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Transit Authorities Revamp Wayfinding Tools; Instruments Get Smart; Big Tech Still Believes in Smart Glasses
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Welcome back. City transit authorities are trying to make their digital navigation tools more competitive with the likes of Google Maps. Startups are offering instruments that teach novices how to play using elements familiar from videogames. And Apple, Facebook and others are forging ahead with projects to bring augmented-reality glasses to consumers.
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People waited for their train on a subway platform at New York’s Grand Central Terminal last September. PHOTO: MICHAEL NAGLE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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A number of transit agencies have introduced or revamped their passenger navigation tools as they look to compete with private transit on user experience, Katie Deighton writes for the Experience Report.
New wayfinding products like New York City’s Live Subway Map and Transport for London’s TfL Go app aim to let passengers better understand how a transit network is working in real-time at a glance, and whether any planned work might disrupt a coming trip.
Competing with more established apps such as Google Maps, platforms owned and operated by public transit let cities push users towards more sustainable modes of transportation, and reduce congestion in the system by suggesting certain routes and times of travel.
The growth of travel alternatives like ride-sharing services, enabled in large part by their slick digital apps, has pushed agencies to look at the relative clunkiness of their own platforms, said John Gordon, L.A. Metro’s senior director of marketing strategy, digital and advertising.
“The cold water that’s been splashed on the face of a lot of transit agencies over the past decade is the realization that we need to pay attention to our riders’ needs, and we need to build an experience that is competitive,” he said.
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The $299 Lumi Keys is designed to make practicing the piano closer to a game. PHOTO: F. MARTIN RAMIN/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
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A new breed of smart instruments aims to turn the chore of learning the basics into an interactive game, Matthew Kronsberg reports.
The Lumi system, for example, combines a compact keyboard with an app to provide videogame-style exercises and scoring.
As songs and lessons play on the app, colored bars corresponding to the keys scroll toward users on the screen. The analogous keys on the keyboard light up in the same colors, cuing users to strike them. The Lumi scores accuracy on a note-by-note basis as if users were playing “Guitar Hero.”
Olivia Campbell, an operations engineer who stopped taking piano lessons when she was a child, dove into Lumi with an “intermediate”-level theme from “Game of Thrones.” As the notes advanced on her like an unceasing rainbow-colored throng of White Walkers, she realized she might have been “a bit too ambitious.” Still, she said, “it’s all about practicing making perfect.”
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Snap already sells camera-equipped sunglasses it calls Spectacles, pictured, and analysts say the company is developing consumer AR glasses. PHOTO: JUSTIN LANE/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
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Tech companies including Facebook and Apple are accelerating their development of augmented-reality glasses for consumers, Sarah E. Needleman and Jeff Horwitz report.
AR headsets and glasses so far have found favor primarily with professional and industrial users, but many technologists believe face-borne computers could be transformational consumer products, letting people look up directions or read a recipe right before their eyes—without losing sight of the real world.
Tech giants also see AR glasses, of course, as a chance to keep consumers embedded in their ecosystems longer.
There are many challenges, however, including privacy and security.
“These things are going to have always-on cameras, always-on microphones,” Andrew Bosworth, vice president at Facebook Reality Labs. “This really is a technology that demands a public conversation about what the capabilities are going to be, what’s acceptable and not.”
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“If we can encourage kids to use an experience that is age-appropriate and managed by parents, we think that’s far better than kids using apps that weren’t designed for them.”
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— Facebook on its project to develop an Instagram for kids under 13, which has faced criticism from some quarters
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Hulu refreshed its design in a bid to set itself up as the place where TV viewers begin each streaming experience. [Variety]
After state and local governments temporarily eased rules over takeout alcohol, telehealth and other services during the pandemic, some want the regulations gone for good. [WSJ]
Designing medical devices with a focus on user experience can improve patient outcomes, facilitate regulatory approvals and reduce complaints and liability. [MD+DI]
The CDC is offering $500,000 in a design challenge to build a better face mask. [Fast Company]
The audio-only social network Clubhouse is testing a feature that lets listeners tip other users. [Pocketnow]
Restaurants with reduced seating capacity are struggling to move along customers who are just happy to be out. [Grubstreet]
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