University of Bristol Spin out Company shows us the future
University of Bristol Spin out Company shows us the future
[Posted on 19 June 2006]
Remember the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’? It always knows where you are and when you open it, gives you information about the planet that you have accidentally landed on alongside the friendly caution “Don’t Panic!”The Guide embodied a digital landscape overlaying the physical world. Now technology from new company Mista Ltd, a University of Bristol spin out company, brings the Guide one step closer to reality through your laptop, mobile phone or PDA. Mista’s technology means that as you walk through the physical environment, a diverse range of digital media experiences augment the ambience and bring these spaces alive.
The possibilities of this new technology are endless; imagine a Sony Pictures Da Vinci Code tour of Paris; a Disney tour of the Grand Canyon; or a Hertz tour of San Francisco delivering high-quality audio and video content as users move to different locations.
To celebrate this pioneering technology, Mista Ltd have launched Sharing Places (www.sharing-places.com), a new web application which enables and encourages you to attach text, photo, video and audio to locations in the real world to produce digital mediascapes. These devices form trails that can be accessed over the web or downloaded to a suitable device (e.g. PDA) and experienced in the real world. The trails can be tagged, published for others to find, remixed and shared.
Associating places in the real world with digital content is an exciting development that combines location technology with a new digital medium. It allows people to share their experiences and opinions about locations – for example, a person going on holiday can use the technology to record audio and visual commentary about specific locations and this route can then be recommended to friends visiting the same area.
Tony Rush, CEO of Mista Ltd commented, “In 12-18 months time, location-aware devices will be in widespread use through PDAs and mobile phone handsets. We are excited about leading the way with Sharing Places and encourage you to play and experiment with our new service.”
James Lancaster, Head of the Technology Transfer team at the University of Bristol added,” There is a growing market for information on the move. Mista’s innovative web applications provide a step change in the usability and accessibility of this information. This is personalised and tailored technology at its very best.”
www.sharing-places.com
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Notes for editors:
Mista Ltd
Mista Ltd is a University of Bristol spin out company which is pioneering pervasive information technology to enhance the ways in which residents and visitors experience and interact with their physical environment and with each other in urban and public spaces.
Mista Ltd are developing a range of software solutions including both Window Mobile Client software and a full featured cross platform Web 2.0 application.
www.mista.org
The University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is committed to combining its excellence in research and innovation with a vibrant enterprise culture. The University is working with government, industry and other partner organisations to encourage the growth of knowledge-based businesses in the South West. In particular, Bristol has joined forces with the universities of Bath, Southampton and Surrey to establish the SETsquared Partnership to encourage enterprise, build new businesses and work more effectively with industry. As research-intensive universities, these enterprise activities derive from their research base, although support is also available to entrepreneurs from outside of the universities. With a combined research staff of 6,400 and research budget of £266 million, the resulting contribution to the UK ‘knowledge economy’ is far greater than could be achieved individually. The partnership offers:
· Enterprise training and education
· Support for new businesses from within and external to the universities
· Access to innovative research that could lead to new products and processes
For further PR information contact:
Sadia Haq, Research & Enterprise Development, University of Bristol, Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TH tel: 0117 928 8676, e-mail: sadia.haq@bristol.ac.uk
Tony Rush, CEO Mista Ltd, Tel: 0798 102 5665, e-mail: tony.rush@mista.org