The article below is a write up, I produced for my final project for my New Media I class.
My final project was an effort to increase patron interactivity at a museum with cell phone photo taking.
After I showed Jim Sheldon the Professor my WiFi cell phone media streaming device, he said he would like to see pictures. This created several questions.
1) Pictures of what? Should a museum exhibition have high quality pictures of the exhibit available for viewing on their cell phone?
2) Where should you store these images? There is only a finite amount of space on the WiFi device, and it is a constraint.
After thinking about the issue of image storage, I began investigating the Flickr photo sharing site. I purchased a book on the Flickr photo sharing, and I began investigating it as a possible interactive tool for a museum to use as a supplement to the WiFi cell phone streamer.
This project is an effort to utilize ubiquitous cell phone cameras and increase interactivity with museum patrons. Patrons take pictures with their phones and then are able to chose their favorite picture which will be printed as a postcard using http://qoop.com with a targeted marketing message from the museum. The system will capture a users e-mail and home address, and will allow the museum to direct market to the patron for only $1.00 per postcard.
I came up with the following procedure
2) Patrons e-mail their photos using their phones built in e-mail client to pictures@icaboston.com.
a. The pictures@icaboston.com is a catchall e-mail address that forwards all incoming e-mail containing photos to the museum’s flickr e-mail account, and adds the subject line tag:ICA
b. Adding
the tag:ICA
groups the photos based on the folksonimical tagging mechanism built into
flickr. The ICA
tag also allows a programmer interfacing with the flickr API
3) The user is then instructed to view the pictures and choose their favorite photos. They are instructed to go to http://ss/p which is a small URL on the wifi streaming server. They are able to look at and scroll down through the pictures, and find their favorite photo.
4) Once they have found their favorite photo, they click on it by pressing the image, and they are then taken to a form.
5) The museum patron fills out their form, with their home address and e-mail address.
6) This
information then gets e-mailed (The wifi router doesn’t have space for a
database, but does have the ability to e-mail messages off the router) to the
person responsible for filling out the http://qoop.com form to mail the post
card to the patron.
The information e-mailed contains the patron’s postal address as well as the
flickr ID of the photo.
The museum personnel can then go to the museums flickr web page, and find the
phlickr photo ID of the photo the patron wants printed, and then click on print
this image and then click on http://qoop.net.
7) The
museum personnel can then go through the http://qoop.com
post card building tool and print and send the post card of the image to the
museum patron.
The postcard would have room for a marketing message from the museum, and could
provide information on upcoming events and general membership information.
8)Another possible idea would be
to use the eStarling WiFi enabled high definition picture frames in the exhibit
hall. The eStarling LCD picture can be configured to pull their photos from a
feed from flickr. This would allow interactivity at a museum, where patron’s
could see their photos posted and streaming from their cell phones in real
time. It is exciting to think about the ideas possible when an Internet
connection is introduced, and a museum or organization has an interest in
interactivity.
9) Another similar idea to the eStarling would be to introduce Chumby’s to patrons. Chumby http://chumby.com is a plush toy like screen and “personal internet player”. Chumby has a built in flickr feed, support for flash and an interesting tactile interface. The chumby could be particularly useful for museums or organizations who cater to children as patrons.
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