Pixelsumo wrote about Sketch & Share today.
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Archive for the 'Network Objects' Category
Here’s a copy of all of our BlueWay final presentation materials from Interaction Design class:
- Experience Brief Presentation including three different map options
- Kiosk in Flash
- Processing code in progress for BlueWay display
Both the kiosk and the display will undergo significant changes before the show. Kiosk steps will be reduced to fewer screens, while improving user control of the process. Display behaviors will change to better link to different dimensions of information. Literal and abstract mapping features will be created. There will of course be a general reduction in unmotivated activity so that movement is linked only to significant events. We look forward to receiving a wide variety of useful feedback during the show, and this will be folded into the following iteration of BlueWay.
Above is a system diagram for BlueWay, the Bluetooth presence detection system that we are building for the ITP Spring Show. There will be a total of six sensor modules which pass Bluetooth discovery information generated by a BlueSMiRF radio to an ZigBee mesh networking radio. All the remote ZigBee radios connect to one on a central base station, which passes all of their information via a secure TCP/IP Internet connection to a display system. The display system runs in Java, and connects to a database of the people’s names and pictures that are linked to their Bluetooth ID. These names and pictures are shown on a central display. Looking for someone? Check BlueWay to see where they are!
The Sketch & Share prototype is now built, tested and reprogrammed with better light control and fun sounds. We gave a final presentation for Mattel (PDF) | (Keynote) on Monday. The computer version was coded in Processing and the two communicate over the Internet using a Lantronix WiPort (visible in the guts of the toy below). Here is the PIC code that runs the prototype’s microcontroller, and the Sketch & Share code for Processing.
How it looks on the inside:
No longer is BlueWay a mere figment of the imagination. There’s a ton left to do but currently it:
- Senses Bluetooth IDs in a variety of locations
- Matches those IDs to a database of people
- Displays the owner’s photo in a collage
- Fades that photo away when the ID hasn’t been sensed in a while
High on the to-do list is associating each photo with a sensor position, creating dynamic behaviors for each photo object so they cluster but don’t overlap, and a bunch of code cleanup to make it easier to read, more robust and simpler to expand.
Here’s the presentation we gave (31MB) on our participatory design work for the BlueWay sign system. The project context has changed to the ITP Spring Show. We interviewed potential users about what they might expect from such a system, had them perform a card-sorting task to organize information about the show, and asked them to draw how they felt that information would be displayed. It was a very revealing exercise which guided us toward focusing on presence. Social information ranks very highly with humans, so our user’s interest in seeing who is around them makes a lot of sense.
Over the last couple days I’ve created an XBee Practical Example for using the XBee ZigBee radios in paired communication between two PIC microcontrollers. It is intended for use by those who have a basic familiarity with physical computing, and a healthy appetite for shiny, shiny new technology.
Arly Ross, David Yates, Myra Einstein and I gave a presentation yesterday to our Interaction Design class on the Bluetooth-enabled sign system we are proposing for New York’s Penn Station. I have also begun building the electronics as a proof of concept for my Network Objects class’ final project.
This is the progress to date on creating a wireless Bluetooth ID sensor modules. The finished system will be used to deliver useful information based upon who is near a particular sensor. Potential applications include a system to determine who is currently in the office, and a signage system that provides personalized wayfinding information to travelers as they pass by.
The Bluetooth sensor is wired to a microcontroller that requests the discoverable Bluetooth IDs within 10 meters of the sensor. This information is then passed out of the sensor module via an XBee brand ZigBee radio to a base station. The current base station sends the IDs via serial to a computer, but the next version will use a Lantronix XPort to send them over the Internet to a server program.
We’ve put together a Processing program to simulate the user interaction for the Tap ‘n Tell game. The code currently needs to run on a local computer, inside Processing.
