The Future of Sat Nav

In light of the award just picked up by British company SciTech, i thought it would be appropriate for me to look at the future of the Satellite Navigation. The competition they won shows appreciation for the smaller scale businesses which make use of the Galileo satellite positioning system. 

Galileo is a fairly new project and was designed to outperform the current systems in operation as it covers a larger range and is more accurate.

When someone mentions sat-nav, the first thing people think of is a box which you put in your car which tells you directions from one place to another. This is the most common use of the system and the European Satellite Navigation Competition seeks to find new and innovative methods of using the Galileo system. 

During the past six months the use of satellite navigation systems within peoples cars has dramatically risen and now a significant amount of people own one. Personally I think the idea of branching out into different areas which put the satellite navigation to use is a brilliant idea and it can be used for many different things.

The winning team in the competition had created a system which is put into a lifejacket. Once the lifejacket is inflated the system automatically turns on and it allows the people to be located. It also includes a communication system which allows the person to then talk to someone to give them even more details about their location. The unique thing about this system as opposed to other similar products available, is that it will be able to show the exact location of the person in the water, whereas previously it could only be seen where they left the boat and entered the water.

A similar product to this on the market is one which is used for diabetic people. It’s an ‘auto injecting’ pen which is used after the patient has suffered an anaphylactic shock, fitted with a sat nav device which informs a local center via a mobile phone network which then allows them to get instant medical attention.

In the future of satellite devices I can envisage them being placed into humans in a ‘Big Brother’ manner which will allow people to be located at all times. It could be used as an alternative to having an electronic tag on a criminals leg, it could be placed inside them and this means they would not be able to remove it easily. They could also place the device inside criminals released from jail so the police can track them at all times.

Reference; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7684027.stm

Inspiration

Below is a video which I have used as inspiration for the latest project. It's a music video for the song 'No Good' by Plan B.

The video uses the same process which I will be using and is a useful source and in my opinion an extremely good music video for a great tune.

Pixilation

During the session last friday we were set the task of taking pictures in order to create a pixelation clip, which is basically the animation of a real thing, for example a human. I haven't really done anything like this before and it was interesting to see how the pictures turned out. We ended up taking around 400 pictures in an hour and a half in order to get some sort of idea where I wanted this task to go. None of us really had any ideas about what could be included in the pictures but eventually we came up with the idea of a sort of 'fun olympic games' with a few different events. I like the idea and the pictures look quite good. This week I have been taking more photos and trying to come up with a title screen for the images. 

Also I have been thinking about what music could be used for the soundtrack, as music production is one of my main hobbies I've started making a few different backing tracks which could be used.

If anyone feels like a listen to my own music then they can check it out at;

http://www.myspace.com/w7f

Feedback is always appreciated.

Whiteboard Animation

One of the tasks from the two induction days was to create a short animation clip using board markers and a whiteboard, the video below shows the edited version of all of the groups animations;

I was quite pleased with how my groups animation turned out and I don't think it was a bad effort for saying I have never done anything like this before. I was impressed with some of the other groups animations, and from the quality of some of them it was evident that some people have alot of experience in this area.

First Lecture

Today I had my first lecture of the course, and was something I had been preparing for since I accepted the offer to study Multimedia at Nottingham Trent. It wasn't a great start when I realized I had walked to the wrong building but eventually I made my way to the right place and arrived on time. 

During the lecture we were told how to successfully complete the course and we were also given a little information about the essays and things we would be doing this year. It was a fairly interactive lecture which gave us opportunities to walk around and talk to other students and discuss different set questions. This made the lecture a fun and enjoyable experience.

First Week

What Did I Do On The First Week?

This week I have been exploring different parts of the University and the City. I have been trying to work my way around as many of the 'Welcome Week' events as possible in order to gain an understanding of what University life is all about.

What Do I Want to Get Out of The Course?

Through the Multimedia course I hope to gain a better understanding of certain creative arts. I also hope to be able to bring some of my musical production abilities into my work possibly through the use of soundtracks. Web Design is also something I have always been interested in and I hope through this course I can further my understanding of it and also gain new skills which can be used once the course has been completed.