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Article highlighting web trends from AR to privacy issues.

In light of our conversation of mobile learning, this article provides insight as to the stationary nature of the use of mobile technology. Shadow Cities - a game that prizes 'on the go', 'real world' scenarios within the game, found that most people play mobile games in the spaces where they spend the majority of their time - especially the home, which means mobile games compete with traditional gaming devices. Anyway, some food for thought...

Jennifer, Thanks for sharing this. In this push for mobile, I guess it makes sense if you step back and realize that most of the gaming systems that people started using (PS3, Xbox, Wii) were not built for mobility or portability and perhaps they haven't realized they can "transfer" the gaming experience to anyWHERE? Or maybe it is that gamers are creatures of habit? or superstition (like baseball players who don't shave their face throughout the playoffs so as to not mess with the karma or mojo?) and don't want to upset the environment that they consider the best for their particular performance of the game? The commercial that Prof Dede showed with the Augmented Reality spin and where Shadow Cities is headed really is a whole new way of approaching gaming and I wonder if the same type of gamers who are traditionalists (sit at home and play) would be interested in this new type of mobile gaming or if it might just open up a whole new set of gamers - who despise the sedentary nature of traditional gaming systems - and push them to get involved?

Here is a 2 year old TED talk, with innovative ideas for seamlessly blending the real world and the digital world

"But Yim suggested things will soon go beyond that. For instance, he said that an iPhone user might be able to walk up to an AR-enabled poster, point their device at it and automatically unlock some sort of prize. Similarly, a user could take their iPhone into a McDonald's, or some other partner restaurant, and get a free french fries, all because the device knows where it is, and syncs that awareness to some sort of marketing campaign. And if that was built into a game of some sort, it would give players an incentive to participate. "

Another AR app for the Iphone. Allows placing location based objects on screen which are then seen by others who visit the same location.

The future of smartphones, including "an electroactive polymer that vibrates beneath the glass, and gives your fingers the sense of touching individual keys." NYTimes article, may require login

Relating to the discussion last class about potential directions AR and mobile apps may go -- this iPhone app allows users to experience a location (in this case, Rome) as it existed in the past.  Provides images and historical info for all users, but if the user is actually at the Coliseum, it uses the iPhone camera + gps and presents actual 3D renditions of the past of whatever is in the user's viewfinder

Excellent article on Video game model as a learning tool. Useful takeaways for motivation.