Webpage

I've completed my webpage for The Animal Translation Project. It can be found at: http://christabriggs.co.uk/animaltranslator/animaltranslator.html

I have placed a video as a placeholder while I plan and make my own video.

I hope it is convincing - I decided to go for minimal information to let the video do the talking. My URL would give it away if people continued to investigate but I hope that initially people will be convinced by it, I guess that will depend on how good my video is.

Viral Marketing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/09/digitalmedia.television
 
The American TV show Dexter launched an interesting viral marketing campaign advertising the show in the UK. People recieved text messages on their mobile phones which stated: "Hello (name). I'm heading to the UK sooner than you might think. Dexter.", and then receive an email which linked to a video, made to look like a news report, about a recent chain of murders. The video would then use on-the-fly manipulation to add the recepients name in blood on a wall. After complaints, FX, the company behind Dexter in the UK, stated that they did not send the messages, but they were sent by a friend of the recepient, and suggested they asked their friends to find out who sent it. The site used to send the messages and emails can be seen at the following link. www.icetruck.tv

An article from The Guardian about the campaign: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jul/09/digitalmedia.television

I plan to set up a small viral marketing campaign in the form of a webpage. The page would have a video with a brief description of the technology, leading the reader to believe it is not a fictional project but leaving them wondering if the animal translator is real or not.

Research

With Augmented Reality, the lines between what is art, what is a commercial application, and what is an academic application are blurred - the technology is new, so the exploration of the topic is rather undefined. For example, all industrial applications could be perceived as somewhat arty and academic - it's hard to split the applications into distinct categories, as they are mostly interlinked. I'm going to be looking at a few various ways AR is used.

One commercial application of AR is the game for the PSP console, Invizimals. The objective of the game is to catch, level up, and battle creatures. The creatures are 'hunted' down by using a camera designed to be used with the PSP. The creatures are captured in the 'real world', with the camera taking the image in front of it (for example, your desk) and relaying it to the PSP's screen. Varying creatures are spawned, determined by the colour of surfaces and the time of day.
The creatures are 'captured' by placing a marker in front of the camera, on the creature.

Pixel Art

Here are some more images I made, they didn't end up being used in the game.

The images are buttons for the game, particles for picking up items / transformations, a version of the bombed out church in Plymouth, a 'good' cat version, a 'bad' cat version, a poison bottle, and a cupcake.

A New Plan

My rat detector doesn't work. I spoke to Simon recently and he gave me a great idea - what if the rat detector was a rat translator? I'm going to run with this idea and start researching about things that rats do, and what they are really (maybe) thinking. I have an idea for an old fashioned Victorian advert which I really want to make. I need to find a computer which can handle Photoshop. (Edit - done)

I probably ruined some of the components by soldering so slowly and overheating them.

Making a Poster

I decided to make a poster for my 201 project. It's meant to be in the style of a Victorian poster.

Here's how I did it.

I created a cream background. I applied clouds over the "paper" and added a border.

To give the "paper" an aged look, I increased the colour levels in the clouds and applied more clouds over a corner of the page and increased their colour levels.

Added text and an image!

About Bat / Rat Detectors

As scientists have used bat detectors to listen to rats, I thought I would try to build my own. A bat detector is a piece of equipment which detects ultrasonic noises and then converts these noises into something that we can hear. By using a detector you can find out if bats are nearby.

They have a limited range of around 25 to 30 meters. Many bat detectors are able to detect a range of ultrasonic frequencies. When using them with rats, they work best within a couple of feet, as bats are far louder and generally bigger than rats. Using a bat detector inside can also be problematic as electrical appliances create lots of ultrasonic background noise.


http://bclee.net/ratdet.html