#mstory channel

Examples

Nonfiction

Fort Vancouver Mobile -- Interactive and immersive digital interpretation at a National Historic Site (2012).

City Sonic -- "City Sonic is a series of short films about extraordinary artists shot in places where their musical lives were transformed. It's about the creative reverb that makes a music scene."

Cleveland Historical -- "CPHDH has tapped into the university’s rich archival resources and has embraced the participation of community partners in order to populate their new tool with well over three hundred stories about people, places, and events; thousands of images; and hundreds of video and audio clips."

Antietam Battlefield -- "The Antietam Battlefield Tour application provides users with video and audio content that allows them to explore the history of the location. The content is triggered by GPS and new content is displayed as tourists make their way along the 13-stop tour. Tourists will be able to listen to the stories of the men and women that were part of the battle and see visual depictions of the battle’s defining moments."

Mount Rushmore -- By CyArk: "The audio-narrated tour within the app is great for taking along on your next visit to Mount Rushmore--you can learn about the history of the monument and its sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, and his artist studio. The virtual tour is also great for planning your trip or virtually exploring the memorial from anywhere in the world." (2012)


Visualizing DC -- "UMBC’s Imaging Research Center (IRC) is working to re-create Washington DC in its early years 1790-1820. Remarkably little visual information remains from this time period. What began as a simple effort to use 3D digital re-creation and display techniques has become full-scale research to uncover the original landscape. In 1791, Pierre-Charles L’Enfant arrived in Georgetown Maryland with orders from President George Washington to lay out the new Federal City. What did he actually see as he rode the land on horseback? This is just one question that we are trying to answer" (2012).

Gettysburg Battle App -- "The Gettysburg: Devil’s Den & Little Round Top Battle App is the perfect touring partner for your visits to the Gettysburg battlefield. Our GPS-enabled touring application allows you to discover all the great historical sites in this most popular region of the battlefield . Walk where the 20th Maine or 1st Texas fought – the units’ positions are right on the map. Pinch, expand, scroll, and explore our rich battlefield map with its many “virtual signs” and points of interest tied to the Devil’s Den and Little Round Top regions of the Gettysburg battlefield" (2012).



Londinium -- "Streetmuseum Londinium directs you to locations across the capital where you can immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of Roman London. As you’re guided around the city you’ll unearth exquisite artefacts as if discovering them for the first time and reveal the stories of life in Londinium. From leather bikini briefs to hoards of gold coins, you can digitally excavate Roman artefacts where they were found, using your finger to dig or by simply blowing on your iPhone (blow mode only available on iPhone)" (2012).

Civil War AR Project -- "The Civil War Augmented Reality Project was conceived by several public educators with technology experience and a desire to offer more interactivity to students and the general public visiting historic sites. The objective of the project is to develop and implement augmented reality services related to the American Civil War in Pennsylvania, and to modify soon to be released tablet personal computers to allow the general public a chance to experience the applications" (2012).

Shakespeare's London -- "Shakespeare's London uses satellite positioning on your mobile phone to pinpoint buried memories, from the 3,000 seat Swan theatre on Blackfriars Bridge Road to the only house he is known to have lived in (now lost under a car park). Whether you are in London, New York or Melbourne you can walk in the master's footsteps: you are told how many yards or metres you are from the site of a local pub mentioned in Twelfth Night, the two theatres in Shoreditch where he cut his teeth, the tavern where Falstaff caroused, the street where a brothel owner lived (with whom he wrote a play) plus dozens of other locations" (2011).

PhillyHistory -- "Find historical photos and maps (of Philadelphia) by date, neighborhood, address, and/or keyword in a collection of over 90,000 records" (2011).

WhatWasThere -- "The premise is simple: provide a platform where anyone can easily upload a photograph with two straightforward tags to provide context: Location and Year. If enough people upload enough photographs in enough places, together we will weave together a photographic history of the world (or at least any place covered by Google Maps)" (2011).

SepiaTown -- "SepiaTown lets you use your computer or mobile device to see what the very spot you're standing on looked like decades or centuries ago" (2011).

