 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
| |
|
||||||||
 |
|||||||||
| October
1st, 2005 September
21st, 2005 "We are excited to work with Ubiquity to explore ways to increase the value of their applications and infrastructure for their customers”, says Blackstock. “We expect that this collaborative research project will allow Ubiquity to maintain their substantial lead in context-aware museum guide software." The project has been made possible by a grant from Western Economic Diversification, a Department of the Government of that works to strengthen Western Canada's economy, with a particular interest in innovation strategy. August
29th, 2005 Three groups of visitors to the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) were surveyed between May and July 2005, a total of 337 system users in all. Open-ended questions regarding overall quality of experience, usability, technical functions, and content treatment were posed, allowing visitors to identify features and functions they particularly liked and to point out areas for future VUEguide development. Visitors responded enthusiastically to such VUEguide highlights as context-creating archival photographs and footage, computer reconstructions of historic dwellings and objects, and animation sequences that point out the stylized iconography present in the artifacts. MOA Directory Anthony Shelton notes: “One of the criticisms of museums over and over again is that we’re dead institutions, that we take objects and divorce them from context and from the life in which they functioned…The VUEguide actually allows us to re-totalize that phenomenon and overcome one of the hardest criticisms leveled against us.” The VUEguide by Ubiquity is available to the public at Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology. May
17, 2005 The device, designed and produced by Vancouver's Ubiquity Interactive, provides museum visitors with personalized, location-aware, rich media interpretation as they make their way through the galleries. Towering totem poles, monumental carvings, feast dishes, and fragments of Northwest Coast dwellings and artifacts are augmented with a combination of expert commentary, informative narration, archival video and photographs, and contextualizing animation, all delivered to visitors' personal screens. The system uses location-sensing technologies to match rich media interpretation to the visitor's location in the museum. Instead of visitors having to seek out the interpretive content related to the artifacts and artworks on display, the content now finds the visitor. "The effect of this device for the future of museums is nothing short of transformational," says MOA Director Dr. Anthony Shelton. "In place of the traditional institutional voice of the institution, the VUEguide allows for the expression of multiple voices and perspectives, leading visitors to explore the collections both conceptually and visually." The VUEguide by Ubiquity was produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Administrator of the Canada New Media Fund, funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage. Project content partners are MOA, CBC Television, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization. March
31 , 2005 When 600 representatives from the world's most celebrated art galleries arrive at Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology (MOA) to attend the opening reception for the "Museums and the Web" conference, they'll be holding more than the expected glass of champagne. They'll also be holding the VUEguide, a hand-held device developed in Vancouver that brings film, audio, graphics and animation to MOA's world-renowned collection of Northwest Coast art. The VUEguide installation at MOA - the first of its kind in Canada and one of the first in the world - provides you with a personalized, 'behind the scenes' look at the origins and significance of MOA's collections, including recorded interviews by artists and rare archival footage from the vaults of CBC Television. With this new device, you'll be able to stand in front of great works and see and hear how and why the pieces were made. As MOA Director Anthony Shelton says, "the
depth and versatility of the VUEguide provides unparalleled access
to MOA's collections, and to the richness of the cultures from which
they come. We are excited to have made this link between knowledge
and new technology, and especially pleased that our visitors will
be among the first to benefit!" On April 13, 2005, representatives from some of the greatest museums in the world will be seeing the future of museums when they hold a VUEguide in their hands. Visitors to the Museum of Anthropology will be able to do the same starting in mid May. The project is made possible by Telefilm Canada's Canada New Media Fund, a division of the Department of Canadian Heritage. Our content partners are CBC Television, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and the Museum of Anthropology. January 13th, 2005 Ubiquity invited to present at Electronic Guidebook Forum 2005 On January 13th & 14th, 2005 San Francisco's Exploratorium hosts the Electronic Guidebook Forum 2005, a symposium on wireless learning technologies and handheld computers in and beyond museums. Ubiquity's Leora Kornfeld has been invited to participate in the event, and will deliver a presentation on user experience entitled "WYAIWIA: Where You Are Is Where It's At". The talk draws from Ubiquity's R&D activities related to a series of mobile device prototypes designed for Canadian and US museums, and focuses on interface and information design approaches specific to the emerging area of mobile experience. The 2005 Forum brings together researchers from such organizations as HP Labs, PARC, The Exploratorium, SFMOMA, The Singapore Science Centre and Intel, and will feature the latest findings and challenges related to mobile devices and wireless networks in informal learning environments. The Electronic Guidebook Forum 2005 is being made possible by a research grant from the National Science Foundation January
