Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 14
Posts 1 - 10

Caricatures become an obsession

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Newspaper | Los Angeles Times
Date | 14.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | smartphone, virtual reality
Summary | Bitmoji is an app that allows users to create avatars of themselves. Bitmoji images are funny and absurd, which is why the app has become so popular. 3D Bitmoji World Lenses allows users to create 3D Bitmojis in the real world; they can select specific scenes through their smartphone, and it looks like Bitmoji avatars are interacting with their environment. Jacob Blackstock claims that it is important to have a digital extension of oneself. Also, based on a focus group study with teenagers, users want diversity. Moreover, they like the app because it offers a kind of lightheartedness that they can't find elsewhere.
Image Description | Screenshot of Bitmoji World Lenses, and series of different Bitmojis.

Als die Server zusammenbrechen, fliessen die Tränen

(As the servers break down, the tears start )

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Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 27.7.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | game, smartphone, threat, virtual reality
Summary | Pokémon Go is a hugely popular smartphone video game that lets players catch virtual Pokémons in their real surroundings by means of augmented reality. A huge public Pokémon Go event was held in Chicago with 20'000 attendees. At some point the inevitable happemned, the servers collapsed and the app would not work any more. Many players became very upset and Pokémon Go reimbursed all attendees who paid to be at the event with a rare Pokémon.
Image Description | An image of a park with Pokémon, a screenshot of a Pokémon Go map, and a hand holding a smartphone with Pokémon Go open on the screen.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone

Augmented reality children's book brings bedtime stories to life in 3D

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Newspaper | Mirror
Date | 24.1.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, smartphone, virtual reality
Summary | Companies are trying to incorporate augmented reality to their products. For instance, you can now use an augmented reality app with 5 hardback books and transform bedtime stories in 3D.
Image Description | Video explaining how the app works, photograph of a tablet and a book, photograph of an open book, and photograph of a man and a woman
Image Tags | female(s), male(s), tablet

Pokemon Go: What is it, how to play it and everything you need to know

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Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 26.7.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | game, smartphone, threat, virtual reality
Summary | The augmented reality game Pokemon Go is now available in the UK. Users can catch Pokemons in real life thanks to their smartphone. Pokemon Go is a popular game around the world, but playing the game can be dangerous; there have been robberies, shootings, and car accidents because of the game.
Image Description | Screenshot of Charlotte Nice's tweet, two videos about the game, two photographs of hands holding a smartphone displaying the game Pokemon Go, four photographs about accidents and injuries linked to the game.
Image Tags | game, hand(s), smartphone, Twitter

The Smartphone’s Future: It’s All About the Camera

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 30.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | privacy, smartphone, translation, virtual reality
Summary | Now that smartphones are as thin and as fast as possible, they need to develop into another realm. The camera will be used in new ways to, for instance, improve privacy by unlocking your phone by showing your face. Another innovation is the possiblity of taking a picture of a restaurant menu and having it instantly translated. Augmented reality also relies on the camera enabling users to, for instance, project a 3D model of a piece of furniture they want into a picture of their living room to see what it would look like.
Image Description | Illustration showing a smartphone scanning a woman's face.
Image Tags | female(s), smartphone

The Week in Tech: The Next Big Thing, According to Mark Zuckerberg

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 16.4.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | Facebook, research/study, smartphone, texting, virtual reality
Summary | Facebook is already huge: more than three times as many messages are transmitted over Facebook Messenger than SMS messages at its peak. But Facebook is also hugely significant as a video platform and they are investing much of their resources in developing virtual reality. Apparently, Zuckerberg believes that VR is the next big platform after the smartphone. They are even working with anthropologists to make the body language VR avatars more realistic.
Image Description | An image of Zuckerberg doing a presentation with VR goggles projected behind him.
Image Tags | Facebook, male(s)

'Snowden' filmmaker Oliver Stone warns Pokemon Go is creating a totalitarian world filled with robot-like people

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Newspaper | Mail Online
Date | 22.7.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | game, privacy, smartphone, social media, threat, virtual reality
Summary | The game Pokemon Go has become so popular that it has overtaken major social media in number of active users. Oliver Stone spoke about the smartphone phenomenon as 'a new level of invasion' that could potentially lead to totalitarianism and a culture of surveillance. Internet giants are tracking everyone's online behavior, especially through the game Pokemon Go.
Image Description | Photograph of Oliver Stone, photograph of three male children looking at their smartphone, photograph of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and photograph of Edward Snowden
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

Teenage Days, Streamed For Coins

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 7.6.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | smartphone, social media, video communication, virtual reality, youth
Summary | 15-year-old Bryce Xavier is a star on Live.ly (a live streaming app). Bryce spends every day among a virtual crowd of fans (mostly teenage girls). For instance, he can broadcast his lunch at Olive Garden with his mom. Bryce became very popular on the platform; as a consequence, he dropped out of school and started homeschooling so that he would have enough time for Live.ly. Live streaming has become popular because it is seen as more authentic than other social media platforms. Despite many advantages, the platform can also render human interaction shallow.
Image Description | N/A

Pokémon Go boom puts Occoquan on the map

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Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 14.8.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | game, smartphone, threat, virtual reality
Summary | The smartphone game Pokémon Go is becoming popular among teenagers, mothers and sons, couples, or middle-aged government workers. The game's augmented realited has brought those people to the small town of Occoquan (Virginia). The town is a hotbed for the game, and the town's popularity has been good for businesses. The game allows people to catch Pokémon creatures in real life. Why is Occoquan a good location for the game? It is situated on the banks of a river, so people can catch both land and water Pokémon creatures. Occoquan is also filled with historical buildings which can house many Pokémon creatures. People have been concerned about the popularity of the game. For example, players' distraction has led to an increase in robberies.
Image Description | N/A

"Wir wollen die Menschen aus ihrem Zombiesein aufwecken"

("We want to wake people up from their zombie existence")

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Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 3.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | game, smartphone, threat, virtual reality
Summary | Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game. It is different from virtual reality in that it uses the real topography around the player as the site of the game which is virtually enhanced with Pokémon which can be "caught". It was designed to make people engage with the outside world and each other while playing, to lead people into parks they never went to. The most effective way to do that nowadays is to create an incentive with the smartphone.
Image Description | Getty image of Pokémon Go players at night and a portrait of the interviewee.
Image Tags | male(s), smartphone

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