Please note: These are rough notes. Editing may be needed and clarification may be needed upon further review. I apologize for any typos and/or incomplete/inaccurate information. Information entered in this blog is replicated out to various online outlets automatically.
Why I chose this:
Frankly, the title intrigued me. I am interested in learning what programs, sites, apps, etc are being used for augmented reality in online courses.
What I learned/Am learning:
Program started with a demo of Sphero! Very cool!! A little remote-controlled ball that is transformed into a virtual character on a mobile device. More info: http://www.gosphero.com/
http://linkyy.com/HallDavidsonHandouts
http://linkyy.com/MDLA
http://linkyy.com/TCSSAtrial2 - Social Studies cloud-based textbook
Presenter is wearing Google Glass
MIT Media Lab - cardboard radio, then augment that and control the radio! Very cool! Connect cardboard radio to cardboard speakers.
Augmented door entry: without the app, you have no access. Same with lighting, etc.
QR - Quick Response
AR - Augmented Reality
VR - Virtual Reality
Aurasma - Augmented reality app. Students can make objects to be viewed globally. Load the app and point it to the back of a 20 dollar bill. Superintendent 1 min video welcoming to school when pointed to school mission posted on wall.
QR Codes - put in the library books. Maybe leads to book trailers, book talks, hang from trees, attach to buildings, etc. Make at qrstuff.com, etc. Put on your resume that leads to video, blog, wiki, etc
Delivr.com - change destination of the same qrcode - dynamic qrcodes
Divide the qr code in pieces, and have students build the qrcode from the puzzle pieces.
Set up your Youtube with an address where students could upload videos to your account without your account info.
TourWrist - Clearing house for virtual reality tours. You can turn 360 degrees and view the location. Not a walking tour.
360Pano - Create a 360-degree image.
WordLens - Change text to other language on the fly - street signs, programs, etc
"Flying Books" - Imag.n.tron Morris Lessmore - augments the children's book. Reader transported "into" the book!
Heartcam
Students can make their own pop-up books, coloring books, etc
Zooburst
Colorapp
QRVoice.net
Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apps. Show all posts
Oct 28, 2013
Jan 24, 2012
Skyvi and Evi - Siri for Android?
I've been playing with two apps for Android that mimic what Siri does for iPhone. You know Siri, right? The sassy little app that responds to your requests and commands. Well, Skyvi and Evi try to do the same thing. How do they stack up? Let's see...
Skyvi (free) - Very quick to respond, even in low data areas. That is, it seems to be able to respond even when a data connection is tough to come by (something that happens frequently in Lower Arkansas). I asked it to "find McDonalds" and within seconds, the female robot voice responded with WHERE it was and then provided touchable icons to get me there, based on which one I wanted. I asked, "How are you?" Skyvi responded, "You know, you deserve to have fun! Just say: Tell me when I am near Fun."
I tied to repeat what it had said, but was laughing so hard, my response came out somewhat garbled. Skyvi replied, "Hum. Holla if you need directions!" HOLLA!? Awesome.
I asked it to "Create a meeting at 1pm in Hope Arkansas." It understood all of the words, but simply asked me, "What do you do in your spare time." That's not very Siri-like. So, I tried, "create an appointment," to which Skyvi answered, "I don't think many people do that."
So, for lunch, I headed out to Mickey D's and put Skyvi to the test:
David (Me): "I'm hungry."
Skyvi: "What will you be eating?" (If I knew, I wouldn't be asking you! - I thought)
D: "Burger"
S: "How does it taste?" (At this point, I'm a little peeved.)
D: "I don't know. Find a burger joint."
S: "Would you like to know? That input matched my default category." (What the...??)
D: "Okayyyy..."
S: "Here's something: Beacons can help you find your way..." (then it blathered on about beacon features. I was hoping it was BACON... Nope)
D: "Find McDonalds"
S: "I found McDonald's 2.5 miles from you." And then it also listed other area eateries, which I thought was a nice touch.
