Greg Prince is the Operations Manager with Filemobile.com and was
our guest speaker in our Multimedia Pioneering class at Sheridan
College on March 15^th, 2007. Greg has a colourful background as
Alumni from the Interactive Multimedia Program we currently attend
as well as having working for the CBC news team as a Web Producer
in addition to various other media managing organizations.

As a co-founder of Filemobile.com, it seems Greg has been destined
for a natural evolution to become a developer of a powerful media
management on-line tool such as this site offers. Filemobile makes it
possible for users who create their own content such as photos,
video, audio, etc. to manage all of it without having to deal with
storage space for their mediums and its all for FREE!!! The company
also has a strong team of employees that handle specific areas of
the business including but not limited to;
managing Incoming Software, Development, Q & A and Testing.

Larger organizations such as MTV also utilize the power of File-
mobile to manage their content as well but corporate companies
using this service are charged for file management services. Still,
this system is exceptionally well built using a FLASH interface with
advanced usage of components to handle various functionalities.
One of which is extremely impressive is the MediaStudio, where
the user can have access to file conversions to .flv format to create
more compatible files for vlogging and/or web posting. You can also
post images directly from your cell phone to a Blog or have easy
access to uploaded content via an RSS feed through content tagging.
With the increasing popularity of user generated content and the
social networking that has grown from the web 2.0 revolution, tools
such as this; Filemobile system are only going to become much more
in demand as the net grows with technology and more users have
needs to manage their on-line files. Many Congrats to Greg for his
dedication, innovativeness and evident unwavering perseverance
to give the world Filemobile.com!!! 

For more info on filemobile please view the following link;

http://www.filemobile.com/tour 

For other sites created by the Filemobile team, please see these links;

 http://www.70mainstreet.com/ 

http://www.graspit.ca/ 

http://www.collab.com/index2.html

http://www.rooftopsolutions.nl/

 Speaker Background

James Eberhardt has an electrifying character as a Speaker and
fascinated me with his presentation on February 8^th, 2007 at our
IMM Sheridan Multimedia Pioneering class. As the Winner of the
CNMA Programmer of the Year Award for 2006, James knows
his stuff. He also has his hands in quite a few areas such as TV,
the Net and Mobile. Some of his productions include; the Daniel
Cook Show, Mrs. Emily Young and the Burnt Toast Opera. As
Director of Technology for Marble Media, he is a very busy man
so it was quite an honor for him to come out and share his know-
ledge with us.

The Evolution of Flash Lite

From Flash Lite 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 2.1 and with 3.0 in the works, this little
gem has matured substantially as James explained. Flash Lite started
off with SMS, which is a text-only message service, transferring
between mobile devices. It also was born as a scaled down version
of Flash Player designed to run on devices with slow processors and
limited memory. Flash Lite 1.0 uses aFlash 4-code base (1999), which
did not support Actionscript 1.0. nor did it support HTTP access but
version 1.1 introduced HTTP access. Then this little application pro-
gressed to deliver MMS, which is a Multimedia message service
including text, images, video and audio. In January of 2006, Flash
Lite 2.0 was introduced with video playback which was still device
specific but supported shared local objects, XML processing and
could now handle updated code based on Flash 7 with 2.0 Action-
script. Even though it still doesn’t support flash components or play
FLV’s the added functionality of Flash Lite 2.0 has escalated Flash
Lite substantially in the development of Flash applications for mobile
devices. The latest Flash Lite 2.1 can now be installed over-the-air
on supported phones on the Verizon network. The next step naturally
is to be able to surf the net but reading complicated html text and slow
transferring rates limited the processing power of the mobile device,
which created limitations. Therefore, WML or the Wireless Markup
Language was developed and is used in place of html/xhtml. WML
is a compact and strict markup language and its scripting is a light
version of JavaScript used in WML pages for use in a WAP browser.
WML script also encourages developers to migrate more easily
because it is basically a scaled-down version of html and JavaScript
used mainly for mobile devices. 

Java in Mobile Technology

James gave us an understanding of how Java applications are utilized
and explained that they are mostly for developing Games, which do not
require a web browser. Applications created in Java generally have a
longer development time as well than Flash Lite products and also cost
more money to build because of the specialized programming required
from higher paid developers to build the games. Another limitation of
Java is that multiple applications need to be built for each target device.
In other words, a Java application cannot be adapted easily over
varied mobile devices. 

Global Positioning Systems

The technology to link GPS information to a Java application on user’s
GPS enabled device is now possible. Apparently, a group of Students
developed a Java program, which can display information on mobile
devices according to user’s position within a certain geographical area. 

Conclusion

James rapped things up with his explanation of how “Flash will Win”
over other applications in the future for the mobile industry. The reason
he believes it will is because it’s easier to make interfaces with Flash
than with Java and because Flash Developers are already working on
websites related to mobile services. Flash Lite is also more cost
effective to produce content as well. It should be interesting to see
what doors will open for Flash content creators like me….? 

