Virtual gaming within the Tower of London

by Neil Woodburn on

Sometimes historical locations need a little modern twist to make them more interesting for tourists.

Take the case of the Tower of London. I visited this landmark about ten years ago and wasn’t terribly impressed. Sure, it was sort of cool and certainly had some interesting history about it, but, for the most part, it lacked the excitement and sense of adventure that such a storied structure deserves.

Dragging the Tower of London into the 21st century and making it interesting has fallen upon the shoulders of Historic Royal Palaces, the charity group that manages the site. Its docents have worked in conjunction with Hewlett-Packard to create a GPS-driven Tower of London game that is played with a PDA and a radio transmitter.

The concept is simple and brilliant. As visitors walk around the Tower of London, the GPS unit activates various audio feeds which virtually insert the user into historical events which occurred at the location, such as prison escapes. Aided by the PDA flashing images of the past, gamers are fully engaged in the unfolding stories as voices from their headphones cry for help, shout out directions, and navigate them through the historical twists and turns of the ancient structure.

Wow. This is a very cool example of active learning and a perfect way to really educate students without it seeming like a chore.

Robin Hood’s forest of mighty oaks needs saving by the rich–or the poor–or a miracle

by Jamie Rhein on

With half my roots in Southeastern Kentucky where coal mining has decimated great swatches of mountain tops, I’m easy to hook into environmental stories. Such was the case when I read about Sherwood Forest made famous by Robin Hood’s work of robbing the rich to pay the poor. As you know, that’s where he and his merry men hung out. There really is such a place in Nottinghamshire County, England, although the forest is becoming smaller and the mighty oaks are falling. See, here’s the problem. Oaks only live for 900 years. That’s a lot you might say. Time does fly, and it’s passing.

Since the landscape has been changed to accommodate more people over the centuries, trees have been cut down for buildings and fields to grow food. So, there is less space for the forest to rejuvenate itself. Plus, there’s the effects of global warming. The trees that are left sound like they have osteoporosis or something. A strong wind can knock them down. The solution is a reforestation project which costs money. Sherwood Forest is in the running for some grant money to plant thousands more. Here’s the thing where I see it might take some convincing of folks that this money will make a more wonderous world for their great, great, great, great, great, (surely that’s enough greats) grandchildren is that it takes 300 years for an oak to grow to its massive size. That’s a bit of delayed gratification for you. “I paid what for that dinky thing?”

Kate Shuman’s AP article where I found out about this forest woe is accompanied by some wonderful photos of movie scenes that have helped make Sherwood Forest famous.

Photographically preserving the UK

by Neil Woodburn on

The virtual craze to photograph every square inch of our planet and make it viewable online has really taken root in England.

The United Kingdom is the focus of Geograph, an ambitious online project which aims to photographically preserve the entire country. To do so, the site has sliced a map of the UK into thousands of grids which basically act as photo buckets. Users are then invited to upload photographs into the appropriate grid in which they were taken. The result is a panoply of images focusing on a small designated area. The shots are taken from a variety of angles and by a swath of different photographers.

It’s a cool idea, and a great way to discover everything which exists within an area you plan to visit. The site, however, is a little difficult to navigate and the photographs aren’t organized in any particular manner within each grid. It sure would be great, however, if the site could stitch all the photographs together into one seamless panoramic eternity. Let’s get on that, boys!

EU to be the most surveilled region in the world

by Abha Malpani on

Privacy these days is a myth. I rang for a taxi the other day, and before I could say hello, I was greeted with my name and my residential address. Why does a taxi company have to know where I live if I haven’t told them?

Also, telecom providers who I don’t have a contract with, often call me on my cell and address me by my name. How did they get my personal cell number and full name? Do they have my credit card details as well? Probably.

When we travel, we have to give all our personal details anyway, so the EU‘s latest agreement to share these details with national and international authorities (depending on the countries we are entering and exiting): names, passport numbers, addresses, credit card details, email addresses, and phone numbers — in the name of fighting terrorism and organized crime, is no surprise.

What’s surprising is that on analyzing this most elementary information in the UK recently, British authorities arrested 1200 suspects. How is that possible? I suppose it’s more important to know the accuracy of the findings, i.e. how many of those arrests were valid?

So the EU’s request to allow the sharing of passenger details is under debate, but if it is approved, the EU will beat the US to being the most surveilled place on the planet.

I find it both scary and amazing how the information we give out willingly when we travel can be used get gory details of our lives.

[Via Guardian]

London’s black taxis

by Neil Woodburn on

In the world of transportation, taxi cabs populate the very bottom rung of the ladder–unless, of course, you happen to be sitting in the back seat of a black taxi in London. This is because the drivers who pilot black taxis must first pass what is undoubtedly the most difficult taxi exam on this planet: the Knowledge.

The Knowledge tests a driver’s ability to not only memorize “37,000 roads, monuments, hotels, pubs, police stations and hospitals in London,” but to also know the shortest distance between two points. Think this is difficult? Kim Murphy, writing for the Los Angeles Times, tells us that it takes prospective drivers more than 40 months to master this breadth of knowledge. The result, according to a study conducted in 2000, is that London taxi drivers not only have a hippocampus larger than the general population, but this part of the brain that “governs memory and spatial navigation” actually increases in size the longer a London cabbie works his job.

But all is not perfect in the world of the black taxi. Cries of racism and sexism from those seeking to pass the Knowledge have resulted in the mayor of London initiating a program to help women and minorities with the arduous process of acquiring the difficult black taxi license. Like all such programs, this one is also facing its share of challenges.