Here's a video I found while looking for other forms of social communication which i think all of us will find useful:
It's titled: Communication Technologies and New Forms of Social Interaction
She first explains that it is split up into 3 areas:
Connectiveness
Ambiguity
Identity
As the presentation progresses she explains how big of an impact it has made on us as a community, how it has changed the way we live, play and access information. That it is a part of us and that it has evolved into a personal thing. She continues to review examples of this such as mobile phones and says that most of human relationships are now mediated by some form of technology.
If your having trouble gathering your research for the assignment then watch this presentation. If you still don't know what to research, at least it will explain it in plain english.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Thursday 22 January 2009
Web Cameras
What is a Web Camera?
Web Cameras are PC and Mac tools that improve our communication abilities by allowing us to see each other from great distances. Nearly everyone that owns a laptop has one including myself. Instead of communicating through words on either MSN messenger or Facebook, users can communicate to each other physically (well as close to physically as you can without meeting them in person).
Some web cams are better than others such as, some allow you to speak to each other while less advanced cameras still need you to communicate through MSN and type what you saying however you can still see each other. Picture quality varies depending on what laptop or portable web cam you have purchased but they're all good in some way. The one I have is only 1.3 mega pixels but it is enough to make my conversation experience better. One webcam that i would recommend is the Logitech Quickcam Zoom webcam. Its around £30-£40 and offers you 640-480 pixel visuals and a built it microfone. This is really for those who don't have a laptop and want a portable plug-in one, if your after a good long lasting webcam with basic skills but a reasonable price i would gofor this one, plus it looks good. For more information and a full review on the Logitech webcam visit this website: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Logitech_QuickCam_Zoom__5330773#productdetail
Webcams have even been developed for high definition consoles such as the Xbox 360, which can offer better quality visuals and less lagging.
How is it Changing and is there a Future?
People use webcams on a daily basis for communicating with business partners or coligues, or just chatting with friends. Because of this companies are always trying to best one another and improve their products to give consumers more entertainment and better quality images. One company in particular has shot ahead from the others to produce a new and interesting way of veiwing each other and communicate at quicker speeds.
Teliris has taken the normal webcam design, thrown it away and have upgraded it for company and business use. The Teliris Virtualive Telepresence is a new form of webcam in that you still communicate live but in much much greater detail and a lot less lag. The picture is smooth without skips or jumps like on some webcams (including mine), making it feel much more live and in person. You forget there just video on a wall and think there actually there. They use huge screens instead of a single lens so you can see on a wider scale, these can then be linked up to show an entire room rather than the persons head and shoulders. These are mainly used for things like board meetings and seminars like the images below:
As for the future of webcams Cisco has developed Teliris concept and design and produced a new and interesting way of communication. When i first saw it i thought it was fake and obviously acted out, so I looked into it and realised it was actually in the process of being made. This new form of physical webcam which at the moment is called Virtual Telepresence will completly change the way we communicate with each other and send information. They have developed a webcam that projects the live person from hundreds of miles away (or any distence) onto a stage or room as if they were actually there. Just imagine if you have two places to be at once, say a board meeting and your office to catch up one work. Instead of only having to choose one place to be you can simply go to your office and then project yourself into the confrence room via a camera and projector. Here's one good example from Cisco:
Web Cameras are PC and Mac tools that improve our communication abilities by allowing us to see each other from great distances. Nearly everyone that owns a laptop has one including myself. Instead of communicating through words on either MSN messenger or Facebook, users can communicate to each other physically (well as close to physically as you can without meeting them in person).
Some web cams are better than others such as, some allow you to speak to each other while less advanced cameras still need you to communicate through MSN and type what you saying however you can still see each other. Picture quality varies depending on what laptop or portable web cam you have purchased but they're all good in some way. The one I have is only 1.3 mega pixels but it is enough to make my conversation experience better. One webcam that i would recommend is the Logitech Quickcam Zoom webcam. Its around £30-£40 and offers you 640-480 pixel visuals and a built it microfone. This is really for those who don't have a laptop and want a portable plug-in one, if your after a good long lasting webcam with basic skills but a reasonable price i would gofor this one, plus it looks good. For more information and a full review on the Logitech webcam visit this website: http://www.ciao.co.uk/Logitech_QuickCam_Zoom__5330773#productdetail
Webcams have even been developed for high definition consoles such as the Xbox 360, which can offer better quality visuals and less lagging.
How is it Changing and is there a Future?
People use webcams on a daily basis for communicating with business partners or coligues, or just chatting with friends. Because of this companies are always trying to best one another and improve their products to give consumers more entertainment and better quality images. One company in particular has shot ahead from the others to produce a new and interesting way of veiwing each other and communicate at quicker speeds.
