Monthly Archives: January 2010

Ads updated in Streetview

Google’s got a patent on the tech to recognize photos in Streetview images, and then replace them with current imagery. Obviously, one big use of this would be marketing. If you see a billboard in a Streetview image, Google will be able to update that image with a current billboard any time the image is viewed. Imagine you are wondering what movies are playing at the local megaplex. Do you look it up? No, you go to Streetview and virtually walk by the front of the theater and see what “posters” are up. They could run trailers in frames in front of the theater all the time. What exhibit is running at the museum this month? Take a look while looking up the address.

Basically, if someone is looking for information, Streetview could be a great way to get it to them. This could be useful if what you are looking for is connected to the location, like the movie example. If you want to know what movie is playing at the theater near the mall, sure.

But this example fails when someone is searching for a movie and not the theater. This search isn’t location based, it eventually gets to a location, but by that point, you already know what movies are there.

Even with this slight catch, there could be a lot of potential here for ads and revenue. The owner of a billboard could buy the Google Streetview ad space so that when anyone views it, it says “Your ad here, call me.” In real life, the billboard is leased by another paying customer, but in the virtual world, it can be entirely different. Think of the ads that run behind the batters during the World Series games. Those ads can be one thing in real life, but on broadcast TV, they are entirely different. Outdoor advertising agencies could do their self promos in virtual space, delivering discounts, promos, and premiums upgrade offers directly to the people that will be looking at the space. On this line, all types of real estate possibilities exist.

So what does Google know about how Streetview is used? How do we use it? We all looked at our house and neighborhood a few times. We all looked up an address of some business we were trying to find and checked to see where the actual door was or how much parking they have, right? It would be interesting to see where the hottest places in Streetview are located. That would give a great indication of how useful this could be.

Where could more active marketing work into this? Could physical therapy companies put ads on the side of virtual hospitals? Could rehab centers put ads on the billboards outside virtual bars? Why not? What connections would be effective? Will every location on Streetview end up looking like the commercial district of downtown Tokyo? And will downtown Tokyo billboards sell a premium offer that includes placement in all virtual views? Political ads could go all over any signage on landmarks around Washington DC tourist spots. Even better, a national political party decides where they will have their next convention, buys up all the virtual ad space around it, and then announces their convention location. Groups interested in attending will be looking at the street view to help them plan their connection to the event. Man, this could get fun!

How far away are we from NBA stars leasing out the space on their forehead and bicep for virtual replacement on internet feeds of the game? Crazy? So were automobiles.

This all leads us to the augmented reality world in a big way. Soon, we will see what someone has paid for us to see, instead of what was there for the photo (but how trustworthy was that photo in the first place?). Hopefully for the short term, Google will put these ads as a layer we can disable if we so choose.

Final thought: all the above is simply about the basic uses of this, but Google is sneaky sometimes. Are there other ways they could apply this? What’s the purpose that isn’t so obvious?

QR Code & AR meet like Reese’s™

So QR codes are great, but what if you make them the size of a building? And then make the tweets of the people in the building visible through an Augmented Reality viewer on a cell phone? And then, decorate the building any way you want through your AR viewer.

One Translation: Interactive billboards that are huge, grab attention, and all without cluttering up the landscape. Magical things can happen here. Throw in some PaperVision and you’ve got some cool possibilities.

I love the direction this is going. James and I presented about QR at Ignite a while back, and it is great to see things still happening. It doesn’t happen that much in the US because…um…well…maybe we’re too lazy to hold our phones up that high? Not sure why.

Direct Link if the embed fails — http://go.bugfrog.com/2y

N Building from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.

From the creators who need a shout out on this one. I pulled the following from here, and I hope they don’t get pissed. Most of it is in Japanese which I don’t read very well. I mean, I can read it of course, but I just don’t understand any of the words that I am reading because I don’t speak Japanese.

Here is our latest project, in which we as Qosmo.inc tried to “augment” additional information upon a physical artifact, namely a building, with new digital media technology empowered by iPhone.

