Our latest app for Tate is finally out!

For all the lowdown, skivvy, details and download links go here:

MAGIC TATE BALL

Making of, interviews, concept sketches and much more to come. Watch this space!

Why is indoor gelocation so hard? GPS, as you probably know, uses signals constantly transmitted by satellites in orbit round the earth to calculate your position. These signals contain the exact time the signal was transmitted and where the satellite was when it sent the signal, and your device uses the time it takes for four or more of these to reach you to trilaterate your location.

Unfortunately, these signals aren’t powerful enough to penetrate anything thicker than the tin roof of your Ford Capri. On the ground floor of that TATE Modern that just ain’t gonna cut it. How can we possibly work out where we are without the aid of US-owned celestial bodies?

One method is WiFi fingerprinting: your device measures the signal strength of any WiFi networks in range and, along with cartographical knowledge of these network, uses that to calculate position. The accuracy depends on a range of factors (walls, amount of people in the room), and anything from 3 to 10m is generally claimed.

However, fingerprinting requires a costly and time consuming signal strength calibration at the kick off. Plus, Apple don’t currently allow an open API for WiFi fingerprinting, so for app development that’s pretty much out the window.

Let’s take a lot at some current technologies for Indoor Geolocation:

1. NAO Campus, by Polestar

Coming straight out of Toulouse, the NAO Campus software uses WiFi fingerprinting, any weak GPS available and a map of the interior to deliver accuracy between 2 – 5 metres in less than a second (so they claim). Polestar are strangely silent on how they deal with common person/wall density problems, though.

Jean Baptiste from Polestar told Thought Den: “At this stage our positioning database is built based on a Wi-Fi survey completed on field. We developed and patented a tool suite that enables extremely fast deployments, with very high cost effectiveness. So no problem of wall density because fingerprints are live fingerprints, not simulations.

Regarding people, we developed algorithms that are tolerant to a given range of errors in RSSI measures, giving us the ability to deliver the expected quality of service to our customers. It is live e.g. in the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, in the Les Quatre Temps mall etc. We have been granted these contracts after hard selections processes in which we have been benchmarked against competition.”

PROS: seamless indoor/outdoor transition
CONS: needs a 3D map and positioning database, could be expensive, proprietary, no mention of how it deals with traditional problems of indoor geolocation

Another update from Jean Baptiste: “even images picked up on the internet are sufficient. We georeference them in order to keep consistency with GPS. It is very low cost! Our deployment suite enables using third party maps from our network of partners (Navteq maps through our Visioglobe partner, Micello maps etc.”

2. Indoor GNSS, by Insiteo

Another French offering; their quite badly translated site lends them an air of mystique. Insiteo’s standard offering seems to be very similar to NAO Campus but just using WiFi, and a spokesman from Insiteo tweeted us “Our indoor positioning is currently at 2m and is iPhone compatible. We have a portfolio of different systems.”

More interesting is their Indoor GNSS, an in-development system that uses ‘StarBoxes’ placed inside the building to retransmit GPS and Galileo signals. They claim precision under 1 metre and that no map or calibration is needed.

PROS: super accurate, super fast
CONS: requires purchase and installation of StarBoxes, could be very expensive, in development

3. Skyhook Wireless Location, by Skyhook

One of the original geolocation players, and used by big boys like Layar, MapQuest, Grindr, HP, Dell and a whole host of other peoples. Using a hybrid of WiFi fingerprinting (with an existing database of over 700 million access points and cell towers) and weak GPS it can tell you where you are within 10 metres, 99.8% of the time. Though this might not sound impressive, these results apply both indoors and in densely populated areas. (You can even add your own here).

PROS: Free SDK!, seamless indoor/outdoor, proven technology
CONS: No iOS, not that accurate.

SkyHook coverage in the South West

4. Meridian App, by Spotlight Mobile

“Designed for inaccuracy” doesn’t sound like a selling point, but CTO Nick Farina has a point; indoor geolocation just isn’t that good. Meridian’s novel approach acknowledges this and uses weak GPS and mapping combined with an interface that easily lets users update their position themselves based on what they can see. As a standalone app, however, its scope is fairly limited beyond finding your way around a building.

