1.“Step this way”

Shoes as traveller guide

‘It’s a lovely sunshine day in the afternoon, you’re walking around London and enjoy the fascinating scenery of the city, then you see a poster on the wall, it’s an event at a pub in Covent Garden this evening, for all of the backpackers who are in London. It might be an interesting event for you, especially as you are travelling alone

You decide to join the event; after checking the map you realize that from where you are to Covent Garden is walking distance, but you’ve never been to that pub before and it’s your first time in London, so you decided to use “the Shoe Guide” to guide you to the pub.

First of all you set up the start and end points on your mobile with the build-in the electronic map. You then send the data from your mobile to your electronic shoes via Bluetooth.
Then you start to walk towards Covent Garden, once you diverge from the route, the sensor on the shoes will detect it, and trigger the vibrator to remind you should go right, left or turn around, until you get to your destination.

With the Shoe Guide you don’t need to neither watch the screen of a GPS device all the time, nor listen to any mechanical voice guide during your journey.’

2.“Table Surfing”

Online Social Network between local and travellers where they share resources

‘You are visiting London by yourself, not knowing who you are going to eat with or what type of food you should try or buy in London. You’ve heard that the city is really expensive and the food is very bad. You feel a little confused.
Then in your hostel you find out that there is this network of
friendly people who love to invite interesting people to their
tables to share food and conversation.
You sign in online, and the next day arrange to meet up with a local from the network at his house to eat for free. You try again the following day and this time you meet up with another local in one of his favourite cheap Indian restaurants.’

3.“Audio Travel Meet”

Audio guided Social Event between traveller and local in a public space.

‘Its your second day in London and you are checking your emails. A friend has sent you a link to an interesting site. The site explains that it is organizing an event in Trafalgar Square especially for travellers. It involves downloading an MP3 and going to the National Gallery tomorrow at 11 am.

It sounds intriguing so you download the MP3 and the following day go to the meeting point. There is a loud noise that indicates the beginning of the event so you play the MP3 on your Ipod.

You hear a voice that introduces himself and asks you to get up and wave. As you do this you realise that there are 60 other people doing the same thing. It then tells you to approach one of them and shake their hand. The instructions continue making you dance and clap and interact with the other participants for the next 30 minutes. You have a great time.

At the end a guy dressed in a Santa clause costume appears and he directs all of you to a local pub where you turn off your Ipod and talk to your new found friends about the experience. As you socialize over a pint, you realize that the group is made up of locals and travellers.’

4.“Virtual Guide”

Guided streamed video journey between local and traveller.

‘One of your friends is studying MA Interactive Media in London. On your first visit to London you meet up with him at his home. He gives you a small device, which is a subtle necklace with a micro camera and a wireless headphone and microphone. He explains that you connect the device to your mobile.

After setting up everything, you turn it on and go out on your own to visit the lovely city because your friend is too busy with his final project.
When you walk through the streets your friend can see exactly what you see in London from the streamed video on the computer screen of his house and chat with you at the same time.
Because it is your first visit to London, you are not familiar with everything here. However, you don’t need to worry about it because your London friend can guide you even if he is not with you. He can see and hear your travel experience and provide you with live feedback on your situation, such as translation, or directional aid. What’s more, if he starts to annoy you, you can switch him off!’