Tribeca Flashpoint Academy Chairman Howard Tullman on WGN with Bob and Marianne Talking about Apps, Haagen-Dazs and Adult Education at TFA

               LISTEN TO THE PODCAST: http://wgnradio.com/2013/08/07/theres-an-app-for-that/

The Haagen-Dazs Debacle

                             The Haagen-Dazs Debacle

  

I like to be supportive of almost any implementations of new, exciting technologies – even when I think that some are definitely “solutions in search of a problem” or the latest and greatest examples of “software that only the designer’s mother could love”, but there are limits and sometimes you see something so sad; so ill-conceived; and so poorly executed that you have to speak out just to avoid all of us toiling in these fields from being tarred and feathered with the same brush or beaten over the head with the stupid stick.

I’m very excited about the prospects of augmented reality across many different fields including education, entertainment, marketing, etc., but the recent Haagen-Dazs lid top “Concerto Timer” AR demo – available free in the Apple iTunes store [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/haagen-dazs-concerto-timer/id670015815?mt=8] is so awful that it’s likely to set the entire AR field back a century or two.

The premise is that you take the ice cream container out of the freezer and then you use your phone to download an app and then stand somewhere nearby and watch an AR-generated music video that appears on top of the ice cream container lid for the two minutes that Haagen-Dazs thinks you should wait for the ice cream to reach the ideal temperature for consumption.

The only thing that’s remotely smart about the whole thing is the hook to a charitable donation for honey bee research and preservation for each of the first 15,000 downloads, but frankly, I’d pay the 5 bucks directly to the charity myself just to have the time back that I wasted on the demo and a promise that I’d never have to try to watch the thing again.

Where should I start?

(1)   Who exactly is the audience and how old are they likely to be?

If anyone is experimenting with new, cool AR apps, it’s tech-savvy kids and young adults – not grown-ups.

(2)   Who thinks that kids today are listening to classical Bach violin pieces?

Bach Inventions No. 14 for violin and cello? Really? Have these guys spent too much time in the freezer?

(3)   Who waits 2 minutes for anything today – especially ice cream?

We live in an IG world – Instant Gratification. Waiting for your wine to breath might make sense after you unscrew the lid.  My ice cream melts in my mouth.

(4)   Who is going to stand anywhere for 2 minutes (like an idiot) holding your phone precisely focused on a pint of ice cream while it “tempers”?

I thought it was painful to watch paint dry. But this is much worse and you only have to watch paint dry once. Here, because the video isn’t persistent, it disappears the second you move your phone away from the lid so you have to stand like a mime (while your arm cramps up) to watch something you wouldn’t choose to watch on a bet.

(5)   Who can even see the image clearly or hear the music being played?

Using Kinect to capture the image of the performer rather than playing a clean, simple video (if you absolutely had to) was unnecessary and foolish overkill – like using a sledgehammer to kill a fly – and resulted in bad sound, poor video quality, and overall a completely disappointing experience. What were they thinking?

There are already plenty of intelligent uses of Augmented Reality technologies and some very smart applications that are finally getting traction and which even make good business sense because they supplement and add to the user experience instead of wasting our time. This clearly isn’t one of them.

TARGET'S CITY STORE VIP OPENING - TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY TARGET AR PROJECT

TO TRY THE TARGET AUGMENTED REALITY DEMO STARRING "BULLSEYE" THE TARGET DOG, GO TO THIS LINK:

TARGET AUGMENTED REALITY DEMO

YOU WILL NEED TO TURN ON YOUR WEB CAMERA AND PRINT OUT THE MARKER BELOW ON A PIECE OF PAPER

OR JUST WATCH THE VIDEO DEMO HERE:

TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY DEVELOPS AUGMENTED REALITY DASH LAMP DEMO FOR STEELCASE

WATCH THE VIDEO:

STEELCASE DASH LAMP - AUGMENTED REALITY DEMO from HOWARD TULLMAN on Vimeo.

TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY TEAMS UP WITH PREMIUM SURGE IN EXCLUSIVE DEAL TO CREATE 3D AUGMENTED REALITY MASKS FOR MEN IN BLACK 3

TRY THE WEBSITE OUT HERE: http://meninblack3sunglasses.com/alienme.php

OR  CONNECT THRU FACEBOOK HERE:

http://www.facebook.com/MenInBlack3Sunglasses/app_139229522811253

MASKS CREATED BY TRIBECA FLASHPOINT ACADEMY VISUAL EFFECTS STUDENTS

FLASHPOINT ACADEMY PRESIDENT/CEO HOWARD TULLMAN INTERVIEWED BY CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS ON AUGMENTED REALITY

Q&A: Howard Tullman talks up 'gee whiz' tech

Posted by Ann D. on Chicago Business

The inaugural Chicago TechExpo at the UIC Forum is designed to help small businesses learn how they can better implement technology to attract new customers and run their operations more effectively.

The technologies on display will range from the very basic (simple Web sites for businesses currently without a Web presence) to the very advanced — a demonstration of Augmented Reality technology, which overlays computer-generated imagery onto what you see in the real world. (Point your cell phone at a nearby building, for example, and the building’s address and a list of businesses inside pop onto your screen. Or point a webcam at a specially marked paper and a 3-D image will emerge.)

The Augmented Reality exhibit is hosted by Flashpoint Academy, a Chicago media arts college run by serial entrepreneur Howard Tullman, whose most recent projects — Kendall College and Experiencia Inc. — are also education-focused. Mr. Tullman tells Crain’s contributor Steve Hendershot why he’s excited about the prospects of both Flashpoint and the TechExpo.


Crain’s: Tell me more about this Augmented Reality demonstration. What’s the potential takeaway for a small business?

Howard Tullman: We’re demonstrating how it’s pretty easy for a business to take its logo on a business card and turn it into a 3-D object using Augmented Reality. It’s a low-cost way to make your business look a lot more high-tech.

The city approached us about demonstrating a "gee whiz" technology, and as you can imagine, being able to manipulate an object like that in 3-D space is quite interesting.

The iPhone alone has created another generation of entrepreneurs that are in position now to build a business in their basement or their bedroom. We’re almost back to the earliest days of the Web, where if you had a great idea and got your Web site out there and got it rolling, you could do that. The gates and gatekeepers are constantly shrinking, and there are opportunities out there along those lines.

Crain’s: A lot of the small businesses at the TechExpo aren’t so cutting-edge. What’s in this for them?


HT: This whole TechExpo is designed to address entrepreneurs and small businesses who are at the lower end of Internet savvy and the tech spectrum, and we’re trying to show them a vision of the future as well as some tools they can use right now.

I’m also doing a talk about social networking, which is another area (in addition to a Web site) where small businesses have to be in touch with customers and prospects. Facebook now has over 300 million users, which is larger than a lot of countries.


Crain’s: Getting the word out about how technology can help a business also helps build a market for Flashpoint grads. Describe the Flashpoint model and how it differs from media arts programs at traditional colleges.


HT: The rest of the industry is in the dark ages compared to what we’re doing. There are no other schools that have figured it out. Flashpoint is a two-year high-end vocational program for kids to go directly into work, and we’re finding that employers can’t get enough of these kids.

Our graduates have had a terrific reception, and honestly, this is the way the world really works. Because we’re an advanced technology hub, our students are trained to use technology that’s just being introduced in the commercial sector. So instead of an employer paying to train somebody up, our students are already ready to go.

Everything we do is team-based and cross-disciplinary. All of our projects use all skill sets and the resources you might need in the real world. You can’t go out and be a specialist in just this or just that, so the fact that our students are trained up on the technology and understand workflow is a huge difference from other schools that are just teaching in a single silo — just film, or just recording, or whatever.

Crain’s: It seems like it could be challenging to sell parents on a two-year program in Game Development or Recording Arts. What’s your reception been like?

HT: One of the very striking things has been how many parents are starting to get it. They see that, If this is what my kid wants to do, then instead of sending them to a four-year liberal arts school that is going to cost me a fortune and my kid doesn’t want to go there anyway, this is a huge opportunity.

..