It discusses my introduction to echolocation, a process where a blind person can learn to see by making tongue clicks. The brain interprets the echoes and activates the visual center of the brain. The previous article ended with me seeing my cat run up a flight of stairs. I thought I had seen it all, but just wait until you read what happened after that.

Found via: http://magicalnihilism.com/2009/02/18/exporting-the-past-into-the-future-or-the-possibility-jelly-lives-on-the-hypersurface-of-the-present/

"[My thinking has] also been greatly informed by working and talking with my esteemed erstwhile colleague Christopher Heathcote who gave a great presentation at Etech (5 years ago!!! Argh!) called “35 ways to find your location“, and has both at Orange and Nokia been in many of the same be-chino’d presentations.

Location services, space-time, and the importance of "soon" + near-future.

"Location is a matter of routine... These patterns are worn into our personal maps of the city, and usually it’s the **exceptions to it** that we record, or share – a special excursion, or perhaps a unexpected diversion – pleasant or otherwise that we want to broadcast for companionship, or assistance."

Currently in development and created by Mothership, Kinetic is a GPS-based tracking and training app for running, cycling, hiking, walking… designed specifically to help you measure, record, store, review and analyse your location based data. Packaged in a beautiful interface with features to amaze and only grow with time, Kinetic is/will be a must for every iPhone. Guys at Mothership sent us an ad-hoc and although I am not a big runner myself, this is an app that I will want to use for all my location based activities and in the future I hope much more…

Because Kinetic is module based, ie your mix and match different modules according to your preference and activity, you are able to build you own perfect tracker. Included are time, distance and location which allows you to keep track of your time and distance covered, and see the route you’re on with live mapping and real-time markers. Speed and pace display average speed and pace, and lets you view live speed history graph to monitor your progress. Also included are altitude and compass which display current altitude and ascent/descent rates over both distance and time as well as an altitude history graph. Things don’t stop here. The team is hard at work to release the 1.0 version and at the same time excited about the endless possibilities that can be included in the future. Some of these will include full on Marathon training packs, audio and customisable training plans as well as ways to output data with all the recorded time and location to use as you like whether this be for art projects or else.

Another feature of Kinetic is the ability to change the app style. Kinetic comes with a number of styles preloaded, including Dashboard – which is designed specifically for night time use and comes in a number of alternative flavours. Of course, the team will add more styles with future app updates.

The app was submitted to the AppStore three days ago and should be available within a week or two. Included also is the lite version, ad supported which allows you to transfer your data to the full version once you are ready to make the jump. The full version will be available for $2.99 (for a limited time).

Mothership was established in 2010 by Stuart Eaton, Nick Hingston and Tim Juby to develop and build intelligently designed software that meets the highest of standards and are enjoyable to use. We care about getting the user experience right. We believe in making software that serves a purpose, making sure that it is as functional, engaging and as simple to use as possible. Creativity and innovation shaped by good design.

App Page

Kinetic [iPhone] is a post from: CreativeApplications.Net | Follow us on Twitter - Facebook - Flickr - Vimeo

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Jeremy Hight is a Los Angeles-based scholar, artist and educator. He is the author of numerous essays on locative media, narrative and augmented reality. I responded at length to his recent essay Writing Within the Map and as evidenced by the transcript below, Jeremy and I have been chatting back and forth for the last few weeks. The following conversation touches on space, media and some of Jeremy's earlier projects.

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DaylightCal visualises the duration, angle and quality of sunlight wherever you are. Using weather forecast data, DaylightCal calculates the distribution of daylight for any location and date worldwide. Find out how much daylight you’ve got left today and how much to expect tomorrow.

Now all of this may sound pretty familiar and we have seen a number of apps like this appear in the AppStore. What makes this slightly special is that the app has been designed by the UK based Bureau for Visual Affairs, a design consultancy with some pretty impressive past clients list. The list includes Designhotels so I can therefore also assume that the beautiful The Design Hotels™ iPhone City Guides is also the work of the Bureau (but I may be wrong – ) – *see below. The DaylightCal app in this case adopts the beautiful swiss helvetica aesthetic specific to the Bureau’s work, of course loaded with useful info about daylight and sunlight in your city (see screens below). Considering the app is also free, makes it a must without question.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: Free
Developer: Bureau for Visual Affairs

*UPDATE 2009.12.29 – the iPhone travel guide apps are the work of unlike – thanks Pieter

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