more thoughts

So after making the videos ive thought alot more into the idea of it, the final clips are rendered and combined into a short video to demo the idea.

here is my reflection on the concept looking at various advantages and disadvantages of it.

Re-Opening the Renaissance Window

The brief of this project was to develop an interesting space wherein the user will navigate through information rather than across it. The Concept I have thought about was developed from a literal transcription of the brief where I would use forms of transportation i.e vehicles, to navigate through and around various information which could be applied much like a satellite navigation device, but the device would not need to be in the way and constrict the view.

The idea would be to have a virtual sat-nav function where a futuristic concept of screen projection would be used to show relevant information about the journey in real time, for many reasons such as help with directions, general information about your journey and even just to keep the journey interesting and enjoyable for the user. The information would be updated and stored as the journey goes on such as distance travelled and other factors, for reference to it later for possibly purposes of keeping track of distance travelled and time, even how long it took to reach certain places. The information itself would be masked virtually onto available “mounting” space, such as roadside lay-bys and road signs, (which would be irrelevant to the journey,) and would be sort of a motion tracked image to keep it in time with them to not obscure the view, but just to be visible while travelling. The main idea of this concept is that the user is physically navigating through information rather than just reading it or seeing it on a screen/other device.

I have already mentioned some of the strengths this process holds, A major strength in the concept would be that the up to date real time information is not limited to text, any form of media could be incorporated such as video or images. In the concept video I created I used video and pictures to demonstrate how it could work. The projections would be on the windscreen or windows of the vehicle, so light and other variable conditions such as weather would not interfere with the media, but it would not be to overpowering so that the media takes up the users attention.
The idea of real time updating information would make sure the user is kept up to date with relevant information, The information shown/displayed doesn’t need to stay on-topic either which may appeal to more of a wider audience. This is not ruling out the possibilities of using any sort of media in place of the projections.
The concept is very simple yet sophisticated and futuristic. It would keep the audience/users entertained and informed of their journey easily and quickly. The device would be hidden away, i.e the storage of the information and receivers etc, can be hidden so this would be an advantage over standard sat nav, as this can be distracting.

Although this idea has several strengths there is also weakness, this would be a fitted device; installed to the vehicle, making it expensive for the user initially. That though is a highly speculative weakness. Some of the strengths mentioned may also be looked at as weakness’, this is due to the fact that the images and media may been seen as “constricting” due to being visible in the main view it may take too much attention and be classed as dangerous. The whole idea of on screen information is for it to be easily viewable, but this can also cause problems in that a persons might find it difficult to differentiate between the information and the road, making them not pay attention to the road ahead of them and this could cause an accident. In the concept of it becoming a real working development in vehicles, there would be several safety checks taken into account about the idea due to being possibly distracting. The amount of media is also a weakness as some users may prefer more than others and other variables such as size and other factors can also be a weakness but this is hypothetical weaknesses due to it being a concept.

The concept has various limitations but its only limited to conditions that may vary over time. The idea that the media and information would mask such things as cars and road signs, this may be limited to the traffic or where the journey goes, there may be no points for the information to hold, no vehicles on the road, no road signs etc. This also leads to the limitation of how much information could be processed and stored/displayed at any one time. It would also be customizable to help combat this limitation, the user of the idea would be able to control the amounts and how often they would show, also be able to turn it on and off.

The potential of the idea could be huge depending on how it would be taken by the users. As this concept has not been done to this extent before many users would not know how to work with the concept, and that they would feel they would not need it as they would be used to travelling as it is now. Younger drivers might take to the idea quicker due to growing up around various technologies; where as some of the older generation even today don’t know how to work a home computer. There would be a line where users would be able to easily adapt to the concept, and others that would maybe struggle, and thus maybe not want it. It could potentially revolutionise day to day travel by making it easier and more accessible to a user, but at the same time could also be a deterrent for a user.
There could be a potential of optional viewing, where the user could choose to wear some form of glasses which would make them projections visible to them only.
Audio may also be a potential with the concept where information could be spoken over the transport speakers so that there could in theory be a narrator to guide the audience/users on the journeys. Much like the current day sat nav technology, but this would be more user friendly and fluent rather than the robotic commands currently given.

It is not just limited to relevant travel information; the concept could also be used to display personal files and pictures such as holiday snaps or event media. This could also be controlled by the user, but it wouldn’t take over the major relevant information related to their journey.

Although I’ve taken this idea as a literal sense in a physical form of travel this could also be taken virtually onto the web or other media as a way of navigating through the website. This then would create an entertaining way of navigation for the user and the idea of the projections being constricting and distractive would be obsolete due to the fact they would be the main focus for the user to see. This would also mean the potential audience would dramatically increase due to the amount of individuals that can’t drive/own transport can still use the concept to navigate in a similar way. The online idea of it would also be able to follow your tracks quicker and easier via breadcrumb style waypoints.

Although this idea is fairly simple in concept there is a future potential for the idea to be popular, the futuristic look of it may change the way transport is looked at. There will always be further development in all current technologies making them more and more complex, but this is just to keep the world more interesting and keep it modern.

rendered

so i have now got 3 clips showing differant locations and situations where my idea could be used.

using various masks and motion tracking and other techniques to achieve the look.

these will be put together into a compilation to present my idea and hopefully that should be finished today, just a short video roughly 1 or 2 minutes long to demonstrate.

while i have a render queue..

thought id pop another post up to say a bit more about my idea, the thought of using an automobile for information navigation seems absurd, but in the right way could be achieved to great levels.

