Overview of new media
The digital media revolution in culture during the late 20th and early 21st century confirms both Jean-Luc Goddard’s belief in the “end of cinema”. This new media era has been called a post human digital age, which has involved many traditional media industries radically adopting new changes to challenge the rapid emergence of for example, consumer-grade technologies such as DVD’s, the Internet, virtual reality systems and wireless communication systems.
The 20th century saw the revolution of visual media, mass photographic and electronic media production. The 21st century is bringing together the mechanical operations, aesthetics and perceptual opportunities of media, into new technologies and mediums such as the virtual reality environment. New media studies reflect on such technologies and on the social impact of the personal computer, computer networks, digital mobile devices, ubiquitous computing and virtual reality.
Interactivity
Interactivity is generally considered to be a central characteristic of new media, but is not unique to new media. It has a various meanings to different people and in different contexts. Some authors have tried to define new media and identify specific characteristics. For example, Negroponte (1995) suggested that what differentiates new media from old media is that new media is based on the transmission of digital bits rather than physical atoms. However, Lievrouw and Livingstone suggest that the level of interactivity should not be measured on the provision of technical features, but rather how users perceive and experience those features.
The interaction between a human and a computer is based on technology and psychology, which ultimately effects human behaviour, knowledge and skills. Tools and computer technologies help humans to increase their skills, gain competitiveness and essentially improve activities. Turing (1956) proposed that a computer and a human being are equally intelligent if other human beings are unable to distinguish between the responses of a computer compared to those of a human. Even though ten years later, when MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum developed ‘Eliza’, which was able to continue a conversation by replaying sentences typed into it, computers essentially output what humans have inputted. Therefore, Turing’s proposal can not be justified until a computer is able to act on its own instinct and emotion, and is not bound by logic and on a set of rules inputted by humans. The emotional inhibitor contained within the cyberman (pictured below) on the science fictional Dr Who series, is the most important difference between computer technology and humans.
Robot: Cyberman from Dr Who series
Immersive brain interaction
Natural communication methods including speech, body language and even brainwaves are articulated through media. Sound is a motivating force that has incredible biometric possibilities. Short discrete sounds or long continuous sounds are used for different effects such as attracting attention or creating a relaxing atmosphere. In some ways, the sense of hearing is superior to vision. The human perceptual system can locate sound sources in the environment and can detect them coming from any direction by analysing subtle time delays and frequency variations.
The human brain produces waves of currents that flow throughout its neural pathways. There are two hemispheres and four types of wave, which are defined by the frequency at which the brain is pulsing. The left hemisphere is linear, logical and time orientated, while the right hemisphere is non-linear, abstract, creative and non-logical. Humans tend to use one hemisphere at a time. For example mathematics would use more of the left hemispheric activity, while painting a picture would use more right hemispheric activity.
Various interactive media can improve information uptake performance, but capacity and long-term memory storage within a human’s brain is limited. To improve input performance, this project looks at the possibility of inputting information directly into the brain. The metaphor devised to accomplish this is known as electroencephalography (EES). A metaphor is a cognitive transfer agent, allowing knowledge of one domain to be transferred to another. Electroencephalography measures electric activity of the brain by recording the activity from electrodes placed on a human’s scalp. The results are known as an electroencephalogram (EEG) and represent so-called brainwaves. This process is used with various types of neuroimaging, which displays images simultaneously on a multiencephalometer. In March 2004, the MIT lab demonstrated ‘Mind Balance’, a game in which the character is controlled directly from a player’s brain. The game demonstrated how a sophisticated Cerebus headset with cerebral data nodes and Bluetooth, could react to brain activity.
 Wireless Bluetooth |
 EEG Cap |
An interactive digital environment: virtual reality
An interactive digital environment relies heavily on technology, but is not necessarily a technology itself. It is about the relationship between the consumer (human) and the producer (computer). Virtual environments provide the sensory experience of being in a computer generated, simulated space. A virtual environment is largely abstract and subject to change. It is a computer-controlled interaction that assumes the computer will present information to the user who will then respond. They have potential uses in a range of applications. The utility of current generation virtual environments is limited by a lack of veridical perception of simulated spaces and an associated lack of realism in interacting with the simulated spaces.
Virtual reality was first thought of in 1960’s, when the popularity of ‘Eliza’ and personal computers boomed. Platform games were introduced eight years later, which ultimately saw the popularity of text-based games such as Eliza decrease. Locomotion interfaces are energy-extractive devices that, in a confined space, simulate unrestrained human mobility such as walking and running for virtual reality. They overcome limitations of for example, using joysticks for manoeuvring the body. Their use yields realistic navigation in modelled worlds and an enhanced sense of spatial layout. MIT are currently researching how locomotion interfaces can allow a user to walk naturally through a large scale virtual environment. If successful, such interfaces may become an important technology supporting various applications. Treadmills are an example of a locomotion device allowing a user to walk in a relatively normal manner without significant change in actual location.
VR Headset
Fictional material reviews
The Tangible Media group, which explores how to improve physical environment and digital space, has developed an interactive tabletop workspace (pictured below) that by projecting graphic representations of complex computations directly onto the workspace, users can easily explore how changes such as pressure will affect the surface. This could be applied to the IDE, where human pressure on a digital surface results in a changed appearance of that surface.
Interactive tabletop
Future media is predicted and frequently illustrated in movies and futuristic narratives. Films that can be dubbed as futuristic and not science fiction such as The Island, Total Recall and I-Robot all have the foundations of reality in place that might be achieved in the future. The cloning used in The Island has already happened on the famous ‘Dolly the sheep’, the virtual reality dreaming envisaged in Total Recall is progressing well, and robots are becoming more sophisticated year on year and will undoubtedly become as advanced as those witnessed in I-Robot. MIT Labs are already developing robots that can perform tasks perfectly suited to a non-human assistant with human-like understanding.
CAPE has been developed for the VR Cave at Media Lab. It can visually track head and hand positions, calculate pointing direction, and recognise pointing gestures. The visual tracking is aided by reflective markers on the head and hand. Infrared light illuminates the markers and cameras, sensitive to infrared light, are used for image acquisition. The idea of controlling electronic devices via plugs or implants in the brain has been a recurring theme in science fiction works, like William Gibson's novel Neuromancer and the Matrix films (pictured below).
Film: The Matrix