QUICK RESPONSE (QR) CODES: Using technology to bridge the past and present
From Dan Driscoll:
After choosing the locations and creating the text for the tour (and interviewing a number of people to verify the information), I used my smartphone (Android) to record the audio. I used the built-in microphone and a free app called Hi-Q MP3 This "trial" version of Hi-Q MP3 can only record 10-minutes per clip, but that was perfect for the audio tour. Each clip in the audio tour is only 1 1/2 to 2 minutes long.
Once Jill put the audio clips on the website, I used my laptop computer and "QR Code Generator," an on-line application, to produce the QR Codes in the very compact png format. To hear the audio clips, I used the free QR Droid app on my smartphone. I could also have used QR Droid to produce the QR Codes, but the on-line application seemed easier.
After producing the QR Codes, I wrote a description for the kiosk and produced a map showing the QR locations. The laminated description and map are on the kiosk. I put the laminated QR Codes up using aluminum nails (letting them stick out about 1-inch), the same way we install the boundary markers. We will see if they last as well as the boundary markers.
Finally, at the recommendation of TNC, I produced a pdf of the audio text for the website, adding pictures. TNC had found that people without smartphones complained that they couldn't take the audio tour at Lisha Kill. Lisha Kill. and the write-up in TNC's Spring 2012 Eastern New York Chapter newsletter, was my inspiration to create an audio tour for Winn.
Dan
Other uses of QR Codes (from Jeff Leon):
http://smartblogs.com/social-media/2013/01/03/top-30-qr-code-uses/
See the Winn Preserve Tour at: http://www.mohawkhudson.org/Library/Winn%20QR%20Tour.pdf
After choosing the locations and creating the text for the tour (and interviewing a number of people to verify the information), I used my smartphone (Android) to record the audio. I used the built-in microphone and a free app called Hi-Q MP3 This "trial" version of Hi-Q MP3 can only record 10-minutes per clip, but that was perfect for the audio tour. Each clip in the audio tour is only 1 1/2 to 2 minutes long.
Once Jill put the audio clips on the website, I used my laptop computer and "QR Code Generator," an on-line application, to produce the QR Codes in the very compact png format. To hear the audio clips, I used the free QR Droid app on my smartphone. I could also have used QR Droid to produce the QR Codes, but the on-line application seemed easier.
After producing the QR Codes, I wrote a description for the kiosk and produced a map showing the QR locations. The laminated description and map are on the kiosk. I put the laminated QR Codes up using aluminum nails (letting them stick out about 1-inch), the same way we install the boundary markers. We will see if they last as well as the boundary markers.
Finally, at the recommendation of TNC, I produced a pdf of the audio text for the website, adding pictures. TNC had found that people without smartphones complained that they couldn't take the audio tour at Lisha Kill. Lisha Kill. and the write-up in TNC's Spring 2012 Eastern New York Chapter newsletter, was my inspiration to create an audio tour for Winn.
Dan
Other uses of QR Codes (from Jeff Leon):
http://smartblogs.com/social-media/2013/01/03/top-30-qr-code-uses/
See the Winn Preserve Tour at: http://www.mohawkhudson.org/Library/Winn%20QR%20Tour.pdf
Tree-encoded: Daniel Driscoll demonstrates using a smart phone
to scan the QR codes found on eight trees in the Hudson and Nancy Winn Preserve in Knox. An app can be downloaded that allows the phone’s camera to scan the code, which will provide a link. Upon touching the link, an audio recording of Driscoll’s voice will stream on your phone, describing the history and geography of the area surrounding that tree. |
Dan Driscoll uses technology to bridge past and present
By Zach Simeone. The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, September 6, 2012
KNOX — With musical bridges and a smart forest, Knox planner Daniel Driscoll is using technologies old and new for both education and recreation on the Hill. “Audio tour?” Driscoll asked, feigning curiosity as he stood at the entrance of the Hudson and Nancy Winn Preserve in Knox on a sunny afternoon. “What’s that all about?”
Driscoll then demonstrated his latest project: Using the camera on his phone, and a downloadable app, he scanned a QR code on the entrance sign, creating a hyperlink on his screen. When he touched the link, Driscoll’s phone began streaming a recording of his own voice, giving a brief introduction to the history of the Winn Preserve.
Driscoll chose eight trees in the Winn Preserve and outfitted them with scannable Quick Response (QR) codes, printed on pieces of paper close to two square inches in size. A QR code is similar to a barcode in both form and function, but appears as a matrix of cubes, rather than a row of bars.
Visitors can use their phones to scan the QR code at each of these sites to hear a two-minute recording of Driscoll talking about the significance of the area surrounding that tree.
