Fade to Play

For our Ubicomp group tomorrow, we will be discussing the paper entitled “Preventing Camera Recording by Designing a Capture-Resistant Environment” from Ubicomp 2005. Slides are available here and well as a video.

Abstract
With the ubiquity of camera phones, it is now possible to capture digital still and moving images anywhere, raising a legitimate concern for many organizations and individuals. Although legal and social boundaries can curb the capture of sensitive information, it sometimes is neither practical nor desirable to follow the option of confiscating the capture device from an individual. We present the design and proof of concept implementation of a capture-resistant environment that prevents the recording of still and moving images without requiring any cooperation on the part of the capturing device or its operator. Our solution involves a tracking system that uses computer vision for locating any number of retro-reflective CCD or CMOS camera sensors in a protected area. A pulsing light is then directed at the lens, distorting any imagery the camera records. Although the directed light interferes with the camera’s operation, it can be designed to minimally impact the sight of other humans in the environment.

When I read this paper I thought of how this is specialised technology to impact certain people that pose a threat to the environment. In this case, people that have camera phones, similar to technologies that block mobile phone usage or the use of a special frequency to ward off teenagers.

After speaking with a colleague about this, she spoke about how there could be advantages for companies using this technology such as for the protection of intellectual property or by artists to protect their artwork becoming prints that are sold without authorisation.

Relevance: Does the benefit of such a system negate potential health risks? Who decides what I can or cannot do with my camera phone in a public space?

Technorati tags: pervasive, camera phone, privacy

Library Book Date Stamp

Originally uploaded by tyfn.

Yesterday a book I ordered through inter-library loan arrived for pickup. I didn’t notice until later that the librarian had stamped the due date.

I remember my elementary school days when I used to get a stamp every time I took a book out. I like this type of physical artefact. I always wondered who the last person was that took the book out.

[correction]: I didn’t notice that the date stamp is actually Feb 7, 2005. My book is due Feb 26, 2006.

Relevance: In a world of bar codes and rfid tags, I still prefer the friendly face on an ink stamp.

Technorati tags: library, stamp

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This NY Times article by Ethan Todras-Whitehill discusses the integration of the Internet into the physical landscape which has been labelled as the geospatial Web.

MORE and more cellphones know exactly where their owners are at any given time, and software developers are trying to leverage that ability to bridge the gap between the physical and virtual worlds. These programs aim to “browse” the physical space around you, connecting you to people, places and unexpected bits of information.

found via Purse Lip Square Jaw

Relevance: This article combines my two research interests: tagging and location-based applications (mobile phone and TabletPC technologies).

Technorati tags: tagging, social software, mobile, location based

Today I gave a brief presentation in our lab to visiting guests interested in what was going on here. I talked about The Fugitive, a location-based campus game I am the lead on. It is an extension of Catch Bob. It was quite fun, although I was nervous. I have another one next week that will be more polished.

Tannis Morgan provided a number of relevant screencasts that discuss CiteULike, which is an academic tagged information space.

found via abject learning

Relevance: It helps me better understand how CiteULike works and ties in nicely with Brian Lamb’s screencast on folksonomies .

Technorati tags: tagging, citeulike

I am taking a break from Instant Messaging for a while. There is alot going on right now and I want to control the amount of synchronous communication I receive at the present time.

This article in the technology section of today’s Globe and Mail our national newspaper, outlines some smart techniques used by parking metres.

Photo Violation Technologies Corp. is poised to start its first trial of tough, new, automated parking enforcers in the Vancouver area.

Unlike traditional meters, its PhotoViolationMeter is networked, using sensors embedded in the ground and a camera: When a car pulls into a spot, a picture is taken of the licence plate and billing starts. Try to drive off without paying, and a picture of the licence plate is sent to a central ticketing centre.

For those who try to foil the meters by covering the camera, an internal alarm detects when a picture can’t be properly taken and alerts a parking officer to go to the spot and take a shot of the license plate with Photo Violation’s wireless handheld unit.

Relevance: As pervasive technology, I am wondering about privacy issues regarding this technology as well as what techniques people may use to thwart having to pay.

Technorati Tags: parking, wireless pervasive, mobile

Today’s NY Times article discusses the use of recommender systems for movies, books, online information and potential problems with the information that is returned.

But spewing out recommendations is not entirely without risk. Earlier this month, Walmart.com issued a public apology and took down its entire cross-selling recommendation system when customers who looked at a boxed set of movies that included “Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream” and “Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson” were told they might also appreciate a “Planet of the Apes” DVD collection, as well as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and other irrelevant titles.

Relevance: Relating this information to tagged information spaces (e.g. del.icio.us), what are the disadvantages of providing tag recommendations for users in the development of a folksonomy? Is the perception of trust different?

Technorati tags: recommender, social software, collaborative filtering

In Monday’s Sudan Tribute, there is an article entitled “Africa’s rebels take their battles online” which discusses how rebel leaders are using blogs rather than guns to settle their disputes.

Africa is the world’s least developed continent, and most rural inhabitants live without electricity or running water. But in some of its poorest and most remote corners, the Internet has become a powerful weapon for rebel and opposition leaders.

In countries where newspapers and radio stations are routinely shut down and dissidents are often jailed, the Internet is also giving ordinary Africans new freedom to debate political and social issues. “The Internet is a war weapon,” Aboude Coulibaly, director of the New Forces rebel group in Ivory Coast, wrote in a recent e-mail. In 2002, the group used its Web site and TV station to launch a mutiny that toppled the government. “In these matters of revolution, we have to be wired to win,” he wrote.

Relevance: I am becoming more interested in how mobile and digital technologies are being used within Africa and finding cultural examples of these technologies that debunk Western stereotypes.

found via The Blog Herald

Technorati tags: africa, blogs, culture

Rashi has written another excellent essay about tagging in which she brings to light issues of importance regarding the why of tagging and how tagging is used to connect members of this social space.

I strongly believe that all good social systems need to serve the individual motive. Tagging works because it strikes a balance between the individual and social. It serves the individual motive of remembering, and forms a ad-hoc social groups around it. If you are designing a tagging system you need to understand how it serves the individual and what sort of social formations it supports.

Relevance: Although I am active in flickr, my thesis research explores del.icio.us and citeulike and my writings will reflect this. For my thesis I am exploring this idea of personal information (memory) spaces within a shared information spaces looking at the strategies employed by people within these environments. It is my belief that the primary purpose of tagged information spaces are for remembering things. The collective aspects of tagging, which may be conducive to social navigation behaviour is an added bonus due to the web-based nature of these environments.

I think about my personal use of del.icio.us and how it has changed since June 2004 when I first discovered del.icio.us. I use del.icio.us less as a bookmark system and more as a personal management system. When I discover something of interest to me, I don’t debate the degree to which I want to store the item because I have unlimited space and each additional URL does not decrease the ability to re-find content. Quite simply, if I like it, I tag it.

I also participate in an activity I call egotagging because of my awareness of the tagged information space as a shared environment. By this, I mean that I have a TagRank function in my toolbar which allows me to see how many other people (if any) have tagged a particular URL in del.icio.us. I like being the first person to tag something and I am always checking the URL before I tag it. This is what Rashi referred to as being a trendsetter. However, I don’t think of myself creating a path that others may follow, as she suggests. Rather, I think of myself as an explorer and my act of egotagging is like raising my country’s flag on a new piece of virgin territory that I have discovered. I am staking my claim as being the first, for all others to see.

Technorati tags: tagging, del.icio.us, cognition, socialsoftware