The Mass Roll-Out of Video-Phones is Here

A fifties Popular Science article on current inventions describes the 'New Video Phone' a two-way camera in a specially made telephone booth for both military and social purposes. (1950: 81) Despite the technology's history, widespread video-phone use continues to elude us. A sci-fi staple (Bladerunner, Aliens), video-phones (like jet-packs) are an endearing trope of the future.

But wider adoption of video-phones has been marred by costs. As such the technology has been dwarfed by the continuing widespread use of mobile telephones, with little impact on commuting practices; it's just not face-to-face communication. As a 1973 report to the US National Science Foundation titled 'Telecommunications Research in the United States and Selected Foreign Countries: A Preliminary Survey' made clear: "The Principal impetus for this work seems to be a feeling that substitution of telecommunications for travel can be more readily effected by less expensive audio and visual conferencing arrangements than by person-to-person video-phone". (1973: 27)

Now a new idea that Apple and other mobile companies are championing might see video phones replace audio after all. The idea is video communication via wireless networks and Apple are presenting it through there Face Time software and the latest version of their iPod music player, the iTouch, as well as the iPad 2 and iPhone 4. This means that anyone with a front-and-back camera-enabled device and a wireless network can make video calls: a potentially much larger audience that mainstream iPhone users relying on 3G networks. Competitors are also jumping on board with new portables like the Samsung Galaxy tablet. PC Mag 17 September 2010

The possibility of bypassing telco providers to reduce costs for video is the major innovation here. But more simply, the other innovation is front-facing cameras now standard on most laptops. Video-phones might also discourage mobile phone usage as wireless networks become more widespread. As we all get more used to Skype and Google Chat, as well as unconventional technologies like vid-mail (i.e. Eyejot) where video recordings are sent instead of text, video-phone use might finally become widespread and even substitute for travel. The work contexts are particularly interesting as front-and-back cameras combined with wireless video becomes standard for business and corporate phones. When the costs are borne by organizations then most work users might be expected to use video over audio and perhaps even vid-mail over email?

Banner Blindness

Banner blindness is a condition caused by poorly planned websites displaying an overwhelming amount of content: confusing images, animations, popups, and (especially) banners. In response the user tunes out, often ignoring important content in the process.

Mobility is important in bringing banner blindness to the attention of developers and designers. The fashion for stripped down, minimalist site design is a product of smart-phones with web access requiring low bandwidths and content on the move.

With the increasing popularity and development of Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and practices banner blindness is bound to become a potentially crucial factor in transport demand. Unlike virtual reality, where the user is immersed in an online environment, users of AR actively engage with the real-world. AR is currently restricted to smart-phone apps that layer content over a recorded image of the user surroundings or to in-vehicle technologies that project information on the windscreen. But future technologies are anticipated to be much more engaged, such as AR glasses that completely cover the eyes and display information on the lenses controlled by haptic wrist-bands or remote controls.

An unintended consequence of this revolution in AR is the potential for banner blindness to impact upon travel safety, efficiency, and infrastructure. A spate of recent pedestrian accidents highlights this growing issue. In Australia, where urban centres are often divided by intensive traffic, 'iPod Zombies' - pedestrians that are oblivious to their surroundings due to music players and loud or in-ear noise-cancelling headphones - are a growing issue. Gulf News 9 September 2010 In New South Wales a 25 per cent increase in the pedestrian death toll has been attributed to music players. Herald Sun 6 September 2010

'Podestrians' are at much greater risk than pedestrians due to sustained sensory deprivation in unsafe urban environments. Access Legal 23 August 2010 As information demands grow a range of technologies including games consoles, mobiles, and entertainment devices is changing the behavioural fabric of public space. Guardian 25 August 2010

Thus transport planners face a future world of information-rich but sensory-deprived individuals at risk from the increasingly hectic and unsafe urban environment. No wonder the new British government is seeking councils to remove bollards, advertising and other forms of 'street clutter'. Public Finance 27 August 2010 In a data-rich but under-regulated Big Society AR is sure to be a source of many unintended consequences that impact upon how people travel.

Graffiti and Car Customization

What do customizing cars and graffiti have in common? First, they are both active users of spray cans and permanent paint technologies. Secondly, they both take skill and precision. Yet, these two apparently distinct practices are much more closely related than might first be thought despite one being legal and the other illegal. Both exemplify freedom, personal expression, and youth culture.

The idea of art on public space is hardly new. Ancient cave painting in Lascaux, France occurred in 'public' caves that were not places of ongoing habitation, but possible refuges or of religious significance. The aerosol paint can was first invented by Edward Seymour in the US. Use for personalizing cars grew in the US with 1970s car culture as demonstrated in the film Grease, where car customization was a major past-time.

But, in contemporary transport policy terms graffiti is a form of vandalism. For example, the notorious Sheffield artist Bloodaxe recently unleashed a spate of new material that cost Network Rail thousands of pounds to remove. The Star 1 September 2010 Graffiti is seen as impacting upon both travel aesthetics and transport delays and because of this graffiti provokes zero tolerance responses. The now famous graffiti artist Banksy is a case in point. Many of Banksy's public works have been removed accidentally by councils. Regional Press 1 September 2010 Yet for Banksy the discovery and danger of public space is also part of the appeal as continuing discoveries of his work demonstrate. Culture 24 26 August 2010

How does graffiti culture impact upon travel? The UK Department for Transport Case Study Report on Graffiti (2003) highlights graffiti as encouraging vandalism and other 'environmental nuisances'. Similarly, the DfT report 'Better Rail Stations' (2009) approaches graffiti as an issue of cleaning standards. While bans on aerosol cans have provoked outcries from suppliers a general, but ineffective, solution has been to ban sales to minors who can't drive cars. The Times 19 January 2003

Spray can technologies are intimately linked to transport and travel and both the practices of car customization and graffiti continue to impact on society in unintended ways. Further policies that are designed to combat one can impact upon the other. It remains to be seen how these different interests are reconciled in future.