There are different QR-codescanning apps for the various smart-phone platforms; visitors should be able to scan the codes from an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone. Whether the apps are free or paid varies by app and by platform. Some non-phone devices with cameras, like iPods or tablets, will also work.
The eight trees are marked on paper maps, available at the entrance, where the first QR code can also be found. That makes nine total QR codes at the site. Driscoll, a sound engineer who has been on the Knox Planning Board for more than 30 years, says today that his love for sound may have started in high school.
“A teacher told me, ‘You can skip gym class if you join the band,’” Driscoll said with a grin. He started with cymbals before asking if the band needed another horn player. He soon picked up the French horn, which he still plays to this day.
Among Driscoll’s recent projects, in addition to the QR-coded woods, was the construction of a roughly 20-foot bridge at the nearby Wolf Creek Falls, made of planks of black locust wood, carved in a way that causes them to sound a musical note when struck. When played in order, the eight planks sound out the notes of the F-major scale.
“The idea came to me as I was building the bridge,” Driscoll told The Enterprise. “I was making the bridge out of black locust, which is a very hard wood. As I dropped one of the boards, it just went, ‘Bong’ — very resonant. So, I took eight of the boards home and carved out the underside of them to tune them to an octave. Once I was close to F, as a French horn player, I decided to leave it right on F — French horns are tuned to F.”
By carving away from the middle of the underside, the pitch becomes lower and lower. “So, I used my chainsaw and carved out the underside till I got what I wanted,” said Driscoll. “If I overshot it, I’d remove a little bit of wood from the end, and that would raise the pitch again.” Driscoll carried with him a pair of mallets made from pink bouncy balls purchased from the dollar store, and handles made from bamboo.
With a look of satisfaction, he pounded out a short rendition of Chopsticks, as though playing an oversized xylophone.
He has also built musical bridges at Normanskill West Preserve in Delmar and the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville. These, however, function differently than the marimba-like bridge in Knox. On these bridges, the notes don’t come from planks of wood, but rather from pipes. “You can play it by slapping your hand along the top of it,” Driscoll said of the pipes. “I generally leave a pair of flip-flops next to the bridge where this is, because it’s much louder and more resonant.”
The desired pitch is found by adjusting the length of the tube. “I used to teach musical acoustics at Union College,” said Driscoll. “In a tube like this, you can calculate the length of the tube and determine what the vibrational length and air is, and, because the tube also has width to it, you also have to use an equation that corrects for the end effect.”
While Driscoll’s bridges are reminiscent of the oldest musical instruments known, his latest undertaking at the Winn Preserve involves some of the latest mobile technology, which he hopes will attract younger crowds.
“Almost everything you see on the forest floor is a fern, and there are several of these spots that look at special ferns,” Driscoll said, pointing down as he walked among the legions of tall hemlock trees. “The walking fern is a very unusual one. You wouldn’t think it’s a fern, because it looks like a little arrow point. The thing can reproduce by spores, like all ferns do. But this one can also reproduce if the tip of that spear point touches a rock or moss or something, and produce a new plant.”
Since the only necessary infrastructure for the self-guided tours is a nearby cell tower, this technology may be used to bring QR-coded narration to other sites.
“I’ve let the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy know how this is done so that other preserve stewards could do this at the other preserves,” Driscoll said as he approached another marked tree. After scanning the QR code, a recording explained that much of the Winn preserve’s bedrock is Coeymans limestone that formed about 400 million years ago, and how rainwater can slowly dissolve the limestone, sometimes forming crevasses in a checkerboard pattern.
“I talked with a couple geologists,” Driscoll said as he walked towards a deep pit nearby, “and they think that the way this particular sinkhole formed is that there’s a large cave passage under here, and the blocks of limestone gradually fell into that cave.” Beside the hole is a pile of old, rusted farming tools that have been retrieved, among them a pair of saws.
“I’ve got a couple of kids from the neighborhood and their father who are cleaning out the bottom of this hole to see what they can find,” Driscoll said. “The hope is that, maybe, we’ll see some sort of entrance.”
By Zach Simeone. The Altamont Enterprise – Thursday, September 6, 2012
KNOX — With musical bridges and a smart forest, Knox planner Daniel Driscoll is using technologies old and new for both education and recreation on the Hill. “Audio tour?” Driscoll asked, feigning curiosity as he stood at the entrance of the Hudson and Nancy Winn Preserve in Knox on a sunny afternoon. “What’s that all about?”
Driscoll then demonstrated his latest project: Using the camera on his phone, and a downloadable app, he scanned a QR code on the entrance sign, creating a hyperlink on his screen. When he touched the link, Driscoll’s phone began streaming a recording of his own voice, giving a brief introduction to the history of the Winn Preserve.
