Jay Bolter

Georgia Institute of Technology | GT · GVU Center

In this paper, we treat VR as a new writing space in the long tradition of inscription. Constructing Virtual Reality (VR) narratives can then be understood as a process of inscribing text in space, and consuming them as a process of “reading” the space. Our research objective is to explore the meaning-making process afforded by spatial narratives—t...

We report here on an application of reality media (virtual and augmented reality) to digital cultural heritage. The particular challenge we address is: how to combine VR and AR to bridge the gap between the center (the museum housing cultural artifacts) and periphery (the heritage site where the artifacts were found) while at the same time attendin...

Working or WERKing on a wearable technology project in a transdisciplinary group can be an effective way of learning new skills and collaboration techniques. This paper describes a case study of running a wearable technology group project within an undergraduate course entitled Wearable Technology and Society. The computational media students in th...

How augmented reality and virtual reality are taking their places in contemporary media culture alongside film and television. This book positions augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) firmly in contemporary media culture. The authors view AR and VR not as the latest hyped technologies but as media—the latest in a series of what they term...

In this article, the authors examine the aesthetics of immersion in two emerging media forms: 360° video and 3D VR. Their goal is to move beyond addressing technical affordances, to consider the techniques and choices that producers of 360° video and 3D VR are making to exploit these affordances, and what resulting effects those viewing experiences...

There are a number of Augmented Reality (AR) experiences that are situated or related to sites of pain, suffering, and death. The ethical design, development, and facilitation of these experiences has not been addressed by the current AR scholarship. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper presents foundational principles for how AR can be ethically...

Compact Cinematics challenges the dominant understanding of cinema to focus on the various compact, short, miniature, pocket-sized forms of cinematics that have existed from even before its standardization in theatrical form, and in recent years have multiplied and proliferated, taking up an increasingly important part of our everyday multimedia en...

Remediation is a term used to describe the way various media forms borrow from and refashion one another. At any given time, our media culture consists of processes of cooperation and competition among various media and their forms. In the current media culture, digital media forms, such as video games and social media, are among the key remediator...

The term “posthumanism” is applied to a range of contemporary theoretical positions put forward by researchers in philosophy, science and technology studies, literary studies, critical theory, theoretical sociology, and communication studies. The term designates a new way of understanding the human subject and its relationship to the natural world....

In this article, we bring together the lenses of media studies, performance studies and social interaction offered in the other essays in this special issue and discuss their collective contribution towards a more nuanced understanding of MRx. We illustrate this capacity by a brief critical review of a recent MRx environment: Mégaphone. We suggest...

We explore design strategies for mixed reality (MR) in relation to Milgram's definition, which has been central to its development in the past 20 years. We argue for the need to rethink the technical focus of this definition in order to capture the experiential dimensions of MR and offer a humanistic framework for a growing class of experiences tha...

From a media studies perspective MRx is a form of writing, and specifically a form of inscription, a writing in space or on places. A key quality that distinguishes MRx from MR is an attention to the aesthetics of the experience. To examine the aesthetic dimension of writing is to ask: what it “feels like” to read and write according to an accepted...

The Argon project was started to explore the creation of Augmented Reality applications with web technology. We have found this approach to be particularly useful for community-based applications. The Argon web browser has gone through two versions, informed by the work of our students and collaborators on these kinds of applications. In this paper...

Mobile Augmented Reality (AR) is an active field of research. Its applications have been used in many areas, including education. Several studies indicate that mobile AR can help to enhance the educational context. Among those, one of the theories that can be considered as a conceptual base to the development of these applications is situated learn...

Natural markers are increasingly being adopted by the Augmented Reality (AR) community. These systems require several steps of data processing to be carried out with the aim of allowing a less parameterized image be recognized by the computer system. Among the possibilities for this task there are the proposals that employ interest points (or featu...

Experts share their views on media studies mobile augmented reality through related mobile applications, and interaction design. The Augmented Reality (AR) Trail Guide is one such mobile application that is designed by Isaac Kulka for the Argon Browser. The application offers two views, such as a familiar Google-style map, with points of interest m...

Leading media scholars consider the social and cultural changes that come with the contemporary development of ubiquitous computing. Ubiquitous computing and our cultural life promise to become completely interwoven: technical currents feed into our screen culture of digital television, video, home computers, movies, and high-resolution advertising...

Some AR browsers and other mobile phone apps (e.g. Argon, Photosynth, 360 Cities, Tourwrist) allow the user to create, display or interact with panoramas and other forms of historical and contemporary imagery. These technologies open up exciting possibilities for cultural heritage, entertainment and other uses in location-based experiences. Full pa...