Teliris has taken the normal webcam design, thrown it away and have upgraded it for company and business use. The Teliris Virtualive Telepresence is a new form of webcam in that you still communicate live but in much much greater detail and a lot less lag. The picture is smooth without skips or jumps like on some webcams (including mine), making it feel much more live and in person. You forget there just video on a wall and think there actually there. They use huge screens instead of a single lens so you can see on a wider scale, these can then be linked up to show an entire room rather than the persons head and shoulders. These are mainly used for things like board meetings and seminars like the images below:
As for the future of webcams Cisco has developed Teliris concept and design and produced a new and interesting way of communication. When i first saw it i thought it was fake and obviously acted out, so I looked into it and realised it was actually in the process of being made. This new form of physical webcam which at the moment is called Virtual Telepresence will completly change the way we communicate with each other and send information. They have developed a webcam that projects the live person from hundreds of miles away (or any distence) onto a stage or room as if they were actually there. Just imagine if you have two places to be at once, say a board meeting and your office to catch up one work. Instead of only having to choose one place to be you can simply go to your office and then project yourself into the confrence room via a camera and projector. Here's one good example from Cisco:
I personally think that webcams will eventually all be like Cisco's, as the man said we'll be communicating like Star Trek. Although this methos is currently in development and look to only be used by businesses, I think Cisco or another company will develop it for families worldwide so then everyone can communicate with each other live and 'in person'. I think that in the years to come this new form of communication will be the main form of communication. This could also be incorporated into portable devices such as mobile phones. Imagine recieving a phone call from a friend on a mobile and then when you answer a holographic projection of your friend is displayed live to interact with in a more personal way.
Tuesday 20 January 2009
What would life be like without the internet, how would our lives change?
I suppose i would certainly not be as lazy as i am now, i blame the Internet for making me like this. If the Internet was not there to distract me i would be more passionate about what i want to do as my profession. I would still enjoy drawing cartoons but it would be more of a hobby than a passion, i would most likely be pursuing my music hobby as a profession. Basically my life would be the opposite of what it is now. I know that for one thing my sense of humour would not be as good as it is today (which is pretty rubbish to be honest) as I spend some time viewing comedians and comics on YouTube.
But without the Internet researching would take much longer and could be more boring than it is now. I mean just look at how quickly we can find information for an assignment or project. The Internet is much more comfortable and entertaining when looking for research and info. But on a brighter note because of the lack of resources, gathering research would be easy as pie, your teacher would never ask you to look at multiple sources for research you could just go to the library for it.
On a sadder note however i would not have the friends i have today. Most of my friends i have met were in school or college classes that were crucially linked to the Internet in some way. I don't trust people easily since an incident involving the Internet. If the Internet doesn't exist, then the incident never happened, which means that i would trust too easily and get walked over by people all of my life (Although it would help me psychologically). We would all have to buy our music from shops instead of downloading it :( .
Another very important matter is that without the Internet, banks would not be able to organise their accounts easily and would be forced to do it manually. There would be not credit crunch and we could all live our lives much happier. Woolworths and Zavvi would still exist and we would'nt always have to go to HMV for music and DVD's, we would have options, choices and variety :).
But without the Internet researching would take much longer and could be more boring than it is now. I mean just look at how quickly we can find information for an assignment or project. The Internet is much more comfortable and entertaining when looking for research and info. But on a brighter note because of the lack of resources, gathering research would be easy as pie, your teacher would never ask you to look at multiple sources for research you could just go to the library for it.
On a sadder note however i would not have the friends i have today. Most of my friends i have met were in school or college classes that were crucially linked to the Internet in some way. I don't trust people easily since an incident involving the Internet. If the Internet doesn't exist, then the incident never happened, which means that i would trust too easily and get walked over by people all of my life (Although it would help me psychologically). We would all have to buy our music from shops instead of downloading it :( .
Another very important matter is that without the Internet, banks would not be able to organise their accounts easily and would be forced to do it manually. There would be not credit crunch and we could all live our lives much happier. Woolworths and Zavvi would still exist and we would'nt always have to go to HMV for music and DVD's, we would have options, choices and variety :).
Thursday 15 January 2009
My perfect room
While looking through youtube i found lots of interactive items that i would love to have in a single room (if i ever had the money or if they ever were mass produced). The first of the items would be the floor, i had this in mind:
The next would be a table this one made my day, i love this. It would be nice if it interacted with any music but this is a nice start:
Next would be furniture, this one really made me laugh although you would'nt want too many of these moving around:
i'll continue to post more ideas in the future but for now my room is looking pretty cool, if you have any other items i would want to place in my room then let me know.
