I found a framing post I never responded too and I read my questions and surprisingly, they related to my interactive presentation and a project I am completing in another class. Social networking is all around us and it is changing advertising in many different industries. Facebook and other social networking sites have changed socialization in many different societies and the privacy component has changed it as well but in a good or bad way? There are many components that contributed to the positive expansion of certain industries but it is harming many other areas of society. I actually watched a story on Good Morning America this morning that talked about facebook breaking up marriages and causing quite a few relationship issues because of the heavy reliance on the media.

1. Are social networking sites negatively hurting interpersonal communication by providing a technology mask that does not allow some to show who they really are?

In my opinion, facebook is helping in some ways with relationships and helping people meet new people and reconnect with old friends but interpersonal, face to face communication is not what is used to be. I love the fact that I can sit next to a human being and have a conversation with them but for some people, it might be tough to conduct a conversation with a complete stranger because they hide behind a computer screen all the time. Come on people, get out and socialize, facebook will not be around forever!

2. Does the term “friend” take on new meaning in this day and age because people are more prone to accept a complete stranger because they know a friend of a friend? Is that friendship at all?

The term friend takes on new meaning when it comes to social networking but the term “friend” is very broad in itself. There have been many studies that talk about how people think kids do not understand the meaning of the word friend because of facebook but I think the term friend has be very indecisive in its meaning for quite some time now. I feel like social networking is blamed for anything that goes wrong in the social world these days and in many cases, they are wrong!

3. Are privacy settings on certain SNS’ effective if companies and/or professional organizations can get around them? Therefore, is facebook a means of truly expressing yourself if it is used as a deciding factor when getting a job?

It is wild how so many companies have hired people to be in charge of searching facebook and twitter accounts of potential employees. People love facebook but not very many realize it could be the deciding factor for a job one day. There are ways to get around privacy settings and in some instances, they are not even needed but it is the thought that counts, or is it?

1. Will augmented reality incorporate social media and networking in the near future?

I think that augmented reality is going to huge in the future. Can you imagine having a room in your house completely devoted to gaming? You are in a virtual world the entire time you are in the room. I think that social media is growing and will continue to grow in the future. It is only a matter of time before social media is incorporated into augmented reality. Your avatar in the game will contain all of your information. This allows for tremendous networking opportunities. However, I think it also poses privacy issues with the release of private information. I think that some people do not understand how important it is to be selective of what you put online.

However, on the networking side. If augmented and virtual reality catch on the way the the predictions say it will, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to network with your potential employer in a virtual world? I think that it would be amazing to network in a gaming world. I think it cuts the edge off of meeting potential employers and going through the everyday questions. This could be a very impactful opportunity.

2. What hardware and software are required to participate in augmented reality? How advanced will this technology become in the future?

I think that the future in augmented reality will contain some pretty advanced technology. As I brought up previously, I think that augmented reality will be played in entire rooms in people’s households. I can imagine it would be the ultimate gaming experience. This technology would be extremely technical. I’m sure that the “geek squad” would have to be involved in installing it. haha. I can imagine wall-to-wall televisions, even the floor and ceilings would be involved in the game. I think this would be an amazing opportunity for the gamers to interact with. And what a great interactive media piece!!!

3. What privacy and ethical concerns arise with augmented reality?

I think that if social media is incorporated into augmented reality in the future, more privacy and ethical issues will arise. Nowadays, people just aren’t concerned with what kind of information they put online. Could there be fears of stalking involved in augmented reality? I think that it could be a possibility in the future, and this is a scary thing. I think more and more people are becoming involved with augmented and virtual reality; therefore, more privacy concern arise.

The questions I had for this week were:

What benefits does augmented reality really have?

Is it necessary?

The addition of Augmented reality does seem to be an improvement to how we oriented ourselves towards technical subjects. For instance, there are talks of the U.S. Military making available a VR headset that can automatically guide a Specialist E2 in repairing the internal components of an Abrams Main Battle Tank. Also imagine that a Nuclear Technician can wear a glove that can automatically adjust the system valves in a power plant in the safety of a control room. These two options do hold the potential for increased efficiency. However, what does it do to mankind’s ability to learn? Is this more of a crutch then a benefit? Will there be a need to learn key technical terms before the use of these technological innovations? Most importantly we must gauge the necessity of said devices.

