CHI'08: Urban Mixed Realities – where is Reality going Next?

It seems like only a few short years since virtual reality, or rather Second Life, exploded onto almost every single news outlet on the planet. However, the as-yet relatively under-explored field of urban mixed realities perhaps presents some of the most interesting areas for research and development. With this in mind CHI 08 played host to the “Urban Mixed Realities Workshop” which explored, in common with CHI, art, science and perhaps how to balance the two.

“The range and quality of the work that people presented was fantastic, and it really expanded my understanding of the questions that urban mixed reality throws up and how those questions might generate new experiences for users. My contact with UMR previously has always been in the context of creating 'art' or creative events, so it was also very interesting to see urban mixed reality projects involving things like crime prevention and disaster management.”, said Andrew Wilson, of Blink Media (www.blinkmedia.org)

From an applications perspective the workshop illustrated the full range from tools to support orchestration, through to a system to involve more people in the urban planning process. As well as social networking platforms such as the Living Tattoos Project and Story Worlds which let people experience and create their own narrative.

Studies were also presented which helped identify the social patterns of people playing games, fear and anxiety within urban settings and experiences of gaming technologies. While other presenters focussed on technical avenues such as how to increase awareness of real world objects within electronic experiences.

Associated Link: IPCity project

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