Superblog

More to come on why the product is accessible in these ways, but for now I appreciate your flexibility in working with me. I decided it may be more helpful for me to have one web location to send people to when they are willing to participate in the testing of my hypothesis.

If you are a willing– or forced (thank you friends)– participant, please choose one of the following experience options: traditional, 360 experience, or both. Choosing both means that you will check out the traditional content first, answer the very short survey, check out the 360 video content, answer the very short survey,  and then find the survey under the “both” heading and answer the question there.

Traditional Experience 

Here is a small collection of images from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s home. I ask that you view the presentation once, and do NOT go back and view it to answer any questions. No one will know your answers and cheating will only skew the comparative results. Please check out the short presentation from the underlined hypertext above in its entirety before filling out this survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSes01hUVYHChJLlIhxhKKhnc1Fm0ZrIhMlnNmPWiDCYC9O4xw/viewform?usp=sf_link

360 Video Experience

Here are two links to two seperate 360 degree videos. Please make sure the volume is loud enough for you to hear the sound; some voices may be hard to hear on lower volumes. Before taking the survey please watch both short clips one time each. See directions below if you need some guidance on watching 360 degree video.

If the videos do not work when you click the links, they are hosted on my Facebook page recently on my timeline and they have been listed as Public (Samantha Lewis; wearing sunglasses in profile picture and my contour was pretty excellent that day…). Upon some personal tests, you may need to be in the Facebook app on your mobile device for the video to work. If you could not locate the videos please proceed to the survey anyways. 

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsamantha.lewis.520900%2Fvideos%2F10212752373235776%2F&show_text=0&width=560“>Downstairs Footage (September 25 on Facebook)

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsamantha.lewis.520900%2Fvideos%2F10212815856822826%2F&show_text=0&width=560“>Upstairs Footage (October 4 on Facebook)

survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdY9hgMGxbq1qAxxBVJMT3ciZ2d9nNJW55cwu9tXTet1yXYKg/viewform?usp=sf_link

[DIRECTIONS IF NEEDED] The best viewing option is to watch on your mobile device IN the Facebook app so that you may just move the device to look around the 360 degree video (up, down, and side to side or all around if you’re sitting on a swivel chair).  If you are watching from a desktop or laptop you will need to drag the video with your finger to explore the surroundings.

Both Experiences

After having followed all of the above steps and taken both of those surveys, now all that is left is to take this simple survey.  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBs8x2D1R_2AzKrJoCKIPw1WlOvTYIUfdBASMXusBPmnwWuw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Some people run to new technology with their arms wide open. Others are very distrustful of emerging technology. The latter might feel they are invasive to your privacy or too disruptive to your life. I think that their wariness is justified. Especially given how many people do become obsessed with their digital devices and how easy it is to use new technologies to purposefully or inadvertently capture private moments.

I think the pull between these two extremes will shape the future of technology. I’ve seen articles about companies implanting chips into employees and wonder how that fits into American society. While privacy is not strictly enumerated into our constitution, it is an important pillar of American values. I find it hard to believe that employers will go without lawyers getting involved eventually, if that is not already in the works. Discussing topics like these with other people, you’d find many people that would be extremely uncomfortable with having objects planted in their bodies. Additionally, privacy will continue to be an relevant issue because drones and 360 degree video enables someone to capture quite a tremendous view. That vast view from both will lend the ability to capture footage of people that may be unaware they’re being filmed or photographed. 

One thing I want to predict in our future is something that I truly hope can come to fruition. It may sound silly, but there should be classes that address digital media/devices starting in middle school (or earlier). While they are young we should be teaching children how to find balance in their lives. Technology is meant to aide our lives. It is meant to make us more organized. It is meant to help make us more productive. We should not let it cripple us and distract us from our daily tasks. Our society needs to reflect on how we can find an appropriate balance of living our lives and how much digital we mix in.

In the future there could easily be a Communications Etiquette class. In that class students could learn how to speak to each other in person and online. Teachers would be there to mediate as students acted out “verbal confrontations” and help them learn how it may be important to have certain conversations in person and how other conversations are fine for digital methods. This would also be a great class to show children what it looks like as a third-party person when people are perhaps over-sharing on social media. There seem to be unwritten rules that many people abide by but we’ve all seen our fair share of people that throw all caution to the wind and spill every last bean. This isn’t to say that the unwritten rules should become written, because this is a country that prides itself on the ability for its citizens to express themselves. If people still choose to share every single detail, that is their prerogative. However, it is important for children to learn how the internet works and how there are instances where over-sharing has gotten people in trouble with the law, or fired from their jobs. It seems like schools have shied way away from mobile devices and social media because it has gotten students into trouble. It is a mistake, though, to try to rid their school environment of these devices because we are creating a responsibility void. Let’s let the young adults learn how to appropriately use the technology. Let’s teach them how to be present in the moment and not so attached to the device that it is a disruption. There are so many great life lessons that could be taught through teaching young people how to interact with their devices. I already mentioned finding the balance (which would be another great course title), but another valuable life lesson as well: there is a time and a place for everything. Class time? You’re listening. Study hall and your homework is complete? Appropriate time to play a game or check your social media. There are much harsher lessons like accountability and consequences for their actions, that I’m sure districts would have to teach in the more unfortunate uses of technology, but frankly there seems to be a lack of accountability these days so I hope schools would welcome and take on the challenge. How are we supposed to grow and learn if we are not challenging ourselves or our children?