D: "Find El Agaves" (A local Mexican food joint)
S: "I couldn't find any el agave within 30 miles..." (Stupid computer)
D: "Find Holiday Inn"
S: "I found Holiday Inn Express 2.9 miles from you." (Each time it finds something, it provides links for calling, directions, a quick map, or allows you to create a beacon for that location)
From there, I tried Florist, Pharmacy, Wal-Mart. Each time, it came back with an appropriate response and several locations. And then, I got silly...
D: "Where to babies come from?"
S: "From their mothers." (Courtesy of Wolfram Alpha, which Siri also uses when it doesn't know)
D: "What is the meaning of life?"
S: "42" - ROFL, best answer yet! Nice!
D: "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?"
S: "The whole forest." - Once again, NICE!
D: "How much is a peck of pickled peppers?"
S: "I'm a chatting app, not a shopping app." - I found this reply both annoying and funny.
D: "Lovely."
S: "What are you saying is lovely?"
D: "Clouds." (why not, right?)
S: "What are you saying is lovely, clouds?"
D: "Yes."
S: "Aha."
D: "I used to be an adventurer like you."
S: "Maybe I can help you call places quickly. Say: Call McDonalds"
D: "I took an arrow in the knee."
S: "I can update your Facebook..."
D: "No, I don't think so."
S: "Why do you disagree?" (Suddenly, this was taking back to the days of ELIZA, the computer program that pretended to be a therapist.)
D: "What is a tough it?" (Though what I said was, "What is a tuffet?"
S: Responds with a web-based definition of "tough."
D: "Holy crap."
S: "Your criticism is noted." - Again, funny under the circumstances.
D: "Where does milk come from?"
S: "Well, to see my abilities..." blah-blah, more features. Yeesh.
D: "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"
S: "Your question is unrelated to the current topic of discussion."
D: "What is the current topic of discussion?"
S: "I believe we were talking about milk." - Ah, VERY nicely done ala ELIZA.
D: "Yes. Yes, we were."
S: "Come on. Far out. I thought we were." - Cute.
D: "Where's the beef?"
S: Responds with a local beef ranch. Impressive, though I was hoping it would give me directions to Wendy's.
D: "Define irony." (Hoping to get the quote from "Con Air." Instead, I got...)
S: A web-based definition of IRONY
D: "Who sings Billie Jean?"
S: "Michael Jackson"
D: "Who sings any way you want it?"
S: "Do you often seek pleasure?" - HUH!? I repeated the question several times, using quotes around the song title, etc. Nothing ever gave me the answer.
I tried a few other things, then opted to break out some old school Spanish:
D: "Como Se Dice Biblioteca?"
S: "(After converting it to 'Komo se do you say biblio tech') - I can Tweet. Just say: Tweet I'm having a great time." - Yeah, right.
I tried to make appoints, told Skyvi to call people from my contacts, etc. Nothin.
I tried the same questions and comments with Evi and got mixed results, mainly because most of the commands were never completed. I was OFTEN faced with "Cannot communicate with our servers right now. Try again later." WASTE of time.
Evi (Free, Beta) - Evi couldn't find McDonalds. As noted, much of the time, it couldn't even find its own servers. All I got was frustrated. I will try Evi again after the Interwebs have all dies down from reviewing it, abusing it, etc. I figure since word is just getting out about it, their servers are flooded. We'll see in a couple days.
Siri notes - In the name of fairness, I borrowed a co-workers iPhone 4S and fired up Siri to ask the same questions. Essentially, I got the same (or similar) answers that Skyvi gave. Though the question regarding the meaning of life was met with something about deep, philosophical blah blah... "42" is a much better answer. When asked about babies, Siri used the same Wolfram Alpha response as Skyvi. And, milk? Siri gave me a couple of grocery stores to check out. The big difference was that Siri offered to search the web when it can't find an answer, rather than droning on about its cool features. Also, Siri DOES call contacts, make appointments, etc.
Android knock-offs of Siri have a LONG way to go. But, in the end, as far as general chit-chatting, they exhibit about the same level of competence.... Barely passing. Of course, as life would have it, I managed to get an object lesson out the experiment...