PROS: novel approach
CONS: erm…what about the geolocation bit?

5. Cisco MSE, by Cisco

Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine is more than a location service, it’s also a WiFi network, context aware software and an wireless intrusion prevention system. Though a Cisco representative couldn’t disclose accuracy details to Thought Den (he wasn’t ‘technical’), it has been used effectively already in an AR app in Copenhagen airport. The MSE software (with an open API) trilaterates the signals from the MSE network to get your fix.

PROS: works!
CONS: expensive, useless outside MSE network

(For some older tech you can see also Microsoft RADAR and AT&T Active Bat.)

…and isn’t to mention the big G. After geting through all that password stealing trouble a while back, Google are rather dominating the market with Android’s location services (both GPS and WiFi fingerprinting), thought they seem to have terminated the available source code for WiFi positioning due a “weird problem”.

Here at Thought Den we’re getting excited about an RFID system we’re developing – the big win is flexibility combined with a reasonably low cost. The biggest challenge is accuracy and reliability at high volume usage. We’ll keep you posted!

There are plenty more technologies out there; this is just the tip of the iceberg. Choosing which is right for you is going to depend on how much you are willing to spend, what the currently available infrastructure is in the building in which you are working, how accurate you need to be, and a host of other factors. Indoor, reliable, accurate geolocation is certainly getting closer, but the tech isn’t quite there yet.

The Webby Awards are a leading international award honouring excellence on the Internet. With over 10,000 entrants from all 50 states of the US and 60 other countries besides, the 2012 awards has had a record number of attendance for categories in Websites, Interactive Advertising & Media, Online Film & Video and Mobile & Apps.

The top 15% of entrants are recognised as Honourees and ARTIST ROOMS: The Game, which we created for Tate and the National Galleries of Scotland, has been selected as one of these.

Our direction from the outset was to combine the learning objectives of Young Tate with some top notch playability. After 6 months, 200 artworks and 60 hours of 3D modelling the game was born; a series of wickedfun™ minigames mimicking the challenges of a gallery curator. Players also get the chance to create their own 3D gallery with 5 of their favourite artworks at the end. Play it now.

We are chuffed; past winners include big boys like Twitter, Google, eBay, Yahoo!, iTunes, Skype, FedEx, BBC News, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, Aol, Tumblr, Wikipedia, ESPN, Funny or Die, Comedy Central, PBS, The Huffington Post, the Sundance Channel, and The Onion.

Sites and apps are selected for recognition based on excellence in the following criteria (but not limited to): content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity and overall experience.

You can view our listing on the Webby Awards site here.

Last week the West of England Design Forum (a.k.a. WEDF) put together a highly inspirational series of events called “Five Days of Design”. Not ones to mince their words, the week would have pleased every design lover, practitioner, hobbyist, professional, student, freelancer and small business alike.

The one event I want to talk to you about was the last of the series, which took place on a sunny Friday afternoon at the Arnolfini. Called “The Future is Bright”, it was an insightful and detailed look at the importance of design in everything.

The first of the eight speakers was David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council. He spoke about the meaning of design, its importance and its role in business. We also learned a few fun-facts; the most innovative country in Europe is Switzerland, and the UK has its largest design sector with 250,000 designers (that’s 100,000 more people than the population of my hometown btw…)

Craig Wightman (Design Director at Kinneir Dufort) was the next speaker who revealed that design’s duty is to get the difficulties caused by technology out of the way, so the user can concentrate on the product itself (see upcoming Thought Den project Magic Tate Ball – BT). He also talked about the importance of experience and research but, for me, the most interesting part was his little equation:

innovation + design = making ideas happen.

Up next, Prof. David May from the Department of Computer Science at Bristol Uni (who’s a technophobe) presented an interesting approach on how technology has become a fashion thing these days, and as a result design is more important to science and technology than ever before.

