During the course of the Advertising Week conference, a number of technologies were displayed and touted as new vehicles for marketing and communication. Though the conference was geared toward marketers, the tools presented there are just as applicable to journalists. Here’s a small sampling of them:
Augmented Reality is often described as adding computer functionality into our real-world environments. Simple ones displayed at Ad Week included a table with a screen as its top that allowed someone in one locale to place a document on top and have someone elsewhere “grab” it. Another included an image of a building with computer pointers and text automatically overlain that showed what was in the building.
Using Google Maps to Show Portfolios
A couple of Google execs showed off 87 things they thought were cool, some using Google technologies. One was people using the Google Maps API to display their design portfolios in an interactive, flexible and multidimensional way that allows for some of the same mashups as the maps do: zooming, dragging, adding more info with a click, pointing and the rest, all apparently using AJAX that do it without requiring a load on the server.
Pointing Your Phone to the Sky to Navigate
SkyMap apparently has an app one can load on a cellphone that allows you to point your phone’s camera at the stars and not only find out what constellations and planets are above you, but also figure out where on Earth you are.
Realtime Translation
Andy Berndt, managing director of Google Creative Lab, showed off a not yet launched and not perfected version of the Google translation engine that translates text in real time in Gmail and in Google Chat. “What happens when language barriers fall?” he asked.
Multiple Screens Doing Multiple Things
A few of the presentations showed off screens and projections on walls, floors and ceilings in an environment that could recognize motions, display information and generally enhance whatever else was happening among the humans in the room.
BusinessWeek, for example, projected its logo on the floor and let you try to stomp on it as the images moved away from your feet. Imagine being able to point at a wall and get information you’re looking for during a conversation, or imagine seeing a news presentation that’s not confined to one screen. That’s multimedia.
