wikitude

I just found this website that is called, ‘wikitude’. This is the website that provides information for travellers who would like to travel to places where they don’t know well. Simply you can write down the name of the city you wish to travel in the search engine of the website. Also it provides the download service of the information for the iPhone users from this year. At this point I thought it might be very similar to my project, ‘Mobile Travel Guide’ but I was wrong. This is the website that provides the information for the travllers through internet spaces and also iPhone format. However it provides only GPS and Google maps rather than the package of information for the travellers.

Anyway, the technologies are improving dramatically and it brought many ‘funky’ contents for us. Well, I really need to check the updated news and technologies more often.

RESEARCH : the effects of colours

There are 2 most important characters for the theories of colour and they are ‘Goethe’ and ‘Newton’. Both of them talked about the theories of colours and they have different opinions about the theories of colours.

Newton’s theory is more objective and it focuses more on scientific research. Whereas Goethe’s theory is subjective and he said that the theory of colours is perceptional.

There is another theory of colours from ‘Eva Heller’ as well. She said that the colours influence our emotion and reason.  She brought some examples that support her theories about the colour but I am not going to write about them here. Because I couldn’t find her book that is called ‘Wie Farben wirken (1989)’ .

I could find information about the book that is written in Germany but I couldn’t find English version of the book so far. I hope that I can find the English version of this book so that I can read it.

I could find some information about this book from blogs, thesis and other online resources but I think they are not good enough for my research.

*The things that I need to do are,

• Research more about the ‘meaning of the colours’
• Choose less tan 5 colours
• Choose the specific theory of colours, e.g. emotion/shape/symbolism and so on
• Confirm the timeline for the production/post production

chikyuuno arukikata

Nintendo DS is amazing. I’ve got old Nintendo DS (not light one) but I always think the nintendo DS is just a game. But it is not at all.

When I research today I found this and this is just AMAZING.

It is a travel guidebook but it is on Nintendo DS.  It is called “chikyuuno arukikata” in Japanese. “chikyuuno arukikata” is a travel guidebook publication in Japan. From this year, 2008, they put their books into the nintendo DS! People can just bring their nintendo DS and the software.

image is from HERE  (and more images about chikyuuno arukikata)

So I can tell this software is a kind of ‘E-book’. Also there are many useful functions for the travellers as well. For example, the foriegn exchange rate, the prices of the location, alarm clock, scheduler and etc. But there is one weak point. This is compeleted product so if there are changes that need to be updated, travellers cannot know the updated information unless buy new software. However, this is very good example of convergence of old style travel book and the new technology such as Nintendo DS. I’ve got inspiration again.

Exploring Lonely Planet

In 1972, the founder, Tony Wheeler founded the Lonely Planet Publications. It is one of the largest travel guidebook publishers in the world. “It was the first popular series of travel books aimed at backpackers and other low-cost travelers. In 2008, it published about 500 titles in 8 languages, with annual sales of more than six million guidebooks, as well as TV programs, podcasts and websites.”
(Wikipedia, 2008 )
Lonely Planet is one of the largest travel guidebook publications but it has problems. It mainly focus on low cost backpackers only so it needs to spilt up the guidebook for not low cost backpackers as well. Also Lonely Planet recognized the usefulness of using Website so they have a website of travel forum that is called Thorn Tree. It has categories of each different country and people can select the countries that they would like to know about. It has a travel bulletin so travellers can share the information anything about the travel such as the weather of the location.

Also there is ‘Traveller Videos’ page in Thorn Tree so people can upload their travel videos on the website. It has similar format of Youtube and it seems more like travel documentary or travel video. Anyone can upload their travel videos on the website.

In Lonely Planet’s online shop, people can buy the guidebook by chapter that they want to. This means they don’t have to buy the whole book only for one city. It is Pick & Mix digital download For example, if I would like to go to Melbourne CBD, then I don’t have to buy a whole book about Melbourne. I can choose Melbourne CBD chapter from the Lonely Planet ‘Melbourne’. The customers simply download the PDF file from the Pick & Mix digital downloads window.

*Reference

Lonely Planet. Wikipedia. Retrieved June 17, 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_Planet

Things to be done

one more to go

software

I might need to think about what sorts of softwares I am going to use for the project as well. If I need to learn to use the software then I will do learn during winter holiday.

Basic Flash (Korean)

Question

Before writing about the question I think my research is answering, it makes me very hard to answer in a sentence, honestly. I am still narrowing down my project and still thinking what I want to make or produce through this research project.

But, anyway I am writing about “The question I think my research is answering” now.

1.Can mobile phone contents make our life comfortable?

1-1.How mobile phone travel guide video can help Korean people to travel to Melbourne?

1-1-1.What kinds of travel guide videos can be created for Korean travelers not only giving useful information but also offering them ’something different’ styles of  travel guide videos?

new abstract

Since 2006, the Lonely Planet of Korean version was out of print in South Korea because it was too text-centralised travel guidebook for Korean travellers. They need more visual-centralised and handy travel guide that allows travellers to travel other countries much easier rather than bring books that have only short explanation with few photos about the location and they are not interactive with readers either. Many new technologies are changing our lives these days and why don’t we have the mobile travel guide videos that also allow us to interact with it as well? You just need a suitcase or backpack and your mobile phone for your travel. Your mobile phone will get everything about the place that you want to travel.

labsome project page –>HERE

ad for melbourne

from youtube

wikitravel

I found wikitravel and it is all about ‘travel’.

wiki knows everything. (:

heep://wikitravel.org/en/Melbourne