Maypole highlights: image makers

Helsinki and Vienna had a lot of fun using our prototype " pictorial communicator " for a few weeks. They came up with a few creative applications of their own. We take a look at some of the results. 12 hat do family members do when they have a simple, efficient instrument for sending one another digital pictures? What will they use it for? The Maypole team developed four prototype wireless devices to make this possible and subjected them to an extensive user trial. Four youngsters (aged 10 to 12) from a scouting club in Helsinki, Finland, tried out the devices for 4 weeks. A family from Vien-na, Austria, with four children aged 8 to 15 and a grandmother, tested the prototypes for 3 weeks. Before, during and after the field trials, Maypole's researchers interviewed the users individually and in groups. In order to focus the interviews, they studied the messages that were sent. At first, the users snapped mostly inanimate objects just to get the hang of the controls. Gradually they started sending visual W MP field trials p.