After that Bonnie Dean, Chief Executive of the Bristol and Bath Science Park, shared the values that her new Park holds to anyone who wants to use it; providing the space for science and design to meet.

Then, a short break! And a long overdue browse through Arnolfini’s bookstore.

Peter Madden from Forum for the Future gave the next lecture about how businesses can reduce the unpredictability of the future by planning, how they can do this and how to apply planning positively to business.

Peter Signfield, a lawyer, then discussed how law is always one step behind design, and that despite the present issues with copyright (see Apple, Samsung et al) it will make things easier in the future.

The next speaker’s fascinating Scottish (I think) accent was beyond my capability of understanding as a foreigner, which is a shame as he spoke very passionately about user centric design. He was Andy Walters, a senior researcher at the National Centre for Product Design and Development Research (evidently didn’t think about foreign users when designing he talk. HA! – ed).

And the last lecturer Michael Thomson proved that there are loads of opportunities for small companies and how design can help in taking advantage of those opportunities.

To sum up the event, I think all the speakers depicted a brighter future for design and a brighter future because of design. Design has much more to it than people think (in fact it has much more to it than I thought, as a designer) and it still doesn’t really get the attention it deserves. As one of the speakers said, design is still not part of any kind of business studies despite the fact it’s one of the most important aspects of running a business.

All in all I can safely say that my take on design has been broadened largely (see the above [very] technical diagram).

NESTA, Creative Scotland and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have pooled their resources and come up with half a million quid. This funding lovechild has a name befitting of its somewhat schizophrenic parental tryptic : hereby presenting the NESTA Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture, Scotland.

Why were Thought Den involved?

Thought Den’s involvement, without wanting to confuse the situation further, was to provide inspiration and perspective given our non-Scottish, non-London and pro-culture agenda. For more on what we’re doing with arts and cultural organisations go clicking mad : Tate, Wildscreen, National Galleries of Scotland, Southbank Centre and Bristol Museum.

In a whistlestop 20 minutes I tried to convey what we learned in pursuit of entertainment, education and innovation for the cultural sector. The first bit is great fun, exploring the content and expanding the possibilities, then it gets tough, stripping it back to find the essence of an idea. Prototyping is the fun bit again, testing testing testing! And then back to the hard graft of refinement and polish. This entire process is predicated on:

4 Important Things (that aren’t crap)

1. Audience – Get to know them, personally. What else do they like and what do they want. Let them play with stuff.
2. Content – This is what often defines the institution, so find the stories, play with the friction points, mine the hidden gems
3. Context – Not just physically (where and when does this designed experience happen?) but socially, politically, other influencing factors
4. Technology – The real challenge is to make it human! We are sophisticated creatures, but incredibly fickle. Simple wins.

Over the last fortnight I have spoken at three events in Scotland, taking in Perth, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Though largely delivering the same schtick each time, it was incredible how different the three events were. In honour of Scotland’s alleged status as the binge capital of Europe, each event is briefly summarised in drinking metaphor:

Perth; imagine a late afternoon buffet at the beautiful country house of a rich a relative; distant cousins pulled from across the country, but conversation a little awkward and not quite enough alcohol.

Glasgow was the after-work drink session that gradually gets rowdy; the cheeky half that becomes a full-throttled debate.

Edinburgh had the feel of a swanky cocktail party, everyone on best behaviour, but surreptitiously searching over their bone-china teacups for an excuse to loosen their ties.

Unsurprisingly Glasgow was the best event and hosted at the Scottish Youth Theatre. Apart from the subtle smell of sweaty thespians, it was a great afternoon, lots of healthy discussion following the presentations, and a real sense of excitement among the delegates. This was in part because of the people that attended, but also the room layout. Haphazard ten-to-a-table groups trumps raked seating any day.

So what’s going down up there?

Among many others, I talked with a team looking to establish the world’s first comprehensive digital circus skills program, an architect with an incredible iPad prototype and the marketing manager of The Arches, Glasgow’s answer to the Watershed. This place is an epic underground art’s centre-club-theatre with sticky floors, cavernous ceilings and bargain nachos.