Lastly, and perhaps a little contradictory to my hope for balance, I see our future as having technology more integrated into our lives. I have had a vision of household appliances with glass surfaces being just another place you could get online. When I watched a specific episode of Black Mirror it was one of the most similar examples of what I would expect to see. For those that have never seen this Netflix original, a man woke up in a small square room. The walls were glass tiles that served as a large screen. When his alarm went off the tiles turned into a cute day scene and he was able to turn it off and the tiles would change. When he got out of bed and went to his sink, he could get information up on his mirror and he was able to buy toothpaste. This was a little different from what I envisioned because his glass was motion-sensor, and he did not need to touch the glass to click or move through his options. I pictured touch screen versions of this mirror coming and when you went to get ready in the morning you could pull up the news to watch right there on your mirror, or whatever you wanted to access on the internet. Motion sensors and their interfaces seem like they are developing sooner than I would have pictured so maybe Black Mirror was on to something.

Due to the resistance from some to wear certain technologies or trust technology I think that Augmented Reality is about to take off. I think that for now, while mobile devices might as well be another human appendage, AR is the place to take development. People can bring the augmented reality out when they want it to enhance their actual life and they can easily put it away (no bulky goggles necessary). I think that augmented reality is a part of having a balance between our physical lives and all things digital and digital media. Rather than stepping into an immersive but virtual reality, through AR people will be able to stay in their own reality but add in elements to enrich their experiences.

Wide lens: a large and rolling field of corn stretches across your screen. Cut to a cow hanging out with 15-20 of her friends in a pen next to their barn. Enter the drone footage: fields of corn, fields of pumpkins, fields of beans, cow barns, egg farms, dairy barns, silos. Then you spot a house. As we continue flying toward the village at the center of town fields turn to homes and yards and small businesses and the school. All of a sudden there’s a big, ugly FastTrack being all red and obnoxious in the heart of our small farm town. To be fair, only its signs and branding are truly the source of an eye sore because the building itself actually looks quite nice.  Across the street sits the much smaller, abandoned cash-only gas station that used supply residents and travelers.

Okay, so that has the potential for some nice imagery but its not exactly a riveting news story that could be better told through the use of drones in journalism.

Currently, there are some stories developing in my little community but not many of them would be good candidates for a drone angle. However, one thing does come to mind at this time of year.

Football.

Much of the news-worthy stories around here are things related to the school and its involvement in the community. And since people love sports and right now we are in the midst of football season, it seems to be just the kind of story to test out the drones. It would be particularly nice given my high school alma mater just got a new turf field. I think that using drones to connect the community with our football team and the other sports teams for that matter, would be a good use of the drones’ capabilities.

Using a drone we could create a content series for the school called Friday Night Live Lights, or something maybe more clever. Each Friday night the drone goes up and catches the game. Logistically, depending on the model, you may need to bring more than one or extra batteries since games can run long. I have seen people use the Facebook live feature using their drone so I think that would be such a cool way to utilize live streams and drones together to share our local sports stories.

I think as the season went on, you would learn the best way to approach streaming the game, whether it was totally continuous or if you took breaks after each quarter or just at half time, etc. I know that during every time out and/or at the end of quarters I would leave the drone facing the score board. When possible I would place the drone so that the score board and the game were both visible.

The purpose of our field test is to use one of these emerging technologies we have learned about in our classes, or perhaps elsewhere, and solve a problem. I had been struggling with this project for a number of reasons until last week. During the weekly exposure to new technology I kept thinking, “now this is what I want to try out.” Then I was also pondering about the whole problem solving aspect. What audience out there in the world had a problem in media that I could solve? Where are they and how could I help them?

Then last week as I was headed up to the Adirondacks with my dad and my little sister it dawned on me mid-conversation: better campsite imaging. For those that are pro’s they know right where to go online and they know exactly which sites they want to go to since they return to the same campgrounds annually. However, if you are new to camping or are someone who likes to explore new campgrounds, my idea may just help you plan your next trip with precision. Right now when people plan their trips they are booking blind on most sites. I’ve tried getting around the lack of pictures by going to Google Earth and zooming in but most of these properties are not visible through the trees.

I have been mulling around a couple different ways to tackle this project, which is fine as we need to have back-ups plans.

Using a 3D sensor or photogrammetry I could gather the imaging/data necessary to recreate a campsite in VR. Ideally, each site would eventually be done and hosted on the same site that people book their trips from. This way, people will know exactly what to expect before their trip and what extra equipment may or may not be necessary. When people search for sites that meet their date preferences or site preferences a cartoon map comes up. At the very least, once they click on a potential site and all of its information comes up, this is where a 360/VR experience of the single site could be located. I would annotate the site with dimensions for crystal clear expectations. I am thinking this part of the project will be dependent on the number of sites that are empty, as it would make more sense to let campers see the full space they are working with. 

Using a 360 camera I could walk, or drive through the campgrounds for a virtual reality tour. Depending on the size of the campgrounds, it may be necessary to drive for battery life. I am still reading about my options as far as merging these two ideas together. My thoughts are that it would be most beneficial for people to be able to go in to the campground’s VR and click on their site number or zoom in on their site and there they will see the annotations I mentioned above. If the 360 video ends up being a stand-alone piece it would be annotated to include street names and site numbers.

I am looking forward to hearing back from the campgrounds I have reached out to and trying to put together such an informative campground resource.