Projects
120 Years of Musical Instruments Feb 4,2004
A history of 120 years of electronic musical instruments...
A few Remote Display/Remote Data Projects Aug 29,2004
Window display driven by SMS messaging by IDEO TopTrack - identifies any song played at a volume loud enough to be picked up by the cell phone " target="_other">Blinkenlights - Architectural scale display using a cell phone to control display on the side of a building. The Internet Plug - a net-controlled AC relay Ceiva's net-connected picture frames Self-Healing Minefields Radio taxi-art BitTaxi - The Bureau of Inverse Technology pubished data on how to reverse-engineer interactive taxi advertising banners.
A few Space Annotation Projects Nov 23,2003
Run by ITP alum Steve Bull Tag - Wireless game in Times Square Urban Tapestries - "Public Authoring in the Wireless City" - space annotation project on a large scale.... Game of Assassin played using mobile phones HipnTasty - Wireless entertainment apoplications aimed primarily at young women Hypertag - Bluetooth/IR tags for short-range transmission to mobile phones, used to annotate spaces.
AODV - An Ad Hoc Routing Protocol Sep 15,2003
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.
Affective computing and physiological sensors Feb 5,2004
Rosalind Picard's affective computing research group at MIT is a good place to go if you're interested in any kind of physiological sensing. They're also doing some interesting thinking about how physical state reflects human affect.
Air-TiVo? Jun 2,2004
The basic premise of it is that DAB is just transmission of a digital data stream, so there's no reason you can't put a hard drive in the radio (or just a bunch of RAM) and give it the radio a buffer, so you can pause the broadcast.... Would it be possible to combine the technologies in the Bug with a frequency scanner and create a sort of super Air-TiVo, that scans the airwaves for songs you're interested in, and saves them when they're played?
Alzado.net Feb 5,2004
Alzado.net control of spotlights in a public square, operated over the net.
Amorphic Robot Works Feb 5,2004
Amorphic Robot Works Large-scale robotic expression by Chico MacMurtrie & co. Chico does some great kinetic sculpture and performance work.
Ants - The MIT Micro Robot Site May 29,2005
Ants - The MIT micro robot site...
Arthur Ganson Feb 5,2004
Arthur Ganson has done a number of kinetic sculptures which may change the way you think about animated bodies.
Bad Designs Feb 4,2004
Bad Designs and notes on why they are bad.
Blinkenlights Feb 5,2004
Blinkenlights Chaos Computer Club of Berlin turned a building into a display surface. Viewers can control the display via SMS and the web.
Blueink Feb 5,2004
Blueink Jen Lewin's project page, including her thesis project, Butterfly. Jen's documentation of her work is very thorough, including descriptions, schematics, code, notes on gears and motors, and much much more.
Bob Blick's Projects May 29,2005
Bob Blick's Projects - a few interesting projects, like a propeller clock, prayer engine, a few motor driving circuits, and more.
Caffeine online Feb 25,2004
When it's working, you can check it to see whether there are cold cokes in the machine.... The coff-e-mail project at Texas A&M follows in the spirit of the Trojan Room Coffee Machine.
Chuck Genco Sep 25,2003
I'm really fond of Victorian style mechanisms, built in brass and dark woods. Chuck Genco's work seems to be a great example of it, though I've never seen it in real life.
Citizen Participation and Urban Monitoring Oct 7,2004
Two projects on citizen participation in local government, monitoring and maintenance of urban spaces: Fund for the City of New York's ComNet: "ComNET, a program created by the Fund's Center on Municipal Government Performance (CMGP), introduces easily operated hand-held computers to community organizations so that troublesome street level conditions can be recorded and tabulated quickly, easily and accurately.... "On city streets, residents—from youth to seniors—collect data about neighborhood conditions (e.g. graffiti, potholes) with handheld computers, custom-designed software, wireless modems, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receivers and digital cameras."
ConQwest Oct 12,2004
ConQwest is a large-scale urban game in which teams race through the city searching for hidden treasure using cellphone cameras and giant inflatable animals." It's a game for mobile phones created by Ubiquity Labs (aka Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert) for Qwest.
