Smartphone app brings yearbook to life

LYNN – Looking to relive those high school days depicted in your yearbook? Well, there’s an app for that.Lynn English High School yearbook editors Caroline Dally and Kimphuong Nguyen are working a little technological magic into The Bulldog that will bring specific photographs to life just like in a Harry Potter novel.”Mr. Ring emailed us and said if we could figure this (technology) out, they could use it next year,” said Nguyen, referring to the yearbook advisor Tim Ring. “I thought, ?No, we need to do it this year.'”Nguyen said she spent a weekend taking a few online tutorials and playing around with the program, and before last Monday came, she had figured out how the program from Aurasma worked and exactly how they would use it.Aurasma launched in 2011 and is said to be one of the world’s leading “augmented reality platform.” Its goal, according to the company’s website, is to change the way people see and interact with the world. For Nguyen and Dally’s purposes, it will completely change how people interact with their yearbook.During a demonstration of the technology at the school, Ring picked up a copy of a yearbook page that contained eight photos and quotes from students sharing their favorite high school memories. Ring said photos in the yearbook with videos attached will be framed in purple, and directions on how to access the videos will be printed in the yearbooks.”Here,” he said handing over a smartphone. “This is ready to go. Just hold it over one of the photographs.”Ring had downloaded the free app from Aurasma then did a search for Lynn English yearbook 2014 and selected the “lynnenglish2014 channel.” When the smartphone is held over one of the “favorite” photos, the person in it comes to life and tells the viewer the story of their favorite high school moment. When the phone is moved away, the video disappears.Dally said she likes the fact that the video is triggered by the photograph but not the yearbook itself. If users have a copy of one of the tagged photos on their computer or iPad or even their phone, they can trigger the video with another smartphone.”You can use any device,” Dally explained.A look backIt is a far cry from where yearbooks started and where they were even last year.It was a Boston photographer who paved the way for the modern day yearbook. According to Photo Stories from National Public Radio, photographer George Warren began taking pictures of college students in the late 19th century, then persuaded them to buy multiple copies to share with their friends. The students would then have the images bound into an album. He became the king of what they called “the graduating pictures.”Over the years, those books morphed into the official scrapbooks of high school students everywhere, and with the exception of hairdos, fashion and graphics, not much has changed.Pulled from The Daily Item archives, a 1969 Aftermath yearbook from St. Mary’s High looks very much like the 1990 Seagull yearbook from Swampscott, which looks a lot like a 2003 Lynn Classical High School yearbook.Each copy includes pictures of administrators, messages from principals and yearbook editors, photographs of underclassmen, sports teams and clubs. There are collages of special events, like the junior proms, spirit weeks and musicals, talent shows and theater productions.The 1969 Aftermath Senior Superlatives pay tribute to those voted most likely to succeed, best athletes and best looking. The Lynn English Bulldog 2001 tips its hat to the same and broadens the category to include class clowns, best smile, best eyes, life of the party and class flirt.It isn’t until post-millennium that The Bulldog found graphics and used multiple fonts, avatars and clip art for its superlatives page, though the categories and the photographs themselves remained largely the same.The back of the yearbooks are also still the same with ads from local businesses and families paying tribute to various kids, baby pictures and a poem or quote for t