Panoramas, as a medium, have traditionally provided viewers with an encompassing experience of distant locations. In recent years, this experience has been augmented by combining handheld orientation sensors with digital panoramas to create mixed reality experiences that transform mobile devices into windows to the remote. Less explored, have been...

We describe an experimental, project-based, integrated art and engineering course for undergraduate students currently taking place at Georgia Institute of Technology. The course is informed by our research study on the creative work practices of artists and engineers. A summary of this research and a description of the course are presented here. T...

We describe teleological and stochastic patterns in creative strategy using a case from our comparative, multiple-case study of the work practices of artists and engineers separately developing similar technologies.

We describe an experimental, project-based, integrated art and engineering course for undergraduate students currently taking place at Georgia Institute of Technology. The course is informed by our research study on the creative work practices of artists and engineers. A summary of this research and a description of the course are presented here. T...

New digital forms, particularly computer and video games pose a challenge to the cultural status that film has enjoyed for decades. This challenge provoked an anxiety about new media reflected in a series of films in the 1990s, including eXistenZ and The Matrix . Hollywood filmmakers have responded to the challenge with a two fold strategy: they ha...

In this paper we present early findings from our comparative case study of the work practices of artists and engineers independently developing similar technologies. We describe two patterns of creative strategies: teleological and stochastic. We also draw a connection between these creative strategies and our subjects' negotiation of the uncertain...

We describe the creative strategies used to develop two technologies that address sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). An engineer and his team developed one of the technologies and an artist developed the other. We discuss the creative strategies and the resulting technologies in terms of their negotiation of uncertainties occurring at many levels...

Augmented Reality (AR) applications and experiences delivered on mobile devices are an emerging class of technologies that are gathering momentum in the areas of gaming, tourism, education and marketing. In this paper we analyze [inbox], an immersive Handheld Augmented Reality (HAR) experience that takes place inside a shipping container, and conta...

MÆve was a presentation of student entries to the architectural competition Everyville held at the 2008 International Architectural Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. It was developed by the interface design team of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, under the supervision of Boris Müller and Till Nagel. It is built on an interactive tablet...

This paper describes an interactive Augmented Reality (AR) art installation based on, and in, an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) shipping container. The work was inspired by the book, "The Box" [1] written by Marc Levinson, and the theatrical work of Petr Sourek [2] which explores the persona of Malcom McLean, inventor of the s...

This article discusses the development of a new interface that allows for the creation of mixed-reality performances. It details the features of the new technology, charts the ways in which the interface has been used in rehearsal sessions and describes how the technology functions as an innovative tool for creative expression.

In this paper, we present our research on social interaction in co-located handheld augmented reality (AR) games. These games are characterized by shared physical spaces that promote physical awareness among players, and individual gaming devices that support both public and private information. One result of our exploration of the design and evalu...

Low-income African American communities face a disproportionate amount of diet-related health problems in the United States. To address this issue, we developed EatWell, a system that allows people to use their cell phones to create voice memories describing how they have tried to eat healthfully in their neighborhoods (e.g., at local restaurants)...

Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture (Lisa Gitelman) Avatars of Story (Marie-Laure Ryan) Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity (Johanna Drucker)

Many new-media enthusiasts have inherited from modernist aesthetic theory the assumptions of essentialism and absolute originality. They assume that each medium is constituted by a unique set of essential characteristics and that the task of designers is to explore these characteristics by creating artefacts that will define the medium. Bolter and...

Augmented reality (AR) is set to transform the way people are entertained and educated. AR's first application are being used in ordinary but important applications like airlines and automechanics. AR is expected to combine with various mobile devices redefining the approach of the vast and growing repository of digital information through the Inte...

In very different ways, each of the papers in this section makes a case for hybridity in contemporary art and artistic practice. Amy lone examines the impact of visual technologies on our Understanding of art history Dan Sandin discusses collaborations between scientists and artists at the Electronic Visualization Lab; in that case, the hybridity l...

In Aesthetic Computing, key scholars and practitioners from art, design, computer science, and mathematics lay the foundations for a discipline that applies the theory and practice of art to computing. Aesthetic computing explores the way art and aesthetics can play a role in different areas of computer science. One of its goals is to modify comput...

Walter Benjamin is best known for his essay ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, (Benjamin, 1968b) in which he argues that film and other mechanical technologies are destroying the aura that had belonged to traditional art. In this article we apply Benjamin’s concept of aura to new (digital) media, and in particular to ‘mixed re...

In this chapter, we describe DART: the designer's augmented reality toolkit, an authoring environment for rapidly prototyping augmented reality experiences. We summarize the most significant problems faced by designers working with AR in the real world, and use DART as the example to guide a discussion of the AR design process which we have broken...

