Comments on: Could Augmented Reality Be the Answer To Newspaper Woes http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/2009/10/could-augmented-reality-be-the-answer-to-newspaper-woes/ A Public Relations Perspective Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:15:44 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: admin http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/2009/10/could-augmented-reality-be-the-answer-to-newspaper-woes/comment-page-1/#comment-12934 admin Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:37:36 +0000 http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/?p=191#comment-12934 Thanks Richard. Technology and habits of younger user will probbaly be the catalysts that decide all of this. Interesting time ahead. Thanks Richard. Technology and habits of younger user will probbaly be the catalysts that decide all of this. Interesting time ahead.

]]> By: Richard Chapman http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/2009/10/could-augmented-reality-be-the-answer-to-newspaper-woes/comment-page-1/#comment-12737 Richard Chapman Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:16:01 +0000 http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/?p=191#comment-12737 A thought-provoking piece, Eoin. I think the 'augmented reality' one is a winner. Who hasn't wished they could click on a Web address that appears in print? (And who else will admit that in moments of absent-mindedness they have tried to!) With 3G cameraphones that have decent browsers now common, this should be almost trivial to implement. There are a number of suitable '2D barcode' technologies already available. QR code is established in this role in Japan, and I believe Microsoft champions a technology called High Capacity Color Barcode. An even more intriguing - and less intrusive - idea is the 'dataglyph', by which a URL or other data can be encoded into an image. Any photograph could also be a link. I'm certain the embedded screen will never be more than a gimmick though. (Will the magazine also come with embedded headphones? People don't much like silent video.) I suspect the combination of magazine and video will be the subset of their disadvantages. Trying to make a magazine be more like an electronic device will just emphasise the many ways in which it isn't. Print publishing has to play to its strengths. Printed material can be dropped or neglected without incurring much expense, it has extraordinarily high-resolution images, it benefits from infinite battery life. It will be decades before networked devices can compete on those points. Print will never be as big as it used to be, but that has always been true - print was the first mass medium. Since then it has faced inevitable doom at the hands of the telegraph, cinema, telephone, radio, television... Yet somehow it's survived and somehow it remained profitable. I'm not going to fret too much about its future. A thought-provoking piece, Eoin. I think the ‘augmented reality’ one is a winner. Who hasn’t wished they could click on a Web address that appears in print? (And who else will admit that in moments of absent-mindedness they have tried to!) With 3G cameraphones that have decent browsers now common, this should be almost trivial to implement. There are a number of suitable ’2D barcode’ technologies already available. QR code is established in this role in Japan, and I believe Microsoft champions a technology called High Capacity Color Barcode. An even more intriguing – and less intrusive – idea is the ‘dataglyph’, by which a URL or other data can be encoded into an image. Any photograph could also be a link.

I’m certain the embedded screen will never be more than a gimmick though. (Will the magazine also come with embedded headphones? People don’t much like silent video.) I suspect the combination of magazine and video will be the subset of their disadvantages. Trying to make a magazine be more like an electronic device will just emphasise the many ways in which it isn’t. Print publishing has to play to its strengths.

Printed material can be dropped or neglected without incurring much expense, it has extraordinarily high-resolution images, it benefits from infinite battery life. It will be decades before networked devices can compete on those points. Print will never be as big as it used to be, but that has always been true – print was the first mass medium. Since then it has faced inevitable doom at the hands of the telegraph, cinema, telephone, radio, television… Yet somehow it’s survived and somehow it remained profitable. I’m not going to fret too much about its future.

]]> By: admin http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/2009/10/could-augmented-reality-be-the-answer-to-newspaper-woes/comment-page-1/#comment-11985 admin Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:17:04 +0000 http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/?p=191#comment-11985 Thanks Charles. Most media outlets are struggling to make their online outlets pay and have in some instances have canidalised the paper product. Never mind the media industry the whole communications industry will look complete different. Big strategic decision for the main media players ahead. Thanks Charles. Most media outlets are struggling to make their online outlets pay and have in some instances have canidalised the paper product.

Never mind the media industry the whole communications industry will look complete different.

Big strategic decision for the main media players ahead.

]]> By: Charles Hogan http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/2009/10/could-augmented-reality-be-the-answer-to-newspaper-woes/comment-page-1/#comment-11984 Charles Hogan Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:30:26 +0000 http://eoinkennedy.ie/blog/?p=191#comment-11984 Very interesting piece, but a lot depends on whether the necessary culture of changes exists/can be created among the main newspapers. As a product, newspapers haven't changed that much in a century, but the kind of changes that are required now will have to be implemented within the next few years. One way or another, the newspaper sector, in Ireland and elsewhere, is almost certainly going to look very different in a few years' time. Very interesting piece, but a lot depends on whether the necessary culture of changes exists/can be created among the main newspapers. As a product, newspapers haven’t changed that much in a century, but the kind of changes that are required now will have to be implemented within the next few years. One way or another, the newspaper sector, in Ireland and elsewhere, is almost certainly going to look very different in a few years’ time.

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