Graduation Result

Got a 1st Class Honours - Happy with that!

Me and my gorgeous wife Sara

Me with my parents

Here's a link to my Research Paper
http://www.savefile.com/files/839330

and CV (Video and Print)
http://nigelwhitbread.blogspot.com/2007/06/nigel-whitbread-ba-hons-cv.html

End of the Road

Introduction

“Whilst on this course I have developed an inquisitive interest in the realm of locative media and the technology that drives it. The premise of my project is a pilot version of a GPS (Global Positioning System) enabled electronic guide for St Fagans National History Museum, providing it with a walking tour that will incorporate audio, photos, text, and video, to provide historical facts and information of the site and it’s buildings to be viewed on a hand held device. After graduating I hope to carry on working in these areas of interest and help develop new concepts.”

The end is in sight and I will soon being graduating and let loose again on the brave new(media) world full of hopes and fears. The aim of this blog is to save you from having to read through my research paper and supporting blogs and allow you to view the information and the prototype in action through the convenience of the play button.

So press away, press away, press away...

Footage from youtubeit on BBC2W


Pen-rhiw chapel user testing


User Testing 1


User Testing 2


Kennixtrain User Testing

Tag Cloud – Keywords

1) Locative Media
2) Mobile
3) Mapping
4) Museums
5) GPS
6) Mediascape
7) PDA
8) Expectations
9) Technology
10) Design Process
11) User Testing
12) Flash
13) Regions
14) Interface
15) Video
16) Maps
17) Historical
18) Context
19) Signal Strength
20) Trilateration
21) Usability
22) Integration
23) Interactive
24) Handheld

Video Footage of Project

Youtubeit broadcast on BBC2W

User Testing and Comments

User Comments

Free Alan Johnston on BBC

Busy Busy Busy

with writing research paper and arranging for it to be printed and rewriting and proof reading and......and.....and.....

Last week of April

Mon, April 23, 2007
Went to St Fagans to check on GPS set up and regions again.

Wed, April 25, 2007
Went to St Fagans to check on GPS set up and regions one last time before user testing.

Fri, April 27, 2007
Started user testing at St Fagans, few problems with audio and headsets.

Sat, April 28, 2007
Second day of user testing down st Fagans.

Sun, April 29
Last day of user testing down St Fagans

User Testing Questionnaire & Poster

Link to Questionnaire

Poster

Third week of April

Mon, April 16, 2007
Went to St Fagans to check out GPS again, remap regions and video all the buildings I need for my project.

Tue, April 17, 2007

Started editing video footage from yesterday

Wed, April 18, 2007
Finished editing video footage

Thu, April 19, 2007
Edited photos to fit screen size of PDA. Worked on design and application of user interface.

Fri, April 20, 2007
Added audio cues, remapped regions and linked up all the user interface files.

Sat, April 21, 2007
Tested out Mediascape on all the PDA's I'm going to use next weekend for using testing (all work fine). Put together questionnaire and poster for user testing.

Second week of April

Monday 9th
Went to St Fagans to test GPS positioning and video the chapel portrait mode

Tuesday 10th
Recorded audio soundtracks to put over video of the buildings at St Fagans - happily my beautiful wife Sara agreed to narrate the audio for me, so now I get to listen to her all day instead of cringing at my own voice.

Wednesday 11th
Put together video of the pen-rhiw chapel using footage filmed and audio recorded yesterday. Added the basics of an interface for controlling the video and viewing a map.


Thursday 12th
Sent emails to people involved in locative media projects to try and get some advice on interface design and user testing - "test it, test it and test it again"

First week of April

Been looking at different ways of using video in the project.

Small landscape video with control buttons (portrait mode)
Small landscape video with choice to go large(portrait mode)
Large video with choice to go small (landscape mode)
Large portrait video (portrait mode)

Set up a website at http://mappingmuseums.moonfruit.com/ to publicize my project and to be an online resource for my research paper.

Screenshot of site

Visited St Fagans to check GPS mapping, satellite strength and to take some video - talked to the estate manager about incorporating the gardens into my project. He's been looking into the idea for some time and has recently attended a conference on the possibilities in Botanic and other gardens in Feb in Hereford.

Update for this and last week

Went to HP Labs in Bristol on the 15th of March for a meeting with Ben Clayton. Picked up a box of goodies (IPAQ's and GPS units) for when I do my user testing and was given a run through of the updated software their developing which they've let me use for my project.
Went to St Fagans on the 26th of March for a meeting with Meinwen Ruddock to talk about getting hold of some of their photographiic, audio and video archives. Tested out the new software while I was there but was unable to get the GPS working even though I'd managed to get it to work fine at home.

Went back to St Fagans on the 28th of March and this time got the GPS working, think I must of messed the co-ordinates up last time. Need to tweek the co-ordinates a bit to get the regions to match up with the real world perfectly, not on the money just yet.

Screenshots of me putting my project together using HP's Mediascape software

Today - Put together some photos of St Fagans to make up an loader opening page for the E-guide.

You Tube It BBC2W

Breakdown of project and development

Mapping Museums St Fagans Past And Future Providing Historical Locative-Aware Content to the Grounds of St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life

Nigel Whitbread
B.A. (Hons) Design for Interactive Media
School of Art and Design
Business School
University of Wales Institute Cardiff
nigelwhitbread@yahoo.co.uk

Introduction
The premise of this project is to create a pilot version of an electronic guide for St Fagans Museum of Welsh life providing a walking tour incorporating audio, photos, text, and video to provide historical facts and information of the site and it buildings to be viewed on a hand held device.
The concept is similar to the multimedia tours provided inside the Tate Modern but instead of using wireless technology I wanted to use GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technology to deliver the content to site specific locations, so that when you are approaching Pen-Rhiw Chapel for example, you’ll be receiving data about the Chapels history, when it was built, who lived there etc.