1, 2005 Acoustiguide is based in New York City and has wholly-owned subsidiaries on four continents. The company's expertise ranges from the creation of engaging audio narratives, tours, and soundscapes to customer service, client relations, and financial planning and management. Oscar Tang, Acoustiguide’s Chairman of the Board said, “Our partnership with Ubiquity brings the full complement of skills and experience to Acoustiguide’s nearly 50-year history delivering audio tours to clients and their visitors around the globe. With this alliance, we offer our clients an unparalleled basis for exploring multimedia platforms from the industry’s leading creative and software teams.” Acoustiguide is a recognized industry leader, with a global network of relationships and an array of awards for its creative content and technology design. The partnership between the two companies brings Acoustiguide's production know-how and exceptional marketing and management strength to Ubiquity's forward thinking and innovative approaches to interpretive media. Look for Acoustiguide Ubiquity at the 2005 Museums & the Web conference in Vancouver from April 13-16, and at the American Association of Museums conference in Indianapolis, IN, May 1-5, in Booth 613 of the Exhibitor’s Hall. October
15th, 2004 The Ubiquity handheld will be made available to the public next spring, providing museum visitors with personalized, location-aware, rich media interpretation as they make their way through the galleries. Towering totem poles, monumental carvings, feast dishes, and fragments of Northwest Coast dwellings and artifacts will be augmented by a combination of expert commentary, video, graphics, text, and animation, all delivered to visitors’ personal screens. The Ubiquity system utilizes location-sensing technologies to match rich media interpretation to the visitor’s location in the museum. Individuals will be able to supplement their visit with the contextualizing media most relevant to them. As the handheld guides are wirelessly networked to a central server, media viewed on the portable devices can be bookmarked and easily accessed for 'second look' viewing on larger screens, either at the museum or at home on the Internet. The comprehensive visitor studies conducted by Ubiquity in Spring 2004 supported the use of a handheld multimedia guide as an excellent tool for enhanced exploration and lifelong learning. Users of the prototype consistently referred to the effectiveness of the handheld in bringing the visitor closer to the objects on display, in a profound and resonant way. The Ubiquity handheld at the Museum of Anthropology is being produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Administrator of the Canada New Media Fund, funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage “This small screen device opens out to a wide world of stories…and entrusts the user with a challenging invitation to learn and explore. It opens the museum-going experience to new possibilities for innovative forms of collaboration and discussion among visitors”. Elizabeth Ellsworth, Author of Places of Learning: Media, Architecture and Pedagogy (Routledge, 2004), on the Ubiquity handheld. August
30th, 2004 "Ubiquity has been very responsive to our interface suggestions, listening to our goals and desires for the experience, and integrating them into an easy to use and expandable platform." – Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies, Denver Art Museum Founded in 1893, the Denver Art Museum has the largest and most comprehensive collection of world art between Kansas City and the West Coast. The museum has recently embarked on a major expansion program that is scheduled for completion in 2006, and will feature a 146,000 square foot geometric glass and titanium building designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. For more information contact: Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies,
Denver Art Museum July
30th, 2004 MUSE stands for Media-Rich Urban Shared experience, and its first focus is cultural content deployed in outdoor, urban spaces. Vogt invited Ubiquity to join the Mobile MUSE network after viewing the company's Museum of Anthropology handheld prototype in the Spring of 2004. The MUSE project is a testbed for context-aware mobile content applications that strive to position Vancouver as a leader in the research and development of innovative media design for mobile devices. Vogt sees the MUSE initiative as "...a wonderful opportunity for all kinds of cultural institutions to break out of their current wall-bound expressions and serve their audiences with dramatic new experiences". Mobile MUSE will deliver a series of mobile cultural content prototypes in the Spring and Summer of 2005. MUSE launched in July 2004 with a $1,290,000 research and development program supported by Heritage Canada’s New Media Research Networks Fund. July
9th, 2004 Under the guidance of 2004 Scholar in Residence Elizabeth Ellsworth, this group of students has been thinking experimentally about new forms of pedagogy, or the art of teaching, in a course entitled Pedagogy and the New Pragmatism. Dr. Ellsworth’s interests are in “anomalous” places of learning, such as museums and public exhibits. Her work looks at how these environments move us to respond and transform our ways of thinking, using non-traditional approaches such as immersive media and embodying experiences. Ellsworth is a leading proponent of using media to enrich learning experiences and foster social change. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Columbia University, and currently teaches media theory, documentary, and media & pedagogy in the Media Studies Program, New School University, New York City. June 18th, 2004 Ubiquity invited to showcase handheld museum guide at New Media Consortium Summer Conference From June 16th – 19th the University of British Columbia hosted The New Media Consortium (NMC)Summer Conference. The NMC is an international consortium of nearly 200 leading universities and museums dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. NMC’s Corporate Partners include Adobe, Corbis, Real Networks, and IBM Research. On Thursday June 18th UBC’s Museum of Anthropology hosted a gala dinner for NMC attendees featuring First Nations dancers and musicians, along with an opportunity for conference goers to explore the Museum’s vast collection of Northwest Coast artifacts. Conference organizers invited Ubiquity to showcase its innovative handheld museum guide as part of the evening’s festivities. Representatives from such organizations as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, UCLA, NYU, and Macromedia enthusiastically explored Haida sculptor Bill Reid’s work in the Rotunda area of the museum, with Ubiquity’s context-aware handheld delivering a rich, mobile, and interactive multimedia narrative to Pocket PCs. May
