Top five examples of Augmented Reality
By Gregory M. Lamb | 11.19.09
Augmented reality – the idea of enhancing our view of the world around us with digitized text or objects – has moved out of research labs. Below are five of our favorite videos demonstrating a few of the myriad ways AR has jumped onto smart phones and computer screens to entertain and inform ordinary consumers.
1) The US Postal Service helps customers find the right-size shipping box.
2) BMW’s experimental tool walks auto mechanics through repairs.
3) Esquire magazine’s special issue has several AR features.
4) Acrossair.com offers a Subway Finder for the iPhone.
5) Topps 3D baseball cards “come alive” with AR.
6) Tags activate 3D action figures from the movie “Avatar.”
Check back next week for a full story on augmented reality.
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Why Web widgets will invade your TV
By Gregory M. Lamb | 11.17.09
The Internet revolution may finally be televised.
Innocuous little software applications, popularly known as “widgets,” may turn out to be the back door to your TV screen that Internet companies have been waiting for.
For more than a decade, businesses have been trying to make the Internet available on the largest screen in most homes. In 1996, Time Warner offered WebTV, which failed to find an audience and folded. Even today, projects like Hewlett Packard’s MediaSmart (2006) and Apple TV (2007) have yet to win over large numbers of viewers, hampered by complicated setups or limited programming choices.
Widgets promise to bring the perks of the Internet to TV screens, using a familiar remote control instead of a computer mouse.
All indications are that widgets are going to “move very quickly to a great many of the TVs being sold in the next few years – if not all of them,” says Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst at Parks Associates, a market research firm in Dallas that specializes in emerging consumer technologies.
What’s changed? Unlike a decade ago, most households now have broadband Internet service, meaning people already have the ability to stream high-quality Internet data, including video, to their computers. In many cases, these broadband connections are provided by the same company that pipes cable television into homes.
At the same time, more and more consumers are becoming familiar with downloading and using “apps,” or widgets, on their cellphones or laptops. Apple’s iPhone alone offers thousands of apps that add useful or fun functions to that mobile phone.
TV widgets – small, useful programs and icons that appear along the bottom or side of a television screen – perform similar functions. They might give information about news, weather, sports, or stocks – or link to popular social-networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or the photo-sharing website Flickr.
TV manufacturers seem bullish on the idea. Sony, Samsung, and LG already offer TV sets capable of displaying widgets and linking to the Internet. Vizio, a low-cost HDTV brand, will follow shortly, and set a new standard by offering a small pullout keyboard inside its remote. Vizio will also build in Wi-Fi capability, meaning no wiring will be needed to connect the TV to the Internet.
About 400,000 TVs sold in the US this year will be Web-enabled. But by 2013, about 13.8 million TV sets in US households will be Web-enabled, says a study from Parks Associates.
“We think it’s exciting. We think it’s real,” says Howard Bass, a partner at Ernst & Young’s Global Media & Entertainment Center. Last month, Ernst & Young released a report on TV widgets predicting that they “could be the catalyst to widespread adoption of Web-enabled TV.”
Widgets won’t try to duplicate a computer screen on TVs. That’s not what TV viewers are looking for, analysts say. Instead, widgets offer a simple point-and-click experience using the existing TV remote control.
“All they need to know is left, right, up, down, and OK,” says Russ Schafer, senior director for Connected TV at Yahoo. The company announced earlier this year that it had teamed with chipmaker Intel to promote development of widgets for TVs.
Yahoo has tested TV widgets with people from 18-year-olds to those in their 60s and universally found them easy to use, Mr. Schafer says.
The coming months should be “the big blowout year for connected TVs,” Schafer predicts about 2010.
Among the widget connections Yahoo is offering now, or will be shortly, are USA Today’s sports news; YouTube; and casual games, such as Sudoku. Yahoo provides about 20 widgets now but has potentially thousands more in the pipeline, Schafer says, some of which will show up by early 2010.
Another major player in TV widgets, Verizon FiOS, continues to expand its network of digital television and broadband Internet services over its US fiber-optic lines.
Verizon FiOS and Internet customers in the New York City area now can get video of local traffic conditions via a TV widget called “NYC 311.” Live cameras, operated by the City of New York, show conditions on roads in all five boroughs of the city. Viewers can zoom in for a closer look at a particular road and set “favorites” to go immediately to the routes they use to commute each day.
