Designing for an Internet of Things
citing Marc Smith - physical and digital interaction: digital interaction takes place in a different place; we go "into" screens and "to" the Internet
trying to look at how we can participate in digital without being in front of screen
RFID
examples of playful projects from Timo's lab
three levels
- tangible and embodied
[my computer died]
Bemused by idea of "Internet of Things" -- it unites two things he's not interested in: the internet and things
He is more interested in spaces, and environments, and people
talking about Pachube
[he's using the new zoomy presentation tool to give his talk! Will it work? Will it give us motion sickness? Who knows?]
idea of being connected
- we are connected all over, but we still have neighbors -- they're just non-geographical
- DON'T PANIC!
idea of interdependence
- "their environment is that which they construct in their relationship to each other"
idea of participation
- "spime wrangling": actively engaging in production of our environments
"rubbish is the root of virtuosity"
- to make something beautiful with a tool, you must also be able to make crap as well
so, patchube
- "a genearlized realtime broker for networked environments"
- trying to work with small scale projects: enable a simple system for smaller entities to more casually share data
- they do not specify what gets shared; it's
not an internet of things but an ecosystem of environments
- not about rooms that change color when I walk in, not corporate sensor nets, about sharing "the context of my environment" with "the context of your environment"
[I think this is where the terminology gets dodgy. For Haque, the "environment" is co-constructed at the interface between a self and the felt-world.
history of physical computing
PC + dumb sensor/actuator interfaces
- "it's nice, it helps you break out of the PC world, but it still gives you a very computer-centric view of the world"
Programmable boards with microcontrollers on them
- like Arduino
- "now you have something that you actually teach to do something" - you can if you want disconnect it and it can become autonomous
Ubiquitous technology sketching middleware
iStuff --> iStuff Mobile
- iStuff was missing a strong input/output device for mobile settings (ie, the phone!)
- it's still really hard to program without a good GUI (Stanford's Exemplar is another approach to this)
- uses Max/MSP-like wiring between boxes to connect sensors to applications through the phone platform
Organic Interfaces
Arduino's limits
size and cost
so: proposes LumiNet
where is the biggest spot for innovation?
Conversations
using algorithms from motes for updating
looking at Leah Beuchley's solutions for connectors and electricity
using multiple busses
