“Remote Control Tourist” live-streams video from internet controlled explorers

 

 

Melbourne's a lovely city. It has an astonishing food culture, and is utterly gorgeous. But what if you've never been? And want to have a look before you go? For the next few days, two volunteers will be wandering those streets, live streaming their activities, and controlled by strangers on the internet. It's called Remote Control Tourist, and it shows some of the more offbeat potential of wearable cameras.

This tourism drive by Visit Melbourne is running over just five days, from October 9-13, for around eight hours each day. And over that period, the two "tourists" will travel the city streets, and see, do, and taste things suggested by folks on the internet.

As of right now, it's the middle of the night in Melbourne, so they're not up to much, but you can see some of their travels through Instagram and YouTube, and even see a map of exactly where they went at what time over the two days the ad campaign has been running. If you click on any of the little yellow location tags, you'll see the name of the spot they visited, the photos from the location, and the directions given over Facebook and Twitter that they used.

With cameras capable of streaming video becoming increasingly common (just think of Google Glass and the GoPro), this demonstrates an interesting application of a wearable camera. It's a way of seeing places that you might not be able to otherwise get to, but with more immediacy than watching something pre-filmed. And who knows, it might just get you out of your chair, and onto a plane to the other side of the globe!

(via Metafilter)