The ESPN Fantasy Football Widget, available to viewers who’ve signed up for ESPN’s fantasy football leagues, displays personalized football statistics, such as box scores, league rankings, and information on players.
In the Yahoo-Intel Widget Gallery, the eBay widget permits users to receive real-time updates on their accounts, place bids, and monitor favorite items. Users can view photos or search for and compare prices of items. A New York Times widget lets viewers see headlines, photos, and stories, and forward them to their mobile phone.
TV watchers are undergoing a significant shift, says Maitreyi Krishnaswami, director of interactive video services for Verizon. Many are no longer passive viewers. “Now it’s really about interactive TV and social TV,” she says. People are already checking on their fantasy sports teams or commenting on the reality TV show they’re watching using a mobile phone or computer.
Verizon’s “Widget Bazaar” is accessed through a “Widget” button provided on Verizon remote controls, Ms. Krishnaswami says. No special Web-enabled TV is needed, nor do viewers need a high-definition TV set or a digital video recorder (DVR). Right now, they’ll find 10 or 12 widgets, with many more coming in the months ahead, she says.
Last summer, Verizon introduced widgets that allow access to the viewer’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, using the TV remote and an onscreen keyboard. Viewers can watch a split-screen mode in which the TV program runs on one side and “tweets,” short comments about the program from people using Twitter, run next to it.
One of the most popular uses of Facebook on Verizon is to access people’s online photo albums and display them on the TV. “What you see are really high-quality images on the television that you can share with your family,” Krishnaswami says.
The Ernst & Young report on TV widgets does include some cautions. Who will pay for them, and how, isn’t clear. If widgets include advertising content, they might conflict with advertising being shown on the TV program itself. What if Car Company A is running an ad on TV while Car Company B’s ad is being displayed on a widget?
And unless Web-enabled TVs include Wi-Fi, viewers will have to link their TV to the Internet through a wired Ethernet connection. Getting that wire to the TV could be a home-networking hassle if the computer and TV are in different rooms.
What will really be interesting in the future, Mr. Scherf says, is if a content provider such as ESPN designs its own widgets to customize and enhance its TV programs. Viewers might be able to decide which sports scores or other information they want displayed in the widget, for example.
While Scherf doesn’t envision people reading e-mail on a TV, the kind of “snackable sharing” represented by Facebook or Twitter “seems to be a fit,” he says.
Today’s early widgets mostly offer a distraction from TV content, such as news or weather. Eventually, “smart widgets” may automatically enhance TV viewing, says James McQuivey, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., in a paper from earlier this year. Smart widgets could “listen” to the audio track of the show being watched and offer more information about it – or even suggest a new widget you might like to download based on your interests. TV programs already carry hidden digital information identifying them.
“When all the dust settles, the entire landscape of how we watch TV will be altered,” Mr. McQuivey writes, referring to widgets. “Advertisers will have more active ways to engage TV viewers … [and] consumers will have more ways to watch the shows they love most.”
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Beginner’s guide to Skype
By Amy Farnsworth Nagel | 10.28.09
International calls can get mighty pricey. Perhaps that’s why so many people use Skype, a free way to make calls – and even have video chats – all over the world from the comfort of their computer screens.
Skype isn’t new. It launched in 2003 and now boasts 483 million registered accounts. But if you haven’t tried it yet, don’t fret. Here’s what you need to know.
Essentially, Skype allows anyone to turn a computer into an “Internet phone.” Rather than buying international phone cards or expensive global calling plans, Skype’s users can cut out phone companies (and phone bills) altogether. Conversations are broken down into ones and zeros and sent over the Internet, much like instant messages or e-mails.
The company, headquartered in Luxembourg, is now partially owned by auction website eBay and Silver Lake, an investment group.
Recently, Skype has gained attention on Oprah Winfrey’s show, where she’s used the service to talk to people who can’t join her in the studio. She has even devoted an entire show to Skype, setting up Web cameras for chats with researchers in Antarctica.
As you can imagine, Skype has many different uses. Some music and foreign-language teachers rely on the software to instruct students in distant or remote areas. Businesses strike international deals by
videoconferencing. Students studying abroad can keep in touch with family free of charge.
Interested? Here are the basics.
First, you’ll need a computer with a microphone and speakers. If you’re missing either, several companies make great hands-free headsets with built-in microphones.
Skype doesn’t require your computer to have a video camera. You can still talk (it’ll just be like a regular telephone call – without the costs).