When I got to McDonald's, I pulled up and ordered a McDouble with no onions and no pickles. The burger had pickles. Really, these apps aren't that different than humans after all.
Skyvi (free) - Very quick to respond, even in low data areas. That is, it seems to be able to respond even when a data connection is tough to come by (something that happens frequently in Lower Arkansas). I asked it to "find McDonalds" and within seconds, the female robot voice responded with WHERE it was and then provided touchable icons to get me there, based on which one I wanted. I asked, "How are you?" Skyvi responded, "You know, you deserve to have fun! Just say: Tell me when I am near Fun."
I tied to repeat what it had said, but was laughing so hard, my response came out somewhat garbled. Skyvi replied, "Hum. Holla if you need directions!" HOLLA!? Awesome.
I asked it to "Create a meeting at 1pm in Hope Arkansas." It understood all of the words, but simply asked me, "What do you do in your spare time." That's not very Siri-like. So, I tried, "create an appointment," to which Skyvi answered, "I don't think many people do that."
So, for lunch, I headed out to Mickey D's and put Skyvi to the test:
David (Me): "I'm hungry."
Skyvi: "What will you be eating?" (If I knew, I wouldn't be asking you! - I thought)
D: "Burger"
S: "How does it taste?" (At this point, I'm a little peeved.)
D: "I don't know. Find a burger joint."
S: "Would you like to know? That input matched my default category." (What the...??)
D: "Okayyyy..."
S: "Here's something: Beacons can help you find your way..." (then it blathered on about beacon features. I was hoping it was BACON... Nope)
D: "Find McDonalds"
S: "I found McDonald's 2.5 miles from you." And then it also listed other area eateries, which I thought was a nice touch.
D: "Find El Agaves" (A local Mexican food joint)
S: "I couldn't find any el agave within 30 miles..." (Stupid computer)
D: "Find Holiday Inn"
S: "I found Holiday Inn Express 2.9 miles from you." (Each time it finds something, it provides links for calling, directions, a quick map, or allows you to create a beacon for that location)
From there, I tried Florist, Pharmacy, Wal-Mart. Each time, it came back with an appropriate response and several locations. And then, I got silly...
D: "Where to babies come from?"
S: "From their mothers." (Courtesy of Wolfram Alpha, which Siri also uses when it doesn't know)
D: "What is the meaning of life?"
S: "42" - ROFL, best answer yet! Nice!
D: "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?"
S: "The whole forest." - Once again, NICE!
D: "How much is a peck of pickled peppers?"
S: "I'm a chatting app, not a shopping app." - I found this reply both annoying and funny.
D: "Lovely."
S: "What are you saying is lovely?"
D: "Clouds." (why not, right?)
S: "What are you saying is lovely, clouds?"
D: "Yes."
S: "Aha."
D: "I used to be an adventurer like you."
S: "Maybe I can help you call places quickly. Say: Call McDonalds"
D: "I took an arrow in the knee."
S: "I can update your Facebook..."
D: "No, I don't think so."
S: "Why do you disagree?" (Suddenly, this was taking back to the days of ELIZA, the computer program that pretended to be a therapist.)
D: "What is a tough it?" (Though what I said was, "What is a tuffet?"
S: Responds with a web-based definition of "tough."
D: "Holy crap."
S: "Your criticism is noted." - Again, funny under the circumstances.
D: "Where does milk come from?"
S: "Well, to see my abilities..." blah-blah, more features. Yeesh.
D: "What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?"
S: "Your question is unrelated to the current topic of discussion."
D: "What is the current topic of discussion?"
S: "I believe we were talking about milk." - Ah, VERY nicely done ala ELIZA.
D: "Yes. Yes, we were."
S: "Come on. Far out. I thought we were." - Cute.
D: "Where's the beef?"
S: Responds with a local beef ranch. Impressive, though I was hoping it would give me directions to Wendy's.
D: "Define irony." (Hoping to get the quote from "Con Air." Instead, I got...)
S: A web-based definition of IRONY
D: "Who sings Billie Jean?"
