Trail running in the Rockies. Photo: Bill Day

I am an unabashed outdoor geek, just as obsessed with outdoor activities as I am tech. If you’re thinking “me too”, read on.

Last year I took up running and was looking for an adventurous challenge to push me as I trained. I decided to join my father on a high country camping, hiking, and trail running trip to the San Juans in southwestern Colorado. I had so much fun that I decided to tell the world about it in an Ignite talk on running (see video after the jump or check it out here) several months later. I also decided to set a goal of going back to the Rockies soon and bringing my wife and children with me the next time.

Where to go turned out to be easy to decide. My father and I enjoy hunting together (one of the oldest of “geek dad” activities given how obsessed many of us hunters are with spending time afield with our family). After years of applying and not being drawn, this summer my father and I finally received Wyoming pronghorn antelope tags in the mail. Since we’ll be hunting in the high plains of western Wyoming just a few hours away from Yellowstone National Park, the decision was made: The Day family is headed to Yellowstone!

Over the next few weeks I’ll be writing about places to visit (look out Buffalo Bill Historical Center and Wyoming Dinosaur Center), favorite gear and gadgetry to make the journey smoother, and outdoor activities with family including camping, hiking, trail running, bird and critter watching, and hunting. If you have suggestions or questions you’d like me to address, please let me know via the comments below. Hopefully these posts will give you fodder for your own geek family adventures this fall.

More to come soon.  Until then, happy trails!

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3DS (image:nintendo.com)

As you will have read the 3DS is an impressive piece of kit. Not only does it deliver a lot more than we were expecting, but it does so with finesse – and more importantly an impressive array of first and third party games.

But with my GeekDad hat on, how does this stack up for family gamers? My first impression is that there is going to be a cost here. Those of us that have tracked with Nintendo from the original DS, the DSlite and DSi have already quite a few of these devices in the hands of our family. With the 3DS we have another piece of hardware to purchase.

Thankfully though, this looks like a genuine new platform, rather than the existing DS technology with a 3D mode. As I said soon after the Nintendo press conference, the 3DS over-delivers in a number of areas. “We already knew that the new DS was called 3DS and would offer a convincing 3D game experience without glasses. But we didn’t expect the 3D features to extend to 3D movies, or to be able to take 3D pictures with dual front facing cameras.”

I was also happy to hear that it was compatible with existing DS and DSi games. Although in my family this raises the question of how (and if) we transfer DSi-Ware games from our existing hardware to the new device. When it is released we will likely want to sell our DSi’s to help ease the cost of a new system – I hope this doesn’t mean we have to wave goodbye to those precious purchases.

One surprise for me was that the new analogue nub has been given preference over the d-pad. It’s position forces the d-pad lower down the left side of the handheld. I know that this will make some of the existing DS games – particularly those that are played in my favorite book style. I was also surprised that the system didn’t have one of these on each side – particularly after the complaints about the PSP on this front. This too will make it harder for developers to cater for left-handed players and may reduce it to more of a camera toy than integral part of the experience.

But it’s the games that my household seems to be most excited about. Titles like Zelda Ocarina of Time, Animal Crossing, Mariokart and Pilot Wings had us pawing over the screen shots for every last details. As well as these first party-games, I was really pleased to see an impressive line-up of third-party titles as well.

In our family, the games we most often share and play together are those on the portable systems. Seeing the likes of Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Kingdom Hearts, DJ Hero 3Dand Super Street Fighter IV in the roster means that our older offspring are also catered for. Whereas previously they have been excluded from much of the DS fun, leaving it to their younger siblings, I think these titles have a shot at getting us all playing together again – especially Street Fighter IV.

Other features I know the kids will enjoy are its ability to share and receive data while they are out and about – like the original Nintendogs, but even when the game isn’t running. I’m sure they will be taking endless 3D photos to begin with as well – the problem then is how to display them. We’ll need a 3D picture frame.

Overall, there is plenty to praise in the next DS from Nintendo.

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Last month, industry and academic experts in human-computer interaction gathered in Atlanta for their annual CHI conference. The event was a chance for practitioners and theorists alike to share their work across a wide domain. A few of these projects focused on the domestic design space and bringing families together.

Family Story Play

Hayes Raffle presented a paper describing the early prototyping and testing of Family Story Play, a teleconferencing device to connect grandparents and grandchildren. Raffle, a Senior Research Research Scientist for design and user experience at the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, argued that young children don’t find talking on the phone to be intuitive. Rather than teaching kids how to stay engaged with disembodied voices, this design uses a shared activity with which most people are familiar—reading a book—to facilitate long-distance communication.

Hayes Raffle of Nokia demonstrates Family Story Play.

The prototype comprises of a folding wooden frame housing two Linux tablets, connected via USB to magnetic sensors and a book. One of the tablets serves as the video conferencing touch screen, showing Grandma and which page of the book she is currently reading. On the other screen is Elmo from Sesame Street, who acts as a catalyst for interaction as the generations read together. Thanks to the sensors and some creative input from Sesame Workshop, Elmo is aware of where they are in the storybook and can respond to content with pre-programmed prompts and reactions.

Raffle said some of the inspiration for the project came from personal experience trying to share the early life of his older daughter in Cambridge with family in California. Family Story Play is a collaboration between Nokia, the Sesame Workshop, and MIT’s Tangible Media Group.

Family Window

Working with Kodak, Tejinder Judge of Virginia Tech tested another form of video conferencing meant to strengthen intimacy over distance. The Family Window connects families with always-on video that can be annotated with on-screen ink. To address privacy concerns, there is no audio in the system, and each side of the connection can control how much video is shown using the electronic equivalent of blinds. The participating families adapted to the constraints by using the on-screen ink to leave status messages or playful annotations on images.

In the work presented at CHI, six families served as guinea pigs under varied conditions. Most had a dedicated tablet PC, but one used a multi-purpose laptop. This caused some miscommunication when a father-in-law appeared to be staring intently at the distant family when he was really browsing the web with his video window minimized.

The testing supported the notion that the mundane is a valuable means to strengthen existing relationships. Checking in visually often prompted impromptu conversation and let distant family members become aware of patterns that might never be brought up otherwise. Families could share in ordinary routines, like getting ready for bed or reading books, despite not being in the same room.

FM Radio

A third family-oriented design project was presented by Daniela Petrelli of the University of Sheffield, with support from Microsoft Research and Rice University. FM Radio (as in “Family Member”) had two parts to the research.

The first part asked ten families to collect sonic mementos of three days of vacation. Left to each family to determine what was important, these digital sound clips contained conversations, commentary, ambient sound, and varied forms of music. On the recording days, the families were asked to only use the recorder—no pictures—to force them to consider deeply how to preserve their memories through audio.

The second part revisited six of those family recordings a year later. During 90-minute sessions, each family was presented with a device that looked like an old radio. Without any instruction or explanation, they spent the time exploring the knobs and buttons and rediscovering the sounds they had previously captured.

What made FM Radio so compelling was the physical form and somewhat antiquated metaphor given these “sound souvenirs.” It was clearly an engaging activity that required some discussion to recall the context of each clip and to share new uses of the sounds created by playing with the radio controls.

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