The Augmented City Lab reported by Assia Kraan

by Assia Kraan – www.assia.nl, linkedin.com/in/assiakraan

This year at PICNIC, Waag Society, 7scenes and Layar organised a one-day Augmented City Lab, hosted and moderated by Ronald Lenz.

Ronald Lenz - Waag Society & 7scenes

‘Augmented city’ stands for city space enriched with information. The aim of the meeting was to focus on near-future scenarios for mobile location-aware services in city space. In a public session called THINK, local and international experts discussed the opportunities current practices have for the Augmented City. This session was followed by MAKE, creative prototyping sessions, where teams of experts from diverse disciplines together created inspiring services. During the day speakers and public got into discussion about ‘the virtual’ versus ‘the real’ in city space and in addition introduced some inspiring new concepts.

Lev Manovich coined the term Augmented space. In his article “The poetics of augmented space: Learning from Prada” (Manovich 2002), he describes augmented space as places enriched by overlaying (digital) information over the visual field of a user. He proposed this space would determine the decade of the 2000s as the 1990s was about virtual reality. The speakers and participants of this day have taken his definition of the augmented space a few steps further by not limiting place enrichment to the visual realm. It is not about the shape, but about the content of the information added to space, because that’s what changes the experience of users in city space. In projects and games addressed, city space is enriched with various types of information, such as historic information, personal stories, and commercial information.

Augmented city lab: THINK

Five speakers from different backgrounds elaborated on current and near-future practices. The speakers held different approaches towards the intervention of reality by digital information. At one extreme there is an almost virtual reality experience as a substitute for the real physical city space (the 3D dome by Raimo vd Klein). And at the other extreme, the (physical) reality of city space is respected, with augmented space merely glanced at from the corner of your eye, as Ben Cerveny puts it.

A full "Heart of the West"

Frank Kresin (Waag Society) started off by presenting a selection of their location based heritage projects, such as Time machine, Frequency 1550 and Games atelier. These projects are about adding historical information and personal stories to cultural heritage sites by mobile phone and a tool called 7scenes. Think of educational routes and treasure hunting games for a new public of people, for instance schoolchildren. The aim of Frank Kresin is to stimulate contribution to the information flow and to deepen their (historic) experience of city space.

Frank Kresin - Waag Society

Raimo vd Klein (Layar) focused on augmented reality, a new medium that offers 3D experience. He talked about the possibilities for game play and branding by dropping 3D animations in city space that invites the public to interact. “Is it real, or not?” should the puzzled public think. Later that afternoon visitors of PICNIC would dwell on an empty lawn on the PICNIC terrain with their android phones (the only ones suitable) looking for hidden 3D objects.

Raimo van der Klein - Layar

Kevin Slavin (Area/Code) dismisses the definition of Manovich when he states that augmented city space is not about adding information (there is enough already) but to enclose secrets of places. You don’t need augmented reality, because games can just as well stimulate the imagination and enclose secrets, he states. For example in the game Island the market price of virtual bananas in the area you work in differs from the price in the area where you live. A trading route is born. Kevin Slavin even warns for augmented reality, when it generates too much virtual reality in city space. People will experience the uncanny valley (the uncomfortable feeling you get when not sure if the object or space you see is real or not).

Kevin Slavin - Area/Code

Rick Batelaan (City directorate for transport, Amsterdam) presented the project PTA (Personal Transport Assistant). This personal navigator tool brings passengers of public transport in control of their schedule. It merges existing time-table information with personal preferences and destinations. One can even trace buddies nearby in order to travel together.

Rick Batelaan - City of Amsterdam

Ben Cerveny (Stamen, Vurb) gave a historical overview of the development of cities from isolated cells to interconnected, social cities. Cities are no longer shapeless. Augmented reality cities are self-aware as a result of gathering information by tracking flows of resources, products and citizens. They have aggregated identity. Ben stresses the importance of the personality of city places when designing augmented toolkits. Instead of adding information to places, attention to the social networks and personality of cities should be drawn.

Ben Cerveny - Stamen

Augmented city lab: MAKE

Five teams of experts from diverse disciplines developed new concepts for the city Amsterdam. Ronald Lenz (Waag Society), our host of the day, explained that participants were teamed up around five ‘tools tables’; 7scenes, Layar, RFID, Laser Tag and iPhone AR, as the technologies work inspiring in the creative process. After a round of creative brainstorm sessions each team sketched out one concept.

Team discussing the concept

What kind of information do these experts think is interesting enough to add to or reveal from city space? I wondered. One team suggested enriching city space with colorful lines by adding digital drawings to commercial billboards with Laser Tag. Graffiti layers can be stored on a server then browsed by mobile device and rewarded with points when the person is close to the billboard. A second team introduced a network of RFID covering the city of Amsterdam. In this way a mobile device could tell a blind person that he should get out at the next bus stop. A third team revealed historical information about Rembrandt to the public through a game. The game starts off in Rembrandts (virtual) atelier and sends the player off into the city to sell one of his paintings and to buy new materials. On the route across the city, information and virtual city sights of that time are enclosed at specific places and shown on a mobile device. The fourth team thought the party scene lacked spontaneity. Their tool brings party information to people in search for a fun night out in the city centre. Based on the submitted to a social network account, one receives tips, discounts, live reviews and the location of friends when entering a radius around a certain spot. The fifth team showed a rewarding system. By providing digital plants and flowers, in reward of kilometers by bike, participants can add virtual greenery to their house.

Teams at work in the MAKE session

It is remarkable that these concepts mainly seek to enclose existing information instead of adding information or complete virtual worlds to the city space. Amsterdam’s bike usage, citizen Rembrandt, public transportation network and party spots are enclosed and put into another context. Apparently the participants of MAKE start off with the personality of Amsterdam; it’s historical value, transportation structure and it’s citizens and build their tool around it. Another striking characteristic of the concepts is that users can choose to pick up the augmented world next to their real physical world, by directing their mobile device to the tool. Thus leaving room for the primarily route and task of the user instead of overshadowing reality. The concept of digital graffiti forms an exception; it adds drawings to physical city space. When painting the digital drawing, it is visible not only to participants of the project but also to every passenger. Except, the presence in city space only lasts as long as the tool beams the drawing onto the city surface.

The concepts presented at MAKE show that designers focus on the personality of city space, as Ben Cerveny suggested, and also draw upon existing (hidden) information rather than adding information, as Kevin Slavin spoke of. In ‘augmented city’ the city itself is superior to the little information added to it.