With fantastic workspaces such as SocietyM (a hot hatch with racing stripes to the PMStudio‘s Audio estate) and modest movers and shakers like Suzy Glass (Trigger, Sync) and Rohan Gunatillake (Culture Hack, Buddhist Geeks) Glasgow seems like the place to be right now. Incidentally, Channel 4 appointed Colin Macdonald as their first Head of Commissioning for Games, based primarily in Glasgow. That image is a giant anglepoise lamp. What’s not to like!?

Despite the confusing and overly complicated arrangement of money pots, sub-programmes, support workshops and offshoot schemes, you’ve got to applaud how determined Scotland is to support innovation in their booming arts, culture and digital sectors. Behind the array of glitzy Powerpoint presentations is a funding programme with innovation at its heart and a very real desire to give arts and cultural organisations the support they need to flourish in a world of 140 character news flashes, fart apps and F******k.

PS – After the talks I thought I’d step into infinity. It was pretty cool. Camera Obscura in Edinburgh is a place of magic, mirrors, lasers and vortexes. Excellent fun and nicely topped up the inspiration juices.

Thus, on a wintery Friday morn, we decided to throw our own in-house Games Jam, with 5 TD staffers and Thought Den’s unofficial mascot, Mr Hawkins.

From l-r: Templelegs, Of Course, Rowe the Ship, AK47+n, THE Peter and Hawkeyes

A games jam, for those that don’t know, is basically some folk attempting to take a game from concept to execution in a very short period of time. We gave ourselves 8 hours, assembling at 8:30am to eat bacon rolls and decide on a theme for the day. Onto the whiteboards went random words from books and random words from heads – to reach a decision we played a furious round of ‘catch the boardrubber and remove an idea’ leaving us with…”Don’t be boring, go exploring!”

A quick game of Jungle Speed and deciding on some optional limiters (Nicolas Cage in 3D, RIP Whitney, Use a bean bag, Card game, Outside of the box, Checkpoints, Iranian, best use of Gordon Brown) juiced the teams up, and the Jam proper began at 10am, with agreement between the teams to meet again at 11 to help with each other’s ideas.

Let’s hear from some of those intrepid explorers right now:

Team: Michael Stipe’s Crazy Tractor
Members: George Rowe – Studio Manager
Game: Party On
Platform: HTML5, created in GameSalad

GR: Having taken part in a couple of jams before in big groups, I decided it might be fun to try and do something completely on my own. And what fun it was!  Like kicking a wall repeatedly!

My ethos was: keep things simple!

Over-complexity is what generally scuppers these kinds of thing, so a basic fixed screen platformer was in the forefront of my mind from the outset. The theme screamed out to me: a platform adventure explorer game, set at a trendy party. Obviously.

Level creation fail.

Gamesalad was great, though using a new program meant I spent quite a while marvelling at what it did, rather than focusing on making the important aspects of the game (e.g. how do you get someone to STOP jumping?)

Graphics were created extremely quickly in Photoshop, and the music and sound effects were created even faster in Ableton Live.

Thoughts for the day:

1. Even a simple platformer has a lot of components to it. Especially when trying to do them all yourself in a short time. Teams, collaboration and specialisation are good!
2. Do not spend the bulk of your time creating relatively unimportant elements. Game mechanics and playability first, spinning menus second.
3. Gamesalad is a great little engine, though I did have some problems authoring the ‘finished’ product.

You can watch an awesome walkthrough of the game here:

If you want to play it, which you probably shouldn’t, go here: PARTY ON

Team: Brown and Cage
Members: Dan Course (Tech Director), Peter Simon (Design Intern), help from Hawkins (Mascot)
Game: Exploring Good Conversation
Platform: A multiplayer card game

Team Brown and Cage: no, that doesn’t count as a limiter

DC: Making a new card game is neither quick nor easy. Our original concept, an ambient game to explore the joy of saying stupid and challenging things to people, rapidly evolved in too many directions and left us a little confused as to what our game actually was.

