Amber Case has the coolest job title ever.
The self-proclaimed “Cyborg Anthropologist” is an experience designer who focuses on the mobile environment and the augmented reality concepts we use to extend our capabilities. Case argues that, because we have all become cyborgs. Not in the Robocop/Terminator sense of the word, but we all inserted devices into our lives in a significant way, that seek to greatly extend our capacity in a non-physical way.
Geolocation beyond the Check-in
In her March 11 keynote at the 2012 South by Southwest Interactive Festival, Amber indirectly encouraged location based technology to begin looking beyond the concept of ‘Check in’, to the use of location based systems to enhance our existing interactions with our surroundings.
Current geo-location apps (think Foursquare), allow us to check in and push our behaviors out to our digital world. Case encouraged the attendees to think beyond that and to consider using location data to enhance more passive activities. From narrative Wikipedia information on a historic building you passed, to the new location based reminders; how can we use our location aware devices to pull rather than push.
Dissatisfied with the current location based platforms, Amber founded Geoloqi. The Geoloqi platform allows app developers to layer location data, analytics and messaging onto their apps in a powerful way. At the tail end of the keynote, Case took a moment to highlight new partnerships with Appcelerator, Factual and Locaid that would extend the platform.
One of the most intriguing features of the Geoloqi platform, is a “geofence” algorithm that seeks to preserve battery life and provide more control over the interaction by allowing the developer to limit spacial and temporal conditions for the app interaction. Beyond a space based geofence, developers can use other information such as time of day, speed, altitude and address location information to trigger app events.
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