We present below a showcase of the studio pooches, brought to life through the magic of gifs and the persuasion of dog treats.

Abby belongs to senior producer Heather Daniel. When she isn’t in the studio, Abby can be found riding around Portland on a trailer connected to Heather’s bicycle. Abby embodies Heather’s competitive spirit, excelling at ball-chasing, monopolizing unguarded water dishes, and maximizing belly-rubs.

Uni belongs to founders Brad Johnson and Julie Beeler. The largest dog in the studio, Uni is not immune to innate Rhodesian Ridgeback behaviors such as showing affection by walking between your legs (short people, you’ve been warned). Uni’s reputation precedes her, notorious for dumpster-diving and sneakily stealing your lunch.

Herman belongs to finance manager Fay Savage. He is an old soul that younger, spunkier dogs can usually encourage to play. A devoted companion, Herman is happiest lounging by Fay’s desk, but he will follow her wherever she goes. He can often be found waiting patiently at the studio’s front door for his human to return.

Nebula belongs to senior interactive developer Donny Richardson. Nebs is a rare sight, a special guest making in-studio cameos from time to time. Another veteran dog, she manages to keep up with Donny’s antics (something few humans can do!) while tolerating his bear hugs with grace and composure.

Taco, our youngest and tiniest studio dog, belongs to interaction designer Marc Lehman. Marc’s new pup has the spirit and spunk of a full-grown canine. Taco is always picking up new tricks, such as “karate chopping” other dogs, and he melts the heart of every employee in the studio.

Rusko belongs to junior experience designer Kirsten Southwell. Rusko is an excitable and social pup-sko with a wide range of expressions, most of which are different forms of happy. He is also very impressionable, recently taking up habits such as digging holes and eating dirt.

Sir Walter Pancakes belongs to content strategist Alyssa Glass. Walter’s desire for belly rubs overpowers his ability to stand. If you so much as approach him, he immediately flops onto his back waiting for scratches. Alyssa affectionately compares his size to that of a loaf of bread.

— Kirsten Southwell, Jr. Experience Designer 

That was me, up until about a month ago, before I made the cross-country move from Boston to Portland to work at Second Story.

Like any wise researcher presented with a big decision, I turned to the experts for insight: my friends who watch Portlandia.

“It’s kind of like Brooklyn, but better.”
“It rains . . . A LOT.”
“Get a bike. You’re going to need it.”

Hipsters? Works for me. Rain? Couldn’t possibly be worse than a Nor’easter. Biking? In Boston, the odds of being run over by an angry Massachusetts driver are pretty darn high. Needless to say, I was skeptical about biking.

Sometimes you just run with it. You trust your Portlandia-watching friends (and other people who’ve actually been to Portland), your gut instinct, a new opportunity, and go. So I moved. And honestly, I couldn’t be happier I did.

A Few Portland Observations 

Craftsman Houses: Portland homes are reminiscent of fairytale cottages: charming, quirky, and wonderfully colorful.

Recycling: I’ve read the official recycling manual from front to back. Captain Planet would be proud of PDX.

Gardens: I’ve seen just about every kind of plant species known to man growing in the gardens of Northeast Portland. This seems to go hand in hand with an overwhelming fondness for terrariums.

Biking: After only one week in this bicycle paradise, I took the plunge and bought a bike. Carless roads, tree-lined streets, and a couple of chickens clucking at me as I go past. What more could I want? This is home.

—Sarah Henderson, Designer (and illustrator of the above)

Wake County Training School, Playing games at recess, 1916
Jackson Davis, Papers, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library
http://search.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:329892

Second Story produced 18 historical videos for the Voices Area, each about 2 minutes long. The stories were carefully chosen by our client, Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI), to address one or more of the “challenge statements” they identified as organizing principles for the content of the Commons. Using these challenge statements throughout the Commons allowed for each historical story to be tied to contemporary efforts to address the same issue, data about the challenge, and ideas for the future. The challenge to improve the quality of health care in North Carolina is one that has had evolving manifestations and responses throughout the state’s history. In the 1910s, the NC Public Health System was formed to ensure that citizens throughout the state had access to health care through local health departments. Today, the state faces an uneven distribution of access to dental care; as late as 2011, there were still three counties with no dentists at all. Eastern Carolina University’s new dental school is training new dentists to work in rural areas.