The next would be a table this one made my day, i love this. It would be nice if it interacted with any music but this is a nice start:
Next would be furniture, this one really made me laugh although you would'nt want too many of these moving around:
i'll continue to post more ideas in the future but for now my room is looking pretty cool, if you have any other items i would want to place in my room then let me know.
ZenZui
Since flash websites was a dead end i have looked further for other systems to research. It occurred to me that since the iPhone no one has come up with any new way of accessing current information. The slide scrolling option on the iPhone was a huge step forward and received great praise but since then no other company has attempted to produce anything new and different. I decided to see if any had.
I found the ZenZui product which is being made by Apples rival Microsoft. The ZenZui is a mobile phone update which can work with any phone of any network. It is a new way of recieving current information via the internet such as news broadcasts anouncements etc. It also allows you to post photographs and things of the users interest onto the menu. The menu itself is split up into 16 tiles which you can zoom into sections of 4 tiles.
Hers a video showing you how it works, as you can see you don't need a touch screen to use it:
Because it is still a work in progress i can't really explain it in much detail and don't have much knowlage on the new product after all it's still in the dark at the moment. This next video explains more on what it does and how it acesses the information. NOTE: he does talk very fast so be prepared to listen carefully.
I can't see this really going somewhere as it is, to be honest not as well presented as the iPhone's menu. it still does'nt feel as smooth as the iPhone. I praise microsoft however for finally coming up with a new menu design and accessability that works with all mobile phones where as the iPhone display is only for the iPhone, which sucks! I hope to see this up and running and being used by lots of people in the near future.
I found the ZenZui product which is being made by Apples rival Microsoft. The ZenZui is a mobile phone update which can work with any phone of any network. It is a new way of recieving current information via the internet such as news broadcasts anouncements etc. It also allows you to post photographs and things of the users interest onto the menu. The menu itself is split up into 16 tiles which you can zoom into sections of 4 tiles.
Hers a video showing you how it works, as you can see you don't need a touch screen to use it:
Because it is still a work in progress i can't really explain it in much detail and don't have much knowlage on the new product after all it's still in the dark at the moment. This next video explains more on what it does and how it acesses the information. NOTE: he does talk very fast so be prepared to listen carefully.
I can't see this really going somewhere as it is, to be honest not as well presented as the iPhone's menu. it still does'nt feel as smooth as the iPhone. I praise microsoft however for finally coming up with a new menu design and accessability that works with all mobile phones where as the iPhone display is only for the iPhone, which sucks! I hope to see this up and running and being used by lots of people in the near future.
Thursday 8 January 2009
the new theme and colour scheme
From the feedback that i recieved from christine i have since changed the colours to make it more understandable and have also changed the theme so its easier to access the information just click on the year, then month and than your chosen topic. If there are any other problems or hiccupps about understanding my writing please don't hesitate to scream them at me!
Flash website research
I have been trying to research flash made websites as i find them to be extremely interesting and inventive. It allows us to express what goes on in our heads, various human responses and feelings and express our natural creativity and talent without restrictions. However due to the rules of the project i can only research flash websites if they provide current information and update it regularly like wikipedia and other information giving websites. What amazes me is that i don't think that there are any websites that do provide current information let alone continue to update it. It really pisses me off that no one has yet done this. This would make websites far less formal and boring and more creative and inspiring. People and companies would be able to show what they do visually through flash and incorporate this into a website.
I suppose it is difficult considering how long it takes to produce a flash website then having to update it every week or so would get tiring very quickly. I understand how difficult it would be but it would certainly make finding information interesting and fun to do. Whoever does do this will certainly get mucho kudos points from me as well as my respect for being patient enough to do it, they would also revolutionise the way we discover and findo info. Or maybe it would work better if all of us internet users produce a universal website for everything and we each make a contribution such as a topic or subject produce it in flash and add it to the website like wikipedia, i think if a great many of us work together we can acomplish this.
I suppose it is difficult considering how long it takes to produce a flash website then having to update it every week or so would get tiring very quickly. I understand how difficult it would be but it would certainly make finding information interesting and fun to do. Whoever does do this will certainly get mucho kudos points from me as well as my respect for being patient enough to do it, they would also revolutionise the way we discover and findo info. Or maybe it would work better if all of us internet users produce a universal website for everything and we each make a contribution such as a topic or subject produce it in flash and add it to the website like wikipedia, i think if a great many of us work together we can acomplish this.
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