Category Archives: networks

AODV – An Ad Hoc Routing Protocol

From the intro page: “The Ad hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing algorithm is a routing protocol designed for ad hoc mobile networks…. “This could be very useful for certain types of networked objects, when spontaneous and casual connections are needed, along the lines of edström, Holmquist, Dahlberg and Ljungstrand’s Ad Hoc Information Spaces, among others.The Mobility Management and Networking Lab (MOMENT), home of AODV.Elizabeth M.
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Making Things Talk at E-Tech

Brian Jepson and I will be giving a workshop on Making Things Talk at O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology conference this year…. The controller is a variation on some of the projects in the book, and should enable a very special activity that’s not always seen at E-Tech…
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Openmoko First Run

A few notes:It took me an hour and a half to flash the root file system and kernel on it…. The operating system takes longer to load than OSX 10.4 on my macbook.There are a couple things about the UI that bother me: It’s not obvious how to answer or hang up a callThere’s no obvious way to access system settings through the UIIt’s apparently not yet possible to send or get text messages.I hope it gets better. Continue reading

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Open Beacon – Open active RFID

It’s basically an open design for actrive RFID:”OpenBeacon is a free design for an active RFID device which operates in the 2.4GHz ISM band…. The intention of this project is to offer a wide range of use cases such as visitor or item tracking and wireless remote control with a free self-contained and low-cost RFID design.”Thanks to Massimo Banzi for the link.
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A Public Inconvenience

What do we miss by ignoring the factthat public toilets are also the site for a variety of socialpractices?’A Public Inconvenience’ will explore the experience and affect ofpublic toilets in an urban environment, in this case Amsterdam.Through observation and engagement we will consider how public toiletsare shaped by, and themselves shape, cultural practices, values, andattitudes…. That is, the placesand times that are often on the periphery of everyday life – thejourney to work or the time spent queuing in a shop.To be considered for participation, researchers and practitioners areinvited to send us a compelling public toilet story (see The Storiessection of the website for inspiration), an optional toiletphotograph, a brief biography, and a short rationale outlining yourinterest in the workshop.
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A Few of my Favorite Things…

…at least, my favorite examples of physical computing.Durrell Bishop’s Marble Answering Machine – A really nice example of using tangible elements not only as memory tokens, but as physical interface…. This one comes from a link on Sriam Subramaniam’s homepage, but I think they may have gotten it from Rachel Abrams’ paper.Toshio Iwai’sPiano – As Image Media – The interaction is quite simple, and even traditional, in computer interface terms (a trackball), but the effect is beautiful.Tad Hirsch’s TripWire – I love the fact that it’s relevant to the city it was designed for, and attempts to address real political issues in that town with just the right level of seriousness and humor.Maywa Denki’s BitMan – The behavior seems entirely natural when you play with it, as the little man moves from one side to the next as you rotate the object. Continue reading

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Nabaztag

It talks in response to email messages, it wiggles its ears, and it lights up…. The nifty thing: they’re a product, and they’re less than $100.
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Ubisense – realtime location in 3 dimensions

Ubisense makes a real time locating system (RTLS) that can locate objects with 15cm accuracy in 3 dimensions. To do this, they attach a tag to each object that has a built-in radio, and a series of radio receivers around the space that they’re tracking in. The receivers receive signals from the tags, and triangulate their location based on readio signal strength.
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Testing… This is Not a Simulation

was a one-night event staged by Eric Paulos (Intel Research, Anthony Burke (UC Berkeley), and David Ross (UC Berkeley). It was a party at which all the partygoers wore RFID tags.
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Civil Technologies: The Values of Nonprofit ICT Use

There’s a new report out from the Social Science Research Council’s Information Technology and International Cooperation program, “Civil Technologies: The Values of Nonprofit ICT Use,” by Ken Jordan and Mark Surman with funding from the Ford Foundation. This report is the last in a series of three major reports on the Internet, governance and civil society that were published by the ITIC program.The report “explores exemplary instances of nonprofit ICT adoption by civil society groups from around the world, and draws attention to ways the values of civil society are reinforced and extended through their use of digital tools.
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