7th, 2004 In recognition of Ubiquity's pioneering work in the field, the company's principals were invited to participate in the panel “Handhelds on the Horizon: How Will They Change the Museum Experience”, on the conference’s kick-off day on May 6th. The discussion drew a standing room only crowd and was attended by museum professionals from Canada, the US, England, and Australia. Ubiquity's Leora Kornfeld presented an overview of the recently installed handheld multimedia guide at Vancouver's Museum of Anthropology, including a detailed analysis of the innovative interaction model and comprehensive visitor studies. Appearing alongside Ubiquity were the Head of Interactive Programs from Los Angeles’ J. Paul Getty Museum, colleagues from Boston’s Wivid Systems, and moderator Peter Samis, Associate Curator, Education, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Session Description: Handhelds on the Horizon: How Will They Change
the Museum Experience February
13th, 2004 The company’s principal Leora Kornfeld made the announcement to a group of exhibit and design
industry professionals at the TAA event devoted to showcasing leading
edge technologies for the exhibit sector. Ubiquity’s trial project will bring museum visitors closer to the wealth of content the museum contains by delivering interpretive interactive multimedia to Pocket PCs distributed for the duration of the trial. The test site will be the dramatic rotunda of the Museum which houses the massive Bill Reid sculpture ‘The Raven and the First Men’ alongside four cases containing an assortment of Reid’s carvings and sculptures in gold, silver, argillite, and wood. Installation and visitor studies are scheduled to take place in mid-April 2004. “The Museum is very excited to partner with Ubiquity on this unique project”, says Jennifer Webb, Communications Manager at the Museum of Anthropology. "We are committed to providing our visitors with the very best sources of information possible, and this new device offers opportunities to enrich their experience beyond our imagination." Ubiquity’s handheld trial at the Museum of Anthropology will be focused on an overall experience that creates value for visitors by allowing them to contemplate the artifact and its mobile media counterpart simultaneously. This includes activities that facilitate a ‘back and forthing’ between the museum object and the interactive media that enhances it. The system will also include location sensing features and a back end with a proprietary content management system and visitor tracking for evaluation. Ubiquity’s prototyping and research phase is being produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada’s Canada New Media Fund. For additional information please contact: Leora Kornfeld Jennifer Webb December
19th, 2003 Ubiquity’s unique and specialized focus on the emerging area of handheld computing in the museum sector netted the company maximum support for prototyping, assisting the company with its ongoing research and development efforts. The prototype will be designed specifically for the museum setting, offering a personalized, curatorial-on-demand visitor experience, with various types of interpretive media made available to the museum visitor: audio, video, photography, graphics, animation, and text. This approach represents a significant departure from the interpretive media traditionally on offer to museum visitors: text panels, explanatory brochures, videos, and multimedia kiosks. Most importantly, the mobility of the device means that the information that contextualizes the museum exhibit moves with the individual. The visitor experience can now take on new dimensions, defined by each individual, as opposed to being directed by the venue. July
30th, 2003 Dayton Aviation Park (a National Parks Service Facility) is currently celebrating a hundred years of flight at its newest interpretive center at Huffman Prairie Flying Field. The Huffman field is home of the world's first test flight facilities, and the site where the earliest practical airplane, the Wright Flyer, first went aloft. Visitors to the Huffman Prairie Interpretive Center can now experience interactive content and full screen video on the latest HP handheld Pocket PCs, issued to them for use in the museum. Striking archival footage culled from Discovery Wings Channel’s video library is featured prominently on the handheld device, allowing visitors to create their own documentary narrative that complements the exhibits as they move through the museum. The Huffman project is a partnership between Ubiquity Interactive, Discovery Channel, HP and a team of US-based technology partners. With a focus on enriching user experience Ubiquity contributed to the information design and interface design for the pioneering project. Along with such esteemed facilities as London’s Tate Modern, San Francisco’s Exploratorium, and The Getty in Los Angeles, the Huffman Interpretive Center counts itself among the first museums to offer wireless handheld multimedia guides to visitors.
Click
here for link to National Parks Service Press Release regarding
Huffman Center handheld launch.
|
|||||||||