#ambient information

[glociks]

[glociks]

[glociks]

https://soundcloud.com/glociks/glociks-live-rixc-festival-21-10-2017-excerpt

[cperrye]

A sample of the ‘Birds’ collaborative environment by Chris Perry

[teamblinky]

John's wife Kristin wanted a way to monitor her monthly cycles -- and the feelings of stress that came with her approaching period. So he built her an ambient indicator in the form of a bedside lamp (which she loves). 

Learn how he built it, and how you can, too. His blog post includes a parts list and the Ardiuno code that runs the lamp.

[mdillr]

Community: The New Info Overload

I've read a couple pieces lately about a new form of information overload: online communities. Apparently we're all so busy with Facebook, Twitter, and FriendFeed that we're abandoning blogs (or so says this piece on TechCrunch). Soon, it would seem, all we'll have time for is Twitter feeds. This is a nice little irony for those of us old enough to remember the original "information overload." This was back in the days of Web 1.0, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and it was a serious problem that a whole bunch of news feeds and websites were pushing data at us all the time, far faster than we could consume it. It was literally "push" back in those days; I remember a fairly popular screen saver that would display news and information headlines when your computer was inactive. (Which, by the way, in hindsight looks like the stupidest publishing plan of all time. Great, display time-sensitive information on a subscriber's computer at the precise moment when you know s/he's not using it. That will work for sure. You can then use the proceeds to fund a door-to-door sales operation that caters exclusively to customers who aren't home.) So where's the irony? For many of us, Web 1.0-style information overload was mitigated by ... blogs. Blogs covering niche topics have become some of the most effective information aggregators out there. I know I don't need to read the sports section, because I read blogs written by people who read it for me. I don't need to follow political news, because (again) I have a trusted blog whose authors consume that information, break it down, and spit it out for me in easily-digestible nuggets. So the notion that blogs themselves will be overcome by the sheer weight of ambient information being pushed out by Twitter, Facebook, and innumberable cell phone applications is curious, since that's exactly the problem that helped make blogs popular in the first place. It also poses a question: what is the information digest of the future? Because we're certainly not going to be content with information overload, any more than we were the first time around. If blogs die because we no longer have time to read them, what will take their place? It certainly won't be that super-randomizer known as Twitter. It might, though, be an ambient information aggregator that digests Twitter feeds and news and commentary and sports scores and ... who knows, maybe even blog posts ... and spits all that out in an easier format to take in. Crack that nut and you've got one hell of a service. But I don't know. For now I'm sticking with my blogs.

[itpabb-blog]

High Res images of Phototrope

[itpabb-blog]

Phototrope Project Documentation

Phototrope is a kinetic canvas that amplifies an obvious but sometimes forgotten part of our daily lives - the way light changes from season to season, throughout the day, whether inside or outside. 

Phototrope constantly measures ambient light: the more light there is, the stronger and higher the leaf-like papers arch and curl, as real plants do in the sun; the less light, the gentler and lower they unfurl.

Phototrope moves in a tangible, mesmerizing way - using the material of muscle wire (nitinol) as a mechanism for the curling motion. The muscle wire is silent and responsive in a surprisingly biological way - mimicking animal muscles or the movement of plants (sped up).

It was exhibited in the Winter Show 2012 at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program.

BACK SIDE:

I used an Arduino and a photoresistor to measure the amount of light.

The circuit uses a TIP120 and a heatsink. The Arduino sends a signal mapped to the amount of light the photoresistor receives. This is the "OFF" in the circuit - the muscle wires are always connected to the external power source (2.5 Amps, 6 Volts). 

The muscle wire I used is .006HT "Flexinol" brand. 

Each leaf has approximately 9.6 inches of muscle wire sewn into place and connected to the Arduino through a copper tape circuit.

The .006HT muscle wire's data sheet indicates that it requires 400 milliAmps of current or 0.4 Amps. It also indicates that the resistance per length is 1.3 Ohms per inch.

Using Ohm's Law, I have the following equation:

I = V/R or V = I*R

5V = 0.4A*R

5/.4 = R = 12.5 Ohms

12.5Ohms / 1.3Ohms = target length 

total resistance / resistance per length

= 9.6 inches

If you do not calculate the amount you need in this way, you will end up feeding the muscle wire with too much power and you will burn it out.

While you may want to increase the power a little bit (here I increased from 5V to 6V because there was not enough power to make all the leaves really move), don't increase it too much or the muscle wires will burn.

Follow this tutorial if you are intereste

d in making things with muscle wire:

http://makingfurnitureinteractive.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/muscle-wire/