The idea im looking at doing is the images and videos that are projected onto road signs and other vehicles on the road would be shown on the windscreen, much like a virtual camera as the windscreen information would then latch onto something and travel with it giving an illusion that the objct appears on the outside world.

When in fact it is just eye trickery where the cars onboard computer projects the images onto the screen to make it.

A concept idea of having the dash projected onto the windscreen for stuff like speedo and rev counter etc can be seen here:



The main concept behind my idea ive said before is current sat nav technology, this concept could use anything in place of road signs and van slogans etc, in relevance to where you are going, by possibly removing all but on exit on a roundabout roadsign so that you know which way to go for example.

this idea has also been developed from another technology, "geotagging" this process is where a picture or other piece of data can be viewed and more information will be shown ontop of it such as pictures of the actual location or co-ordinates aswell as possibly even whats available.

such as seen here:


The concept im creating is of such a 'real-time' geotagging process.

filming complete!

ok so the weather was not ideal for the recordings, welsh weather oh how i love its unpredictability.

I filmed my journey up to bristol on wednesday and racked up a good hours worth of footage which i have been sifting through to find clips that will work well for me.

I have decided on a collection of 4 or 5 clips which i will use for the in car navigation idea. I will mask in videos to make it as if they are meant to be there or replacing things such as lorry carriages, road signs and even other cars.

Currently piecing together my clips in after effects and premiere, more soon.

rough idea of how it will work.

this is the sort of view i shall be looking to get with my video/stills. which will show the car traveling and on the road signs visible the titles wil be changed for navigational purposes.

when a nav point is selected the video will speed up and show the navigation to this point but at increased speed.

initial research and ideas.

ive looked at several touch screen applications and hardware such as various mobile phones and sat nav equipment.



The tom tom sat nav, my idea has come from this cncept where the map is the information and you navigate to the final outcome. or where you want to go.

im planning on recording a video/series of stills from the inside view of a car, using the windows metaphore to show the location for the audience to see where the sit on this journey through information.

im going to use techniques learnt in after effects to create navigational menus on road signs and other relevant points.

im also thinking to include a tom tom style map view in the navigation much like a bread crumbs trail seen on various sites, this would be for guidance and "where am i now?" enquiries.

hopefully the weather will be ok tomorrow when i do the filming.

updates in coming days on how i got on.

my ideas...

ok so after developing techniques on how to use after effects.

to navigate through informational space many techniques are used which are available in everyday activity.

these metaphors connect the design to the audience intended by relating the navigation to something in real life, such as tabs in a browser window being the same to the tabs of a folder/notebook.

some metaphors commenly used are:

Tabs
Corridor
Room
Elevator
Filing Cabinet
Desk Top
Page Curl
Cork Board
A Landscape
Windows
Paper
polaroid photos
sticky notes
etc.

the list can go on, but this bring the question of how can someone really create something "new" if everything has already been done before hand and if the current techniques and metaphors work so well why create something new, which in turn wouldnt be a new metaphore as the adience might not be aware of how to use it.

further after effects work.

space for the video, wouldnt uplaod the format i got now so will need to compress it . .

Using static images and text in after effects i can create a 3d style text which produces a shadow.

here are the images ive used.




i used this image and within after effects manipulated it so that it "sat" on the floor of the picture to make it look like ti was actually there using 3D axis.

The video created from the photoshop document.

Development from Photoshop to after effects.

So developing ideas through after effects learning how to use images and layers in photoshop to create 3D structures and then using after effects have a "camera" move through the layers to create the desired effect.

This image is waht i designed in photoshop using several layers and filters to manipulate each one to make differances.



This static image was split into its layers and the after effects camera was able to "fly" through and make the 3d look.

I also added extra effects to the video to create more of a 3D feel to it.

The video will be in the next post due to upload constraints.

sketches.

a few sketches initially done to show developments of ideas:

scroll wheel.

another initial idea was taken form looking at "sliding/Spinning" navigation seen in the program itunes.



a front view where you can "drag" the wheel down to spin it around to reveal more.



another view to show the structure of the wheel itself.

original ideas

The Assignment has been given:

"Re-opening the Renaissance Window: develop an interesting space where the user navigates through infromation rather than across it."

So now im starting to put my rough ideas and developments onto the blog ill start with the original static image ideas to show rough idea.




this scene of the art gallery, the idea is to click on one of the images and it would come forward and then display the image clearer and with information.



As shown the image has enlarged and information has been displayed.

updates..

After a few weeks of practicing on after effects learning alot of new tricks and features that can be put into my projects, such as fake 3D perspectives using vanishing points on images to create an illusion of moving "through" the image.

i will upload quite a few posts today to publish all the work i have done thus far. inlcuding images video and general ideas.

My ideas for this assignment are coming to me aswell with various uses of space such as a cube interface, hallway/room interfaces, using various toys (of a certain kind) to create a puzzling 3d interface and also ones of an infinite loop to have it as a never ending navigation.

more coming soon.