Glasgow
I am pleased to have worked as a Research Fellow in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow between 2003 and 2005. Much of my work related to the City project, which is itself a part of Equator. This is a large multi-university project to investigate the integration of mediated and unmediated reality - the blurring of edges between the physical and digital worlds.
As part of a group at Glasgow University we used handheld computers to provide access to virtual representations of physical environments, such as photos, hypermedia and location information. The objective was to form one ‘space’ or experience combining the physical and digital representations of a location and allowing these to be shared with other people not physically present. An interesting investigation into the effects of small amounts of ambient digital information on peoples' perception of their environment. I also worked on the design of an environmental science version, using a similar system to investigate people’s perceptions of urban pollution (see downloadable paper).
I was fortunate in working with many excellent and talented people, notably Matthew Chalmers the group's leader, Marek Bell, Barry Brown, Malcolm Hall, Steve North, Scott Sherwood and Paul Tennent. (See also Malcolm and Marek's commercial venture, Aspecto Software).