In this chapter, we describe DART: The Designer’s Augmented Reality Toolkit an authoring environment for rapidly prototyping augmented reality experiences. We summarize the most significant problems faced by designers working with AR in the real world, and use DART as the example to guide a discussion of the AR design process which we have broken d...

In this paper we present a concept for augmented reality entertainment, called AR Karaoke, where users perform their favorite dramatic scenes with virtual actors. AR Karaoke is the acting equivalent of traditional Karaoke, where the goal is to facilitate an acting experience for the user that is entertaining for both the user and audience. Prototyp...

Although the Wizard of Oz method for simulating system components is commonly used for evaluation in human-computer interaction, researchers and designers have only started to unlock this technique's potential. This article reviews the WOz method, highlights its usefulness throughout the evolution of a user interface or system, and argues that expl...

In this paper [MacIntyre et al 2004], we describe The Designer's Augmented Reality Toolkit (DART). DART is built on top of Macromedia Director, a widely used multimedia development environment. We summarize the most significant problems faced by designers working with AR in the real world, and discuss how DART addresses them. Most of DART is implem...

The Historic Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta provides a unique setting for exploring the challenges of location-based mixed-reality experience design. Our objective is to entertain and educate visitors about historically and culturally significant events related to the deceased inhabitants of the cemetery. We worked with the constraints and af...

One important tool for developing complex interactive applications is "Wizard of Oz "(WOz)simulation.WOz simulation allows design concepts,content and partially completed applications to be tested on users without the need to first create a completely working system.In this paper we discuss the integration of wizard interface tools into a Mixed Rea...

The Historic Oakland Cemetery in downtown Atlanta provides a unique setting for exploring the challenges of location-based mixed-reality experience design. Our objective is to entertain and educate visitors about historically and culturally significant events related to the deceased inhabitants of the cemetery. We worked with the constraints and af...

In Windows and Mirrors: Interaction Design, Digital Art, and the Myth of Transparency, Jay David Bolter and Diane Gromala argue that, contrary to Donald Norman's famous dictum, we do not always want our computers to be invisible "information appliances." They say that a computer does not feel like a toaster or a vacuum cleaner; it feels like a medi...

In this paper [MacIntyre et al 2004]. we describe The Designer's Augmented Reality Toolkit (DART). DART is built on top of Macromedia Director, a widely used multimedia development environment. We summarize the most significant problems faced by designers working with AR in the real world, and discuss how DART addresses them. Most of DART is implem...

We propose the term aura to enrich the current language for designing and analyzing media experiences, especially when using augmented reality, mixed reality and ubiquitous computing technology. Aura describes the cultural and personal significance that a place (or object) holds for an individual. An MR application can exploit aura to make the user...

Designers of digital applications that deal with complicated infrastructures in the physical world often deal with the formidable challenges of working in a specific place. During development and testing, the designer must constantly move around the physical space to debug or test new interactions. In outdoor settings, factors such as weather, poor...

Researchers and practitioners working on story-based experiences in virtual environments often make two assumptions. One assumption is that, to be compelling, such experiences must enable the user to make significant choices that alter the outcome of the story. Another is that virtual environments constitute a revolutionary new medium, and therefor...

In this paper, we discuss the integration of 2-D video actors into 3-D augmentedreality (AR) systems. In the context of our research on narrative forms for AR, we have found ourselves needing highly expressive content that is most easily created by human actors. We discuss the feasibility and utility of using video actors in an AR situation and the...

The emergence of New Media has stimulated debate about the power of the visual to dethrone the cultural prominence of textuality and print. Some scholars celebrate the proliferation of digital images, arguing that it suggests a return to a pictorial age when knowledge was communicated through images as well as through words. Others argue that the i...

Three Angry Men" is an augmented reality experience, in which the user becomes a character in a radically abridged version of the play "Twelve Angry Men." The other characters in this experience appear to the user as texture-mapped video mixed with the physical surroundings.

This demonstration highlights the Designer's Augmented Reality Toolkit (DART), a system that allows users to easily create augmented reality (AR) experiences. Over the past year our research has focused on the creation of this toolkit that can be used by technologists, designers, and students alike to rapidly prototype AR applications. Current appr...

Configurations 4.3 (1996) 311-358 Hegel Derrida "This is not like TV only better," says Lenny Nero in the futuristic film Strange Days. "This is life. It's a piece of somebody's life. Pure and uncut, straight from the cerebral cortex. You're there. You're doing it, seeing it, hearing it . . . feeling it." Lenny is touting a black-market device call...

Three Angry Men" is an augmented reality experience, in which the user becomes a character in a radically abridged version of the play "Twelve Angry Men." The other characters in this experience appear to the user as texture-mapped video mixed with the physical sur- roundings. At any time, the user may change seats to occupy a dierent character's p...

