Report – New linkNYC Kiosks Operational: 8th Avenue between 52nd and 58th Streets

By Leticia Ferreira De Souza

Recently, Murilo, Manuel, and I went to the new linkNYC kiosks (links) on 8th Avenue, between 52nd and 58th streets. It is very interesting to see the development of the project and, especially in that location, it was nice to see how they are taking the paid phones out and installing links exactly on the same place.

New observations:

Experimentation with Content:

The content on most of the links consisted of messages like: “Connect to Internet on linkNYC”, or other messages from local government, including from the “If you see something, say something” campaign.

We also saw two “ads” targeting tourists, one a partnership between NYC tourism department and Dora, the Adventurer character, and the other advertising the “LOVE” sculpture (the sculpture being situated relatively close to the location of the link). Since the area is a very touristic region, this could indicate some early experimentation with links featuring hyper-local content pertinent to a specific area. This differs from earlier observations we’ve made of links in the Lower East Side area, were advertising content was more of the national brand variety (The Gap, Citibank, etc).

For now, the content of these particular links, in this specific area, seems to be more focused on civic messaging, rather than on advertising. We will probably have to wait and see if this is a trend that will continue as the initiative develops, or if this is situational.

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March 7

First Impressions – Samsung 837: Where Technology and Culture Collide

Last week, PIRT member Merrilee went to visit Samsung’s newest New York City retail experience, Samsung 837. She filed this report about what she found.

I went with my class to the Samsung Experience Store on Thursday, March 3. We went around 1pm, after lunch time, so there weren’t very many people inside the store when we got there. The store felt like a museum at first, and then slowly shifted into a showroom. There are two levels to the store and they have distinct characteristics.

The first floor felt a lot like a museum, showing exhibitions of Samsung’s products. It’s laid out pretty logically too so when you are finished with one item, the next one is right there. There are four main stations on the first floor. When you first walk into the store, you go to the left, where there is an employee that asks you if you want to take a selfie with their new Samsung Galaxy S7. After you take the selfie, in about 30 seconds, the photo is shown on these massive TV screens. The photo is then made up out of Instagram photos, like a collage.

After being in awe with that, I walked over to the next stations with their VR set up. The first VR station we went to was like experiencing a 4D cinema theatre with moving seats. We went on a roller coaster ride with the Samsung Gear and moving seats. I was really excited to experience this, but it did not feel the same as being on an actual roller coaster ride; I didn’t get the same adrenaline. I also sort of broke the Samsung Gear as I was putting them on, and the whole time, I thought it was similar to the Oculus, but it’s actually just like the Google Cardboard. The Samsung Gear is Google Cardboard, enclosing a Samsung Galaxy s7 inside to create the VR.

Moving on to the next VR station, this experience was more on the immersive side. It was basically a lounging area where you put on the Samsung Gear and surround sound headphones to experience whatever they were showcasing. In this occasion, it was (of course) a horror setting, where you are sitting on the couch, and it’s raining outside and weird stuff began to happen and a girl suddenly shows up, and then later, kills you. This experience really scared me, but that’s just the type of person I am. I got scared, screamed and immediately took the goggles off in fear. And then I immediately left to the next station.

In the last station, I considered it to be the “best” part of the store. It is this immersive Instagram tunnel, where users input their Instagram handle, and it loads all the Instagram photos that they have ever taken, and then the robot in the tunnel speaks out the different hashtags in your photos. The tunnel only allows three people at a time. The tunnel is sectioned off into three ways and every time a new person enters into the tunnel, the previous people’s position moves forward. Another trip factor of this tunnel is that it is made out of mirrors. So the Instagram wall itself is just half a wall, and then everything else is reflected off from the mirrors. And because the tunnel is made out of mirrors, everyone is required to wear shoe covers so as to not dirty the floor.

That covers the first floor of the store. Going up to the second floor, this is the part where Samsung tries to grab you and never let you leave. There is a coffee shop there with big donuts that you can buy and eat in the dining area. But moving past that, there is this interactive wall where you can see the different appliances that Samsung offers and beside it, a kitchen with their appliances working together, showcasing the wonders of Internet of Things. There were too many people in that area so I did not get the chance to play with the stuff. But moving on from there, there is this photo room, where you compare taking photos from the Samsung Galaxy s7 to its competitors like the iPhone, HTC, and so forth. After you take the photo, you can see a side by side comparison of the photo quality. I think that this was the part that really screamed at me that Samsung was not just trying to convince you to buy the phone because this section is basically like the apple store where they lay out all their tablets and phones for you to play with.

