Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 9
Posts 1 - 9

Caricatures become an obsession

Hyperlink

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 )

Hyperlink

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

Hyperlink

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

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

Hyperlink

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

Teenage Days, Streamed For Coins

Hyperlink

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

Where's Humanity in the Digital Fun House?

Hyperlink

Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 30.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | social media, virtual reality
Summary | Sotheby, the auction house, is better known for its exhibitions of contemporary art. The gallery currently shows artists who rely on digital technology and who talk about the future of technology and the role that humans will take. At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, visitors can see a strange sculpture that represents a 21st-century memorial where there is a screen showing social media posts of a young man who was killed in a roadside hit-and-run. This sculpture was the catalyst for the Sotheby's show. The sculpture is supposed to preserve dead people's online presence through virtual reality.
Image Description | N/A

"Wir wollen die Menschen aus ihrem Zombiesein aufwecken"

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

Hyperlink

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

Jekyll, Hyde y Facebook

(Jekyll, Hyde and Facebook)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | El País
Date | 15.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | research/study, social media, threat, virtual reality
Summary | The idea of dissociative personality (or multiple personality) has been exploited in various novels, comics and movies (e.g. Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, Hulk, The Mask, Mrs. Doubtfire). With the advance of virtual reality, the issue of dissociative personality will be more and more apparent, especially with social networks. The version of ourselves that we display online is a better version of ourselves. Our online clones represent what we would like to be.
Image Description | Photograph of Mark Zuckerberg
Image Tags | male(s)

Esta es la tecnología que matará a tu ‘smartphone’

(This is the technology that will kill your smartphone)

Hyperlink

Newspaper | El País
Date | 25.5.2017
Language | Spanish
Country | Spain
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, brain, smartphone, threat, virtual reality
Summary | According to some experts, augmented reality is threatening the future of mobile phones, and soon smartphones will disappear. Facebook is interesting in creating a parallel universe. In April, at a conference, Facebook talked about the possibility of writing directly from the brain. Virtual reality is the future, and it will offer information in an non-intrusive way. Experts point out, however, that the great challenge of such a technology is its high cost.
Image Description | Video about augmented reality

Page 1 of 1