Aims & Objectives
• In regards to Locative Media, research what devices can be used, what content is being broadcast, and what applications are being used to produce the content.
• To provide an investigation into what innovative ways locative media is being used to provide context driven content.
• This project will be looking at what devices (PDA’s, mobile phones, Node) would provide the best platform for location aware content. They are to be used at St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life to provide historical location context driven data about the site and its buildings.
• To determine what content is required to enhance the historical sense of St Fagans and give the user a sense of where the buildings came from originally. To find out if users would prefer audio, textual, stills, video driven content or a combination of all four. Using primary questions and the information uncovered I will create a prototype application to run on a specific device.
• To see how the media can trigger real social and cultural interaction when linked to real places.
• Target Audience – Visitors to St Fagans
• To propose a basis for future projects and development.

Methodology
The methodology I propose will include, semi structured interviews (of the general public, museum visitors, staff and school children of a variety of ages) to be undertaken online and face to face to gain an understanding of the interest people show in using devices to look at historical content with contextual relevancy. Analysis of acquired data – filmed, photography, audio, interviews, questionnaires. Creation of a prototype on a relevant device based on users expectations.

Mapping Museums St Fagans Past And Future
After researching the subject of locative media and hand held devices for the past few months, I finally came to the conclusion that the best way to go about producing a pilot GPS electronic guidebook for St Fagans is to use Hewlett Packards’ Mobile Bristol Toolkit.
http://www.mobilebristol.com/flash.html

After visiting St Fagans to scope it out and talking to The National Museum Cardiff I feel it best to limit the prototype to about a third of the site. As you enter the outdoor museum you see a map showing what’s to see around the main entrance, it seemed to make sense to limit the guide to this area and these buildings.

Exhibits in this area

1. Galleries
2. Kennixton Farm
3. Bee Shelter
4. Corn Mill
5. Llwyn Yr Eos Farmstead
6. Hendre'r-Ywydd Uchaf
7. Nant Wallter Farmhouse
8. Llain Fadyn Cottage
9. Cae Adda Byre
10. Hayshed
11. Abernodwydd
12. Pen-rhiw Chapel
13. Y Ty Gwyrdd

And other symbols
• You are here
• Toilets
• Shop
• Restaurant
• Playground
• Information
• Train stop
• Tunnel
• Parking
• Sandwich rooms (education)

Using GPS software whilst walking around the site I discovered that depending where I was I could pick up between 5 and 9 satellites which is enough to give a good fix as you only need 3 to triangulate your position.

Initial Storyboard Ideas

Checking out mediascape at St Fagans

Went to St Fagans today to test out what I'd put together for my mediascape. The regions worked fine with the basic sounds I'd put on them but the GPS positioning was slightly out so I need to adjust the co-ordinates slightly to get it working as I want. I was surprised at how well the GPS worked inside the buildings, it didn't lose any signal.

Sketch of GPS trace outside the main entrance at St Fagans

Map of St Fagans design prototype

Opening Welcoming ScreenLanguage Screen

A sign of the times: Ignore your sat nav

Story in todays Metro about vehicles getting stuck in a lane whilst blindly following their sat nav

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=37839&in_page_id=34

Visit to St Fagans

Went to St Fagans Museum of Welsh Life yesterday (St Valantines Day) to scope out the areas I want to focus on for the elactronic guide and map it out with GPS.

Map from outside the main entrance showing what their is to see in its immediate area

Overview of map showing highlighted area around the main entrance

Seeing as when you enter the outdoor museum you see the above map showing whats to see around the main entrance it seemed to make sense to limit the prototype to this area and these buildings.
Exhibits in this area

• Galleries
• Kennixton Farm
• Bee Shelter
• Corn Mill
• Llwyn Yr Eos Farmstead
• Hendre'r-Ywydd Uchaf Farmhouse
• Nant Wallter Farmhouse
• Llain Fadyn Cottage
• Cae Adda Byre
• Hayshed
• Abernodwydd
• Pen-rhiw Chapel
• Y Ty Gwyrdd

And other symbols

• You are here
• Toilets
• Shop
• Restaurant
• Playground
• Information
• Train stop
• Tunnel
• Parking
• Sandwich rooms (education)

Using GPS software whilst walking around the sight I discovered that depending where I was I could pick up between 5 and 9 satelites which is enough to give a good fix as you only need 3 to triangulate your position.

BBC Mobile Phone Stories

Talk moves on at mobile congress in Barcelona
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6340235.stm

BBC Documentory

Monday 12^th Feb, the film company Forgetaboutit.TV came in again today but this time to film us and our personal project work for a documentary for the BBC.

National Museum of Wales Meeting

Had a meeting at the National Museum of Wales with John Williams, Jace Tyler, and David Thorpe. We talked about my project, my recent visit to HP and what resources can be made available to me.
The main thing that came from the meeting is that I should put together a more indepth report based around my proposal, detailing what I want to accomplish, how the prototype is going to work, what areas of the site I'm going to incorporate into the tour, and an idea of the timeline of the project.