Overall, I would say that this was a good visit and a good experience as a consumer or if you are a Samsung fan. A fair warning for when you go, you will be asked to sign waivers for using the VR sets. I assume it’s just so that if you get sick from it, it’s not their responsibility. And for the Instagram tunnel, you agree that your Instagram account is public. I would like to go again, just because I am curious whether they change up their experiences. For example, instead of a haunted house during the VR experience, I’m sitting down having tea or something. And of course, for the doughnuts.

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March 3

Report – Newly Operational linkNYC Kiosks Between 24th and 27th Streets

A few days ago Letícia and I went out to inspect more newly operational linkNYC kiosks in Manhattan, on Third Avenue between 24th and 27th Streets. We took team member Sean’s advice in terms of his recommendations for follow-up exploration, focusing particularly on the web browser’s content filtering mechanism, what the kiosk’s touchscreen does when it is not being used, and whether or not the kiosk seemed to be drawing attention to itself in its newly operational state.

User Interface / Web Browsing / Apps: Letícia and I were able to pretty easily navigate the user interface. As Sean mentioned previously, it felt quite familiar, like a standard Android OS (if you’re an Android user).

We were able to use the various features of the Google Maps app with ease…

…and make a phone call to each other (the speaker on the kiosk was, if set at its loudest setting, loud enough to hear from around 20 or 30 feet away…EVEN competing with NYC traffic)

We were able to easily access the web browser and browse various sites, including those based in Brazil.

Content Filtering: Letícia and I were interested as to how/if the browser would filter web content.

Using the web browser, we decided to try searching a fairly objectionable search term (Porn), with the goal of seeing what results would be returned, or if the browser would filter a specific search. We found that the browser did not filter this specific search, that it would supply links (and accompanying graphic images), but that once a link was clicked the content would be blocked from loading.

We found what we considered a little bit of a bug with the content filtering mechanism, in that if a user were to search this specific term and access the IMAGES section of the Google Search, the images shown within the images search mosaic were graphic in nature, and in a resolution that made them clearly visible to the kiosk user and perhaps those passing by. As a result, a user could, hypothetically, access content (in some form) that others might find offensive given that the kiosk is situated in a public place.

The kiosk’s wait state and general noticeability: Letícia and I made this video documenting these aspects ….

We’ll be continuing the documentation process as more linkNYC kiosks come online. In addition to documenting newly operational kiosks in-situ, we’re planning to follow up with those that we’ve already visited. It would be interesting to explore if the location of the kiosk and weather conditions have any specific influence on their usage.

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February 22

First Impressions – Newly Deployed linkNYC Kiosks in Manhattan

This is a first installment of an ongoing documentation series, where Public Interactives Research Team will observe linkNYC kiosks being installed and brought into operational mode. The roll-out process began during late December and early January, where there are now a few operational and non-operational kiosks in place along Third Avenue, between 14th street and 92nd street, in the east side of Manhattan. linkNYC has provided this map of installed kiosks (or “links” as they are referred to)

Of particular interest to PIRT are the media touchscreens featured on each “link”. According to the project documentation, each kiosk should feature hyperlocal content specific to where the link is deployed. linkNYC is one of the largest public touchscreen deployments of its kind, so the team is excited to be in such close proximity to this, and we’ll be right there to document its first months of existence.

PIRT member Sean Landers files this report about what he recently saw of the links on Third Avenue between 14th and 18th streets.

Walking past on my way in this afternoon — decided to perform an informal walking survey of the units between 18th and 14th streets, on the east side of Third Avenue. The screens on the terminals didn’t seem to be enabled on the links situated at 18th – 16th streets. I did find one touchscreen enabled, but it was non-responsive, near 16th street and Third Avenue. The first functional unit I found was on the southeast corner of 15th Street, found a second responsive link working on the west side of 3rd Avenue between 14th and 15th streets.

Kiosk / Link:

Outgoing calls and Internet worked on the kiosk.

Internet: Let me cruise around news.google.com, CBS website, YouTube with great freedom. There’s supposed to be content filtering. While I didn’t intentionally test it to see how inappropriate it’d let me get, I think it filtered a NYT story on me. Not sure if it was content (it might’ve been an article on fundamentalism or ISIS?) or some other reason. I am also curious whether filtering is just linkNYC terminal or if there is some type of filter active on the WiFi as well. The link played full motion video with audio, really smooth and clean, no loading bars whatsoever; audio through the headphone jacks was great.

