Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
a narrative could be created that is delivered by people wandering at will around
an area. The exact story would vary and interactions between strangers could form
part of the experience [7]. This new form of media interaction has relevance to the
future of entertainment, sports, games, and art.
5.7.1
Conceptual Art
Conceptual art may not be a familiar term and its relevance to Whereness may not
seem obvious as art and technology may appear to be very separate areas. It can
be argued, however, there has always been a close symbiosis and new art
movements using technology such as conceptual art are nothing new [8].
Conceptual art includes the idea that the artist creates a machine that creates
the art. In particular, the audience or observers can use a situation provided by the
artist to engage in an activity that is a work of art. This set of applications
somewhat defies description or rather prescription (what constitutes art is
unclear). Artists will always take new tools and find novel ways to use them. The
tools provided by ubiquitous positioning will enable experiences in one place to
be reflected in other places and vice versa. Art can be everywhere, and
everywhere people are, art can be experienced via electronic media. The spatial-
temporal context can be communicated and then coupled with virtually any other
medium. Mobile participants can experience the art or even be the art. The normal
4D world will merge with other virtual worlds. In the much longer term, from a
transhuman perspective, even the artist and audience could be partially
nonhuman.
This is the most demanding set of applications. Wireless technology is not
always adequate so reliance on video capture of motion is needed (see Figure 7.3).
Groups of voxels
4
are handled in what is effectively a four-dimensional GIS (i.e.,
3D space plus time). Integration with many types of media including touch
technology or haptics is possible. Thus an object that is somewhere remote can be
experienced locally in a very tangible manner.
There is a requirement for nonintrusive technology, where people do not need
to wear or do anything technological (i.e., using field sensing and video
recognition of the body and its motion). In the future there will also be a need for
integration with robotics, actuators, biometrics, and longer-term coupling to the
brain and nervous system.
5.7.2
Augmented Reality (AR)
Augmented reality (AR) is related to the better-known concept of virtual reality.
Virtual reality (VR) concerns activities in artificial worlds entered via a
computer's human machine interface (which are usually part of a gaming or social
experience). In contrast, augmented reality concerns activities in the real world
4
A voxel is the three-dimensional equivalent of the two-dimensional pixel. Most computer-generated
screen images are composed of pixel arrays.