Time Shutter -- A free iPhone app "that allows people to see what cities and looked like a century ago and how they have changed. Users can upload images to make their own Time Pix, or transitions between past and present," in San Francisco (2011).

VozMob -- "Mobile Voices (VozMob) is a platform for immigrant and/or low-wage workers in Los Angeles to create stories about their lives and communities directly from cell phones. VozMob appropriates technology to create power in our communities and achieve greater participation in the digital public sphere" (2010).

Niagara 1812 -- "Take a trip into the past with Niagara 1812. Using your iPhone, visit places and people from the War of 1812 and beyond. Choose Roam Mode, walk around one of the historic towns of Niagara, Canada, and discover the stories that lie behind the bricks and mortar. Or choose Quest Mode, and solve a centuries-old mystery in an immersive adventure" (2010).

Stories Everywhere -- "A site-specific radio documentary/cell phone tour/super-hyper-local-journalism experiment, on the 900 block of O’Farrell Street between Polk and Van Ness" in San Francisco (2010).

"Murder at Harvard" -- "Site-based mobile version of the documentary film 'Murder at Harvard,' directed and produced by Boston local Eric Stange. This mobile audio and video self-guided walk lets you uncover the mystery and allure of the “OJ Simpson Trial of 1849.” (2010)

Picture the Impossible -- "Picture the Impossible is a community-based game developed jointly by the Lab for Social Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. The game engages members of the community in exploration of the City of Rochester, and encourages both creativity and charitable giving in the community. Players participate in a range of activities, including casual web-based games, games that bring players out to events and locations throughout the city, and games that involve the tangible aspects of the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper itself" (2009).

"City of Memory" -- "An online community map of personal stories and memories organized on a physical geographical map of New York City." (2009)

"Walking Through Time" -- "A smart phone ‘web application’ that allows architectural historians, conservationists and tourists to download historical maps when standing in a specific location and to annotate them." (2009)

"Toward the Sentient City" -- The Architectural League commissioned several new mobile works that explore ambient, mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies. (2009)

"HighRise" -- More transmedia than strictly mobile, but this is a gorgeous and fascinating project that could inform the field. (2009)

"23rd and Union" -- More locative than mobile but with aspects that could inform the field, too; stories about a particularly interesting street corner in Seattle. (2009)

"BagLady 2.0" -- "A customized electronic tool for live performance and the collection of signs, a bag with an antenna and an embedded board, programmed for live wireless broadcasting on the fly - of digital sound and images. It probes found wifi zones as a platform to pipe through this data." (2009)

"Marjike and Mel's World Trip" - Geo-narrative of a trip, mainly around Europe. (2009)


"Neighborhood Narratives" -- "Invites students to examine the city as a virtual and mixed reality space and investigates the complex means by which cell phones, GPS, mobile recording devices and social network games affect their knowledge of and relation to lived space." (2008)

Voices of Oakland -- "The 'Voices of Oakland' uses Augmented Reality (AR) technology to introduce visitors to the history and architecture of Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta’s oldest cemetery. Wearing headphones and carrying a portable computer and tracking devices, visitors walk among the graves and listen to the voices of various historical figures. Visitors can tailor the experience to suit their interests through a hand-held interface. The Voices of Oakland is a prototype created using DART (the Designer’s Augmented Reality Toolkit) and evaluated using the “Wizard of Oz” approach with volunteer participants.The Voices of Oakland was conceived and implemented in the GVU Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology, with audio production assistance from the Digital Arts Entertainment Lab (DAEL) at Georgia State University" (2007).

"Project VIEW" - Making cross-cultural connections through digital storytelling and camera phones. (2007)

"Frequency 1550" -- Waag Society developed a 'mobile learning game' pilot together with IVKO, part of the Montessori comprehensive school in Amsterdam. It's a citygame using mobile phones and GPS-technology for students in the age of 12-14 (so called HAVO+MAVO basic curriculum). It is a research pilot examining whether it's possible to provide a technology supported educational location-based experience. In the Frequency 1550 mobile game, students are transported to the medieval Amsterdam of 1550 via a medium that's familiar to this agegroup: the mobile phone" (2005).

