Sociable Objects - Summer 2008 Sociable objects are devices that share. They can talk to each other, gain information about their context and react accordingly. Recent advances in wireless mesh networks have created the potential for a massively interconnected world of easy information sharing. Cheap communications, high reliability, unique addressing, small size, standardization, and routing features combine to enable exciting new interactions. Developers of toys, wearables, performance devices, portables, network objects and sensor arrays can take advantage of radio mesh networking to design more interesting, better informed and more complex behaviors for their projects. This course explores devices that connect with and respond to each other. The technical focus will be on 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless mesh networks. Interconnections with other platforms and devices will be examined as appropriate. Students will gain an expertise in all functions of the ZigBee system to facilitate smart and novel behaviors in their projects. Through a series of weekly exercises, students will build skills and explore the challenges and delights of mutual connectivity. As a final project, the class will construct dynamic device networks. Prior experience with basic electronics and physical computing is helpful, but not required. Most labs and projects involve group work, so students should be ready to collaborate extensively as they experiment on the cutting edge of device interaction.
Upcoming Classes:
New York University
Crafting With Data: Reality Illusions Truth and the Future - Fall 2008
Contemporary interaction designers and artists often manipulate scientific, historical, commercial and social information. Literacy in design, art or engineering requires the complement of literacy in data. This class makes a powerful additions to your skill set of programming, visual design and electronics. Students will become conversant in the tools available for extracting insightful information from real-world samples. In this class we learn about the “lies, damn lies and statistics” that are encountered in our daily information feeds. Basic training is provided in a variety of handy methods for interpretation and manipulation of data, yet no math beyond some simple arithmetic is required for completing this course. Materials are visually oriented, and the focus is on concepts rather than on mechanics. Exercises include analyzing maps, building physical models and exploring information via accessible computer simulations. Short projects teach how to understand where data comes from, what it looks like and what it means. Students will earn how to transform data in ways that avoid distortions, reveal truths and grandly illuminate their ideas. (Note: The class is carefully structured to support your other production classes. There are a variety of weekly assignments but no final project or paper, allowing you time to apply your newfound skills.)
Designing Attraction - Spring 2009 (planned)
It is said that to catch a fish, you need to think like a fish. Catching a person is trickier. Recent work in a variety of fields, from neuroscience to social psychology and economics has shed light on the human decision-making process. The human brain is a wonderful tangle of quickie rules, biased processes, evolutionary flotsam, and attentional diversions. People are not strictly logical, but we are predictable, often in surprising ways. This class will take you on a journey through the remarkable tools for attracting, guiding and influencing human beings. We’ll explore decision-making, attention, creativity, social processes, biases and the tools of influence. Students will learn how how to guide their viewers, influence their users and predict the outcome of community situations. For example they might be tasked with using the rules of reciprocity to drive an interaction or to use anchoring bias to their advantage in a game. Through frequent exercises, experiments and projects that put the toolbox of cognitive psychology to work, you will gain a mastery of designing for the mind.
Completed Classes:
Brooklyn College
Computing and Art: Nature, Power and Limits - Spring 2008
The nature, power and limits of the computer and computing. The components of the computer. Computer networks. Information representation. Introduction to algorithms, problem-solving, and computer programming. (Not open to students who are enrolled in, or have completed, and CIS course–other than CIS 5.2–with a C or higher, or who have completed CC 3.12 or Core Studies 5 or 5.1.)
Prerequisite: A high school course in intermediate algebra or Course 2 of the New York State Sequential Mathematics Curriculum, or Mathematics 0.35 or 0.44 with a grade of at least C-, or Mathematics 0.36 or 0.04, or the equivalent.
New York University
Collaborative Mesh Networking - Fall 2007
Modern devices no longer need to be isolated. Recent advances in wireless mesh networks have created the potential for a massively interconnected world of easy information sharing. Cheap communications, high reliability, unique addressing, small size, efficiency, standardization, broadcast options and routing features combine to enable exciting new interactions. Developers of toys, wearables, performance devices, portables, network objects and sensor arrays can take advantage of radio mesh networking to design more interesting, better informed and more complex behaviors for their projects. This course explores devices that connect with and respond to each other. The technical focus will be on 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless mesh networks. Interconnections with other platforms and devices will be examined as needed. Students will gain an expertise in all functions of the ZigBee system to facilitate smart and novel behaviors in their projects. Through a series of accessible weekly exercises, students will build skills and explore the challenges and delights of mutual connectivity. As a final project, the class will construct an dynamic device network. Most labs and projects involve group work, so students should be ready to collaborate extensively as they experiment on the cutting edge of device interaction.
