Showing posts with label MIT Media Lab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MIT Media Lab. Show all posts

Nov 26, 2011

TWINE video and the Supermechanical Blog: Moving Toward the Web of People and Things!

"A wireless square with sensors and a simple web app to set rules, Twine tells you what your things are doing by email, text or Twitter."   I want one!

This project was developed by David Carr and John Kestener, the designer-engineers behind Supermechanical. They are passionate about creating connectable objects.They honed their skills in the interdisciplinary  MIT Media Lab.  


More information about Twine can be found on the KICKSTARTER website.  Here is a bite of info from the site for the tech-curious:

"Twine is a wireless module tightly integrated with a cloud-based service. The module has WiFi, on-board temperature and vibration sensors, and an expansion connector for other sensors. Power is supplied by the on-board mini USB or two AAA batteries (and Twine will email you when you need to change the batteries)."
"The Spool web app makes it simple to set up and monitor your Twines from a browser anywhere. You set rules to trigger messages — no programming needed. The rules are put together with a palette of available conditions and actions, and read like English: WHEN moisture sensor gets wet THEN tweet "The basement is flooding!" We'll get you started with a bunch of rule sets, and you can share rules you create with other Twine owners."
"Because the hardware and software are made for each other, setup is easy. There's nothing to install — just point Twine to your WiFi network. Sensors are immediately recognized by the web app when you plug them in, and it reflects what the sensors see in real time, which makes understanding and testing your rules easy."

RELATED

Jul 4, 2009

TEI '10: Fourth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction

I am really excited about TEI '10, which will be held in Cambridge, MA on January 25-27, 2010. If you are not familiar with tangible and embedded computing/interaction/interfaces, it is worth taking some time exploring this field.

Hiroshi Ishii, of the MIT Media Lab, is one of the TEI '10 conference chairs, and is known as the father of tangible computing. His scholarly publications have influenced the direction of human-computer interaction research, and as a consequence, the direction of emerging technologies.

Two of Ishii's articles, in my opinion, are "must-reads":

Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits, and Atoms
pdf (CHI 1997)

Tangible Bits: Beyond Pixels
pdf (TEI 2008)

Additional Information:
"TEI, the conference on tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, is about HCI, design, interactive art, user experience, tools and technologies, with a strong focus on how computing can bridge atoms and bits into cohesive interactive systems."

You can follow TEI '10 on Twitter.

Here is more from the TEI '10 website:

About TEI

"TEI'10 is the fourth international conference dedicated to presenting the latest results in tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction."

"The work presented at TEI addresses HCI issues, design, interactive art, user experience, tools and technologies, with a strong focus on how computing can finally bridge atoms and bits into cohesive interactive systems. The intimate size of this single-track conference provides a unique forum for exchanging ideas and presenting innovative work through talks, interactive exhibits, demos, hands-on studios, posters, art installations and performances"