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Trend: Annotated Spaces
Written By Florian Peter on Sunday, January 22, 2006 at 4:41 AM | In Lifestyle, Technology, USA
Annotated Spaces are real world sites (buildings or locations) connected to virtual or recorded information.
Trend Description:
By connecting the real world with information from the Internet, users can explore geographical spaces with the eye of an insider. There is a huge variety of technologies which can be used to enable visitors to find their way around the globe. So far, most applications are used to tour museums, tourist sights or foreign cities. The most obvious applications are audio tour guides, recorded to CD or downloadable to cell phones, iPods and PDA’s. New online tools enable users to tag certain locations with special barcodes which let interested visitors retrieve the hidden information with their cellphones.
Cases:
Semapedia
Semapedia, a partner of CScout, connects the virtual and the physical world with the technology of Semacode and the information from Wikipedia. On Semapedia.org users can create tags (similar to a barcode tag) connected to a certain sight or location. After placing the tag by the certain sight, users can retrieve the information with their cellphone. By taking a picture of the Semapedia Tag they enable the reader application to extract the URL, and can load the information from Wikipedia onto their cell phone.
Soundwalk and Talking Streets
Soundwalk and Talking Streets are audio-city guides. Most of the tours are narrated by famous insiders, actors, authors, or celebrities. Listeners can either purchase the tours on CD or download them on their iPod. Talking Street also uses cell phones and palm pilots. Prices range from US$10 to US$ 35. Some examples are: The South Bronx with Hip-Hop veteran Jazzy Jay or Little Italy with Soprano Cast member Vinny Vella. Both companies are expanding their tours to other US cities as well as to other capitals all over the world.Yellow Arrow
Yellow Arrow could be described as “geographical bloggingâ€. Members post yellow arrows pointing towards spots or locations they have something to say about. People who find the arrow and send the code to the one who posted it will receive a message on their cell phone.
Sight Jogging:
Sight Jogging offers tourists the sights of a city at a runner’s pace. The runs vary in length, difficulty level and theme (historic, artistic, green, panoramic) and are led by multilingual professional personal trainers well acquainted with the city. So far Sight Jogging is just offered in Rome, Italy.
Trend Impact:
Connecting real spaces with virtually retrieved information might be the new way of traveling and exploring the world around the globe. Travelers do not have to carry heavy city guides if they can look things up on their cell phone, PDA or listen to it on their iPod. Another plus is the easy individualization and personalization. Annotated Spaces also offer a huge variety of opportunities for corporate sponsors and marketing partners to reach an active, mobile audience. Some possibilities are text messaging, map brochures and mobile advertising.
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