A study was released in the Nature journal today, in which 100,000 cell phone users were tracked without their knowledge. A deal was somehow brokered between a cell phone provider and Northeastern University in Boston.
Story here: Mobile phones demystify commuter rat race
Research article here: Understanding individual human mobility patterns
I really enjoyed our bluetooth project. It took a while to figure out how to convert files on a computer to files recognizable by our phones, but it was worth the effort. In the end it took a lot of testing to see which files would be accepted and recognized, JPG, MP3, MP4, and 3GP were the files I was able to use. However the IPAQs didn’t work with the MP4 or 3GP file formats, so we couldn’t see our project on them.
I wanted to know more about how secure bluetooth was, and came across this site: http://trifinite.org/, which has a variety of tools showing the vulnerability of bluetooth; but this site is a bit old, and many of these exploits may possibly already be fixes.
I plan to make a few more videos in the future, so that I can send them to my friends. I have already sent a few pics to friends using bluetooth, and more and more people are getting bigger and better phones that can handle graphic heavy video and play loud sound…
We want to beautify the Fine Arts building on the San Francisco State University campus with student interactive texting and computer controlled projections of scenes, artwork, or photos to make it a more inspiring place to learn and make art.
The Fine Arts building is nothing like either of us imagined it would be when we first attended school at SF State. Not only is it difficult to navigate through its various disjointed parts, but it is visually uninspiring both on the inside and the out. Vast walls of cheap beige spray-plaster, white walls, windowless classrooms, fluorescent lighting grey floors, and blank modern functional fascades all contribute to the lack of creativity and inspiration that this building vibes. Both being art majors, this was very disappointing. The building’s exterior is bland, gentrified even, and above all, completely uninspiring. It might as well be a hospital. This is not an accurate reflection of the students working inside…or is it? Would a more inspiring place to work and learn and develop one’s craft and art and style affect the output of the creative projects and evdeavors produced therein? This is our assertion.
Since the physical features can not be altered without serious ramifications, graffiti projects can not be executed without having to remove the artwork, and the processes that allow “approved” artwork and/or murals can take months, even years to complete, we would like to use projection as our main media. It is completely removable, portable, and has the potential to remain dynamic and changeable. If an outdoor location is not viable for successful projection–conflicts with the sun–the interior is almost as uninspiring save for a few temporary installations sprinkled throughout the building. Students will be able to text a disclosed word (disclosed perhaps on posters or in a text or BlueTooth issued text image) to a texting service number that will activate the projector and potentially a particular image matched to a certain word. The associated word used may reflect in some way the image shown. I like the idea of stickering or wheatpasting in public places the words and our webpage name to complete the circle as Loca did in their BlueTooth project “Set to Discoverable.”
We would also like to create a webpage (probably WordPress blog format) to share the project’s intentions, documentation, and potentially, an interactive interface where students can upload their own image and attach a text word to the image. This will allow other students to help spread the word about the project by sharing the text password for their image plus the texting service number so other people can call up that image. A digital projector is needed, along with a laptop computer with WiFi capabilities, electrical supply, a texting service account, a little programming time, and some ugly blank walls and corridors (which we already have a lot of).
We aren’t certain on the texting process but will be doing research to ascertain the direction we need to be headed in. Any suggestions would be appreciated in lieu of that and also in lieu of connecting the texting to a computer to a projector. Perhaps blue tooth might be a better way to go about the interactivity part, and would add to the locative value of the project; students would have to be in the area to upload a photo or other image to the computer and to activate it. I discovered the “Use As Remote Screen” on my phone We aren’t certain what is possible given time, equipment, or programming, and would appreciate a little coaching, but that so far is our initial dream for this project.
“Transforming Cultures and Communities in the Age of Instant Access”
A Professor of mine recommended this book and for those of us concerned with the subject of cell phones and culture I thought this book would be relevant. So far I’m enjoying reading excerpts from this book even though I am using it as a resource for a term paper.
A developers conference was held on Thursday 3/6/08, in Cupertino, where Apple released its Software Development Kit (SDK) for the iPhone. The SDK is freely available and will allow developers the same access to the iPhone’s features as Apple’s programs have. Apple also helped launch a 100 million dollar fund with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) for developing new applications on the iPhone or the iPod Touch.
During the presentation, the architecture for the iPhone was outlined, detailing some of the core services and media applications that would be available to use in your program. For example Core Location runs as part of the Core Services on the Apple iPhone. This is the service which enables the iPhone to triangulate where you are using cell-towers and wireless devices. And, Web View can be embedded into your applications, so that your application can use Safari’s browser natively.
Apple also said that a new App store would be relesed in June, that will allow users to download and install applications directly from the store onto their iPhone. And that, developers who create programs for use on the iPhone can sell their applications at a 70/30 split with Apple, which isn’t that bad if you consider the free advertising and product placement with Apple.
This is a great opportunity; here’s the link to the free SDK and info on the developers program with a link to 100 million dollars: Introducing the iPhone Developer Program.
I remember Robert`s cell phone diary, and it makes me feel like I am looking at his railroad. I wonder how his future family and audience would think about his work.