N Building is a commercial structure located near Tachikawa station amidst a shopping district. Being a commercial building signs or billboards are typically attached to its facade which we feel undermines the structures’ identity. As a solution we thought to use a QR Code (two-dimensional bar code) as the facade itself. By reading the QR Code with your mobile device you will be taken to a site which includes up to date shop information. In this manner we envision a cityscape unhindered by ubiquitous signage and also an improvement to the quality and accuracy of the information itself.

December 15th, 2009 we held an opening which included the limited release of an iPhone application made specifically for N Building.

If a QR Code is static, what could we do with a dynamic device like the iPhone? Our proposed vision of the future is one where the facade of the building disappears, showing those inside who want to be seen. As you press on the characters their comments made on online appear in speech bubbles. You can also browse shop information, make reservations and download coupons. Rather than broadly tagging, we display information specific to the building in a manner in which the virtual (iPhone) serves to enhance the physical (N Building). Our goal is to provide an incentive to visit the space and a virtual connection to space without necessarily being present.

The building is detected in real time by its shape (for an example, see video). Characters are then superimposed over the live video. Twitter feed comments are located via GPS tagging. Store information, reservations and other infrastructure is part of the iPhone application. The iPhone application is not for sale in the iTunes App Store, but is available to interested parties on request. While N Building’s QR code provides a subtle yet important queue to users to take out and use their mobile devices, Qosmo, Inc. is available to implement a similar system for structures without QR Codes or any markers.

If you are interested in this project, please feel free to contact us: email.png

Once I knew

Once I knew someone.

They understood. The world, life, love. Everything flowed.

Teach me. I said. I search, drift, haunted.

They replied. I don’t understand. I don’t know.

Prove myself, I thought.

I worked. Every day, I worked. I achieved. I moved. I shook. I conquered. I proved.

I returned. I asked. Teach me.

I don’t understand.

I pleaded. Teach me! You understand. Teach me. I begged.

I don’t know.

Teach me!
I screamed. I smashed. I destroyed.

I cried, alone.

I slept. forever.

I dreamed something. overthere. behind. one side. the other. always there. beyond. i followed. I walked. I ran.

it danced. drifted. jumped. twirled.

I chased. i lept. dove. flew! so close!

I stopped. someone grabbed me.

pleading.

teach me.

Resolutions 2010: Redux

This should be easy. A new year, revising goals, a simple plan to go forward. So why does this sit in draft for so long? My first few drafts started off as blah blah blah, resolutions again, blah blah, pain in the ass, blah blah, reasons, or none, why does it matter.

That’s not the way this is supposed to feel. This should be hopeful. A new year, new steps towards something. Batteries recharged and ready to go. Something inspiring that puts heat under the griddle. Wait a minute. Spark, recharging, inspiration. Where is that for me? What brings that energy? Right now, I have no idea. I look at my review post from last year and can’t find that spark, either. All the places that I fell short show the same thing. Just didn’t get the gumption up to get it done, and more surprisingly to me, I’m not too pissed about it. Ah, hold on there, cowboy. It seems the sparks are there, but keeping them going and moving has been the weak point. Putting energy into that spark to feed it. Now that I think back, this is important.

This year I need to figure out how to get recharged. Find an input of energy to replace what goes out. (Disclaimer: I am extremely lucky and very fortunate and thankful. I’m not complaining, I just need to figure this out. Just because my life isn’t a horror show that would make a movie of the week script doesn’t mean I can’t get depressed.) My son is at the age where he wants all my time and energy. I can’t deny that. In a few years, he probably won’t even want to hang out with me. My wife is doing great things with her full time career and her second and third part-time careers, and I fully support those too. I miss her, but I want her to find her happiness. The dog is a year old and wants to play with me as soon as I get home from work until he passes out. He spends 3 days all alone all day every week. Then there’s all the other stuff like PTA that has been a minimal return task since 1897 when it was created. Work has fallen into a minimal return state. Extended family: energy vampires. So all this pulls and pulls and pulls out energy, but where does it come back? What fills the reservoir back up? You know what I’m talking about. You’ve been there, too. We all get there. I’ve been here too long. Way too long.