History Unwired -- "History Unwired is a walking tour through one of Venice’s more hidden neighborhoods, delivered over location-aware, multimedia phones and PDAs. Developed in 2005, this project was a first-ever mix of mobile video, animation, audio, and bluetooth locative technologies in the tourism sector. The tour takes visitors around the neighborhood of Castello, guided by the voices of Venetian citizens who depict a particularly local experience of art and craft, history and folklore, public and private spaces" (2005).

"Biomapping" -- "In structured workshops, participants re-explore their local area with the use of a unique device invented by Christian Nold which records the wearer's Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), which is a simple indicator of emotional arousal in conjunction with their geographical location." (2004)

"Yellow Arrow" -- "A global public art project of local experiences. Combining stickers, mobile phones and an international community, Yellow Arrow transforms the urban landscape into a 'deep map' that expresses the personal histories and hidden secrets that live within our everyday spaces." (2004)

"Murmur" -- "A non-profit, community-based, locative oral storytelling project in various cities, using signs, phone calls and audio. (2003)

"Milk" -- Artistically maps the delivery routes of several small Latvian milk farms. (2003)

The Ambient Wood project -- "Ambient Wood is a multi-site project, within the learning and playing theme of the Equator IRC, that builds upon the experiences and lessons gained from the Hunting of the Snark project (Rogers et. Al 2002). A playful learning experience was developed where children explored and reflected upon a physical environment that had been augmented with a medley of digital abstractions."

Fiction

"Chancellor's Gold"-- "A location-based smartphone app and website game offering players the chance to win real gold by identifying clues linked to London landmarks and locations throughout May to August." (2011)

"Disney's Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure" -- At the Epcot theme park in Orlando, visitors are given "super-secret Kimmunicators—interactive, handheld, cell-phone-like devices that help maneuver agents through their mission." (2009)

"The Carrier" -- "The Carrier, a complete original graphic novel by Philadelphia creator Evan Young, is now available worldwide. This marks a watershed moment for the American comic book industry: The Carrier is the first graphic novel to be published exclusively on the iPhone."

"Parallel Kingdom" -- "A mobile role playing and strategy game that places the virtual world on top of the real world using the GPS inside your phone. Attack, chat and interact with your friends and anyone else around you." (2009)

Call Cutta in a Box -- "Imagine you are buying a ticket at the box office for an individual show on a specific day, but are not led to the auditorium of the theatre. Instead, you get the key for a room and a sketch of how to get there. It might be a room in the theatre, an office, or an apartment somewhere close by. You open the door and you find a phone ringing. You pick up the phone and a person with a strange accent strikes up a conversation with you." (2008)

"Plundr" -- "A location-based game of piracy and trading on the high seas created by area/code. Start out as a bilge-spewing land-lubber in a leaky tub, search the ocean for unsuspecting ships to pillage, upgrade your ship, and amass a fortune in black market goods." Built for laptops. (2007)

"Tracking Agama" -- A game played with a cell phone -- incorporating blogs, voice mail and text messages -- that takes place in and around downtown Los Angeles. (2006)

"And While London Burns" -- "Bathed in fire, flood, love and turmoil 'And While London Burns' is a compelling collision of thriller, opera and guided walk." (2006)

"Day of the Figurines" -- Blast Theory's episodic narrative. (2005)

History Unwired -- "a walking tour through one of Venice’s more hidden neighborhoods, delivered over location-aware, multimedia phones and PDAs. This MIT project was a first-ever mix of mobile video, animation, audio, and bluetooth locative technologies in the tourism sector." (2005)

"Alien Revolt" -- Dubbed the world's first location-based massive-multiplayer role-playing game. (2005)

"Savannah" -- "A strategy-based adventure game where a virtual space is mapped directly onto a real space. Children 'play' at being lions in a savannah, navigating the augmented environments with a mobile hand-held device." (2005)

