Yes! We have in fact finished this unit and presented our idea to Sky!
You’d never guess but they loved it! I think that means that this project is going to get everything posted up very soon and then this blog will be locked.
For your interest in our group project, and ability to trawl through this bloggy mess, thank you and goodbye,
James, Adam and Richard
For thy convenience an upload has been made of the presentation that I hath designed in Powerpoint. It can be found verily at this web location.
I’m not entirely sure how Powerpoint references to the movie file on the second frame, but you can access that on the YouTube video attached somewhere on this site. Cheers!
James
This Viral Video has been developed for our presentation to Sky after deciding that we should focus our marketing on a young generation because that is where our collective knowledge is based. We feel that the SkyBall would easily be marketed to other markets, but we don’t have to produce something for everyone at such an early stage.
James
This logo was devised and created by James so that it could be used in different colours, expanding it’s compatibility with other branding.
The primary logo is red, we felt that two reasons justify this:
James
We’ll be burning a DVD and we had to make sure the television was 50hz (if rich could talk about the tech stuff he did)
start
We focus in on a guy in lazy, home clothes who is sat back in a sofa looking very slobbish. He’s flicking through channels without any sense of direction, until he stops in the Sky menu. After a second or two, a man dressed as a sergeant climbs into the screen and shouts out at the slob.
Sergeant James: HEY YOU!
The slob is taken by surprise.
Couch Potato: What?
Sergeant James: WHAT ARE YOU DOING? PUT DOWN THAT REMOTE!
Couch Potato: …what?
Sergeant James: THINK FAST, PUNK!
The sergeant throws something out of the screen and it hits the lazy guy in the face.
Sergeant James: BOY, YOU’RE SLOWER THEN MY GRANDMA AND SHE’S DEAD!
The couch potato is baffled, and stares blankly.
Sergeant James: WAKE UP BOY! TAKE THIS!
Now the sergeant throws the SkyBall out of the screen and the couch potato catches it.
Couch Potato: What’s this? This is just a ball?
Abrasive James: No! You’ve got to think outside of the skybox! That’s not just a ball, it’s an interdimensional portal? TO FUN!
Couch Potato: What?
Sergeant James: …it’s a new way to control the skybox, give it a try…
Couch Potato: How does it work?
Sergeant James: Time for training!
It cuts to an elaborate training video for the SkyBall. The sergeant tells the audience about the idea, explains that he’s actually irrelevant.
Couch Potato: Ugh. I can’t be bothered with you, I’m going to change the channel.
He reaches for his remote and tries to turn off the tv but realises that it has turned into a fish.
Sergeant James: What do you think you’re up to, son? Hah! You can’t use a fish to change the channel! Try the ball! You never know, it might be fun!
Couch Potato: Fine.
The couch potato throws the ball at the screen.
Sergeant James: Hah! That’s wont do anything, throwing the ball turns the television off! Wait.
The couch potato grins.
Couch Potato: Wow, that was pretty cool.
end
This script was was written collectively by everyone, we wanted to use the idea of subverting the influence of a militant authority who is in control of the television controls. Instead of making the user conform to the standard controls, the militant influence is there to push the user into trying something different.
The trouble is that the militant role represents Sky, and we’ve got to be careful to keep the role likeable and not totalitarian. The SkyBall is about enjoying the experience, and (for me) being a bit silly and childish in a situation that doesn’t demand anything from it’s audience. As long as we keep the tone right, I think the video will come across really well.
I have been able to experiment on the ideas of the skyball. I have used the ball to turn the Tv on, change the channel, change the volume and then turn the Tv off. In the end, how i have shown the ball in these short clips are only my representation of what the functions could be used for.
Below in the first video i show how the TV is turned on and then how you select the channel, using the Skyball
Below in the second video i show how the TV has its volume turned up, using the Skyball.
Below in the third video i show how the TV has its channel changed, using the Skyball.
Below in the forth and final video i show how the TV has been turned off, using the Skyball.
What i have shown are only some of the functions of the Skyball. Some of the other functions that are contains are being about to play games, going into Interactive and using new technology we may add a new Sky interface.
- Adam Wright
Texture is important, and getting the right feel for the SkyBall is possibly one of the biggest comfortability issues that we’ll have to deal with.
There is already existing technology behind the ideas for our ball, the only unrealistic achievment we’ve applied has been to include them all in the same project.
The ball is touch sensitive, using the electro-recognition that we’ve seen common in the MacBook track pads. This would mean that it could be made idle when it wasn’t being touched.
The ball can sense orientation, and each time it is used it could re-orient itself so that each time a user picks it up it’s set as a default. It’s important not to make the ball have a set X Y and Z axis else we’d open the menu badly.
We have links on the right hand side of the page labelling all of the technological ideas we’ve seen.
Part of our main pitch is the idea of marketing the SkyBall as a Virtual Pet alongside it’s functional use.
Using the digital skin that wraps around it to display the characteristics of the creature (be that it’s face, or some arms or something) you can create a moving creature that could react to touch, sound and motion. Virtual Pets grew into it’s independant market in the 90s with things like the Furbie and Tamagotchi’s, and they are still strong with toys like Pleo the Dinosaur and games like Nintendogs pushing the market out to under 10s who have a lot of buying weight with their parents.
We think the SkyBall could easily catch younger audiences with it’s simplicity, and adding the adaption into a toy we feel would make it more marketable to certain audiences.
I have included a few scetches of what the Virtual Pets might look like (customisability being a big part of the whole sale showing how diverse the ideas could get).
James
I think we need to change the name.
Ideas for names:
The SkySphere
… no, just no…
For the moment, we are staying with the SkyBall. It was the first name that came to us, and though it is not particulally catchy it retains the sense of ‘fun’ in the periferal. It is a ball, and if we label it as anything else it might lose the connection between the kiddy toy.