Outgoing Call: Made an outgoing call to my cell-phone and left a voicemail for myself.

I heard my own voice mailbox message really well through headphones on the link. The incoming voicemail was really garbled, basically garbage. Which I guess makes sense, given that I was using a speaker phone from a foot away on the side of 3rd Avenue in the middle of the afternoon. The incoming number listed on my cell phone was (646)693-4500. Calling it results in a personable error message that the number belongs to a linkNYC terminal, which doesn’t receive incoming calls. The service is provided by (prominently branded) Vonage. I could make a phone call while browsing the web, exactly like a phone or a tablet.

Interface: Interface of the link seemed to be Android … had the characteristic “reverse button, home circle, open apps square” features on bottom of screen. Options gear in top right corner lets you adjust brightness and audio. There’s another grey bar which slides up and down just above traditional Android options bar — this bar gives options for what you can access… Outgoing Calls, Internet, 311. There’s a red X you can use to terminate your session — according to the FAQ, they also auto-terminate after 30 seconds (which I presume is ‘inactivity’?). There’s also a “circle-i” button near the gear which brings you to an extended FAQ + licensing information for the terminal.

Free WiFi:

FreeWiFi let me access it without giving it an email address. Apparently, the “Private WiFi” is only available to Apple Devices supporting Hotspot 2.0. The connection really did feel scorchingly fast (although let’s see what happens when everybody on 3rd avenue is using it). Unlike a lot of free wifi, it seemed to have no problem with me streaming music on Spotify. The WiFi signal seemed to drop off somewhere before Union Square east (a few blocks to the west of the link)… I’m not sure what the WiFi range is, exactly. I am also wondering if WiFi is active up-and-down Third Avenue, or just in pockets around functional links?

Recommendations for Follow-Up:

What is the reaction of other people to someone using the terminal? I was really in the experience of using the tablet — I didn’t get a chance to look up and see anyone seeing me.
Do you actually need to give an email address right now, or will it let you access the WiFi without it?
Could be interesting to see how (if) the interface and terminal functions evolve over time.
Was my bad audio recording a result of being too far from the mic, or is the mic just garbage?
I wish I’d run a speed-test on WiFi (BusinessInsider has some data from Jan 17th) and on the terminal.
Longer-term inquiry: see if/how different the capacities of ‘Free WiFi’ and ‘Private WiFi’ are.
Longer-term inquiry: confirm the WiFi connectivity range.
How manipulable is the outgoing call system? Can I call 900 numbers? Can I spoof other numbers? There’s no reason to call collect — but can I? Is there an operator I can speak to?
How many different browser windows and / or tabs can I open at the same time? How far can I push it before it gets sluggish? If the terminal gets sluggish or crashes, does that affect the WiFi? (are the functionality of terminal and WiFi tied together?)
How about the content filter? What is considered ‘inappropriate or malicious” material? What’s the error message inform the user, exactly? (Worth wondering — what does a blocked attempt inform the LinkNYC kiosk — does it track these access attempts? does it align it with any of your data?)

Bigger questions about the Link’s Privacy Policy:

We don’t collect personally identifiable information except what’s required to run the system. “except what’s required to run the system” What does that mean, exactly?

We will never sell your personal information or share with third parties for their own use. “for their own use” But does LinkNYC reserve the right to use your personal information for their own use? Is there something along the lines of a EULA posted somewhere?

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February 21

How Does Designing for Movement Affect the Design of Public Interactives?

The Public Interactives Research Team welcomed special guest researcher and educator Renata Sheppard, whose work focuses on understanding the relationship between movement, technology, and performance. We discussed Laban Movement Analysis, a language system and translation of movement and meaning, and how the system lends itself towards interaction design.

The Laban Effort Graph, for describing, visualizing, interpreting and documenting all varieties of human movement

A point that emerged during our discussions is that, based on our observations, most reactive environmental technology design may not take into account the complexity of possibilities that the movement of the human body could afford. For example, we discussed the fact that most reactive environments that we study (including those that PIRT has prototyped and deployed for research purposes) may only concentrate on a certain SPECIFIC ASPECT of presence, touch, or movement, in order to trigger a media event, like distance from a sensor, the magnitude of a sound, or the fact that a person occupies a specific area of a space. While technological limitations could be a factor, the team understood that Laban Movement Analysis could be an interesting and productive way to discuss and consider human agency in an environment that requires a presence in order to perform its media function.

