Haptic technology is the means for tactile feedback, often computer mediated and usually employed in conjunction with other mediums. It allows the user to experience information through the sense of touch.
This technology has proven use in computer games and for high-end virtual reality simulations. Emerging technologies will enable a host of new applications with miniaturised tactile devices.
In a report for BBC Innovations Avco examines the potential for new haptic technologies with particular application to the broadcast industry.
Avco's Daniel Jackson has created a sonification in collaboration with musician and audio programmer Tim Venison for the BBC series Volcano Live.
These audio clips were produced from data taken from the Soufrière Hills volcano in Montserrat between April 2005 and May 2007, during which time the volcano was erupting continuously. Three different kinds of measurements were taken - the sonification combines seismic, sulphur dioxide and GPS data.
Data courtesy of Paul Cole, Director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory.
NMC launched our updated Music Map at the Southbank 20x2012 New Music weekend.
Avco was commissioned to add social media, embedding functionality to the Music Map to allow seemless integration of the map into any website or blog. The map is now transportable much in the same way as a YouTube video.
Anything can be sonified. Sonification is the representation of data with sound.
Avco has produced a report for BBC Innovations on the subject of sonification. The report includes case studies and interviews with a scientist from Cern and an artist.
The report identifies key trends in the field and suggests 3 possible uses for the broadcast industry.
We're very excited that Shout Out is now up and running on the IC tomorrow platform. We spent the day at Innovate 11, an annual conference held by the Technology Strategy Board, shouting about it.
ShoutOut.fm is our brand new web service to record messages or 'shout outs' over your favourite music tracks. There are over 10 million music tracks to choose from so it is easy to find the right music to fit the message, whether that is thanking friends for a great night out or promoting a favourite track. Shout outs can be emailed or shared with friends on Facebook.
Our latest web app ShoutOut is one of the winners of the IC tomorrow Digital Innovation Contest. ShoutOut is a tool that combines spoken word and music clips to make audio messages that can be instantly posted and shared. Over the next 6 months we'll be working with IC tomorrow and the music industry to create shout-outs using ShoutOut.fm
IC tomorrow is part of the Technology Strategy Board
How to future proof digital works of art?
Avco has worked on computer editions for artist Michael Craig-Martin since 2002, writing software to control the display of his drawings.
In February 2011 Tate Conservation invited us to attend a symposium on how best to future proof digital works of art. We were consulted with regard to the works in the Tate Collection by Michael Craig-Martin 'Becoming, 2003' and 'Things Change', 2007. Daniel Jackson from Avco wrote the original software and Avco was commissioned in 2010 by the Tate to migrate the sofware as part of the artworks' digital conservation.
Thinking about how digital works of art exist in the world is of real interest to us, we have a great deal to say on the matter if you ever wish to hear our thoughts.
Photo by Daniel Jackson - Michael Craig-Martin, 'Things Change' 2007, installation for Tokyo New Art Centre, Japan
London Sinfonietta's website is 2 years old! It has served them well. So well that we have now extended their digital offering by adding a Listen & Watch section, a great supplement to their concerts.
We've also spruced up their homepage. No small task considering how fond we were of the first version. The grid remains the same with a clearer delineation of section areas, video playback on the homepage and more opportunity for London Sinfonietta to show off their concert programme.
We were very pleased to work with Spiral Productions to build a jukebox audio player for the works of Robert Burns to be on permanent display in the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum The new museum opened it's doors on the 30 November 2010 with a permanent exhibition by Spiral.
What's more The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum won the award for Best Permanent Exhibition at this year’s Museums and Heritage Awards 2011 in London. Congratulations to Spiral on a great project!
Photo Credit: Jennifer Nelson of Unmuseum who also wrote a very nice review
A contextual app is a game, data navigation tool, widget, mini-app, flash game, ajax visualization - basically a bit of software that displays information on a website related to your location in the site and the data you are interested in. An audio player is a simple example of a contextual app.
We wanted the Music Map to be useful across the NMC website and accessible from the data it related to. We achieved this by having the map launch from each of the composers homepages, from the features on the front banner and there is a also dedicated launch page. On clicking the map button the app opens fullscreen providing an alternative navigation to the information and audio resources on the site.
Each of the 250 featured composers have a Music Map and each composer is the starting point of their own map.
Using Flash rather than javascript means that the Music Map experience can be more immersive. The map launches full screen, it is graphically rich and animated. For non-flash users (i.e. iPhone users) all the relationships are available as 'Similar Composer' links. The map becomes more of an experience, particularly with the audio player providing a musical atmosphere (playing a track of the Composer you are viewing), and there are many drop-off points back into the website. Being contextual you can navigate from one composer to another, switching back and forth between Music Map and website modes.
It's the same data just another way of seeing it.
We are proud to present a new website for NMC Recordings.
NMC approached us to create a fresh informative website for their organisation promoting and exploring the NMC recordings.
We made plans to show off their music catalogue.
We took a fresh look at their identity and pared it back to the identifying band across their recording covers. This gave breathing space to the website for the very many splendid and varied LP art covers.
Next was the important matter of bringing music to the website. We placed featured audio up front on the homepage banner and each recording page has a 1 minute excerpt for each track.
NMC wanted their visitors to go on a musical exploration so they gave us an open brief to build a 'Music Map'. Our response was to create a dynamic relational map featuring their composers and recordings, weaved into the site and acting as an alternative view of the catalogue.
Go see for yourself at www.nmcrec.co.uk
We've just spent the weekend alongside the Radio 3 Interactive Team at The Sage Gateshead for a festival of ideas called 'Radio 3 Free Thinking'. We were there to join in with the conversation. Our social media tools of choice were Twitter and Post-it notes, together with a wall on the concourse for the post-its. The question being asked was not so much a 'What are you doing now?' but rather a 'What's the big question for the next 50 years?' in other words less Twitter and more Radio 3.
The festival format provided a lively exchange between contributors and audience that passed without effort onto our Post-it boards. With roughly the same character count between a Post-it note and a tweet we created a kind of low-fi Twitter board that was hugely popular.
See our festival videos by social media correspondent Jon Jacobs -
YouTube playlist for Free Thinking 2009
Our social media correspondents Samara Ginsberg & Peter Gregson have been out and about chatting to both performers and audience goers to get a behind the scenes view of Proms 2009. We've made daily posts to the Radio 3 blog throughout the 8 week festival - a blog posting record for us! and with visits to the Radio 3 blog having doubled every month from June to August our efforts have been worthwhile.
Image caption: Behind the scenes at Proms 2009 with Sasha Koushk-Jalali from the Jugendorchester
See Radio 3 blog
AVCO has developed the inaugural website for Anish Kapoor. It is a simple portfolio site with stunning images.
See www.anishkapoor.com