Links for samples of James’s work; 

www.marblemedia.com 

www.burnttoast.com 

www.deafplanet.com 

www.seductiveshorts.com 

www.thisdanielcook.com

Wayne MacPhail was beyond insightful as our guest speaker in our Multimedia Pioneering course (Interactive Multimedia Program) at Sheridan College. He, like many others, has jumped onboard the Web 2.0 rocket of communication mediums. Wayne is a true entrepreneur with a background in photography and newspaper editing to a businessman pioneering in virtual reality. 

What is Web 2.0? It’s a paradigm shift from traditional web page viewing and gathering of information (Web 1.0) to a whole new animal, which has grown to become a vehicle that encourages, shared content mediums (Web 2.0).  Web 1.0 is relatively static, brochureware and is usually broadcast authoritarian with little or no collaboration. Web 2.0, on the other hand, facilitates individual contributions for a unified group effort of communication, which is continual for shared content creation. Web 2.0 also utilizes “Application toasters”, which are clean interfaces that promote others to participate in sharing information. On the flipside, Web 2.0 sites, being relatively new on the scene, usually have limited functionality but that to is changing as we speak.  The whole movement originated with the “Tag” categorization system that allows people to organize information in an intuitive way. Thus “Folksonomy” was born, which is a term to describe this “self-organizing social phenomena”. Also coined “social tags”’, these linkages assisted in the integration of Web 2.0, a catalyst for social book marking, playing an integral role in the conception and birth of such socially driven sites as, Flicker, Twitter, My space, Delicious and so on.

The bottom line is that people want to share their lives and other people are interested and are fascinated by other people, so it’s a win win medium. Based on these collective topics, RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) began the generation of XML feeds or inboxes for the web. Now people can have instant access to the types of information that most interest them without having to go looking for it. Then there is podcasting, broadcasting one in a collaborative environment such as You Tube.com etc. Developing these linkages has also lead to communication group on-line “intranets” which are no longer company based but rather collective pieces of information by topic of interest from people with similar interests from around the world.

Then there is the crème de la crème, SECOND LIFE, a virtual 3D world based on the Web 2.0 philosophy of engaging collaboratively. With over 3 million members already and growing, SECOND LIFE has proved that the paradigm shift of Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 is just the beginning of how collaboration is being thrusted forward.

Links;

Waynes decafeinated moments;

http://wmacphail.vox.com

second life;

http://secondlife.com/

twitter;

http://twitter.com/

flickr;

http://www.flickr.com/

You tube;

http://www.youtube.com/

VDI @ SHERIDAN

By; Brenda Telchak

The Interactive Multimedia Students of Sheridan visited the internal
Sheridan Visual Design Institute (VDI) on October 26^th, 2006. 
The VDI mostly does research on behalf of the Institution but also
does  a fair amount of fine quality animation for its many Client
 utilizing Maya and Flash, among other programs. One such project
we were given a tutorial for was one for the O.P.P.. The “Analyzing
Skid marks Simulator” is a 3D animation with Flash which analyzes
skid marks to assist with the determination of mechanical and/or
human error of accident scenes. All the information for the crim
 scene investigation was done in XML and the project also ha
 a “Crime Scene protection Game” which enhances observation
skills. The game also tests Officers observations in virtual crime
scenes and also offers on-line skill testing.. 

One of the few limitations VDI has is the on-line costs their Clients
are required to absorb to display their 3D animation on the Web.
Some Clients have difficulty justifying a significant expenditure for
 “Viewpoint”, which is the software that is expensive to have a
license from to display the 3D works. This software is no cost to
the user however as one can download the “viewpoint player” to
view the 3D movies. This is changing however as more and more
companies are demanding better representation of their products
and services on the net and demand is slowly but steadily
increasing for on-line 3D animation. 

Another fascinating component of VDI is the newly acquire
 “Emersion Studios” which includes the technology for large
scale high tech interactive multimedia for various applications
but primarily for entertainment. While viewing three separate
coinciding 3D animation movies simultaneously in Sheridan’
 Emersion Studios private theatre, all the guests are equipped
with a control device which when interacted with, determines
the direction of the unfolding story on the screens. The computer
takes a consensus of all the users’ choices at key point timelines
during viewing and then takes the majority of chosen choices to
determine which outcome movies will play depending on that
majority direction chosen. In essence, you could go to see a
movie 3 times but never have the same outcome. It is also fun
to make choices while the movie plays. Another strong entertain-
ment value component was the 3D animation which is so realistic,
it’s as though the characters and the environments where they
live truly are a reality so it is easy to become engaged in the
experience.Such an amazing journey of discovery this time we
have offer and it is as though each and everyday gives us all
another gift to savor. This day my gift was having the opport-
unity to learn about the great works of others at VDI which
I can appreciate, as well as to experience sensory exploration
with Emersion Studios.