We were good at iterating to improve on a concept quickly, trying out a mini new rule and commenting on how it would affect the game, but not strict enough limiting the extra elements we decided to bring in.

A good rule of thumb is to focus on one specific mechanic and explore the fun and possibilities of that, but we got wrapped up in the excitement of the day and tried to include too many features for the very short time frame. Mouse Trap wasn’t invented in a day.

Thoughts for the day:

1. Respect the time frame, no matter what size it is. What can you realistically create in the timeframe?
2. Begin with a template. Don’t be afraid to borrow good simple ideas from games you like (and try and improve them) as a jumping-off point.
3. Once you have your concept, work on taking things away, rather than adding more elements. Less is more (sometimes!)

Helping out with ideas at the 11am chat

Team: Laser Knives of Babylon
Members: Ben Templeton (Creative Director) Antoine Kougblenou (Junior Developer), Help from Hawkins (Mascot)
Game: String Theory
Platform: iOS and pervasive/outdoor

AK: First of all, Ben and I focused on ‘boring’ and ‘exploring’; what those two words meant to us on different levels (visually, mentally, physically).

Then we tried to think more outside the box, trying out The Art of Game Design inspirational card deck. We found the idea on which we would work for the rest of the Jam: an outdoor game where the stage would be filled with entangled strings, and the user would have to find items while making contact with the ropes using hands only: String Theory.

My job was to code a widget that would allow the ‘games master’ to  send sounds to the player’s mobile to guide and inform him. That part of the game turned out to take a long time to put in place and didn’t quite get finished in the short time I had, but it looks good and has potential!

BT: A thought on making time fly – try and do more than is humanely possible, and you’ll end up working at warp speed. Despite our best efforts to keep things simple (our game even used string and chocolate bars!), we were still a little over ambitious. Taking time out to step back from the project and assess it as a whole is important, even in an 8 hour design and build.

A thought on brainstorming – I’m usually a big fan of techniques that help you think clearly and creatively, but for this game it was a classic technique that lead to our winning idea: come up with a stupid title and you’ve got yourselves a game. There was born String Theory – a game powered by string, blindfolds and a Quasi-Autonomous Personal Audio System (QUAPAS). That didn’t quite get finished

A thought on rapid prototyping – failing fast is a great way to test your project. Being able to set up quick and clunky prototypes for play testing is essential. Using this to guide your iterations means that you don’t come into the final furlong with loads of untested elements. We tried a few rope courses, a few reward mechanics and a few jeopardy items, settling on what we thought was most fun.

A thought on the day as a whole – By parring down the whole creative process into just 8 hours it really magnifies which parts of that process are the MOST important. Rapid prototyping + play testing, feasibility and FUN should first and foremost guide the development of your game.

A link to the micro site: String Theory

AWARDS:

Most Commercial Value: String Theory
Best Original Music: Party On
Hero of the day: Matthew Hawkins, for helping everybody!
Funniest: Party On
Funnest: String Theory
Best Game: A DRAW!

Though it was certainly a tiring (and in some cases stressful) day, we learnt stuff and we had fun. Lots of it. And that’s the point of games right? And why we make them.

Why not organise your own games jam ey? WHY NOT?

Thought Den are a digital studio based in the heart of Bristol’s thriving creative quarter, Stokes Croft. We like it here! Our small and committed team build rich websites and mobile apps, design addictive games and develop cutting-edge technology for the likes of  Tate, Wildscreen and the BBC.

We are currently looking for a Middleweight Front-end Developer to join the Thought Den team in our new studio. Working for prestigious clients on stimulating projects and games from the outset, you’ll also enjoy top flight benefits like cake, playing GeoWars on the projector and Swiftian level repartee.