Women assembled at Wheeley’s Church near Gordonton, North Carolina, to clean up church and grounds on annual cleaning up day. 1939
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Reproduction # LC-USF34-020020-C
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000003551/PP/

IEI worked with historians and experts in each field to create the scripts for the historical stories. The scripts went through many rounds of review and revision on IEI’s side, and then a content strategist at Second Story reviewed them to ensure consistency of voice and narrative flow when read aloud. As the scripts were coming together, image research was already underway on our end. I was lucky enough to do the majority of the image research for the stories. Along the way, I had help from many generous and knowledgeable North Carolinians including archivists and librarians of university and state collections, librarians of small local collections, photographers, holders of private collections, business historians, administrators of non-profits, and bloggers. Second Story put together storyboards for each video, allowing IEI to view and approve image selections. A series of rough video cuts was produced with scratch voiceover recordings to work out the image transitions and final image selections, after which image permissions were obtained and documented. Second Story recorded the narration with voice talent, and the final video cuts were made. Supporting images were selected for each story; in the exhibit space these play on either side of the videos. Start to finish, the production of these historical stories spanned two years and incorporated over 650 photographs and film clips.

Shopping and visiting on main street of Pittsboro, North Carolina. 1939
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Reproduction # LC-DIG-fsa-8b33858
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000003378/PP/

The final videos are full of amazing imagery of the state and its people, and exploring the many collections from which the materials were drawn has been a highlight of my time at Second Story. Depending on the story to be told, the image research felt like a smorgasbord or a treasure hunt. Along the way, I set aside photographs that captured my thoughts but did not fit into the stories we created. Here are a few of those inscrutable, joyous, mysterious, or introspective scenes and faces.

—Jen Dolan, Content Strategist

Images, clockwise from top left:

Man diving into pool at YMCA student conference center, Blue Ridge Assembly, near Asheville, North Carolina, circa 1921. Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries. http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/0004836

Exercises in Kenan Stadium, Navy Pre-Flight School. North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/vir_museum/id/648

Jones County 4-H king and queen of health and their court, 1929. Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries. http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/0014887

Stage at a Home Demonstration clubhouse, 1920s. Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries. http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/0000595

Greensboro, NC, ca. 1933. From the Farrell Photo Collection, PhC.9, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC http://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/3008268898/in/set-72157607491996712

Raleigh Times News Carriers August 31, 1915. Raleigh News & Observer and the State Archives of North Carolina. http://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/3525864429/in/set-72157617965298949/

Two people standing in a tobacco field. Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries. http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/ua023_031-008-cb0011-062-001

In modern egg production, one man can care for thousands of layers, 1972. Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries. http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/ua023_007-003-bx0007-013-026

Students, 1870-1990s. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wilson Library, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/dig_nccpa,3237

Onslow County, NC, ca.1939. New River Club House: between parties the keepers fish and mend nets. From the Charles A. Farrell Photograph Collection, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC. http://www.flickr.com/photos/north-carolina-state-archives/3002923812/in/set-72157607491996712

4-H king and queen of health, crowned at North Carolina State 4-H Short Course held at North Carolina State College in Raleigh, 1938. Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries. http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog/0016359

The importance of data and its display have been in the media of late. I’m thinking about the recent NY Times review of the Tesla S and CEO Elon Musk’s response to the negative press, complete with his own logs and charts. And then there was the NPR story, “The ‘Big Data’ Revolution: How Number Crunchers Can Predict Our Lives,” which featured an interview with Kenneth Cukier, co-author of Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think.

In late February, I was honored to be a part of the Hollywood Theatre’s “Arc: An Evening of Animated Infographics,” a screening curated by former Second Story Content & Media Producer Michael Neault. Working with members of our team, Michael did an amazing job of putting together a series of animated infographic shorts into an hour-long collection. Michael recently left Portland for New York, and, in his absence, I had the pleasure of introducing the evening as well as participating in a short Q&A with Periscopic partners Kim Rees and Dino Citraro. Their work, U.S. Gun Killings in 2010, was featured in the series.

I was extremely impressed by the turnout, as it’s a positive sign of how this form of communication is evolving into the mainstream. In my career, I’ve watched the evolution of infographics, and I’m excited to see animated graphics becoming more commonplace. And as “big data” becomes more accessible and a part of the norm for how we do business, it’s increasingly critical that we successfully communicate complex information accurately and comprehensively.