S: "Michael Jackson"
D: "Who sings any way you want it?"
S: "Do you often seek pleasure?" - HUH!? I repeated the question several times, using quotes around the song title, etc. Nothing ever gave me the answer.
I tried a few other things, then opted to break out some old school Spanish:
D: "Como Se Dice Biblioteca?"
S: "(After converting it to 'Komo se do you say biblio tech') - I can Tweet. Just say: Tweet I'm having a great time." - Yeah, right.
I tried to make appoints, told Skyvi to call people from my contacts, etc. Nothin.
I tried the same questions and comments with Evi and got mixed results, mainly because most of the commands were never completed. I was OFTEN faced with "Cannot communicate with our servers right now. Try again later." WASTE of time.
Evi (Free, Beta) - Evi couldn't find McDonalds. As noted, much of the time, it couldn't even find its own servers. All I got was frustrated. I will try Evi again after the Interwebs have all dies down from reviewing it, abusing it, etc. I figure since word is just getting out about it, their servers are flooded. We'll see in a couple days.
Siri notes - In the name of fairness, I borrowed a co-workers iPhone 4S and fired up Siri to ask the same questions. Essentially, I got the same (or similar) answers that Skyvi gave. Though the question regarding the meaning of life was met with something about deep, philosophical blah blah... "42" is a much better answer. When asked about babies, Siri used the same Wolfram Alpha response as Skyvi. And, milk? Siri gave me a couple of grocery stores to check out. The big difference was that Siri offered to search the web when it can't find an answer, rather than droning on about its cool features. Also, Siri DOES call contacts, make appointments, etc.
Android knock-offs of Siri have a LONG way to go. But, in the end, as far as general chit-chatting, they exhibit about the same level of competence.... Barely passing. Of course, as life would have it, I managed to get an object lesson out the experiment...
When I got to McDonald's, I pulled up and ordered a McDouble with no onions and no pickles. The burger had pickles. Really, these apps aren't that different than humans after all.
Dec 5, 2010
I took only the iPad
Last week, I had a state technology coordinator's meeting. That's nothing new, as we have them every month. What was new, however, was the iPad that I took. In fact, what was new, really, was the fact that I *only* took the device to use during the meeting. How did it go?
First of all, I had recently updated to the iOS 4.2.whatever and let me say that the switching of the "anti-rotate" button into a "mute" button has got to be one of the WORST decisions I have ever seen made to a device that freely flips the screen around at the tip of a hat. Hold the device flat on a table, and it might rotate the screen 90 degrees in one moment, then do a literal 180-degree turn in the next with no rhyme or reason. The ability to freeze the screen in any given position was one of my favorite features. Now, that's gone (unless there is some trick to getting it back, which I would love to hear about!).
I do not have ANY type of case for the device yet, so that played into several of the problems (like the freely-rotating screen) I had. It's a pain in the rear to type on the thing while it is laying perfectly flat on a table, at least for me. I've heard a lot of folks complain that the keyboard doesn't "work" because you can't "feel" the keys. Let me tell you, it takes a LOT of getting used to. Even though there is a 'click' when you hit the keys (unless, of course, you flipped the anti-rotate switch and instead it muted it), there is no real tactile response. You get no physical feedback. I like physical feedback. I eventually got the hang of it, except for the times I "rested" my hand, only to find a bunch of random characters in my notes from accidentally hitting keys.
My next problem stemmed from the 'autocorrect/auto spellcheck' that is enabled by default. That stupid thing kept trying to "fix" my typing. That's great for actual misspelled words, but not so great when one is typing acronyms, names, etc. In the settings, one can turn off auto-correct, but then that immediately and automatically turns off spell check. Seriously!? Can we not have it check spelling WITHOUT fixing it!? Let's see, Microsoft Word has been doing that since...what, 1984 or something? Stupid. I'd like the little red wavy "hey, I think this is not spelled correctly" line, in case I *do* type something incorrectly. Once I disabled auto-correct, though, that went with it. Again, stupid.