Inter Access

by; Brenda Telchak

On October 17^th, 2006 the Interactive Multimedia lab at Sheridan in Oakville, Ontario became a portal for “Big Interactive” a presentation by Dorian Lebreux from “Inter Access Electronic Media Arts Centre”. Dorian presented the Students with a glimpse of what artists all over the world are doing with unconventional sensory exploration with large-scale multimedia installations. It was informative, educational and fascinating to discover how different individuals create experiences for others to discover and experience.One of the first interactive multimedia artists was Marcel Duchamp who back in 1913 created “three standard stoppages” an exploration of a question in a box. It asks whether things we presume to be absolute (in this case a standard unit of measure) might be merely arbitrary.

An interesting link high-lighting his work is found hear:http://www.understandingduchamp.com/ 

Another featured artist was László Moholy-Nagy who in 1922 created Telephone Art with the Light Space Modulator. His perspective was this and I quote; “The reality of our century is technology: the invention, construction and maintenance of machines. To be a user of machines is to be of the spirit of this century. Machines have replaced the transcendental spiritualism of past eras.” –László Moholy-Nagy.  Another quote is; “Every period has it’s own optical focus”.

For more info go to; http://hungart.euroweb.hu/english/m/moholy/ 

Then in the 1950s came Ben Laposky’s “Oscillons: Electronic Abstractions”, who saw his work as “Visual Music”. Laposky came to his exploration or electronic abstractions with the oscilloscope through previous experimentation with mathematically based systems. n 1966 Roy Ascott created the “Aspects of Gaia” and describes the relationship between art and technology with respect to utopian and dystopian visions of the future.   Dorian then spoke about David Tinapple who is a video based artist using MAX MSP, which is a graphical programming tool. He created apiece called “Pulse to Pitch” which is a horn that you speak into and the horn speaks what you said back to you but not in your voice and when you are silent, so is the horn. 

She then introduced video footage of David Rokeby, who is a Canadian sound and video installation Artist living in Toronto, Ontario. His exhibitions are based on large interactive video art such as; “Seen (2002) – Venice Biennale of Architecture” and focuses on interactive pieces that directly engage the human body, or that evolve artificial perception system.

Link will give you more info; http://www3.sympatico.ca/drokeby/home.html

 then there is Norman White who created the “Helpless Robot” which is desperate for your attention and follows you around to get it. The Robot rotates on a large industrial “lazy susan”, and it can do so only by enlisting the help of human beings, using its electronic voice. It has a repertoire of 256 phrases, and exactly which phrase it selects from second to second depends upon its present and past experience of boredom, frustration, arrogance, and over stimulation. There is almost nothing random in its behavior. What makes the work unpredictable derives entirely from the jostling between its internal program and the uncertain behavior of humans.The full range of its responses are best experienced by treating it in a variety of ways, alternatively ignoring and satisfying its demands. Ken Rinaldo was next in the lineup of interactive multimedia artists with “Augmented Fish Reality” which is an interactive installation of 5 rolling robotic fish-bowl sculptures designed to explore interspecies and transpecies communication. These sculptures allow Siamese Fighting fish to use intelligent hardware and software to move their robotic bowls – under their control. Siamese fighting fish have excellent eyes, which allow them to see for great distances outside the water. They have color vision and seem to like the color yellow.

Link; http://accad.osu.edu/~rinaldo/works/augmented/augmented.html 

Then comes Daniel Joliffe with mobile sculpture of  “one Free Minute” where you have 30 seconds to say whatever you want to an answering machine which is publicly played during one of the artists performances live all over the world randomly.

Link; http://www.danieljolliffe.ca/ 

The InterAccess Studio located at 9 Ossington Ave.in downtown Toronto has an interactive workshop series which provides artists with tools needed to begin exploring the creative uses of technology. The workshops also demonstrate how a computer can communicate with and integrate visuals, audio and electronics. In addition, InterAccess emphasises production strategies for works of art that ake placein real time in real space, especially performance, interactive installation, Audio, Video and kinetic or robotic sculpture instalation. for more information on InterAcess workshops, please use this

link;  http://www.interaccess.org/workshops/ 

 

GestureTek by; Brenda Telchak November 6^th, 2006 

Fifteen years ago I became a contributing team member of BGM Imaging, Canada’s largest Digital Imaging Lab. One of our Clients at the time was a Company called the Vivid Group, which offered graphics and animation.  Since we all grow and move on, I left BGM 10 years ago to pursue self-employment interests. Consequently, I lost touch with many Clients, including the Vivid Group. Now that I am an Interactive Multimedia Student at Sheridan you can imagine how small the world seemed to me upon visiting GestureTek during a class trip, as I discovered that GestureTek was originally the Vivid Group!