Graphics set in motion are excellent tools to explain sets of data or processes in compressed time. But the animated graphics that excite me the most are those that help me understand complex stories and connect with me on an emotional level. Simple moving slides with charts and graphs are fine as motion studies, but I’m specifically talking about motion graphics that use juxtaposition, pacing and contrast to communicate concepts and relationships. These kinds of animated graphics help me understand process and data through narrative. The two that stood out most for me from the screening were:

• Titanic – for BBC History
• One Race, Every Medalist Ever (NY Times)

These pieces use a technique that I think works particularly well: positioning a common element consistently throughout the animation. In the Titanic animation, the ship is featured in nearly every frame while the graphic pans across and zooms in and out at varying angles to tell the story. Even in a map view, the Titanic, represented by a single dot or line, was still central to the narrative. In “One Race,” The NY Times presented from varying angles a single track representing all of the event’s medal winners over the years. The animated graphic was based entirely on points of view rather than the animation of moving elements.

I hope to see more meaningful explanatory animated graphics become a part of the mainstream. I’m especially looking forward to how we can advance the form beyond the small (web+mobile) and large (theatrical) screens.

—Andrew DeVigal, Director, Content Strategy

Depth-sensing cameras like the Kinect give us the opportunity to mix physical environments and virtual environments, creating new immersive experiences. In this Second Story Labs experiment, we demonstrate how the use of multiple cameras helps solve problems with occlusion or “holes” the use of a single camera creates.

If you’ve ever worked with a Microsoft Kinect, you know that occlusion is no laughing matter. It’s responsible for gaping holes in people’s chests, disappearing necks, the noseless faces of zombies. Humans are full of convexities, and to a Kinect that means that we are also full of holes. We’ve dealt with this in lots of creative ways—filling in gaps with best estimates, “blurring” data, hiding holes with smoke and mirrors. But the best and perhaps most obvious solution to the dilemma of occlusion is simply to add more Kinects. A second gunman, if you will, shooting from an angle that will cover the first Kinect’s blind spot.

In this case, we are calibrating two Kinects in space about a meter apart and angled inward toward their subject. This way we can “see” our way around noses, arms, and other pesky occlusions. Then all we have to do is combine their data into a single mesh, and the rest is up to our imaginations.

At full resolution, we can actually get a pretty accurate model of a person’s face. And all of this is being rendered in real time, so that a user’s reality can be “augmented” while they interact. Here we have added three-dimensional models and rain particles to the virtual space to put the user into an imaginary landscape.

Click to view slideshow.

In honor of recent work we’ve been doing in the fashion world, members of our team decided to do a little dressing up. The Portland weather cooperated long enough for us to have a silly impromptu photoshoot in our neighborhood, and we had such a good time that we’re thinking this just might become a regular thing. Here’s to Fashion Fridays?

—Nora Bauman, Operations Manager

We’re fascinated by the intersection of big data and storytelling. Our culture is now supersaturated with colossal reams of information, and it’s all we can do to stay afloat and make sense of it all. There’s a demand for interpretation, and new tools for doing so, so it’s not surprising to note that we’re experiencing a fresh breed of visual artists crystallizing this influx of information into beautiful visualizations and stories.

To explore the breadth of this new medium, we’ve curated a theatrical program dedicated to the art, creativity, and complexity of animated infographics. The program includes the best and brightest time-based data visualizations and infographics from the past couple years. We believe it to be the first screening of its kind!

Join us as we host Arc: An Evening of Animated Infographics on Thursday, February 28th at 7:30 PM at the historic Hollywood Theatre. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Andrew DeVigal (Second Story, NYTimes) and Dino Citaro (Periscopic.com).

Sponsored by: Second Story Interactive Studios
Running Time: 60 minutes
Venue: Hollywood Theatre
Time: February 28th, 7:30pm
Price: $7

—Laura Allcorn, Production Coordinator

The Consumer Electronics Show met expectations again this year, bringing to light relevant technologies from vendors both large and small. It went on record (again) as the largest show ever – covering 1.92 million square feet and drawing over 150,000 attendees. It’s actually hard to take in the show because of its scale and numbers, but I found that, if you weed through the 20,000 new products and technologies introduced, you’d find some gems, revealing a very interesting future for the electronics industry. The following points highlight those technologies I found to be most relevant to interactive media.

Display Flexibility!