One last editing-related problem: I cannot touch a word and set the edit cursor where I want. For example, if I typed: thenIwent home, I cannot simply touch between each of the three words run together in order to add spaces. Seriously!? Again, if someone know a fix or technique, please let me know. How ridiculous that I have to type an entire word again just to fix a spelling mistake or a transposition of two letters. Come on, man!
The rest of the meeting went fine (checking email, looking up resources on web, etc).
And then, I needed to post my notes. Granted, I used the built-in notepad. There was no way (that I could find) to copy all the text and paste it into a blog post (or even to just select ALL the text, for that matter). Useless. I have to email the notes to myself, then copy the text on my computer in order to post it into another document. Talk about frustrating! Not only that, but also VERY counterproductive and a complete waste of time. If I have to do all that, why bother carrying the thing? I'll just take my computer and save 9, 10, 50 steps. Thanks.
I am still learning what the iPad does (and doesn't do). So far, the best three apps for me are:
iNet Network Scanner - Scan your network, see what's out there.
Jump - Remote desktop into any machine with full integration.
FlipBoard - The coolest reader for Twitter and Facebook (hoping they add RSS soon!).
I'll keep you posted.
First of all, I had recently updated to the iOS 4.2.whatever and let me say that the switching of the "anti-rotate" button into a "mute" button has got to be one of the WORST decisions I have ever seen made to a device that freely flips the screen around at the tip of a hat. Hold the device flat on a table, and it might rotate the screen 90 degrees in one moment, then do a literal 180-degree turn in the next with no rhyme or reason. The ability to freeze the screen in any given position was one of my favorite features. Now, that's gone (unless there is some trick to getting it back, which I would love to hear about!).
I do not have ANY type of case for the device yet, so that played into several of the problems (like the freely-rotating screen) I had. It's a pain in the rear to type on the thing while it is laying perfectly flat on a table, at least for me. I've heard a lot of folks complain that the keyboard doesn't "work" because you can't "feel" the keys. Let me tell you, it takes a LOT of getting used to. Even though there is a 'click' when you hit the keys (unless, of course, you flipped the anti-rotate switch and instead it muted it), there is no real tactile response. You get no physical feedback. I like physical feedback. I eventually got the hang of it, except for the times I "rested" my hand, only to find a bunch of random characters in my notes from accidentally hitting keys.
My next problem stemmed from the 'autocorrect/auto spellcheck' that is enabled by default. That stupid thing kept trying to "fix" my typing. That's great for actual misspelled words, but not so great when one is typing acronyms, names, etc. In the settings, one can turn off auto-correct, but then that immediately and automatically turns off spell check. Seriously!? Can we not have it check spelling WITHOUT fixing it!? Let's see, Microsoft Word has been doing that since...what, 1984 or something? Stupid. I'd like the little red wavy "hey, I think this is not spelled correctly" line, in case I *do* type something incorrectly. Once I disabled auto-correct, though, that went with it. Again, stupid.
One last editing-related problem: I cannot touch a word and set the edit cursor where I want. For example, if I typed: thenIwent home, I cannot simply touch between each of the three words run together in order to add spaces. Seriously!? Again, if someone know a fix or technique, please let me know. How ridiculous that I have to type an entire word again just to fix a spelling mistake or a transposition of two letters. Come on, man!
The rest of the meeting went fine (checking email, looking up resources on web, etc).
And then, I needed to post my notes. Granted, I used the built-in notepad. There was no way (that I could find) to copy all the text and paste it into a blog post (or even to just select ALL the text, for that matter). Useless. I have to email the notes to myself, then copy the text on my computer in order to post it into another document. Talk about frustrating! Not only that, but also VERY counterproductive and a complete waste of time. If I have to do all that, why bother carrying the thing? I'll just take my computer and save 9, 10, 50 steps. Thanks.
I am still learning what the iPad does (and doesn't do). So far, the best three apps for me are:
iNet Network Scanner - Scan your network, see what's out there.
Jump - Remote desktop into any machine with full integration.
FlipBoard - The coolest reader for Twitter and Facebook (hoping they add RSS soon!).
I'll keep you posted.
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