'Snurfing' and Winter Travel

The earliest snowfall in Britain for 17 years is no doubt whetting appetites for winter sports leisure pursuits. The demand for travel to winter sports destinations is set to increase from the 2009/2010 season according to the UK's largest travel operator. TUI 4 October 2010 However, the pressures that developments in winter sport technology insert on the demand for winter travel to snow-capped mountain resorts is often overlooked. The snowboard is one such technology that contributes to winter travel demand.

The snowboard has followed a steady trajectory of development since the early tinkering by pioneers of the sport such as Jake Burton and Dimitrije Milovich in the 1980's. Critical to the success of snowboarding was the development of the sidewards binding that held the rider's feet and ankles in place to allowing for more control in turning and stopping. Other developments include the material composition of the snowboard, progressing from plywood 'snurfers' (arguably the first snowboard that was popular in the 1960's) to the fiberglass and foam core that constitutes the new Lib Tech Skate Banana, the latest in snowboarding technology.

The Lib Tech's Skate Banana has a 'rocker' shape that distributes the weight from the edges to the middle of the board ensuring that this board can be used in any conditions, form park to powder, ultimately enhancing the enjoyment and experience of the rider. The 'magnetron' edges, that have been designed with a very slight wave, also allow for more control in icy conditions, making the practice more accessible to beginners.

There has been a surge in demand for the Lib Tech Skate Banana and similar designs of snowboard since the 1990's. This demand is reflected in the fact that in the USA alone snowboarding has increased by a staggering 77% since 1997 (abc-of-snowboarding.com). In terms of travel demand, however, the popularity snowboarding along with other winter sport activities, contribute to the increasing demand for winter sport holidays, which in the UK typically involve international air travel and long bus journeys up to the mountains. These travel trends continue despite the recent snowy weather. The UK is unfortunately a long way off becoming a popular destination to practice winter sports.

Could Portable Digital 'Scrolls' Come Back in Fashion?

The Norwegian comedy TV show Øystein shows a monk calling a medieval help desk to show him how to use this new system that has been introduced: the book (or codex). The monk can open the book, but turning pages, following text across pages, and returning to the beginning are all baffling. The new system, he complains, is stopping him get any work done.
Of course, the humour stems from the fact that many of us have had similar experiences with computers and helpdesks. But an interesting point is raised by the show. Do the format advantages of a book over a scroll still matter within the context of digital media when portability, robustness, and comfort—in short travel concerns—take precedence?
While the tablet was used extensively for practicing and note-taking the demand for more portable, lasting content in a convenient format meant that the scroll came into fashion. But as texts grew in size, so too did scrolls grow in unwieldiness. As this Victorian painting from 1867 by Simeon Solomon shows, carrying scrolls could be hard work!

In fact flatbed designs predate scrolls considerably and remained in use long after the wide-spread adoption (the roll-out!) of scrolls. Wax tablets were used well into Roman times as this Pompeii mural from 79 and an illustration from 1305 from the Codex Manesse show. The tablet, much like the modern digital form, was used extensively by very early writers, who used either the finger or a stylus to imprint cuneiform (the word means wedge after the imprint of the stylus), hieroglyphics, pictographs, and letters on the surface of the wax or clay.

What's the point of an e-scroll? As our ancestors knew scrolls are portable and protected without covers, bags, and other accessories. The major issue with the new tablet forms now on the market is portability and damage from everyday use. The sensitive surface of the rolled screen is protected from impact, scratching, or marking. As space is no longer an issue for e-readers that can change the content appearing on the screen the added expense of doubled screens (to make a book form that can protect the display surfaces) and the unlikelihood of screens that could be 'folded' without damaging components means that e-scrolls are a much more likely scenario.

The elephant in the room here is that no electronic display on the market is yet able to bend enough to be rolled into a scroll. But new technology, a .1mm thin flexible AMOLED or Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, is being developed by ITRI and other companies like Sony and LG are working on similar e-paper designs. Electronista 29 October 2010 It remains to be seen whether we will all be using scrolls in the future... again.

