Tales of the Park
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Locations of the creatures within the Park. Click on the red number to see details of that creature.
This art installation is now over
Please note: This art installation ran during 2017 and has now been removed from the Park.
What's this about?
Tales in the Park is part of a research project being conducted at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London. It uses geo-located 'chatbots' to provide a way for people to safely explore security, safety and trust around Internet of Things devices.
Chatbots have a long history in computing, the first being ELIZA, developed by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966 at MIT; however, it’s only recent advances in computing power that have made them reliable enough for general purpose use, especially when combined with speech processing.
At present, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are all competing to develop speech and text-based interfaces for use both in the home and on the web. However, there are fundamental differences between a natural language interface and using a keyboard or touchscreen. With speech interfaces, the boundary between ‘using’ and ‘not using’ the device is blurred: for a device like Amazon Echo to function, for example, it needs to listen out for its activation keyword all the time - in other words, it's always listening.
Similarly, when engaging with chatbots on social media, it's not always clear whether you are interacting with a computer or a human, and there's lots of potential for people to inadverently explose sensitive information to people who might not have their best interests at heart.
Tales of the Park is a playful, safe way to explore some of these issues. As you interact with the Creatures using your smartphone, they ask you for information about the park, and in return they'll share what they know or what other people have said to them. They also remember you, and they talk about you with each other behind your back! We're interested in what people will say to the creatures, whether they trust them, and what sort of things they will share with them.
Acknowledgements
Partners
Tales of the Park is part of PETRAS, a multi-university research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to explore Privacy, Ethics, Trust, Reliability, Acceptability, and Security around the "Internet of Things". It is hosted by London Legacy Development Corporation and Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Credits
The Creature models were named and painted by members of Academy Achievers, a social enterprise based in Newham that helps young people to fulfill their potential.
They are: Darnell, Hawa, Ijlaal, Dontae, Khadijah, Elyas, Michael, Folios, Amina, Mahfuza, Sierra, Loreal, Muhammad, Marcus, and Michaela.
How to Play
Tales of the Park uses the ‘Physical Web’, a technology from Google which uses small, cheap devices called low-energy Bluetooth beacons to attach places and objects to the internet. If you're close enough to a beacon, and you've activated the Physical Web on your device, a web-link broadcast by the beacon will appear on your notifications screen. Tales in the Park uses this technology to link to a number of ‘chatbots’: a type of interface which allows people to interact with a computer using ordinary (or ‘natural’) language.
To start interacting with the chatbots, you need to make sure that you have opted in to the Physical Web on your device.
Android Phones
Instructions for Android can be found here.
iPhones
If you’re using an iPhone, you'll need to make sure you have the Google Chrome browser installed. Once you’ve installed Chrome, you can get set up by following the instructions here.
When you’re near a Creature, check your notification screen. You should see a link through which you can begin talking to the chatbot (please note you may need to wait a few seconds for the link to appear).
Make sure you allow the Tales of the Park to set cookies and to know your location, otherwise it chatbots won't work!
Photo Gallery
| Tales of the Park Creatures (Click on an image to see a larger version) | ||
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| Location (numbers refer to map above)/ Creature Name |
Location | Creature |
| 1: Inside Information Point Moonlight the Bat |
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| 2: Public Entrance to London Aquatics Centre Zac the Otter |
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| 3: Outside The Common at the View Tube Loki the Gnome |
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| 4: Walkway to ArcelorMittal Orbit Rosie the Bee |
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| 5: Under Tallow Bridge at Canal Level Shadow Blade the Bat |
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| 6: Entrance to Hub67 by Hackney Wick Gnomeo the Gnome |
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| 7: Lower Entrance to Copper Box Arena Beehigh the Bee |
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| 8: Canalside at Here East Wombat the Gnome |
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| 9: In front of entrance to Main Press Centre building, Here East Parker the Gnome |
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| 10: Lea Valley Velodrome, by Santander Cycle Rack Yusuf the Gnome |
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| 11: Tumbling Bay Playground, on hill up to Olympic Rings Goku the Bat |
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| 12: Chobham Manor marketing suite entrance Super Gnome the Gnome |
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| 13: Timber Lodge Cafe Khadija the Otter |
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| 14: Wetlands Denchu the Otter |
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| 15: Victory Park, East Village Jetpack Gnomey the Gnome |
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