In order to talk to another person, both people must have Skype installed on their computers and have created a Skype account and username. To participate in a conversation, both people must be online at the same time.
As with e-mail, Skype uses account names instead of phone numbers. Type in the username of the person you’d like to call, or choose a name from a contact list, and Skype lets the person know that you’d like to talk.
Though Skype is free, some people opt to pay for a premium Skype service that allows them to make calls to regular mobile or landline phones. There are monthly and pay-as-you-go plans.
The first option lets you call any phone in the United States or Canada for $2.95 a month. An unlimited world plan, which allows users to call people in more than 40 countries, costs $12.95 per month.
The price of the pay-as-you-go deal varies by country.
Skype also has some phonelike extra features. If the person you’re calling isn’t available, you can leave a voice mail. And if you’re away from the computer, you can forward Skype calls to your normal phone. There’s also an option to transfer files during a Skype conversation – good for sharing pictures while you discuss a trip or documents during a business call.
It should be noted that Skype shouldn’t be the only form of telecommunications in your house: You cannot make emergency calls using this service, such as 911; Internet connections can go down; spontaneous calls only work when the other person is online and within earshot of their computer.
Don’t be surprised if you find yourself spending a lot of time early on trying to convince all your friends to sign up.
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FTC to bloggers: Disclose the source of that cash
By Matthew Shaer | 10.05.09
In June, we wrote that the Federal Trade Commission was considering new disclosure rules for bloggers. At issue: Unreported behind-the-scenes deals between writers and corporations, which can have a sizable impact on the substance and tack of any given blog.
Today, the FTC issued a set of revised advertising rules, which require publishers to publicly reveal any “material connections.” In a statement, the FTC said that “a consumer who purchases a product with his or her own money and praises it on a personal blog or on an electronic message board” would not be in violation of FTC guidelines.
But the commission did issue a series of scenarios where a blogger or website would be subject to penalties, including this one:
A young man signs up to be part of a “street team” program in which points are awarded each time a team member talks to his or her friends about a particular advertiser’s products. Team members can then exchange their points for prizes, such as concert tickets or electronics. These incentives would materially affect the weight or credibility of the team member’s endorsements. They should be clearly and conspicuously disclosed, and the advertiser should take steps to ensure that these disclosures are being provided.
“The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement,” the FTC said. “Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.”
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The Wii goes to the dogs
Nintendo is trotting out a sequel to “Wii Fit” called “Wii Fit Plus” (the branding team was out that week). Among the highlights? An option to weigh your family pet, and track Rover’s fitness level alongside yours. Read more.
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Google Wave sends 100,000 invites Wednesday. Two, please.
By Andrew Heining | 09.29.09
Why do we suddenly feel like we’re in that scene from the second “Toy Story” movie, where the toy aliens are worshiping the giant claw from above, hoping to be “chosen”?
It’s a bit silly, but that’s how we felt when we read on the official Google blog that its Wave collaboration tool would be welcoming more users starting tomorrow.
As we’ve noted before, the official word on Google Wave is “What email would look like if it were developed today.” Indeed, Wave promises to go way beyond the “compose-and-send” protocol we’re so used to, enabling instant collaboration across long distances using shared spaces and tools, all based in a browser, not installed software.
While the initial wave of enthusiasm (heh, get it?) has been overwhelming, the project isn’t without its skeptics. PC World’s Tony Bradley is one of them. He writes:
Google Wave may have too many moving parts. Many users have complained that Facebook is too complex and cumbersome to effectively allow them to share and communicate. That is part of the reason Facebook developed Facebook Lite. A platform that includes everything plus two kitchen sinks is nice on one level, but if its too complicated for novice users to grasp and use easily it may never catch on.
It’s a fair point. Many of the users that made Facebook the success it is today started using the site before linked status updates, pages, events, chat, and, yes, mafia wars were around. Would the site see the same level of acceptance if it launched with the same myriad features in place? Doubtful.
That could be why Google is taking such pains to work out the kinks with Wave before releasing it to the world – it’s such an ambitious idea that it needs to be scalable before it can be accessible to the average user.
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Zipcar parks its iPhone app – finally
It allows users to find nearby cars, make reservations, and unlock a reserved car’s doors from the device’s touchscreen. Check it out.
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Are you on Twitter? Have a Google Wave invitation to give away? We’re @CSMHorizonsBlog if you’re feeling generous.