I’m not talking about how many things your TV or device can do for you, what I’m most excited about are the technologies introduced featuring displays that are literally bendable. We’ve grown accustomed to displays which are flat – both large (flat screen TVs) and small (every phone on the market). What we began to see at this year’s CES is a break in that trend. On the large side, we saw the curved OLED displays from LG and Samsung. The OLED display technology is inherently thin and flexible. How people choose to employ this will vary (wrapping displays around columns?), but the trend in big flexible displays is exciting to say the least. On the smaller end, we saw supporting technology for flexible displays from Corning (Willow Glass) which will offer the much needed protective features of Gorilla Glass while still supporting smaller displays.

The Big Picture, But With Detail

Last year at CES we saw the first trickle of Ultra High Definition displays in the form of various prototypes and demos. This year we got our first look at the large displays which will be available on the market which support a native resolution of 3840×2160 pixels. While these displays were impressive, it left many attendees concerned about the lack of content available at this resolution. While this may not be ready for prime time (broadcast TV has some catching up to do) these displays will have an immediate impact on how we create and display interactive media. Today, we are already creating and driving many interactives at this resolution (or higher), we just haven’t had the tools to show them on one display until now. In the past, we have been forced to drive our high resolution interactives across four or more displays to achieve resolution and scale. Now, with the advent of the Ultra HD display, we will be able to attract people from a distance (with the scale) and deliver high resolution content (detailed images and small text) with one display. 3M even brought a demo of an 80” multitouch Ultra HD display in the form of an interactive table surface. Now that’s huge!

More Sensitive Devices?

We’ve been seeing various forms of depth sensing cameras and 3d sensors for several years now and this year’s CES confirmed that they’re not going away. This genre of sensors will soon become standard fare in all consumer devices, both big and small, resulting in more responsive interfaces and a new awareness of intuitive, gesture based inputs. Prime Sense, one of the industry leaders in this field, was noticeably missing from the exhibit floor, but if you ventured off the beaten path to the nearby Las Vegas Hilton, you were rewarded with a hands-on look at their newest, tiniest model yet: the “Capri.” Now we can see how this type of sensor will be finding its way into laptops, tablets and even smaller mobile devices. Leap Motion was also present but without a booth to show off their wares. It’s okay, we got our Leap Motion device in the lab now, and can’t wait to start playing with it.

—Matt Arnold, Lead Integration Engineer

“Instead of reacting to opportunities, we’re able to create opportunities.”

At Second Story Labs it can be a challenge to share much of our hardware hacking and design, as much of what we do is specific to confidential projects. In December, we were very fortunate to receive a PixLed F-30 LED Mesh for just such a project.

We are fascinated with the interplay of a diffusing material against a bright low-resolution display. We were itching to share some of our experimentation. Not unlike a lego set Christmas gift, we couldn’t just let it sit there for its intended use; we had to do something cool with it to express our fascination. A 3-day deadline (we had to ship the hardware back) provided the spark for an experiment that surpassed our expectations.

Our creative approach was simple: let’s make a lo-fi interactive experience that works well in large spaces.

Aurora is a low-tech, tactile musical instrument. Unlike pieces that rely solely on visual direction, the interaction for Aurora leverages the senses of sound and touch to create a meaningful experience. As the user navigates vertically, the sounds and lights change in intensity. Moving horizontally, the user can activate different musical notes and colors. Pushing in on the fabric will make the LED lights appear more defined and increase the volume of the sound.

 

 

The idea for this project came from an interest in how visuals could be altered using tactile materials. A translucent sheet hangs in front of the large LED display, allowing participants to change the diffusion of the lights by pressing and releasing the fabric. A Kinect camera senses the position of the user’s hand and informs the audiovisual system. While Aurora was not originally intended to be a sound experiment, interactive developer Chris Carlson was able to apply his expertise in creating expressive musical interfaces to add the emotive depth to the piece. Sounds and visuals inform each other, resulting in an experience that feels more powerful than the sum of its parts.

Aurora pushes the boundaries of how low technology can create impact through large scale installations. This LED technology is typically experienced from a distance in settings such as stadiums and arena rock concerts. When used in close proximity, each pixel becomes accessible, resulting in interactions that are both immediate and intimate. The addition of a tactile element empowers users to physically alter the surface, closing the gap between observation and interaction. The convergence of physical and digital design gives new opportunities for audiences to interact in a way that engages more senses and provides more capability.