The questions for this week are:

What benefits does augmented reality really have?

Is it necessary?

Having the pleasure of presenting about the future of augmented reality for this class, I like to think that I found in a little insight on the technology. In researching for the presentation, I downloaded several iPhone apps to see just how real augmented reality is. What we talk about in class is exciting and fascinating, but as the iTunes store showed me, those potentials just aren’t quite realized yet in the commercial market. The apps I demonstrate in class are pretty much the best I could find.

So why the hype if the tech really isn’t at Minority Report level yet? Are we really just so excited by AR that we will willingly pay for novelty and impractical apps? In my opinion, yes that’s exactly what AR is right now. Here’s your average tech life-cycle: concept, crappy applications of said concept, practical uses of the concept, media overexposure,  replaced by a new crappy application of another novelty concept.

For example, let’s look at video games and their use of motion technology. A few years ago, when the Wii was released, it was the big new thing. I would call GameStop everyday to see if they had a Wii in stock until I finally got one. This Fall has seen the release of Playstation’s Move and Xbox’s Kinect. The reason non-gamers probably haven’t heard of Move is because it’s really just a refined version of Wii for the PS3. But consider the Kinect. I haven’t played it, but from what I’ve seen, its really just a novelty. There’s no games really worth indulging more than a couple hours in. Yet, what is the big seller this holiday season?

So with AR, even though there’s not much use in it now, we’re all wowed by the possibility of where it could go. We try to get whatever taste of it we can, and we’re briefly amused by the novelties, and then we convince ourselves that it’ll totally be awesome next time. The catch is – by the time we get to “next time,” the novelty will have worn off and we won’t be quite as excited by it (while Move is certainly a technical upgrade from the Wii, nobody really seems to care…).

So as designers, how do we account for the fickleness of audiences when it comes to new technologies? Well, consider Apple. When they released the iPhone, it worked out of the box doing everything they said it could. They didn’t bother releasing it when the touch controls merely worked, they released them when the controls were perfect. So when people got their iPhones, there was no real sense of “oh hey, this is cool, but it’ll probably get better in the future.” No, the iPhone was already cool. And when it did get more features and applications, that was just another reason for the same users to repurchase another phone.

But too often, companies don’t have the restraint of Apple. They throw it out there because they want the profit margin now. As far as AR goes, we’ve already got our taste of what the tech can possibly be do. But as for me, I think I’ll wait until they manage to actually deliver what they’re selling.

On Monday, our class had the privilege of Skyping with Whurley from Chaotic Moon Studios, which is the leading company in mobile applications. Whurley is a very entertaining and intelligent man who took an unfamiliar and almost confusing concept for me and made AR seem a lot cooler than I originally thought it was.

In our Skype discussion, Whurley talked about AR being used for many different reasons including gaming, advertising, and the military. It’s funny because I keep saying I am interested in interactive advertising, but I really haven’t done much exploring into the field. Well, AR is a great example of how to create interactive advertising. Whurley showed us a video of how car companies (such as Volkswagon and Toyota) are creating augmented reality advertisements. Volkswagon’s AR ad was especially cool because it allowed users to interact with the car from a within the magazine ad. Consumers could use their smart phones to view the AR ad and interactive with moving and even opening the augmented car door’s.

Both Derek and Whurley showed us this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNu4CluFOcw, which really put AR into perspective for me. In order for something to be considered AR, there must be some aspect of reality included. This video game experiments with using a printed off map (on a piece of paper) and a smart phone to play a zombie shooting game. The coolest part about the game, you ask? Real live skittles can be used as bombs in the virtual game!

So, to answer my question: Are all AR’s considered virtual worlds, video games or digital environments? What differentiates AR from what we’ve studied thus far? As previously mentioned what differentiates AR from virtual worlds and video games is the inclusion of reality. Some video games and virtual worlds can definitely be considered AR. But of course, not all video games can be considered AR. Kinect is a great example of an AR video game, as well as the video posted above. I suppose all AR has elements of virtual worlds as they are obviously augmented by virtual technology.

