March | 2016 | SField:

Urban API: Uni Voice

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Mustang601

Uni voice is an interactive feedback system built for Plymouth University. Its aim is to make it easier for student’s voices to be heard in a fresh and exciting manner, by creating a connection between the virtual and physical world.

It is built using Unity and Vuforia to create an augmented reality app. It uses the QR codes as an AR target. Live Twitter data is given a sentiment score using Node-Red and used to dynamically change the size of buildings on the map.

Our Inspirations were:

Peronio: an AR pop-up book built with Unity and Vuforia; much like our own project.Read More…

Monsters Multiplayer AR board game – uses Vuforia smart terrian to build a game board that includes physical objects as part of the game board. Read More…

Central Park – Listen To The Light: an interactive location-aware album that changes based on where you walk. Read More

Design Process

Planning and low-fidelity prototypes

First map that uses images with Vuforia to play sounds.

To start with, we used images that Vuforia would recognise and use to replay sounds. We later replaced these with QR codes.

concept of map with building sizes influenced by Twitter data.

Final Designs/High-fidelity prototypes

QR codes on the map.

Concept of 3D building on the physical map.

Using Blender camera tracking, I was able to quickly create a concept of how the 3D AR buildings would look on the physical map.

Uni Voice in action

Jack demonstrating the AR app in action.

I created the logo in Illustrator as an identity for our project.

Future Improvements

Potential for further expansion such as having more ‘points’ on the map.
live Twitter updates with Text-To-Speech technology (which we simulated with pre-recorded Text-to-speech software).
Switch out QR codes for alternatives, possibly using NFC tags under the map or the numbers on the map.

Evaluation & Feedback

We used an online feedback system to both gather first-hand research on students views of how the University handles feedback, and another on feedback from our project to help us measure our influence and impact on the university.

See it here: University Voice Survey

Resources

Unity • Vuforia • CrazyBump • Node-Red • Stellarsurvey

Music from the Mundane: Field Sound Recording

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Mustang601

Field sound recording is the art of taking recordings of everday noise – Cars, People, and Trains to name a few – and using it to create music.

Inspirations

Marc De Pape – ‘Chime – Scoring the City’

Chime is a wind-chime inspired instrument that captures motion data from various points around the city.

“The Chime is a collection of 18 sensors measuring 27 parameters assembled to poetically translate the impulses and flows of the everyday city into sound. “

Listen/Read more | Video

Yuri Suzuki – ‘Sound Taxi’

Sound taxi features a black London cab decked out with 67 speakers and one measurement microphone. As it drives around, it picks up sounds using the microphone on the roof, then uses software to analyse the frequencies and convert it to music

Listen | Read more

Giorgio Sancristoforo – Project AudioScan

006lorenza daverio pg

“Audioscan embodies the confluence of three stages of modern music technology: tape recording, electronic synthesis and processing, and personal-computer-based digital audio. It starts with recordings of street sounds, turns those into electronic instruments processed by electronic effects, and then creates the final composition in a digital audio workstation.”

My Sound Recording

My recording features sounds of Plymouth: Featuring shoppers in drake circus, train announcements, devonport siren, cars and buses, buskers, seagulls and of course the ocean. I recorded these on my camera and used Audacity to put it all together.

My idea was to recreate and reflect the city atmosphere in sound format.

Resources:

Chime by Marc de Pape

Yuri Suzuki sound taxi:Article | Artist Website

Giorgio Sancristoforo – Audioscan

The Art of the Journey: GPS Drawing

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Mustang601

GPS drawing is a combination of art, technology and travel. The aim is to draw using a GPS co ordinates – such as using tracking app on a mobile phone – turning travelling into an art form.

My Drawing

I wanted my drawing to reflect the local area; so as Plymouth is known as the “ocean city” i decided to try and create a simple boat on campus.

BoatGPSdrawing

My boat drawn on campus by using GPS co ordinates. Mapped using Single points during the walk and later connected with straight lines in GPS visualizer.

Some of the difficulties with GPS drawings are obstacles such as buildings and walls that could potentially block paths you are trying to create; and if you are using a mobile phone app, they tend to drain battery quite quickly!

Inspirations

World’s biggest if – Hugh Pryor

‘If’ features 70 mile tall letters spanning London, Oxford and the surrounding areas. It is created only by travelling through places with names that begin with ‘if’, such as ifield road and ifold, as seen above.

World’s biggest if

Hugh Pryor – ‘The Wallingford Fish’

wallingford-fish2

The Wallingford Fish, created by Hugh Pryor, is regarded as one of the first GPS drawings. It covers 13 miles, is 67 miles long, and made using felt tip pens and a map!

Wallingford fish

My Ghost

my-ghost

A complex example; ‘My Ghost’, uses GPS data collected from all his daily travels to create a ‘Personal Cartography’ map of London. It reflects the daily travels that we take, but often do not realise how much we cover.

My Ghost

Plymouth Whale

gps-drawing

A Road less Travelled: Psychogeography

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Mustang601

“The science of anthropogeography, or more properly speaking, psychogeography, deals with the influence of geographical environment on the human mind.”

– J. Walter Fewkes, Bureau of American Ethnology, (1905)

Psychogeography is based around identifying the ambiance and general feelings associated with a place. The aim is to divide city zones into ‘distinct psychic atmospheres’; Creating an illustration of a city not based upon topography, but instead based around the feelings created in certain areas, and how they link together.

Our inspiration today is based around the work of Guy Debord, an example of which is below. The arrows represent unity; a connection between areas based on psychological aspects; these are known as ‘Slopes’. The size of the arrow corresponds to the strength or length of a slope.

Guy Debord’s Psychogeographical guide to Paris

Our work was also inspired by Mark Shepherd’s ‘Serendipitor’; an app that leads you from point A to point B using roads not yet walked (Similar: Drift), as well as Susan Philipsz’ installation ‘Surround Me’, which uses sound as a medium to reflect the atmosphere of areas of London.

My Psychogeography Journey

To start our journey, we placed a cup on a map to mark out a general area for exploration. This is not a limitation; it is merely a guideline for our path.

Our journey starts on the outskirts of the university, near Drake’s reservoir, a place where work and rest collides. There is a sense of calm; a juxtaposition between the busy streets and the university campus.

The train station and surrounding main roads have an overall sense of restlessness; it is an area of transportation that never sleeps.

In stark contrast to the city centre, these cramped flats almost give a sense of suffocation. The atmosphere is quiet, almost depressing in nature.

An area of transition; watched over by CCTV. An Archway leading you away from residential to commercial, a gradual transition dusted with grassy banks.

As the residential area melds back into the commercial area of the city, the mood changes. The silence is broken by the sounds of cars overhead and the soft strumming of a guitar as the quiet of the residential areas give way to the commercial and work areas. This is a place of transition.

Another transition; this time from the city centre near the hoe toward a quieter area. Although the churches may represent a sense of community to some, the dark cobbled alleyways may represent a feeling of nothingness, possibly even unease in others.

Lastly, we return to the University’s Roland Levinsky building; a modern, angular building with a strong presence. The shape of the stairway and surrounding walls naturally leads you toward the entrance, not dissimilar to a funnel. Although fitting with the architecture of the nearby shopping centre; the feeling is overall different.