December 2, 2005

Promoting Dance Through Hybrid Digital-Real World Technologies

Last week I spent a lot of time reading the stories on The Pondering Primate blog. The author, who goes by the name Vangorilla, covers mobile technologies and the emergence of new applications that integrate the online and physical worlds.

Two of the technologies covered recently in The Pondering Primate struck me as potentially interesting for dance and the arts world in general.

The first technology is Kooltag developed by Tagit. (You can read The Pondering Primate story, "Tagit Offers Physical World Connection").

Here's how Kooltag works: A person has a cell phone with a built-in camera. He comes across a brochure, ad, flyer or any other physical material that includes a two-diminsional bar code (a 2D barcode is similar to the barcode used to scan groceries at supermarkets except it stores more data). He uses his camera phone to take a picture of the 2D barcode and the software on the cell phone than grabs the associated media such as webpages, video, audio or blogs.

For example, let's say that you mail a postcard for an upcoming dance performance. On this postcard, you could include a 2D barcode. Then recipients could use their phones to take a snapshot of it. Once they take the picture of your barcode, the user will be automatically presented with videos, images and web pages that provide more details about your upcoming performance. This type of technology could also be used for mobile ticketing solutions as well.

The second technology is Hypertag. (You can read the story in The Pondering Primate "Aura's Hypertags Loved by Consumers").

Here's how Hypertag works: You start with a phone or other handheld device that supports infra-red or Bluetooth data transmissions (both infra-red and Bluetooth are popular ways of wirelessly sending digital data short distances - one or both of these technologies is built into most mobile devices). You come across an advertising billboard, poster or sign that features an embedded Hypertag. You point your mobile device at the tag and then you instantly receive content in the form of ring tones, games or other data that the advertiser wishes to have delivered to your device.

Visit this page on the Hypertag website to learn how this technology could be used as part of a museum tour. A user could point a mobile device at a tag next to a painting and then would receive images, audio, video or additional information about the picture.

One possible application of Hypertags for a dance performance could be the following: A person at a performance venue could point their mobile device at a billboard outside the theater. Instantly a detailed program guide is downloaded to the handheld device that includes a video introduction to the performance along with text, pictures and links. The downloaded package could even include a complete annotated audio guide to the performance that users listened to as the performance takes place.

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