Conductive Epoxy? Aug 25,2003
And here's a source. Thanks to Michael Wilson for the links.
Doors East Project Links Jan 2,2004
Some interesting project links from the Doors East conference in 2003, including: "...HP Labs India has conducted an exhaustive survey of the ways in which urban and rural Indians from all socio-economic strata use technology..." "...e-Chaupal, an agricultural e-business initiative by ITC, one of India's larger conglomerates, offers rural farmers information, products and services to enhance farm productivity, improve farm-gate price realisation and cut transaction costs."
Dot Matrix Printer Symphony Feb 5,2004
Dot Matrix Printer Symphony - a symphony played on dot matrix printers.
Eruvim in Manhattan Jul 14,2005
Elliott Malkin has done an interesting project on Eruvim in Manhattan.
Exhibit Research Feb 5,2004
Exhibit Research - Kevin Walker's site, containing lots of notes, essays, reports, and interviews related to exhibit design. Also includes many technology links on things like smart glass, robotics, and more.
First Person Feb 5,2004
First Person Sasha Harris-Cronin's thesis and installation plan about violence mediated through television and synthesized in first-person shooter games.
Flo Control Feb 5,2004
Flo Control A device to train a cat not to bring dead mice in the house, using computer vision technology by Quantum Picture.
Fonts for Dyslexic Readers Nov 22,2003
These folks have been developing fonts that help people with dyslexia to read more clearly. " target="_other">These folks disagree with the research.
Fun with Powermates Apr 15,2005
It's just a big knob with a USB connector, but there is so much you can do with a knob!... Robert Hodgin of flight404 has done some really fun stuff with 100 of these things.
HP Cooltown Research Papers Feb 5,2004
Hewlett-Packard's Cooltown research into architecture and interactive exhibit design.
Hand-cranked Digital Counter May 22,2004
A hand-cranked digital counter by Matt Gorbet. Reminds me a bit of Jonah Brucker-Cohen's crank the web, only in this project, the clock of the processor is actually tied to the crank.
IOBrush Jan 26,2006
IOBrush is a paintbrush that allows you to paint with video. It captures video in one mode, and paints the video back on the screen in another.
IR Remote control using a BX24 Aug 20,2003
Here's a decent example of how to replace a remote control using a microcontroller, with code written for the BX-24. This could easily be adapted for all kinds of short-range line-of-sight data transfer using IR.
Intelligent Carpet Jan 19,2005
German carpet maker Vorwerk Teppichwerke and semiconductor company Infineon Technologies have developed an intelligent carpet. Sensors in the carpet enable it to control temperature and detect footsteps and trigger lights, or detect prone motionless bodies and call emergency services.
International Fashion Machines Jul 31,2005
"International Fashion Machines is a design and research company whose broad mission is to understand and transform the aesthetic and material properties of technology.... IFM's projects in this area range from one-of-a kind interactive textile artworks to research for the military and design and strategy for the fashion industry."
Internet0 Nov 17,2003
Internet0 is an initiative at MIT, very like the Networked Objects class at ITP, but executed on a lower level of abstraction (i.e. all the engineeering is done from scratch, rather than using commercially available embedded net solutions).
Islamic Mobile Phones and Kosher Stoves Nov 21,2004
Prayer Timer, with 5,000 cities pre-set, to alert the user when it's time to pray; this can be done with a standard alarm, or with the "azan" voice calling to prayer, with Cairo, Mecca, and Medina variants.... There are some good notes on ethnographic research for culturally specific design in the compilation Design Research (Brenda Laurel, ed.).
Kelly Heaton Feb 5,2004
Kelly Heaton Some interesting physical pixel projects at the MIT Media Lab.
Ken Feingold Feb 5,2004
Ken Feingold a long history of video and interactive sculptural artwork...
LogiBlocs Aug 19,2003
Logiblocs is a nifty series of components built into a lego-like interface, to teach kids to build their own electronic devices. Probably fun for adults too.
MP3 player run by a PIC May 29,2005
MP3 player run by a PIC Not for the technologically faint of heart.
Make your own ECG Aug 25,2003
Here's a site detailing how to build a simple homemade one. I wouldn't use it to diagnose a heart murmur, but if you're interested in biometrics, it's a nice place to start.
