Thursday, October 13, 2005

Mobile narrative

Imagine a world where everywhere you went your PDA would tell you its history, its sounds, the local culture. This could be a situation in the near future. A recent experiment in San Francisco tested this scenario:


Scape the Hood debuted this past weekend, a collaboration between HP Labs and KQED where prerecorded sounds, music and narrative were cued by your GPS location as you walked along 3 blocks in San Francisco. It is part of the Digitial Storytelling Festival which has been running for 10 years. KQED's 3 year old Digital Storytelling Initiative was a sponsor of the festival.

The experiment, called Scape the Hood, will transform a few seemingly drab city blocks into a landscape rich with sound, sights and stories. Using GPS-enabled HP iPAQ Pocket PCs and a location-based software platform developed by HP Labs, participants will be able to walk around the neighborhood and learn about its history and culture -- and about impending changes to its character.

Read HP pioneers digital storytelling IPaq Pocket PC to be used for neighborhood history project

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