Discussion also included ways to incorporate Laban Movement Analysis into the design of the interface for the AIDS Quilt Touch Digital Experience. This led to questions about how technology may constrict interaction, on how to achieve a one to one relationship between technology and a person interacting with it (meaning a more exacting mimesis between human movement and technology functionality), while considering that human beings perceive in three dimensions, and that interaction design should take into account that dimensionality.

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February 21

Project Update – Online Gallery of Public Interactives Database Now Contains More Than 1,000 Entries

A milestone has been achieved with respect to the Online Gallery of Public Interactives project. A curation process is ongoing in terms of collecting examples for entry into a database that will serve the forward and public facing version of the project, where that database has now grown to hold over ONE THOUSAND entries. Some entries in the database contain more information than others. For instance, approximately 250 feature detailed information about a particular example, while the remaining only contain a URL, with the intention of utilizing automation to populate the remaining data.

School of Media Studies and PIRT research associate David Wilson, who is leading the curation process, had this to say about reaching the 1,000 entry milestone:

“As the project grows and we collect and log more and more examples, we’ll be able to begin to put a solid visual reference towards addressing the question of WHAT ARE PUBLIC INTERACTIVES. We’ll be able to understand better public interactives antecedents and a type of taxonomy, as well as understand who are employing this emergent media form, where, why, and perhaps what may come next. In addition, we’ll also be able to more concretely address inquiry as to WHY OR WHY NOT A GIVEN MEDIA PIECE IS, OR IS NOT, A PUBLIC INTERACTIVE.”

More updates to follow as the project continues to unfold.

Cinimod Studio, in 2011, implemented an LED Facade for the National Football Stadium of Peru, that reacts to sound levels within the stadium during events

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February 1

The Spring 2016 Semester Begins

Public Interactives Research Team will have it’s first meeting of the Spring 2016 semester on Friday, February 5th by taking a field trip to the New York Hall of Science to check out their Connected Worlds exhibit. One of the largest immersive, interactive, and reactive installations of its kind, Connected Worlds is a great place to begin our semester-long exploration into the emergent communications form that is Public Interactives.

This semester, the team will continue to experiment with building their own Public Interactive’s prototypes. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll have demo/hack sessions utilizing Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and MIT App Inventor. In addition, the team is currently designing an infographic describing the Public Interactives phenomenon, as well as preparing to curate and input content into our Online Gallery of Public Interactives.

New members are always welcome. The team meets Friday’s from 2pm to 4pm in the School of Media Studies Loft at 79 Fifth Ave, 16th floor. For more information contact David Wilson ( david.wilson @ newschool . edu )

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October 28

What We’ve Been Up To – Fall 2015

By Leticia Ferreira De Souza

The Public Interactive Research Team has been keeping busy this Fall. We meet every Friday from 2pm to 4pm, at the School of Media Studies loft, to plan workshops, brainstorm about new projects, prepare finished works to festivals and conferences and talk about Public Interactives we have been experiencing. The Public Interactives Independent Study group goes on field trips frequently and report their experiences to the Team, fomenting interesting discussions about what is happening currently in our field.

Some highlights of our semester so far:

Pcomp dorkShop: On October 3^rd, in a partnership with dorkShop, we met to learn about Arduino and physical computing. We got to understand the basics and the logic of devices like Arduino and are very excited to learn more and explore the possibilities of these technologies.

Times Square Alliance visit: On October 9^th, we visited the Times Square Alliance, organization responsible for the Midnight Moment at Times Square. We were given a presentation by the Alliance director and had a Q&A session afterwards. We find it interesting to learn that they don’t have any testing model or simulator; the pieces go directly to the boards. Also some pieces have music that can be heard at SoundCloud; they post on their Twitter the link for it. Another point of interest was the flexible relationship between the Alliance and the owners of the billboards: every month the Alliance send an email with some material about next month’s piece and the billboards managers let them know if they want to participate or not; there’s no long term contract.

Projection Mapping Workshop: On October 23^rd, in partnership with Re/Lab, we offered a Projection Mapping workshop. It was great to learn the basics of Projection Mapping, how to use VPT (a free mapping software) and all the exciting ideas it affords.

Malcolm McCullough visit: On November 2^nd Malcolm McCullough will be visiting the New School. He and PIRT will be visiting Local Projects, the company responsible for the interactive design of the 9/11 Memorial Museum and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. We are preparing for his visit by reading and discussing his books.

