Infocult: Information, Culture, Policy, Education

Scary butt-dialing: accidental war story

The name is funny, referring to accidentally dialing a phone number by squeezing the device between body and clothing.  But we should expect scary stories of butt-dialing, like this inadvertent recording from a war zone:

Stephen Phillips and other soldiers in his Army MP company were battling insurgents when his phone was pressed against his Humvee. It redialed and called his parents in the small Oregon coastal town of Otis.

Most the sounds were gunfire, but shouts can be heard, including, "More ammo! More ammo!"

"At the end, you could hear a guy saying 'Incoming! RPG!' And then it cut off," said John Petee, Phillips' brother.

Variations on this story could draw on other haunted media tales: last call from a now-dead man, a photo taken of an approaching killer, an awkwardly-angled video clip of the monsters talons dragging on the floor.

(thanks to my wife)

QR code gaming: ubicomp assassin

QR-Kill is a mobile game, played using phones and signs with QR codes on them.  The object is to pick other players out of a big crowd (downtown Madrid), capture their QR codes, then text them, which knocks them out of the game.

This would make a fun platform for augmented reality storytelling.  People can be actors, with information on their QR cards.  Cards with story bits can be placed on buildings, park benches, etc.

(via Roger Kaywa)

Circuit-laden contact lens: science catching up with science fiction

This University of Washington story about contact lenses carrying lights and circuitry is making the rounds.  One key point to make here: this sort of thing is already present in a great deal of science fiction, as a device for experiencing augmented reality.  Separate appliances (glasses) haven't caught on, either in the world or in sf.

A second point: will we think of such eye-capping devices as more than Web browsers?  Imagine some period of development, at the end of which the contact lens is as powerful as a smartphone.  It can hold text, images, music, short videos.  And it's networked wirelessly, of course, so people can connect with each other through their lenses.  P2P trading in an eyeblink, as it were.

Second Life on mobile phones

Virtual worlds take one step into mobile computing, as DoCoMo shows off a Japanese phone displaying Second Life.  Sun may be a key player here.

This is one of the elements necessary for getting beyond the current state of virtual worlds, as I argued in my Third Life post.   

(via SocialSim)

Mobile phone storytelling

Storytelling for the mobile phone has been growing like mad in Japan, according to the Wall Street Journal.  People read all sorts of fiction on their keitais.  And they write on them:

"PCs might be easier to type on, but I've had a cellphone since I was in sixth grade, so it's easier for me to use," says Ms. Nakamura, who has written eight novels on her little phone.

I like the glimpse we get of how the device and firmware help shape content:

Many mobile novels are influenced by comic books the young writers grew up reading. That means lots of dialogue and really short paragraphs that fit nicely on a small screen. Huge empty spaces between sentences can convey that the characters are deep in thought.

Of course, in the United States we'd rather not do that, thanks.  Among other problems, we're not into text as much as the rest of the world, so reading is less likely, much less writing.

(via institute for the Future of the Book)

Black Plaques: historical markers for Gothic history

The Black Plaques is a project to install historical markers for various British witches, madmen, visionaries, and such Gothic folks.  Thus honored so far are  HellFire Club members, a horror film director, and an Elizabethan actor specializing in fools.  It's from English Heretic.

Such a project would be excellent in augmented reality or locative art.  Imagine geolocating rich media documents, without limitations of space. 

(via BoingBoing)

Upcoming augmented reality gaming events

Two new augmented reality games events are being unleashed on Britain this month, according to Social Sim.
  One collects enthusiasts and practices.

Naturally these aren't in the US.

Phonelogging a government

IEEE has a fine article about the technology behind, and implications of, the recent Greek mobile phone hack scandal.  It's an astonishing story, made even more spooky by the fact that the perps are still unknown.  And that's some very good technical writing, too.