"The Journey" -- An "adventure game experience for your mobile phone. You are in the role of an infamous detective and have to solve a mysterious case not only by making it through the story, but also by walking to different locations." (2004)

"I Like Frank" -- Blast Theory's entry into world's first 3G mixed-reality game. (2004)

Jeremy Hight's Narrative Archaeology - City-based narrative, with more at "34North118West." (2004)

Uncle Roy All Around You -- Blast Theory game "played online in a virtual city and on the streets of an actual city." (2003)

"Tum Tum" -- Site-specific narrative at Tumwater Falls in Olympia, Wash. (2003)

"Botfighters" -- One of the first mobile games incorporating location; company that created it, "It's Alive," appears extinct; this game apparently was like "Halo," only in mixed reality. (2001)

"Majestic" -- The pervasive game that gets credit for starting this all (2001).

Applications

ARToolworks -- "Specializes in the development of tools and applications for augmented reality. We are the exclusive licensers of ARToolKit, the world’s leading toolkit for augmented reality."

BarzAdventures -- A company founded in Austin, Texas, in 2005, that creates commercial tourism packages for mobile devices.

BreadCrumbz -- A picture-based navigation app for the G1. Allows users to create and share routes.

CityWare -- "We are interested in designing not just the architectural space in which people move and behave and interact but also the interaction spaces for information and services which they discover and use and which support their movements, behaviors and interactions within architectural space."

CuraTour -- "Users can download the app via WiFi or the 3G network, select their location and start building GPS-directed itineraries that provide point-to-point instructions and on-site educational and organizational information."

Geocoded Art -- "Geocoded Art is a collection of world's greatest landscape, cityscape and seascape paintings. Explore the location of these paintings using Google or Bing Maps."

GeoGraffiti -- "A verbal billboard for sharing and retrieving Voice Mark™ messages while you are out and about visiting different places throughout the day."

GPS Mission -- "A platform for user-generated GPS games such as scavenger hunts, travels through local history, guided tours as well as crime and mystery stories."

Layar -- "A free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone."

Metaio -- "Develops software products for systems driven by visual interaction in both real and virtual worlds. Our Unifeye software platform not only lets you place 3D animations directly into live video streams, but also supports the seamless integration of images from the external user environment."

MyGeoDiary -- "A geo-tracking and location-centric social-networking site which enables end users to safely store their geo-information and use it across a growing number of web applications."

http://www.hpl.hp.com/mediascapes/ -- "Mediascapes are rich in interactivity — full of sound and music, images and text, videos and animation, narrative and dialog, all embedded in the space where you’re standing."

MyTown -- Booyah Inc's "GPS game about buying and owning your favorite local shops, restaurants, and hangouts on your iPhone. First, 'Check-In' at real-world locations to unlock rewards. Then buy and own your favorite real-life places. During the day, you can collect rent when people 'Check-In' to your shops. The more visitors that come to your stores, the more it raises your properties' total value."

My Tracks -- Records a route by GPS, tracking time, speed, distance and elevation for the G1. Can add photos to waypoints.

7Scenes -- A mobile storytelling platform that helps to link media to places to be experienced with a mobile phone.

Wherigo -- "A toolset for creating and playing GPS-enabled adventures in the real world. Use GPS technology to guide you to physical locations and interact with virtual objects and characters."

Wikitude -- Can embed information about specific places in GPS locations, although only a short amount of text.

Woices -- Free geolocalized audioguides.

Production companies

Interactive Places -- "We create phone apps for specific locations such as heritage sites, museums and galleries, and even for cities or countryside. They can be small and simple or comprehensive and wide-ranging."

"Soundwalk" -- Producing cutting-edge audio guides in New York and Paris and elsewhere, in which the listener steps into the life of the narrator, being guided through a particular neighborhood streets and hangouts.

Untravel Media -- Untravel started with research CEO Michael Epstein conducted as a graduate student at MIT looking at storytelling techniques, audiences, and technologies.

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