Are there examples of augmented realities that are not virtual worlds or video games? Well, to answer this, Whurley also talked about how Chaotic Moon is using AR by creating mobile applications. For example, we talked about the AP Drone, which is a mini helicopter that can be flown through a real room using an iPhone app. It seems pretty damn cool! Another example of how AR can be more than just video games (besides advertising) would be the militaries use of AR.AR is definitely an up and coming technology that I believe will be used in many different fields.

I googled “iPhone apps augmented reality” to research my first question and this is the first site that came up in the search: http://bit.ly/3ga6Vm. I think one of the more interesting apps is called Cyclopedia. By moving your iPhone around, the app automatically finds information from Wikipedia and displays it on your screen. I’m not quite sure how they managed to program this but it’s really cool. I’m a space geek so I really am also into the Star Chart application. Just point your iPhone towards a particular direction in the sky and the app will pull up a constellation map. There is even one that closely relates to the YouTube video we watched in class with the two-dimensional paper and skittles. AR Basketball lets you play basketball on your iPhone by simply using a piece of printer paper.

There is a lot of information out there about gaming addiction but not as it specifically relates to augmented reality. I’m not sure what to make of this but I do think that augmented reality may be seen as less harmful than virtual reality. Virtual reality seems to represent a departure from the “real world” and an immersion into something that is perceived as a false version of life by outsiders. Augmented reality keeps the player grounded in this “real world” as we define it, but enhances that reality. It may also be too soon to tell because augmented reality is a newer trend. It will be interesting in the coming years to see what research has to say about social norms and trends when comparing the two closely related topics. I wonder which one engages the user more fully. I think if you are looking at virtual reality from the perspective of believing that it is an escape from the real world, that it has the potential to be far more addictive than augmented reality. You are not escaping an existing reality when you use augmented technologies, but instead enhancing it. Augmented reality is additive in that way, and virtual reality is subtractive.

Well let’s be honest, this third question is quite existential. Reality for me is probably different than reality for someone else, although there are plenty of times in which we all agree to a particular collective reality; a consensus on how the world should be. There are far more frequent occurrences of disagreements though, and it seems foolish for someone to deny the existence of other perspectives even though it happens all the time. I don’t actually feel comfortable defining the word. Reality is subjective, which is why class discussions on augmented and especially virtual reality become very muddled and split.

Going into this week, I’ll be honest- I was a little skeptical about the legitimacy of augmented reality, especially since there seems to be an abundance of hype but a scarcity of execution in consumers’ day-to-day lives. But our Skyping session on Monday put my skepticism to rest. Whurley actually touched on many of the augmented reality-related issues that I was considering while writing my framing questions for the week.

With the limited knowledge on the subject that I possessed at the time, I wasn’t sure how augmented reality was being incorporated into various sectors of society, outside of the superficial sports broadcasting examples that were given on Wikipedia. We didn’t exactly touch on the ways that augmented reality is incorporated into educational methods (maybe because it hasn’t yet reached that sector?) but we did discuss how professional organizations are using these new technologies. For instance, the smartphone apps that allow users to scan the streets before them to locate the nearest gym, restaurant, drug store, etc almost give these local businesses free advertising, in a sense- albeit without any effort on the part of the local business.

Regarding less trivial matters, it was really interesting to hear about how the military is using augmented reality-enhanced devices for a variety of uses. We hear all the time that the military utilizes advanced technologies that are way ahead of the game, in terms of what’s available to the average citizen for everyday use… but it never fails to blow my mind that military personnel have been using augmented reality to protect our country for years before I, and probably many others, even knew such a concept existed. On the other hand, it was slightly alarming to find out that military officials in the United States can remotely control weapon detonations across the world with little more than the click of a button. Sure, the technology behind augmented reality seems to present many benefits- the military can carry out attacks without putting their lives in harms way. I also think that the power that is synonymous with such advanced technologies should be exercised with great care and control. Imagine the chaos that would ensue if our enemies had access to such tools. While new technologies such as augmented reality-based devices are certainly exciting, they also raise further questions involving appropriate uses that will only continue to benefit our society as a whole.