Augmented — already

Many people equate future thinking with making more stuff. Much of what will be coming down the pike will be playing on platforms already established. Some new technologies will require new devices, but much is already available on smart phones... apps can simply be plug 'n play.

Augmented Reality — Data Visualization

In developing the ning network, it was clear that I needed to solicit feedback and opinion as to the validity of the AR concept. I figured some people would think all this technology extremely cool, and some, weird. My poll question which, which didn't actually yield much data, was involved with: is this a good thing or bad? — or a trade-off? Gee, most people thought it was a trade-off — a surprise:)

Ultimately, I asked guests on my forum what kind of AR application would rock their world? From those responses I was able to look at the enabling technologies that would need to be in place for them to become realities. This was somewhat revealing in terms of technologies, industries and markets that might be affected over the next decade or so. After listing out and organizing the common technologies, and which were needed for each of my requested applications, one could see which areas of the tech environmental are already mature and which are just emerging — and which technologies are so prevalent that they will eventually become part of the network infrastructure.

Augmented Reality—A Ning Network

As part of our Digital Design class we've created a virtual product or service which is being developed into a Brand Platform. If you've been following this blog, you've been introduced to Augmented Reality, seen my initial identifying type treatment, heard my sound scape and seen my color palette. This post is about the creation of a social network, its communications possibilities as well as opportunities for feedback and ideas.

The experience of building the network made us flush out the concepts enough to communicate our ideas more clearly. The content developed/researched included videos, images, a text overview, blog, forum and our own survey poll--through poll daddy. We invited friends, colleagues and classmates to participate.

We then used the poll or forum to collect information from out 'markets' and represent that information through data visualization (next post).

My augmented reality soundscape

Augmented soundscape by ronzisman

DoCoMo Shows Prototype Augmented Reality Display

On Kurzweil's blog, there was a short article on a tiny display device that clips onto an ordinary pair of glasses and provides information and navigation services on its head-up display without obscuring regular vision. The device is connected by wireless technology to a smart phone with GPS capability. The device knows the direction it's facing and provides information based on the user's location and position. The article notes that a potential use might be museum tours or tourist attractions. But whose to say it wouldn't work equally well pointed at the night sky identifying constellations and their mythic histories. The research has been developed in collaration with the Olympus Corporation.

Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery

Today's New York Times ran an article on how academia and the military, working together, were able to discover the cause of honeybee "colony collapse", which for the last few years has decimated 20 to 40 percent of the honeybee population in the U.S. It took the unique partnership of military scientists and entomologists to recognize that the collapse syndrome was the result of both a virus and fungus working in tandem. Identifying the fungus causing the problem and the conditions that it needs to grow, brings us one step closer to a positive intervention.

One of the biggest problems has been that the honeybees, when infected, leave the hive flying in all directions — and die alone — making collecting corpses for autopsies, a necessity for investigation, difficult at best.

Collective intelligence in small teams

An article appearing on Kurzweil's blog discusses a recent study by MIT researchers on the effectiveness of teams, and the make-up of those teams in solving problems. The conclusion was that small teams with the right kind of internal dynamics perform well on a wide range of assignments having potential applications for business and other organizations. The caveat, of course, is the right kind of dynamics. Groups whose members had higher levels of "social sensitivity" — the willingness of the group to let all of its members take turns and apply their skills to a given challenge — were more collectively intelligent. Groups where one person dominated were less intelligent than groups where tasks were more evenly distributed. It was also suggested that women tended to be more empathetic and helped to balance the group.

Over the summer, I was involved in a residency program where small groups (in my case 4 people) were assigned clients and projects. My group happened to be three women and me (a guy). I can attest to the fact that even though there was quite a bit of friction, the outcome was far better than any of us could have acheived individually — to an amazing extent. We all approached the project from different perspectives with our own checklists of what features were mandatory for the project's success. After initial conflict, and some agreement on direction, we each found our places and natural strengths. As it turned out my partners were quite amazing — an appreciation that wasn't initially apparent. But in truth, without a good bit of give and take — and blind trust — it could have been a disaster.

Another conclusion of the study was that a group's collective intelligence accounted for 30 to 40 percent of the variation in performance, and that individual intelligence of group members didn't necessarily determine the effectiveness of the group. Having a bunch of smart people in a group doesn’t necessarily make the group smart.