Mark Tilden's Robots Feb 4,2004
An interview with Mark Tilden about his analog robots, by Kevin Walker...
Michael Naimark Feb 5,2004
Michael Naimark Projects and experiments ranging from how to zap a camera with a laser to the Global Jukebox, a database of one of the world's largest collections of global music and dance.... Michael's Spring 2004 ITP class, "A Nonlinear History of New Media" produced a nice timeline of new media and related work and blog of their reading and discussion.
Motohoho Jun 29,2005
Motohoho is a group of ITP alums (Michael Schneider, Kentaro Okuda, Rikayo Horimizu, Ken Haller) designing a series of interesting networked objects and furniture.
Musical Hamsters? Feb 25,2004
A MIDI sequencing project using hamsters.
Nabaztag Mar 22,2006
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.
Natalie Jeremijenko Feb 5,2004
I don't even particularly like robots, but I love the way this project visualizes invisible information (concentrations of toxins on a given site) using a technology that has been domesticated from military and industrial use into a child's toy.... This assignment, given to her design students, has grown into an excellent source of information on how various products are made, including chemical, material, labor, and political issues involved.
Network visualizations Nov 11,2003
\A few nifty network visualizations came up recently on the ITP alumni list: Internet Traffic Report, reports traffic loads on servers around the world. Touchgraph has some intersting visualizations of google links, liveJournal, and others.
Nixie Clocks Sep 11,2003
Here's a great page on all kinds of Display and Counting Tubes, including several sets of instructions on building your own displays using them. More clocks based on Nixie Tubes Clocks and wristwatches based on nixie tubes If you're in intro to physical computing, and looking for a tech research project (comes up in a few weeks), then this might be a good one.
Nokia Imagewear Frames, and more Oct 4,2003
Nokia's got a whole line of networked objects available and coming RSN. Check out their imagewear: medallions, picture frames, and personal image viewers.
OpenEEG Feb 7,2005
OpenEEG is a sourceforge project aimed at hobbyists who want to experiment with EEG hardware and software.... They make no guarantees that you won't electrocute yourself or send yourself into a coma, so go into this with an open mind and a watchful eye.
Peltier Junctions Used for Cooling Aug 6,2004
Here's a nice physical computing project from Norway. I'm not sure if 7 degrees Celsius is the right temperature for Guinness, but this is a good illustration of how to use Peltier junctions for cooling.
Perry Hoberman Feb 5,2004
Perry Hoberman has done a number of interesting projects turning the computer and user interface around to make the user part of the system instead of conteoller of it.
Projection without a projection surface Sep 29,2004
They do a better job than most at answering some of the frequently asked questions in their technology page. As they explain there, this display is planar, not volumetric, so you can't project 3D volumes.
Public Air Quality Indicator Sep 17,2005
The public air quality indicator is a public display that indicates the quality of the air in a city. It's highly localized, and a good example of an ambient display that has some practical use. The details of its construction are online and openly available as well
Responsive Environments Group Mar 3,2004
The Responsive environments group at MIT has done a number of interesting projects: parasitic power from shoes, various radio-connected sensors, and more.
Robart Feb 5,2004
Robart Robots & the Navy!
Ruth Ron Aug 27,2005
Ruth Ron has done a number of interactive installations bridging telecommunications technologies and architecture, many of which are focused on dematerializing architectural structures -- walls into windows, windows into views into remote spaces, and more.
Sandia Labs Nanomachines Feb 5,2004
Sandia Labs Nanomachines nanotechnology today!
ScratchRobot Feb 5,2004
ScratchRobot a robot that converts emails into sound by scratching them on a turntable.
SenseTable Feb 5,2004
SenseTable: A Wireless Object Tracking Platform for Tangible User Interfaces A paper from the MIT Media Lab: "In this paper we present a system that electromagnetically tracks the positions and orientations of multiple wireless objects on a tabletop display surface." AudioPad is an application of the senseTable that makes music based on the position of objects on a table.
