A Physical Computing Review
Intro to Urban Score
A concept by Ben Hooker, Eric Paulos and Ian Smith of Intel Research, Urban Score is an ambient technology which aims to communicate your relation to the city you live in. Represented by either a photo-realistic or iconic approach, you can view these images and interpret information about friends, strangers, distance from city and weather and traffic conditions.
Steganography is the key word, which is defined as “the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message;” [1] .
“A typical steganographic application is to [hide] messages within images via alter low order bits of pixels, etc. In our approach we alter small portions of what appears to be a regular image. The alterations are subtle and occur over long periods of time making them hardly perceptible to the casual untrained user glance. However, to the person who knows how to read the display, a wealth of information is stored within it.”[1]
Intro to Urban Score
A concept by Ben Hooker, Eric Paulos and Ian Smith of Intel Research, Urban Score is an ambient technology which aims to communicate your relation to the city you live in. Represented by either a photo-realistic or iconic approach, you can view these images and interpret information about friends, strangers, distance from city and weather and traffic conditions.
Steganography is the key word, which is defined as “the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message;” [1] .
“A typical steganographic application is to [hide] messages within images via alter low order bits of pixels, etc. In our approach we alter small portions of what appears to be a regular image. The alterations are subtle and occur over long periods of time making them hardly perceptible to the casual untrained user glance. However, to the person who knows how to read the display, a wealth of information is stored within it.”[1]
Figure 4: Example of a Personal Steganographic display of an Urban Score for San Francisco, USA. [1]The Technology
- Bluetooth (to detect friends and strangers around)
- GPS (to detect displacement from city)
- RSS feeds (give a feed of information from online resources)
- Atmospheric Sensors (to show air condition)
- Urban Dosimeter (“an Ultra-Mobile PC that measures your “dose” of the city”[1])
Taking all this information via Bluetooth, RSS feeds, GPS, atmospheric sensors and some kind of urban dosimeter (still in development), its purpose isn’t to overload you with a tonne of information, stock-market style. Instead, a glance at what appears as a mobile phone screen-saver will reveal what the city’s current mood. The common stereotype is of strangers going about their business at full-speed. Urban Score aims to uncover the other patterns that occur throughout city life.
Photo-realistic Steganograph
Birds represent nearby familiar strangers [2]
People on path represent nearby friends [2]
Other examples: Sky colour, Crane in City, Yellow Tent[2]
Iconic Steganograph
Approaching city from suburbs [2]
Birds, people, buildings, traffic in the city[2]
Under the city on a subway [2]
The idea of using a picture as a language was immediately appealing. A constantly updating picture that showed how the city was feeling? People base their attitude towards city on what they hear and read about it. In this way, they are given a stream of information and left free to interpret it as they wish. Depending on the level of personal modification the steganograph will be given, the user could even effect their own response to the visual representations. They could be use the technology to alter the visuals to immitate their impression of the city.
Looking at how they represented the iconic information, I was reminded of the game Sim Tower, where simple pixilated graphics represented the current state. The game could incite a sense of busyness by crowding people icons and changing their colour, depending on their mood. Colour was also used to depict the relation of people to the player and time of day in the background.
Still in its development stages, it aims to use the human perception of everyday things and enhance them beyond what we can see with only the eyes. Even in a group of strangers, the phone could show that the people around all share the same interest and add to a sense of community in a impersonal world.
References
1. B. Hooker, E. Paulos, I. Smith. (2007). Urban Score: Measuring Your Relationship with the City. SunSITE Central Europe, Aachen. [Online]. Available: http://ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Publications/CEUR-WS/Vol-254/paper05.pdf
2. B. Hooker, E. Paulos, I. Smith. (?).Urban Score: Measuring Your Relationship with the City. Urban Atmospheres. [Online]. Available: http://www.urban-atmospheres.net/Experiments/UrbanScore/index.html
Other links
Sensor Planet Nokia Research: http://research.nokia.com/research/projects/sensorplanet/index.html--> about sensors.
Nokia Europe – Nokia 5500 Sport Support: http://europe.nokia.com/A4164326 --> demos --> Monitor your exercise -->“A Bluetooth GPS enhancement can be used to monitor and record speed and distance in activities, with which the built in pedometer cannot be used…”
Apple – iPhone: http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#sensor --> Proximity Sensor “When you lift iPhone to your ear, the proximity sensor immediately turns off the display to save power” … “intelligent sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light”
Intel Research Laboratory at Berkeley: http://berkeley.intel-research.net/about.html#urban àUrban Computing
People and Practices Research Group: http://www.intel.com/research/exploratory/papr/ àResearch Focus
2. B. Hooker, E. Paulos, I. Smith. (?).Urban Score: Measuring Your Relationship with the City. Urban Atmospheres. [Online]. Available: http://www.urban-atmospheres.net/Experiments/UrbanScore/index.html
Other links
Sensor Planet Nokia Research: http://research.nokia.com/research/projects/sensorplanet/index.html--> about sensors.
Nokia Europe – Nokia 5500 Sport Support: http://europe.nokia.com/A4164326 --> demos --> Monitor your exercise -->“A Bluetooth GPS enhancement can be used to monitor and record speed and distance in activities, with which the built in pedometer cannot be used…”
Apple – iPhone: http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/index.html#sensor --> Proximity Sensor “When you lift iPhone to your ear, the proximity sensor immediately turns off the display to save power” … “intelligent sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light”
Intel Research Laboratory at Berkeley: http://berkeley.intel-research.net/about.html#urban àUrban Computing
People and Practices Research Group: http://www.intel.com/research/exploratory/papr/ àResearch Focus
