This article is a short overview of the neXus project, Pieter Diepenmaat's master thesis project in Industrial Design Engineering at Hewlett Packard Labs and the IDStudiolab at Delft Technical University. A comprehensive overview of the project can be found in the downloadable version of the neXus’ HP tech report.
Take a look at pages from
the neXus thesis
Within 5 years most mobile devices will know where they, and therefore where their owners are, by using GPS or other location sensing technologies. This will allow you to find the nearest coffee shop in an unfamiliar city, leave digital messages on a friend’s doorstep or quickly retrieve a photograph by remembering where you took it.
Hewlett Packard Labs’ 'Mobile and Media Systems Lab' realized that by taking this context aware technology one step further than ‘just’ enhancing the way you communicate and navigate using your mobile device, it has the potential to the provide completely new forms of entertaining mixed reality experiences. So in 2002 the Mobile Bristol research program was initiated by HP-Labs, to develop and research these mixed reality experiences dubbed mediascape experiences.
‘A mediascape experience is a mixed reality experience in which visitors are presented with digital media depending on their travels through the physical world.’
A good example of a mediascape experience is Riot!1831, an interactive historical play of events that took place in the centre of Bristol:
After more than 4 years of research and supporting the community, an ever-growing group of artists and publishers is using HP-Labs tools and knowledge to provide compelling mediascape experiences to people around the world.
But all these experiences make use of generic mobile devices (mostly PDAs), which are designed so users focused on the device can perform PC-like-tasks anywhere, anytime. As we will see, during compelling mediascape experiences on the other hand visitors experience the physical world surrounding them at the same time as the virtual world placed on top of it. They are enticed to explore and interact with both halves of the mixed reality by moving around, using the device as the nexus between the physical and virtual part. These often location specific, sometimes-even time specific experiences in which the information from the device is just as important as the world around them clearly differ from the tasks the used mobile devices were designed for.
That’s why HP-Labs set out to explore the design implications of this and other knowledge gained within the mediascape community on a future device. The aim was to develop a dedicated mediascape device concept that would be an integral part of compelling mediascape experiences. It had to be feasible as a product within 5 years.
The end result is the neXus, a duo-device designed specifically to play ‘running Location based Games (LBGs)’. Running LBGs are mixed reality games that combine the social and physical attractions of playground games and sports with the technical and creative possibilities of computing games.
This article is a short overview of the neXus project, Pieter Diepenmaat's master thesis project in Industrial Design Engineering at Hewlett Packard Labs and the IDStudiolab at Delft Technical University. More in-depth information on the project can be found in the neXus’ HP tech report.