Remediation is one example of an intermedia theory. If intermedia is about the relationships between media forms, remediation constitutes a specific reading of that relationship. Remediation is concerned with the cultural or economic competition of various media forms. The competition takes the form of a dispute over the 'real' or authentic - not,...

"Three Angry Men" is a novel augmented reality experience that explores the use of Augmented Reality (AR) as a dramatic medium. The user participates in an AR version of the famous twentieth-century play, "Twelve Angry Men," [Rose 1983] which for practical reasons we have abbreviated into a scene involving 3 characters (thus, "Three Angry Men"). Th...

In this paper, we discuss the integration of 2-D video actors into 3-D augmented-reality (AR) systems. In the context of our research on narrative forms for AR, we have found ourselves needing highly expressive consent that is most easily created by human actors. We discuss the feasibility and utility of using video actors in an AR situation and th...

The authors discuss their work on applying media theory to the creation of narrative augmented reality (AR) experiences. We summarize the concepts of remediation and media forms as they relate to our work, argue for their importance to the development of a new medium such as AR, and present two examples AR experiences we have designed using these c...

In this position statement, we summarize a research seminar we are teaching this spring as a vehicle for discussing our common research interest in the design of augmented reality applications.

What is new about the so-called 'new media'? Enthusiasts often assume that digital media must break radically with the aesthetic and cultural traditions of their predecessors. However, new media and new genres are best understood by examining the ways in which they refashion or 'remediate' older forms. Computer graphics, virtual reality, and the Wo...

American Journal of Philology 121.2 (2000) 334-335 The last chapter of James O'Donnell's thoughtful and highly readable book is entitled "Cassiodorus: Or, The Life of the Mind in Cyberspace." The subtitle made me think of the cyberenthusiast John Perry Barlow's claim that cyberspace is in fact the new home of Mind. In a brief tract published on the...

This report is the culmination of development of HyperTech, an interface to multimedia data (text, graphics, imagery, video, and audio). Hypermedia capitalized upon the associations between data hypermedia can be used to produce large, richly-connected and cross-referenced bodies of information. The software has multiple methods of viewing data, au...

This report is the culmination of the first stage of development of HyperTech, an interface to multimedia data (text, graphics, imagery, video and audio). Hypermedia capitalizes upon the association between data, permitting data to be linked by context Hypermedia can be used to produce large, richly connected and cross-referenced bodies of informat...

We present a virtual reality application that allows users to access embedded information within an immersive virtual environment. Due to the richness and complexity of this environment, interaction between the user and the system requires efficient and easy-to-use techniques. We present tools for user control of the system, travel through the envi...

Annotation is a key operation for developing understanding of complex data or extended spaces. We have developed a flexible set of annotation tools that can be placed in a variety of applications. These tools offer a full set of capabilities for inserting, iconizing, playing back and organizing annotations in a virtual space. They also have an intu...

Inside or outside the lab, most current VR aims at reproducing perceptual experience. The goal is to give the user the sensation that he or she is walking along a hallway in a building, flying over a city, or riding in a vehicle. However, if virtual reality is ever going to "break out" into general purpose computing, then it has to provide more tha...

We propose a Virtual Reality interface for creating and manipulating textual and hypertextual information. Many current hypertext systems include concept maps in two dimensions. Our system, called the World Processor, offers the user a three-dimensional concept map. It allows the user to move through the map while exploring existing objects and the...

Current virtual reality technologies have not yet crossed the threshold of usability. Not surprisingly, VR has so far shown more promise than practical applications. Yet the promise looks bright for fields such as data visualization and analysis. For such problems, VR offers a natural interface between human and computer that will simplify complica...

This is a review of the anthology: The Insistence of the Letter: Literacy Studies and Curriculum Theorizing ed. Bill Green (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993, 233 pages).

Rhetoric is an ancient term that is not often thought relevant to the contemporary world of electronic communication. For thousands of years, rhetoric has been defined as the art of writing or speaking persuasively, and so has been limited to verbal communication. But even in the age of printed books, effective communication has often included pict...

Describes the emerging subject in computer technology known as hypertext by employing the metaphor of a bazaar. Claims that hypertext as a mode of communication has distinct features that will prove fruitful for future users. Discusses the importance of narrative chronology in relation to hypertext. (HB)

This paper describes a system that was developed to explore communication in Virtual Reality. The system offers a simple and powerful method to embed verbal communication in simulations and visualizers by means of voice annotation. Our prototype already demonstrates that the addition of verbal communication opens up a range of new uses for virtual...

The Grapics, Visualization, and Usability (GVU) Center was established at Georgia Tech in 1991 in recognition of the central importance of these three disciplines to the future growth of computing. The key emphasis of the GVU Center is effective communication of information between computers and people, as well as use of the computer to facilitate...