Special thanks to Angela Ferraiolo for arranging the Times Square Alliance visit, and for instructing the projection mapping workshop. Additional thanks to Merrilee Pan who coordinated our Pcomp dorkShop, and to Alejandro Jaramillo who coordinated the projection mapping workshop with Re/Lab.

The semester has been exciting so far, and we still have more two months to go!

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October 19

A Collection of Twitter Images from PIRT’s SIGGRAPH Experience

The Public Interactive’s Research Team had an amazing time this past August presenting the AIDS Quilt Touch Digital Experience at SIGGRAPH 2015 in Los Angeles. We were honored to be able to show a small part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to conference attendees. The following is a collection of images found on Twitter via our #pirtsiggraph hashtag that chronicles some of our experience. A special thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth during the event.

The beginning of setting up the booth

The panels before going up

Our booth under construction

Another booth construction picture

AIDS Quilt Touch booth

Red ribbons visitors could take and wear as a symbol of support to the AIDS Quilt

PIRT member Sean Landers documented our experience at SIGGRAPH

Our team on the last day

Taking the booth down

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August 13

PIRT at SIGGRAPH LiveBlog Final Day

Tweets about #pirtsiggraph since:2015-08-13
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Thursday, August 13th – 10:40 pm PDT

Hi again, everyone! So the dust on our final day at SIGGRAPH 2015 has settled a little bit but not completely. The team definitely has more to share in summation of our experiences during the show. We’ll be posting those in various forms here over the next few days as they become available. For now, check out a video post from research assistant Sean, featuring myself and Letícia describing our experiences in our booth.

Thursday, August 13th – 1:45 pm PDT

A flurry of activity from the show floor as SIGGRAPH 2015 comes to an end. We’ll be posting more once the dust settles here, and we get everything packed up. Bye for now!

Thursday, August 13th – 12:35 pm PDT

A report from research assistant Letícia:

Yesterday we went to the SIGGRAPH’s Animation Festival. We watched two hours of animations, from short movies to game trailers, including pieces of big blockbusters, edited specially to show the visual effects. In an overall reflection, I didn’t see anything particularly impressive. The perfection and beauty of the images are undeniable, however interesting and touching stories were exceptions. What really annoyed me, though, is the lack of representation of people that are not white, male, cisgender, straight, athletic or their romantic interests (objectified skinny white women that are The Standard Beauty and have no personality or will, just serve to the male counterpart). It is 2015, SIGGRAPH and people that make these animations! We need to talk about visibility, representability, and diversity. If VR and CG are supposed to reproduce the reality, why not talk about the real world and its real people of all colors, shapes, genders (or lack of any specific one), expressions, preferences and struggle? I am not even talking about bringing political and social debate into games (yet), for now is just about represent the diversity that the real world is actually about. I feel like the people producing these animations could use a bit of critical theory and/or real world experience in their work.

Thursday, August 13th – 11:05 am PDT

A report from School of Media Studies Dean and principal investigator for the AIDS Quilt Touch Project Anne Balsamo:

Reflections on Bringing the AIDS Memorial Quilt and the AIDS Quilt Touch Project to SIGGRAPH 2015

On the last day of the convention, I reflect on the reception of our project here at SIGGRAPH. Although it will come as no surprise to anyone who has been in the presence of the Quilt, many visitors to our booth were mesmerized by its beauty, scale, and symbolism. Several people returned every day, just to chat or look again. Many people knew nothing about the Quilt and were genuinely open and interested to hear of its history and cultural significance. Many others shared stories of lost loved ones. It was a quiet place for conversation in the middle of a noisy and technology-saturated convention hall. It was, also, the only place to reflect on real experiences that haven’t been designed to distract and amuse. Given the context of SIGGRAPH–one of the largest gatherings of computer graphics professionals–many visitors were intrigued about the interactive Quilt Browser that we displayed on an touch-enabled table. What I observed consistently was that although many visitors may have walked into the booth to see the technology, they stayed because of the Quilt.

Thursday, August 13th – 10:10 am PDT

Good morning and welcome to Public Interactives Research Team’s final day of LiveBlog coverage from our booth at SIGGRAPH 2015 in Los Angeles. I’m your moderator, research assistant David Wilson. It’s been a fascinating week and the team is a bit sad that the show is coming to an end. Today’s coverage will feature a wide variety of posts, from final thoughts and impressions we’ll take away from this experience, to our describing what we saw last night at the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival.

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