An Awesome trip to iExperience =D

Hello I am back again to blog about my field trip and Hands-on Experience at  iExperience with my EIR class. We went to iExperience on 15th July 2012 around 4pm. For your information, iExperience is located at Esplanade Exchange.

You might be wondering what is iExperience? What is so special about it? That is what I am going to share about today. Basically, iExperience which is The Infocomm Experience Centre provides a venue for visitors to learn hands-on about possibilities and benefits of the Next Gen Nationwide Broadband Network ( Next Gen NBN ) and Next Generation services via interactive and engaging exhibits.

Here is a picture of the iExperience, 

iExperience offers both guided and self-discovery tours through exhibits divided into the four major themes of Live, Work, Learn and Interact. For us, via our school, we went there for a guided tour.We were given experience to discover new possibilities enabled by Next Gen Infocomm Services.

When we first entered the place, we were welcomed by a group of people.We were given an introduction about the visit.Indeed there was an introduction video about the facilities at iExperience.

We were briefed that we will be visiting four major themes of Live, Work, Learn and Interact.We visited Next Gen Classroom, Connect@Home, Kitchen, Next Gen Office, Telepresence , Interact, Interactive IPTV , Next Gen NBN and Home Networking.

Let me share some of the facilities with you.

Next Gen Classroom

We went to the next Generation Classroom and it was like "SO COOL!". The next generation classroom looked more advanced. The new idea was basically reinforcing that Learning goes beyond boundaries.It was designed such in a way that teaching and learning take on new dimensions where everyone can tap from a wide range of resources, share knowledge and collaborate any time,anywhere.

The picture above is view of how the Next Gen Classroom looks like. Using computer/laptop which is at the right hand side of the picture, the teacher is able to carry out his/her lesson on the wide screen as you can see above.

Those tables above are designed for the students to use for various purposes

.Something that was very interesting , the teacher is able to lock the screen and usage when he/she learns that they cannot get the attention of the students.

The classroom looks cool right? 

    

This is the students' desk/table/monitor.It is a touch screen technology service.

      Up to four students can use this desktop.Students can use this for sharing their notes,videos,links and more information.They can simply drag their file and place it on their fellow classmate's desktop which is at the four sides.This enhances collaboration among students.

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Interactice IPTV

Interactive Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) is richer and gives more interactive TV experiences.It takes television to the next level with on-demand entertainment and services, and live information. The IPTV services may be classified into three main groups:

• Live television, with or without interactivity related to the current TV show
• Time-shifted television: catch-up TV which replays a TV show that was broadcasted hours or days ago, start-over TV which replays the current TV show from its beginning.     
• Video on Demand (VOD): Browse a catalog of videos,not related to TV programming.

In fact, with the same remote control that we use for the TV can be used to switch on and off the TV table lamp and draw the blinds.

Home Networking

Home Networking unleashes possibilities in our home. It has networking options like wireless, power line and structured cabling will enable us to access Next Gen services at every corner of our house.There are four networking options to build home network accordingly.

-Option 1:Wireless Home Networking

-Option 2:Structured Network Cabling

-Option 3:Coaxial Home Networking

-Option 4:Power line Networking

   

 The above picture depicts the Next Gen NBN Industry Structure.

1.    Which features/facilities are more interesting to you? Why?

Something that captivated my attention so much was NFC Shopping. NFC Shopping basically combines efficient management of information from e-commerce with the physical shop environment that most shoppers prefer. NFC Shopping is changing the shopping experience by bringing individualized information to the consumer right in the place of purchase.

The whole interesting process starts with personal NFC smart phones that can contain a personal profile with preferences or even food allergy information. 

   
 NFC is just 5 steps away!!

  1)TAP [Select your item]

                2)REVIEW [Read what people say]

             3)DECIDE [Choose which to buy]

     4)PAY [Make your purchase]

             5)DELIVER [Finish your shopping]

The whole purchase starts from your own personal NFC smartphone.

 Before the purchase begins,you can update your NFC phone with the delivery address details and allergies profile.

You can scan it against the product's tag to get information about that product.

 The above picture shows what you will get once you tap a product's tag.Moreover, it recommends you more products that are related to the one you tapped giving you more options to choose from.In such a way, you will be able to get information about all the products in the shopping mall or convenient store that is NFC shopping enabled.

As updated before,when reading a product tag, the product information can be filtered to the customer's personal preferences. "This product contains peanuts.Perhaps you would prefer the peanut free equivalent".

 Once the whole purchase is done, it shows the day's total purchase.

 You may now choose the mode of payment.

In fact, you can also choose to deliver your items to your intended locations.

 You will be then confirmed on the timing,date and location of the delivery.

 While you are shopping, there will advertisements and you can take part in online contests JUST LIKE THAT!

Also you can drop by the areas where they provide you with the recipe for certain products.

2.    Compare this site visit e-learning activity 

with attending physical EIR classes in TP.

Attending physical EIR classes in TP gives a different experience when compared to the e-learning activity. Students get to learn from papers and powerpoints slides. It is a norm that the teacher will be carrying out the lesson through powerpoint slides while the students will be taking down notes.


However, the e-learning activity gave a chance for the students to be involved in hands-on experience, exploring around the place, trying out the new facilities.In this way, students are able to learn more effectively and efficiently.


We humans naturally get attracted to real life experiences more than notes and words.Therefore, in this way, the e-learning seem to be more interesting.

3.    Briefly describe ONE ethical issue covered in EIR lecture notes 11 & 12

Privacy is one of the ethical issues that exists. Privacy refers to an individual personal information. In the Internet context, it is about the signing-up and registering with Internet services where we reveal our personal information such as name, e-mail address, mailing address,age, income and etc.


However, it is important for us to consider if it is worth the cost of giving information and what will be done to the information. as we know, Internet has its pros as well as its cons.There are a lot of misapplication and misuse of personal information.Some people use other people's details for purchase of online items for example. Hence, we should be vigilant of some privacy issues. 


Nevertheless,for example, we also need to be aware of who owns our email- account and know about the internet service of computer network provided by employer. Through this, we know how our details are kept safe or if it is being circulated around.So let's be aware of the privacy issues!


Basically to understand about the whole picture of privacy issues, here is what we have. Firstly, a message is transmitted to a server every-time when we visit a web page. Disclosing of personal information over e-mails, chat rooms, discussion forums and forms are saved through caches/temporary internet files, history list and cookies.


To be save, using encryption is a brilliant step. Our message becomes an unreadable form and can only be read if the code is known.

4.    Comment on how this ethical issue can be applied to the exhibits that you see, hear and experience at iExperience. Use examples from iExperience to explain.

Ethical issues involve right and wrong or what is considered good, and what is considered malicious in a society. Ethical issues include copyright issues,

privacy issues and security issues. In this case of privacy issues,NFC shopping in iExperience, from the way they explained, it requires us to provide particulars such as address, account number for user to make payment.


 As discussed in the above question, therefore customers can feel that it is risky for them  to provide personal information or they may hesitate to give such information as they might be afraid that their personal information maybe misused or be revealed to others. 

5.    Suggest how the issues can be handled and what can be done in future

A more trustworthy system should be implemented so that people do not feel that their privacy is invaded.Personal information such as address, phone number,credit card number, and email should be placed in a safe 

Here are few pictures that I captured during the visit =D

That is Me!!!

Trying out the virtual foundation!