Vincent John Vincent, GestureTek’s President, was kind enough to do a presentation for our class recently. During the presentation I believe all of us present were in awe at the amazingly powerful technological developments in Interactive Multimedia Vincent and his Company have created.

He and his brother began exploration in Multimedia through live music performance with a vision to integrate stunning visuals with original music, which set the foundation for evolving the entertainment value experience.  For them, the next natural progression was software development integration with motion detection image capture. By mapping a person’s key movement points with their special software and by creating virtual worlds, the brothers combined their talents and discoveries and merged the technologies to produce a phenomenal line of products. GestureTek offers Interactive floors, walls, and presentations and recently, they have licensed their technology to the game industry. The most current product is being released this holiday season through Hasbro Toys and is an Interactive interface game of Spongebob Squarepants and Dora the Explorer. Kids are scanned by the camera and placed inside a virtual world on the TV whereby they can then interact with the virtual world and their favorite characters through physical actions. During our visit I was scanned to interact with an Arial perspective virtual world and thoroughly enjoyed my soaring on the back of an eagle through forests and valleys experience. How I tilted my open arms and bent my knees (hence gesturing) permitted the system to control how I was flying on the eagle’s back. How cool is that!!! Others enjoyed soccer interaction with a ball and net individually or in a group as well as hockey and other virtual worlds. Then came dodging wood chips on the interactive floors with Home Depots’ logo, dodging bottle caps with the Coca-Cola Logo, chasing geckos and many more. My favorite overhead pro-jected interactive floor was moving crystal clear waters around with your feet as you stepped in different directions. The floor and it’s many featured interactive ads where really a fun way to enjoy advertising for a change and made building brand identity a pleasure. Vincent also spoke of museum and movie theatre applications and of course, science centers and other learning endeavors, specifically the tremendous medical opportunities of applying GestureTek’s Technologies into helping Doctors perform surgeries by having interactive resource virtual libraries of easy access information during procedures. 

GestureTek (also formerly known as Jestertek after the Vivid Group) is the world leader in computer vision for gesture-based control of information and entertainment systems and displays. GestureTek headquarters are in Silicon Valley, with additional offices in Toronto, Ottawa, New York City and Asia. For information and/or a DVD or video, contact GestureTek at 1-800-315-1189 ext. 273 For more information please go the following links;

http://interactivedisplay.info/ 

http://www.gesturetek.com/gestpoint/introduction.php 

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=511734 

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/Feb/1119362.htm 

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-industrys-newest-interactive-advertising-medium-groundfx-rolls-out-/2005/oct/1196653.htm 

For one sleepless night experience Toronto transformed by artists.

Discover art in unexpected places, from street corners and parks, to swimming pools and car washes.

Visit more than 130 desticnations including galleries, museums, art institutions and outdoor exhibitions.Hope to see you all there!!!
MMCH

TTC -  The Artistic Way?
by Ed Drass – METRO
What would happen if artists took over the transit system? If you want a ride that will definitely be out of the ordinary, find out what’s happening in the city during Nuit Blanche, the all-night expression of Toronto’s culture starting at 7 p.m. this Saturday.

Described as “a free, all-night contemporary art thing” and sponsored by the City of Toronto and Scotiabank, the event just begs us to step out of our usual habits.

Circulating among the many art installations and galleries will be the TPTPC — the Toronto Public Transit Performance Commission. If you think of the TTC as a predictable, passive way of getting around, this is the opposite.

The TPTPC “Central Station” is not your average transit terminal — it is, in fact, a performance area inGrange Park. You’ll find it just south of the Art Gallery of Ontario on Stephanie Street, right next to the remarkable building that now houses the Ontario College of Art and Design.Buses will follow three routes through downtown, serving seven different stops and allowing riders to participate in the creation of contemporary art. What exactly is that? Don’t think paintings or sculpture.

One bus will feature the Pillow Fight League — an actual league of women pillow fighters. Board another bus and you can take part in the Colour Match Game. As participants play the game, colours will be relayed by radio back to Central Station where they will form an evolving work of art.

On a third vehicle, take part in another real-time creation: Artist Chandra Bulucon will record live interactions of people who board the bus, as well as other sounds, editing it all into a CD that will hopefully be completed by the end of the night.

The TPTPC was created last year as a way of transporting visitors up to the Art Gallery of York University, according to assistant curator Emelie Chhangur. She wants to open up the whole idea of riding around town as an ordinary, everyday activity into an “active engagement.”

What is she asking transit riders to do? Explains Chhangur, “I want them to get on the performance buses and to get off on contemporary art!”

Visit nuitblanche.livewithculture.ca and click on “the zones.”  Choose “Zone B” and then see “My Secret City” for the TPTPC. Maps show where the buses will circulate.