Tide’s Up
Mobile application
Laboratory of Interaction Design, Iuav University
Professors: Gillian Crampton Smith and Philip Tabor
When: from October to December 2011
Teammates: Giulia Bozzetto, Tania Boa and Ornella Giau
Technology involved: Processing, PhoneGap, Adobe Creative Suite
Professors: Gillian Crampton Smith and Philip Tabor
When: from October to December 2011
Teammates: Giulia Bozzetto, Tania Boa and Ornella Giau
Technology involved: Processing, PhoneGap, Adobe Creative Suite
Tide’s Up is a mobile phone application that allow joggers to train on new routes focusing on the emotional value of the running experience. But the main feature of the app is the creation of a big social event. This takes place in Venice during one of its high tides when every jogger has to run to escape the high water.
The app is a service halfway between a game and a widget. Our main idea was that, in Venice, a lot of behaviours are dependent on the condition of the lagoon. For example runners have to take account of the level of the water if they want to run in the city center with dry feet. So we thought about making our strenght point out of this peculiar condition and create a game-like experience that would take runners out in the streets when there is the high tide.
The concept is that of a competition against the tide. You have to run faster that the rising tide to reach a common finish line.
The program calculates the positions of all runners and create a special path for each one of them, leading to the same ending point. Through GPS technology the system is able to understand if you reached the target dry or wet since it calculates in real time which zones are already floated.
The result is a fun and engaging event, gathering runners, courious people and normal tourist.
The concept is that of a competition against the tide. You have to run faster that the rising tide to reach a common finish line.
The program calculates the positions of all runners and create a special path for each one of them, leading to the same ending point. Through GPS technology the system is able to understand if you reached the target dry or wet since it calculates in real time which zones are already floated.
The result is a fun and engaging event, gathering runners, courious people and normal tourist.
How it works
Our app has two main sections: the event mode, and the training.
The event mode, the one that actually is used during the run against the tide, gets activated automatically by the system when the tide is high. In normal days, there is a countdown displayed either by a graphic rising wave or by a numerical countdown that comes up when only one day is left.
Our app has two main sections: the event mode, and the training.
The event mode, the one that actually is used during the run against the tide, gets activated automatically by the system when the tide is high. In normal days, there is a countdown displayed either by a graphic rising wave or by a numerical countdown that comes up when only one day is left.
The training mode can be used daily to run on different tracks, experiencing always new route.
The interaction during the run is done via hearphones. The runnes do not know, both in the event and the training, where the path is going to lead. There is no map. Instead we developed a navigation system that uses music and sounds to give instructions: left and right are triggerd by panned sound in the hearphones, wrong road is pointed out by a distortion in the music.