Dattoos and Travel

Imagine a world where you no longer need a wallet, smart-card, keys, bank-card, mobile; even laptop! Once viewed from this angle, Frog Design's dattoos, or interface-enabled printable tattoos, can seem like a huge jump in user-interface technologies. Gizmodo 10 November 2009

According to Frog Design Dattoos promise:

DNA-reader and identification technology; nanosensors and interactive "touch reading" for finger tips (Braille); pattern and image recognition; self-learning and educational applications; living materials that change shape and feel; flexible OLED displays; full voice interaction, directional laser speakers; bionic nano chips; and cyborg components.

Sure, it would make life easier not to have to carry a slew of objects all the time. And the benefits in terms of security surely outweigh any negatives, for instance arms scrawled with designer ink. Indeed bloggers seem to love the idea of crossing fashion with technology. Tom's Guide 26 August 2010 But what are the implications for travel?

We need to talk here about smart cards. The idea of a one-stop-shop for transport ticketing is the holy grail of intelligent infrastructure, but has only been adopted by a handful of world cities. Many have been beset by contract disputes, operational and privacy issues, and of course funding problems. But what if, instead of printing out a boarding pass on paper, you simply stuck it to your arm? More ambitious possibilities could be surfing the web, booking tickets, and checking timetables on a digital display tattooed on your arm. Ergonomic? Perhaps not, but certainly not such a dead-weight in your pocket as a smart-phone.

The Transport Potentials of Mindflex

One of the first widely known consumer technologies to use electroencephalography (EEG) is the Mattel Mindflex. The device allows the wearer of a special headset to control the motor of a little fan that levitates a ball through a number of different obstacles. How does it work? The device reads brain activity and interprets it into an electrical signal. While commercial EEG headsets have been patented and are available the Mindflex makes this technology affordable and also, albeit mildly, fun.
Of course, circuit benders have been quick to experiment with the devices. One notorious 'mod' is the Harcos Labs' hacked Mindflex that offers volunteers a not-so-mild electric shock when the wearer of the headset focuses/loses concentration. Slashgear 5 March 2010 In a similar fashion Robert Schneider has hacked the Mindflex into the Teletron to create a musical controller for synthesizers, which allows control over pitch through brain activity. Gadgetell 8 September 2010 And a student at Georgia Tech in the US, Hunter Scott, has created from a Star Wars EEG toy - very similar to the Mindflex - a sample-playing instrument called the Mental Note. Interestingly, this toy includes a serial out port left over from the development stage on the circuit-board that easily interfaces with computers.

More mainstream applications are also being prototyped. Emotiv systems have pioneered the Epoc: a brainwave interface for computers. Similarly, the PLX Devices XWave makes it possible to control an iPhone through your thoughts and purchase tailored apps as they are developed.

There are also many travel technologies around us that could be altered to work with brain activity: traffic crossings, car-doors, the play/stop button on music players. The altering of the built environment to interact with the headsets could open up a whole new realm of possibilities in terms of interactivity (and inactivity!). More ambitiously the same technology developed in the Mindflex is being prototyped to control helicopters and other airborne vehicles. Flight Global 20 September 2010 As EEG technology becomes further exploited in novelty consumer devices as well as gaming and computing, unintended transport and travel consequences are bound to emerge. The next gen of these products could be imagined to translate signals from not only brain activity, but moods.

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.

Travel Agents and Guides

It appears two staples of leisure travel, the travel agent and the travel guide tome, are threatened by new smart-phone apps. Apple has been reported to have filed three patents for apps that allow the user to make reservations, create an itinerary, and view airport guides and information all from a smart-phone. NDTV 10 August 2010

While it is unclear how much travel agents have accommodated new technologies into their business models, travel agents are becoming more vulnerable. Two of the most well-known agents in the UK - Tui Travel and Thomas Cook - both downgraded profit forecasts after a dramatic slowdown in business this year. The downgrade has been attributed to the volcanic ash-cloud as well as the rising interest in staycations due to job insecurities. Guardian 11 August 2010

Meanwhile, the era of lugging a heavy travel guide appears to be threatened by the trend of ebooks. Guides by Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, Time Out, Frommer's, and Fodor's are all now available through sellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes. TravPR 11 August 2010

Does this mean no more arm-ache on the road? As long as power-points are available to charge devices. One side-effect of the increasing reliance on portable devices is a dramatic rise in lost power-chargers at hotels. Last year, the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver used its huge stash of forgotten chargers as Christmas decorations! Wall Street Journal 7 August 2010