Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

Augmented reality applications are gaining quite the buzz when it comes to mobile devices like the iPhone and Android smartphones.  These applications use the phones video camera and overlay information about what you see on the screen.  Using GPS to pinpoint your location and a compass to determine which direction your phone is facing, the application can determine what is near your location for displaying on the screen.  This overlay can include anything from real estate listings to the nearest McDonalds.

So to better describe what my words can’t, here is a screen shot of the Metro Paris iPhone app.  This application provides users with the locations of the nearest subway stations in their area along with nearby businesses.

Métro Paris application

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As publicized on the exhibition web site and in IMA’s Previews Magazine, we will be offering an iPod Touch driven multimedia tour of our exhibition, Sacred Spain, called “TAP into Sacred Spain”.  The software development side of TAP is mostly complete.  Now the work primarily lies in the hands of the content creators.  TAP’s software design is somewhat interesting in itself.  The content creators actually manage the tour content in a Drupal powered web site.  We can export the tour and all associated media from the site as a plugin for the iPhone application.  We developed an XMLSchema, TourML (pronouced “turmoil”), in which we conform to.  The Dallas Museum of Art is actually using the same format to drive a tour that is not a native iPhone app, but rather a mobile aware web site.  They have an excellent video podcast which describes this.  You can find out more about this collaboration and more by visiting the MuseumMobile Wiki.

I’m going to let the images do most the talking, but please note that none of the design or content is completely finalized below. Read the rest of this entry »

Battleship Island -  A former coal mining facilty owned Mitsubishi Motors that was at one time the most densely populated place on earth (13,000 people per square kilometer). Viceland, the web outlet of the Vice media conglomerate, takes us on a quick tour and offers up some really cool pictures of this “rotting metropolis.” For those of you that are into industrial lookin’ living spaces, check this out for sure.

Goofing Off Boasts Productivity – Another interesting study about how taking a break from work to check out the Internet is good for getting things done. I’d be curious to see the results of a study on those of us who “goof off” for a living and take breaks from goofing off by filing papers and organizing their inboxes.

$23/month iPhone plan – That would rule!

100 Awesome Facebook Apps – Because I know you love/hate a good/bad Facebook app as much as I do. Notable apps include Picasa (photo manipulation), Goodread (personal book tracking) and “What language should you learn” (self explanatory). There are 97 more for your enjoy/disdain ment.

Monday Music – “My Maudlin Career” by Camera Obscura. Title track off their new album.

Phil’s Pharmacy prescribes the following links to combat Monday online anemia.

Workstations of Popular Websites – Sometimes it’s fun to see where an artist creates their art. Similarly, sometimes it’s fun to see the spaces where web-content creators create their web content.

Aptera 2e Electric Car – Pixar fans ghost-ride the whip. Can anyone else see see Wall-e and Eva getting out of this ride? Three wheels? Less friction I guess and therefore more efficient. Now, if only Google would partner with a California based company on hoverboards.

Kern – If you’ve got an iPhone and love typography, check out this cool game. “The iPhone’s first design-nerd game.” – Boing Boing Offworld.

Wordle.net – Word clouds are floating in from everywhere and with this fun site you can form your own. Here’s one I made. Enjoy!

European Design Facebook Contest – The week three winner has been selected. Up is the new picture.

When I first heard about the iPhone, I was pretty excited about the possibilities of combining a camera, GPS, and internet connection. The idea of snapping a shot and uploading it to Flickr with a geotag, sharing it instantly with the rest of humanity, is a very powerful concept. Now that I have an iPhone, I’m exploring the apps and technologies available and refining my workflow. I thought I’d share my thoughts so far, since I think this is a great intersection of art and technology.

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