Driscoll chose eight trees in the Winn Preserve and outfitted them with scannable Quick Response (QR) codes, printed on pieces of paper close to two square inches in size. A QR code is similar to a barcode in both form and function, but appears as a matrix of cubes, rather than a row of bars.
Visitors can use their phones to scan the QR code at each of these sites to hear a two-minute recording of Driscoll talking about the significance of the area surrounding that tree.
There are different QR-codescanning apps for the various smart-phone platforms; visitors should be able to scan the codes from an iPhone, Blackberry, or Android phone. Whether the apps are free or paid varies by app and by platform. Some non-phone devices with cameras, like iPods or tablets, will also work.
The eight trees are marked on paper maps, available at the entrance, where the first QR code can also be found. That makes nine total QR codes at the site. Driscoll, a sound engineer who has been on the Knox Planning Board for more than 30 years, says today that his love for sound may have started in high school.
“A teacher told me, ‘You can skip gym class if you join the band,’” Driscoll said with a grin. He started with cymbals before asking if the band needed another horn player. He soon picked up the French horn, which he still plays to this day.
Among Driscoll’s recent projects, in addition to the QR-coded woods, was the construction of a roughly 20-foot bridge at the nearby Wolf Creek Falls, made of planks of black locust wood, carved in a way that causes them to sound a musical note when struck. When played in order, the eight planks sound out the notes of the F-major scale.
“The idea came to me as I was building the bridge,” Driscoll told The Enterprise. “I was making the bridge out of black locust, which is a very hard wood. As I dropped one of the boards, it just went, ‘Bong’ — very resonant. So, I took eight of the boards home and carved out the underside of them to tune them to an octave. Once I was close to F, as a French horn player, I decided to leave it right on F — French horns are tuned to F.”
By carving away from the middle of the underside, the pitch becomes lower and lower. “So, I used my chainsaw and carved out the underside till I got what I wanted,” said Driscoll. “If I overshot it, I’d remove a little bit of wood from the end, and that would raise the pitch again.” Driscoll carried with him a pair of mallets made from pink bouncy balls purchased from the dollar store, and handles made from bamboo.
With a look of satisfaction, he pounded out a short rendition of Chopsticks, as though playing an oversized xylophone.
He has also built musical bridges at Normanskill West Preserve in Delmar and the Edmund Niles Huyck Preserve in Rensselaerville. These, however, function differently than the marimba-like bridge in Knox. On these bridges, the notes don’t come from planks of wood, but rather from pipes. “You can play it by slapping your hand along the top of it,” Driscoll said of the pipes. “I generally leave a pair of flip-flops next to the bridge where this is, because it’s much louder and more resonant.”
The desired pitch is found by adjusting the length of the tube. “I used to teach musical acoustics at Union College,” said Driscoll. “In a tube like this, you can calculate the length of the tube and determine what the vibrational length and air is, and, because the tube also has width to it, you also have to use an equation that corrects for the end effect.”
While Driscoll’s bridges are reminiscent of the oldest musical instruments known, his latest undertaking at the Winn Preserve involves some of the latest mobile technology, which he hopes will attract younger crowds.
“Almost everything you see on the forest floor is a fern, and there are several of these spots that look at special ferns,” Driscoll said, pointing down as he walked among the legions of tall hemlock trees. “The walking fern is a very unusual one. You wouldn’t think it’s a fern, because it looks like a little arrow point. The thing can reproduce by spores, like all ferns do. But this one can also reproduce if the tip of that spear point touches a rock or moss or something, and produce a new plant.”
Since the only necessary infrastructure for the self-guided tours is a nearby cell tower, this technology may be used to bring QR-coded narration to other sites.
“I’ve let the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy know how this is done so that other preserve stewards could do this at the other preserves,” Driscoll said as he approached another marked tree. After scanning the QR code, a recording explained that much of the Winn preserve’s bedrock is Coeymans limestone that formed about 400 million years ago, and how rainwater can slowly dissolve the limestone, sometimes forming crevasses in a checkerboard pattern.
“I talked with a couple geologists,” Driscoll said as he walked towards a deep pit nearby, “and they think that the way this particular sinkhole formed is that there’s a large cave passage under here, and the blocks of limestone gradually fell into that cave.” Beside the hole is a pile of old, rusted farming tools that have been retrieved, among them a pair of saws.
“I’ve got a couple of kids from the neighborhood and their father who are cleaning out the bottom of this hole to see what they can find,” Driscoll said. “The hope is that, maybe, we’ll see some sort of entrance.”