You should definitely:

• Have an excellent portfolio of work
• Be strong in HTML5, object orientated Javascript programming, AJAX
• Be the best at hunting and destroying bugs in your own and other people’s code
• Have excellent cross-browser CSS and layout skills
• Have a good knowledge of UI/UX design and development
• Be well versed in using Source control
• Be comfortable with Adobe Creative Suite (mainly Photoshop)

It would be nice if you also had:

• Experience with PhoneGap or Corona
• Experience with mobile Javascript frameworks like Sencha Touch, Titanium, jQtouch appMobi, ImpactJ
• Experience with game and app development / release
• A basic knowledge of PHP, MySQL, Xcode or Eclipse

A full-time contract will be offered after a successful 3 month probationary period.

Apply with a CV, covering letter and your portfolio to: george.rowe@thoughtden.co.uk

Closing date is the 16th March. Get your applications in now!

Some highlights:

• The Ki-Stal Maze: a Ban Ki-Moon themed sort-of version of The Crystal Maze, but with cardboard boxes and cups. Shame the lamp broke (twice!) before anyone got to level 2.
• Ben vanishing around 11 and reappearing with lots of fireworks.
• Some long distance Beer Pong and Flippy Cup on our new (homemade) desk.
• Drinking. Lots of.
• Street Fighter IV
• Mini dancefloor (no photos unfortunately).

Here’s a couple of photos from the night. To see more find us on Facebook! If you have any of your own please get in touch or upload them to the page.

So our new home is still Stokes Croft, this time right on the main drag, pretty much opposite Pie Minister. What more could you ask for? A lick of paint perhaps – and we’re on the case! The next two weeks will make Handy Andy proud: painting, hanging, chopping, glueing all for you good people. Friday 3rd Feb is the first party of the year, and the first in the new digs.

Expect (and get) proper food (Gloucester road delights, please see Lunchometer.co.uk) drink, entertainment, dangerball, gifts and prizes, borne from the Thought Den furnace.

Friday 3rd February, 6pm – 6am.

27 Stokes Croft, BS1 3PY (Buzzer between Fixie shop and Dulex paint centre)

If you often find yourself pondering the above, it sounds like you should have come to BETT conference last week and seen what the future of Better education technology is! It’s the place where UK teachers visit to pick up what they hope will be the best software, hardware and technology for teaching the British Curriculum.

Since Thought Den started attending, way back in 2009, there has been a paradigm shift in the how the crowds experience most of the new programs;  screen based clicking has been replaced with touch screens, and learners no longer crowd around one PC game but each have their own tablet device. The advent of surface computing has been another exciting concept at BETT.

This year more companies are picking up on mobile apps, remote learning and preparing equipment for every student to have a smartphone or tablet to learn with.

It’s becoming more about making use of the wealth of available technology. Children are bringing devices in naturally, so rather than telling them to switch it off, let’s engage them with learning using the tech they understand!

Importantly this year as we’ll be looking at some heavy changes in the ICT Curriculum. State Education is realising the importance of teaching learners about the inners of the software they’re creating and the circuits of the computer they’re working on.  Children should be taught that they are masters of the devices, rather than a slaves to them, and that they don’t have to be constrained by the available software but can create whatever they can think of with the wonders of programming.

With such a selection of products I really don’t envy any teachers making decisions for what to spend their budget on. The iPad is a new invention and only two years old, the 3D printer is only really making a breakthrough into affordability and the app store still has nappies on.

Everything is so young. And probably still about to be replaced in the next two years again.

So, what were my best and worst bits of BETT this year?

Cool BETT

NAO, the logic robot that teaches learners to start playing with programming – made by http://aldebaran-robotics.com/

Safe BETT

A certificate in Safe Social Networking – www.digitalme.co.uk/safe

Best BETT

An Award winning suite for learning on multiple devices: tablets, iPads – www.ko-su.co.uk

Technology Master BETT

Understanding the innards of DVD Readers, Routers, Scanners… the lot! – www.labtech.org

I BETT you need to learn some more…

There were more apostrophes missing again this year, even from some BETT signs!

Thank you BETT, we’re looking forward to 2013 already.