I started to have cell phone since last year, and my flexibility increase a lot. I can always keep inform my situation. I could not afford cell phone because I did not have money nor job. All I could do is borrow phone or dial numbers from 7/11. Cellphone is still less accessible for international poor travelers.
The implication of the Media on The Move:Public Discourses, article is that mobile phones are more than just a vehicle for communication. They have become physcological and social symobols.
I thought it was very interesting to look back ten years ago and see how mobile phone use in public spaces were open to criticism. Is it because the dominant population of mobile users where young males using them as status symbols? When someone takes a private conversation into a public place the cell phone might be a way of projecting there importance, e.g. Someone carrying on a business conversation in front of others coming off full of confidence and in charge. It is amazing to me that the cell phone that was once created to improve the communication technology has come developed its own culture. Your relationship to your cell phone , and how and when you use it, contributes to the making of the image you project to others.
Net_Dérive
“Their work sets up social interactions, supported by mobile phones and internet technologies, within a loose network of people that are exploring a city, in this particular case the urban environment around the exhibition space near the Bastille in Paris. From the paths they take and the experiences they have, a collective narrative emerges which is fed back through audiovisual means to each participant and thus shapes their evolving experience.”
I couldn’t get their video to work, but got a sense of their goals achieved through the description and accompanying photos on the article about this piece at We Make Money Not Art dot com. I feel this project may be a new way to collect personal experiential information to publish to other media such as websites and blogs. To have a map created, photos taken, and audio recorded, and uploaded instantly to the web might be a fun way for people to share their experiences online fairly effortlessly. Quality of recorded media–mainly the photos and the audio–is my only concern since the devices just kind of “hang” in the scarf piece and really aren’t totally directed by the person wearing them at anything in particular.
Perhaps the software coupled to a GPS enabled cell phone with a built in camera would be more approachable and useful on a consumer level. Some kind of all-in-one device that would automatically import to a blog entry would be a smooth way to make entries, without the hassle of uploading photos and audio via internet connection at a computer–not to mention creating a kml or kmz file–to a server host such as Flickr from a camera. And with the jump from Alphanumeric key pads to full alphabet key pads on mobile phones, text entries could also be attached to the blog file. An early precursor to this potential sort of real-time blogging service is my friend’s blog that he started not too long ago. http://www.espressoandmilk.com He has it set up so that he can take and send pictures with his camera phone along with a text entry to the blog from cafes in order to post his personal reviews of cafes and the coffee that they serve. I like the model a lot, seeing as there’s always time to take on my commute or anywhere I am in public to think and journal, but I never have the time at home, nor do I want to sit in front of the computer anymore than I already have to. There was discussion in our readings of the land line being replaced by the mobile phone, to which I agree; personally, I don’t have a land line, only my cell phone. I imagine that our computers at home may someday be replaced at least in a large part by these all-in-one phones, as far as communication goes.
The article from the readings on Chapter 8: Media on the Move, brings up a really good point of public versus private space when considering cell phone use. I have personally noticed a shift in the way people have used their cell phones. Back when cell phones were first beginning to be utilized by the general public, there was a certain unspoken etiquette to having a conversation on your mobile telephone. As the younger generations have adopted this technology the rules of etiquette have been tossed aside for convenience.
One recent innovation that has made the individualization of public space bearable is text messaging. Now as a person on public transportation it is becoming more and more common for people to use the relatively quiet method of getting their messages across rather than have private conversations that make people feel uncomfortable. But text messaging is expensive, and not every plan offers unlimited text messaging. It will be interesting to see if corporations will use this technologies to “buy” into the text messaging market by advertising through text messages, opening up unlimited text messages to the users. As a cell phone user I am not sure I want to be advertised to just so I can have text messaging for free, however, I am also not sure I am in the majority with this opinion.
Just a couple of weeks ago I received a call from Hillary Clinton reminding me to vote…and I guess the idea was for me to vote for her. The fact that I am getting calls from anyone advertising anything on my cell phone urks me. I used to have a land line phone in my home, but gave it up years ago because of telemarketers. Now that same annoyance has followed to the cell phone. It wont be long before I start receiving text messages advertising something or another, but they wont be able to do this unless we as the consumer do not get charged for this.
It took me a while but I found something: Socialight. The demo video kind of creeped me out. Not only was it backed with a jazzy, muzak, shopping mall soundtrack, but there was no mention (of course) about the surveillance issues surrounding this service. Of course, I have been reading a lot of Naomi Wolf lately, so that could just be the paranoia about closed societies talking.
Anyway, this Socialight service offers location based information generated by consumers for consumers that loads to your cell phone to give you suggestions on where to shop, dine, and be entertained. Think Yelp.com but tagged to locations for you to discover as you move through the environment. The example in the video of looking for the pretzel cart–that happens to be right around the corner–raised many questions for me personally: Would they have ever tried this pretzel cart if they hadn’t been notified? Will this help fill out entertainment venues? Is this service likely to aid impulsive purchases? Will this drive people further out of reality and into the lcd screens of their mobile devices? This service/project looks like the beginning of corporate/capitalist adaptation of the locative media format. Would anyone use this service, or is it too Patriot Act creepy?