So enough of the woe is me bullshit. This year, the one goal is to find out how to recharge my batteries. If I can do that, I’ll improve the rest of my life, and then I can really give something special to the people around me. See? You can benefit from this, too. It’s a win-win.

Towards this one goal, I’m going to try lots of different stuff.

  1. Re-ignite date night with Aimee – we need to get back to having recharge time together.
  2. Be the role model for Declan.
  3. Exercise twice a week – This is supposedly good for depression.
  4. Write or draw 3 times a week – I like to do it, so I should. Do it with the goal of doing it well. You may be exposed to some of this.
  5. Train Poe better – When he is comfortable, he is much less demanding, and he’ll be able to come out more, keeping him happy. Cycle of joy.
  6. Finish JoyTo.Us and LinkChop.com – I’ve been letting my part drag too long. Just finish it.
  7. Learn AS3, CSS, 3D, Unity and all that work stuff. Learn it well so that I am proud of what I do, not so it is just good enough.
  8. Avoid the stuff that annoys me. Politics, sorry. You waste my time. I’ll pay attention and vote, but I don’t want to talk about you any more. You attract uninformed morons. Entertainment gossip. You suck. Go film yourself. News in general, I am giving you notice. More often that not, you are useless and irrelevant. I don’t need that.
  9. Find more people that inspire. Hunt them down. Work to be worthy to hang out nearby. Then take that inspiration and pass it along. Inspire others.
  10. Travel. Travel. Travel. See other places. Go camping. Weekend getaways with the family. Overnights to anywhere. Just go. And travel light.
  11. Get more inputs – Movies, art galleries, books, stuff that makes me think. Search through Facebook, Twitter, and friends to find the good information, and ditch the stuff that just sucks time.
  12. Find good music. Search it out. It makes me happy. When Indie 101.5 was running, life was better. Find that source again, and be willing to pay for it. Support the artists that provide it.
  13. Create a cycle. Take inputs, filter them, and push it back out as something. Anything. I am not stagnant pool. Let things flow through.

So that’s the plan. I’m hopeful.

If you’ve read this far, let me know what you think. Change is in the air, and it smells funny.

End of 2009. How’d it go?

Oh crap. Time to review and see how I did. I’m not looking forward to this. Like last year, I get a point if I completed something, and a half a point if I at least made some progress.