Stuff to Make and Enjoy Nov 18,2004
Some lovely project notes from MIT's How to Make Almost Anything course. Includes an MP3 player in an altoids tin, bike headlight notes, USB components, and some other nice construction notes.
Talking Lights Oct 14,2004
This company sends data through household lighting systems, by modulating the AC signal that powers the lights with the data to be transmitted, so that the lights "pulse" the data at a level imperceptible to people trying to use the lights to see. Thanks to Max Whitney for the link.
Techhouse Tetris Feb 5,2004
Techhouse Tetris Tetris on an architectural scale...
The Disappearing Computer Initiative Aug 19,2003
This one seems like a natural for folks interested in embedded networking and physical computing. From their intro page: "The mission of the initiative is to see how information technology can be diffused into everyday objects and settings, and to see how this can lead to new ways of supporting and enhancing people's lives that go above and beyond what is possible with the computer today."
The Stanford Interactive Workspaces Project Feb 4,2004
The Stanford Interactive Workspaces Project - a large scale project to integrate collaborative software tools into all aspects of a workspace.
The Tapper Feb 5,2004
The Tapper acoustic tracking ouf touch across a hard surface, by Joe Paradiso's group at the Media Lab.
The Telegarden Feb 5,2004
The Telegarden This tele-robotic installation allows WWW users to view and interact with a remote garden filled with living plants.
The Thimbletron Feb 5,2004
The Thimbletron Thimble-based hand MIDI controller.
ThinkCycle Aug 30,2003
From their mission statement: "ThinkCycle is an academic, non-profit initiative engaged in supporting distributed collaboration towards design challenges facing underserved communities and the environment.... "ThinkCycle provides a shared online space for designers, engineers, domain experts and stakeholders to discuss, exchange and construct ideas towards sustainable design solutions in critical problem domains."
Tholos Systems Video Landmarks May 30,2004
Tholos Systems wants to make a realtime surround video connection between the capitals of Europe. The proposed images are very seductive: Tholos Systems wants to make a realtime surround video connection between the capitals of Europe.
Topobo Oct 5,2004
It's very simple, just a few clip-together construction components and a few motors, but it makes some great combinations. Thanks to Kevin Walker for the link.
Toshio Iwai Feb 5,2004
Toshio Iwai does beautiful light and music projects. One of the best physical interaction designers out there.
Tricorder Aug 19,2003
A homemade 3-D joystick project using a rubber ball, three small joysticks, and three bungee cords. Build your own!
Urban Atmospheres May 30,2004
While toting a laptop around a city may seem a like an example of such city computing, Urban Atmospheres research is more deeply concerned with addressing several sub-themes, including (but not limited to):" Place – What is the meaning of various public places?... The single main research challenge of Urban Atmospheres research is to understand how this future fabric of digital and wireless computing will influence, disrupt, expand, and be integrated into the social patterns existent within our public urban landscapes."
Urban Research Initiative May 30,2004
The Urban Research Initiative at NYU is predicated on the fact that "The economic future of our cities will be defined by their capacity to generate, process, and distribute information." From their introduction, "Urban Researchers must understand and explain the way in which information and telecommunications technologies are transforming the cities and metropolitan areas where people live and work.
Whereify Sep 25,2003
On the one hand, I'm impressed: a watch-sized GPS unit that sends the data back to base: neat.... For one thing, the unit can be manually "locked on" by the parent, so the kid can't turn it off, and physically locked on, so the kid can't remove it.
Wifi picture frame Sep 15,2003
Wallflower is a wi-fi picture frame; an LED panel with a hard drive and a wifi card. It's similar to another networked picture frame, ceiva frames, but without a monthly charge.
Wireless SpyGear! Sep 11,2003
These are kinda cute, for experimenting with RF. Perhaps they can be hacked: $30/pair!
YBox: Konfabulator for the TV Oct 16,2006
Tarikh Korula and Josh Rooke-Ley produced the Ybox, a device that produces TV overlays from the web, using a Lantronix Xport and a Parallax Propeller. Very nice project, very simple yet useful.
networks + Xbox + exercycles Feb 4,2004
Feel like killing mutants while burning fat on the exercise bike? Reebok and Xbox are making a way for it to happen.