I cut my teeth as a journalist at a time when computers were mostly of the pickup-truck-sized, mainframe variety, pages were laid out using blue-lined paper flats and waxing machines, and most news gathering was done either by going out in the community or by telephone.
Sending a message electronically or laying out a page on the screen full pagination(!), as it was called was the stuff of science fiction.
At the time, the original Star Trek was 10 years old and being shown in reruns, and I had watched every episode at least a dozen times. So I was not the least bit surprised in the 1990s when flip cellular phones Capt. Kirk's communicator, eh? became the latest and greatest gadget that everyone just had to have.
But back then, I never envisioned the day when printed pages would be formatted to interact with the owners of hand-held smart phones using something called Layar the new cutting-edge, augmented-reality technology being introduced in this week's edition of The Chief.
Using the Layar app, readers with smartphones can now gain access to additional features related to a given story, including videos, additional photos, maps and background documents. As well, readers now have the ability to share the Chief story they're reading on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, or to comment from their smartphones either online or by emailing a letter directly to the editor.
As well, we at The Chief are excited about the prospects for readers who have stories, images or news content to share to send us their photos or video via their hand-held Internet browsers. That information can then be shared with readers either in print, on our award-winning website (www.squamishchief.com) or through the Layar app or all three!
You can email content to The Chief at [email protected] or text a photo or video along with a brief description to (604) 849-3687.
I also, incidentally, was a fan of the later iterations of Star Trek, especially The Next Generation, so I'm excited about the next step, in which a holographic image of a reporter interviewing a newsmaker pops off the screen and into your living room. The possibilities, I'd say, are (almost) limitless.
Watch video on Layar
