Final Podcast and evaluation

here is the final podcast attempt for the ubiquitous city brief :)



ouch the quality :/

Evaluation: Podcast on the Microsoft Surface

I studied the new Microsoft surface as my chosen piece of technology to do my podcast about. I found it really interesting how so many people will be able to interact with the interface without any previous knowledge of computers. Anyone can use it. It makes browsing photos, paying for bills at restaurants and transferring files to mobile devices incredibly easy, thus avoiding complicated interfaces previously used by Microsoft. This is the future of home computing and retail businesses and has the potential to be something amazing in the future making this a valuable piece in the fight for ubiquitous cities.
For my project I used a method of recording text to speech using windows speech tool and Microsoft Sam’s voice. I had to record the speech in bursts of 30 seconds each using sound recorder (XP tools). I then gathered images of the Microsoft surface I had found whilst researching the technology and pasted them together, synchronising with the speech I had knitted together using windows movie maker. The only real problem I had come across was some feedback caused by the computer tower and the surround sound system installed on the desktop computer. This meant the voices have a really deep bassy tone to them with some slight distortion. I did however manage to combat this slightly by adjusting levels of volume and pitch in order to stabilise the sounds as best I could.
If I was to adjust anything I would detach my surround sound system and mover the tower onto the floor in order to try to get a clearer sound. That being said the microphone should then be able to pick up clearer signals from the speakers. This should mean the quality of the podcast should be much better.
Other minor problems, rather inconveniences were the fact that the sound recording device would only last for a minute, whilst the text to speech converter was only able to manage around 200/300 characters, which caused trouble since I had to record 7 bits of speech instead of only 1. The technique of the stitching could also have probably been made a bit better by using final cut pro. These means I could have blended the transitions from each of the sound clips together better and edit the actual sounds much with much more detail. I could have also made better transitions between the images had I used final cut pro providing a better experience through the video.
Overall I found the project to be a success and enjoyed the experience of my first video pod cast. I learn different techniques on how to produce a pod cast but also about the new technological advances what will change how we live in the near future.