2009 Resolution To-Do list That Was.

  1. Actively do things to create happiness in my life. Penguin put up a post about survival that resonated with me considering the past 39 years or so. A desire for comfort and a passive outlook have been barriers that need to be removed. Thanks for clarifying. Identifying the enemy makes it a better target.
    • Some progress here, but I don’t feel I can give a half point, so zero.
  2. Plan and have more date nights with Aimee. We need more good time together instead of just serving the various masters we are slaves to. The passive outlook plays here. I need to actively create the time we need to spend together. Once a month for starters.
    • We both are trying, but this has still been a challenge. Half point.
  3. Be the person that I want my son to grow up to be. Not angry, passive, and bitter. If I can’t do it for myself, I need to set the example for him. I don’t care what he does in life, I just want to make sure he has the tools to explore, discover, set, and achieve his own goals.
    • Strangely enough, I think I can take a point on this. I’m not done yet, and I’ve slipped a few times,  but I think I’ve made some huge improvements here, and actively keep this in my mind all the time. Allowing him to teach me about the world is allowing me to guide him at the same time. It’s strange and difficult, but social.
  4. Be the friend I want to be and want to have. In 2008 I didn’t make enough time for friends and was usually tired and useless when I did. Friends are hugely important to me and I need to make sure they know that.
    • Half point. This year was better, but my friends deserve better than that.
  5. Get electronically organized. I’m working with at least 3 blogs, 6 email addresses, Google Apps, iGoogle, Exchange Servers, iCal, Mobile phones, iPod Touch, Paper notebooks, a Laptop, at least 2 main Desktop computers, school computers, you get the idea. This is far less than other people who do a great job of being organized. How to get a handle on this, I’m not quite sure. Suggestions welcome.
    • I’m making progress here. Organizing and eliminating seems to help. iPhone and a MobileMe account is helping, but still not 100%. I keep watching things like BusyCal and Google for better solutions. Still work to do though. Half point.
  6. Build at least 2 fully functioning sites with Je. (Obviously, Je’s feelings on this are important, and I actually hope we can do more, but I don’t want to scare anyone.) MyLinkChop and hopefully PickTheWeather will get done. This is totally possible, and I’ll be pissed at myself if I don’t get there.
    • MyLinkChop is moving along, and actually expanding out to include JoyTo.Us and MyMiddle.Name. We are close, I just need to get my part done. James has an Android app built for LinkChop. Gotta be more like James, and not let him down. Half point.
  7. An extension of the previous one, meet out regularly with Je. We seem to be able to develop good ideas together and it is fun. Hopefully I won’t be a complete lazy pain in his ass.
    • Full point! We’ve been doing this and getting things done. Somewhat less done on my side, but doing something.
  8. Don’t be a complete lazy pain in the ass. It seems easier for me to react to the energy of the people around me than to generate my own energy and motivation. That needs to change (passive outlook again?)Half point for being a partial lazy pain in the ass.
    • Getting better, but still get sucked up and overwhelmed by daily crap. Gotta figure out a way to break this cycle. Half point.
  9. Plan out at least 3 more ideas for sites and/or projects to do beyond ones that actually get built. Plan them extensively, not just a brain fart. I have lots of ideas for animations, scripts, stories, games, etc. Make them happen. Don’t settle for ideas.
    • Half point. Evernote is a great thing. I can note down stuff all the time and I do. Now I just need to expand on them and fill them out. Again, technology is helping with this.
  10. Build a game in Unity. This is great software that I know I could do some awesome things with. Lets do it.
    • 100% fail. Have ideas though.
  11. Learn AS3 and become a kick ass flash guy. Even if work never moves an inch, I need to do this.
    • Half point. Making some progress, but not nearly enough.
  12. Learn more Maya and 3d. Build things. Don’t talk about it. Build it.Fail on the Maya, and 3D hasn’t progressed too much.
    • Zero.
  13. Learn to network and talk comfortably with other people I don’t know. I really suck at this. Bad. I think being able to talk to other humans without alcohol involved would be helpful.
    • Half point. Actually getting into social situations would help.
  14. More public speaking. At least 3 public speaking opportunities. This is in addition to if I teach the game class again.
    • Didn’t quite make it, I think I did 2 this year. Half point.
  15. Drink less alcohol. Long ago for many years I drank to numb and dull my senses to be able to handle the world around me. I don’t want to do that anymore. I’ll need to find a different way to deal, but I can put that energy elsewhere.
    • Half point.
  16. Travel. Make at least 3 trips this year, anywhere. Also, ultralight travel. Less stuff, more opportunity.
    • Half point. Aimee planned a great trip to Ireland this year, and we had a great time in Winter Park over Spring Break. Was there another? I can’t remember.
  17. Train Poe. He’s going to be HUGE and he needs to be well behaved. It takes time and energy. I can do it.
    • Poe is getting better. He still runs off to see other dogs sometimes. But I think that is mostly because I don’t give him enough time. Lots of treats helps. Point.
  18. Paint the house. Inside and the trim outside. It needs it. Get it done. It shouldn’t take more than a hard week or 2.
    • Fail.

8.5 points total

Out of an 18 possible, not the best if you look at the numbers. But I’m not looking at it that way. This is a journey, and progress is the key. I’m getting geared up for next year! What’s going to be on the new list? Only the Shadow knows!