In my last post I wrote about several wearable devices I used while studying in Germany. With all the chatter about wearable displays at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year I decided it’s time for a post about wearable display devices that look promising. Several of the companies making the devices have been researching and developing this technology for several years now and appear to be on the verge of creating usable devices that consumers can afford. Keep in mind there are two main purposes for these displays: media consumption and augmented reality.

According to MITs Technology Review, most of the companies working on these wearable head mounted displays started out building systems for the military. My interest in wearable devices is centered around consumer products for recreation and leisure time, however it’s fascinating to see some of these companies building innovative communication products for industries like aviation and hospitality first, in order to generate enough revenue and research to get themselves into the consumer market. Read more…

Surface

One of the first technologies I was introduced to here at Uni Bremen was a Microsoft Surface Table. While it may not be such a futuristic technology, there is definitely a lot of research in applications currently being done that will make it a more widely used technology in the near future. One of my friends is working on some collaboration software for the Surface Table for his masters thesis and asked me to participate in some research he was doing. This particular table in the TZI lab is several years old and uses a projector and double-sided mirror. A multi-touch sensor grid is laid on top of the mirror and the table uses Microsoft’s latest Surface SDK running on Windows 7. The study I participated in required four people to work together to assemble puzzle pieces for four separate puzzles. While this may sound like a simple task, let me assure you that it can become rather complicated unless everyone works together.

Read more…

Three weeks ago I began the course that originally brought me to Bremen, Germany – Wearable Computing. This subject is part of the Artificial Intelligence research group within the Center for Computing Technologies at Uni Bremen and is traditionally offered to computer science students. Recently this research group began offering their classes to digital media students in an effort to help the digital media program provide a more well rounded education for their students. This course in wearable computing takes primarily a theoretical approach while also looking at many of the practical aspects.

On the first day we covered what wearable computing is and the history behind basic computing going all the way back to the 1950s. It was quite fascinating to see how the purposes for using computers has evolved over the years. It all started with specific tasks and business computing in the 50s & 60s, then in the 80s we had the addition of more entertainment computing and in the 90s communication and information computing became mainstream. Read more…

Earlier this year, Corey posted about Qwiki, a startup whose investors include Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, Groupon co-founders Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky, and YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim.

Qwiki has opened its alpha release to the public since January. With its stated objective to “deliver information in a format that’s quintessentially human – via storytelling instead of search”, Qwiki has generated great interest, even hyped by media as the “next Google.”

Read more…

Flip the Media is always looking for local tech disruptors to feature, so when a MCDM student approached us with a contact at RootMetrics, we couldn’t resist. RootMetrics is a Seattle based business that crowdsources data in order to offer a free, independent source of cellular carrier performance ratings. We threw a couple of our best questions at Julie Dey, the VP of Marketing for RootMetrics and found out it’s even better than we originally thought! If you’re in the market for a new network, we think you’ll agree, skipping the carrier’s marketing funnel and going straight to RootMetrics’ Carrier Coverage Map will save some big headaches.

Here’s the full Q&A:

Read more…

Following last week’s graduation ceremony, MCDM students, alumni, recent graduates and well wishers gathered in South Lake Union for the first annual MCDM Screen Summit.  With an address by Director Hanson Hosein, the program awarded two “Make the Change” awards to regional disruptor’s Dan Savage for his “It Gets Better” Project and Starbucks for their new online/in-store media presence.  The night also featured a statement from MCDM founder and award namesake Anthony Giffard.  Here is a video of his statement:

While Dan Savage could not be at the ceremony to personally accept the award, he did send along this video that was shown to attendees:

Adam Brotman VP of Starbucks Digital Ventures was on hand to accept his award on behalf of Starbuck’s and Yahoo’s Digital Network initiative:

On Friday night, students in the MCDM program presented their work in the first annual MCDM screen Summit.  The video below features a few of the highlights of some of the work that MCDM students have been doing over the last year.

A hearty and sincere congratulations from all of us at Flip the Media to this year’s graduates.  Go forth and make the change!

Media Space TV is among a trio of original UWTV productions that recently received recognition for Outstanding Achievement by the Telly Awards, a nationally respected competition for the broadcast industry. The awards were given for the UWTV programs “Fostering Leadership,” “Media Space,” and “Husky Softball: A Championship Journey.”

“Media Space: Entertainment & Content” was the award-winning episode that featured alternate reality gaming entrepreneur Elan Lee in its debut season, discussing his pioneering work in entertainment and immersive gaming.

“Media Space is our very public effort to connect to what’s next in technology and communication. Elan Lee’s pioneering work in reinventing storytelling clearly foreshadows how we’ll all be interacting with media in the years to come,” said host and MCDM Director Hanson Hosein. “I’m thrilled that we’ve won this recognition for such cutting-edge subject matter – it’s truly the best of what we do.”

John Haslam, General Manager of UWTV, said “It’s wonderful to receive industry recognition for these shows, which represented a shift in our programming to bring more original, entertaining and thought-provoking shows to UWTV. We are continuing our mission to create more original programming, including new arts shows premiering this spring, that showcase the people and stories from the University of Washington.”

Read more…

This is the third and final blog post of a three part series about my experiences as a presenter with fellow MCDM student Katherine Turner during the 2011 American Society of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. See the second post Monday, February 28th, 2011, “Easy Like Sunday Morning.”

Crowdsourcing

I had kept word that I was attending the conference from my parents. I also had to block my sisters from my Facebook updates about the trip to Puerto Rico. I had known for months. My plan was to surprise my mother at the mall, grocery store, or where ever she might be.

Everyone’s reaction to my plan – that’s a bad idea. Even the taxi driver on the way to Condado from Fajardo turned back while driving and looked at me square in the eyes and said, “Mijo, la vas a matar.” He was not the only local who concurred that I was going to give my mother a heart attack. So, I called my mother that afternoon. “Guess where I am?” A few seconds of silence goes by followed by “Get the **** out of here! How can that be?” Said a very stunned Señora, or as she will very happily point out to you, Señorita.

Whenever Katherine and I talked about presenting at an oceanography conference it always seemed strange. People would reply, “I thought you were into video or photography.”

Yes, we are into video. No, we aren’t oceanographers. “So, why are you presenting at an oceanography conference?”

My mother grew more confused and perplexed when I explained the reasons why I was in San Juan presenting at an International Oceanography Conference.

Carlos Miguel Sanchez & Julia Rodriguez (Dad and Mom)

Read more…