The day after Tsalikidis's body was discovered, CEO Koronias met with the director of the Greek prime minister's political office. Yiannis Angelou, and the minister of public order, Giorgos Voulgarakis. Koronias told them that rogue software used the lawful wiretapping mechanisms of Vodafone's digital switches to tap about 100 phones and handed over a list of bugged numbers. Besides the prime minister and his wife, phones belonging to the ministers of national defense, foreign affairs, and justice, the mayor of Athens, and the Greek European Union commissioner were all compromised. Others belonged to members of civil rights organizations, peace activists, and antiglobalization groups; senior staff at the ministries of National Defense, Public Order, Merchant Marine, and Foreign Affairs; the New Democracy ruling party; the Hellenic Navy general staff; and a Greek-American employee at the United States Embassy in Athens. (emphasis added)

(via MetaFilter)

Mysterious calls from Restricted

A Fircrest, Washington family is being terrorized by cell phone.  Threatening calls come to the Kuykendalls at all times, including death threats, descriptions of what family members are doing, and mocking security arrangements. Changing phones doesn't help.  In fact, according to the family, turning off the phones doesn't help. 

It's a fascinating, rich story for fearsome technology narratives.  For example, there's the insidious way the Kuykendalls' phones are turned against each other:

Somehow, the callers have gained control of the family cell phones, Price and Kuykendall say. Messages received by the sisters include snatches of conversation overheard on cell-phone mikes, replayed and transmitted via voice mail. Phone records show many of the messages coming from Courtney’s phone, even when she’s not using it – even when it’s turned off.

One might be reminded of another family haunting story, the Amityville Horror.  There's a similar set of American family and home dynamics.

There's also the hoax angle.  As with the Amityville case, this could be a publicity stunt.  The web has many stories debunking the thing for technical reasons (for example).  Alternatively, it might not be the whole family in on the gambit, since the mother accuses the police of hinting that her daughter, Courtney, is behind it all.

One response for the putatively terrorized by technological means is the withdrawal from technology method, as described in the devastating finale of John Varley's classic story "Press Enter []" (1984).  The Kukendall family has tried something similar, basic, desperate measures to stop the signals:

The families and their friends have adopted a new routine: They block the cameras on their phones with tape. They take out the batteries to stop the calls. The Prices and Kuykendalls returned all their corrupted phones to their wireless company and replaced them with new ones. The threatening messages kept coming.

A different spin shifts the blame from stalkers, or terrorists (each with a rich meme structure), to hackers.  Ah, that reliable standby.  NPR goes for it, too.

There are hints of other cultural and rhetoric elements not dominating discussion yet, but waiting to be activated.  For example, one article notes in passing that the maybe-a-suspect daughter, Courtney, "is reportedly a MySpace user."  Not Facebook, of course.  The whole body of worries about that platform can be invoked, such as MySpace's rare but still bad tendency to play host to viruses and spyware.

Another meme touched on is the military conspiracy world, since one family member is married to a soldier at a local base, and that in-law has been targeted as well.

A third level picks up on recent concerns about cyberbullying.  Yes, this could be a hoax, but one perpetrated by outsiders using social engineering in order to get at younger family members.

A fourth level hints at the theme of addiction.  During a CW story debunking the case, note this passage:

The Kuykendalls have told millions of Americans through the media that they're terrified to the point of paralysis, but apparently not terrified enough to stop using their phones for awhile. Nor have they switched to phones that don't support Internet access or Java, or switched carriers.

The addiction theme might be picked up again, especially if the family enters (very public) family therapy.  IF that happens, we might see this example recycled during the (so far bogus) cyberaddiction debates.

A fifth level involves terrorism.  The word "terrorism" and its associations have appeared throughout media accounts of the case.  From that ComputerWorld article:

One newscaster on FOX News said: "This is beyond stalking ... this is terrorism in the worst form ... we call it 'bullying,' we call it 'little kids acting out' -- it's not. It's terrorism. ... it also proves no technology or law can guard you against bad behavior."

Most reasonable people think suicide bombs against busloads of children or Sept. 11 might be examples of "terrorism in the worst form." Some kid leaving hateful prank messages isn't terrorism.

Surprisingly, especially for an American fearsome technology story involving minors, we haven't seen a forbidden sexuality component.

Lastly, as the MetaFilter thread notes repeatedly, this story draws on recent movies and stories, from Japanese horror to Stephen King.  There's also nearly a decade of haunted mobile media stories from around the world to draw on.  Within the overall theme of digital media fears, mobile phones have definitely come into their own.

(thanks to the ever-resourceful Steve Burnett)

Defensive phone

One note from this excellent presentation at the New Yorker 2012 conference: mobile phones used to prevent harassment or attack.  Nokia's Younghee Jung describes women interacting with their phones - or just pretending to - in order to look less vulnerable to potential threats.