The sensory world
The personal digital environment used by the children in Savannah - handheld PC with headphones and GPS - provided very little information to adapt the experience to what was going on in the environment and what the child was doing. Wearable sensors could be used in a wide variety of ways to enrich the experience. The simple addition of a digital compass can bring a much tighter level of integration between the mediascape and the physical world, because the sights and sounds can be directly aligned with the way you are looking. This has already been trialled in the Mobile Bristol project, providing panoramic views on the handheld device that match the physical view. Imagine walking around a historic site: you could look at the ruins of a castle and then see the building as it would once have been. How much better than reading about it on a static signboard! Direct delivery in this way can also adapt the information to the needs of the particular user.
Sounds, too, can be significantly enhanced by using a compass with GPS to create true 'situated sound: This is more than just stereophonic sound, which creates a soundscape in your head, unconnected from the real world. Situated sounds are placed in the environment, and will appear to come from that place wherever you move, so it is possible to make the bells ring out from the ruined bell-tower, or to make people and animals move around the landscape Experiments have shown that sound is a powerful way of creating experience, and the effects of situated sound can be highly dramatic.
Another way to use sensing technology is to enhance the senses. Why not hear like a bat, see like a hawk or smell the world with the sensitivity of a dog? Imagine being able to go out to the woods in the morning and 'smell'the trails left by the night animals, experience the world through their senses, face their challenges, and become a participant in their very real 'game'of survival. All these possibilities will soon be realised. Sensing technology is advancing rapidly as part of wearable computing, so it will be possible to use all these sources of information to create mediascapes.