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a maelstrom of mind + entropy

The nervous system of the Holi-Cray-Matic - Arduino

Very cool work that DK has been working on for the holidays.

 

The DK Holi-Cray-Matic™ is an open-source, Twitter-controlled, Arduino-connected (http://arduino.cc/), node.js (http://nodejs.org) application.

There is a self-hosted Node.js web server sitting at holiday.designkitchen.com that is the central hub of the project. It opens up a connection to Twitter’s Stream API and listens for any tweets mentioning @designkitchen and creates a random event job for them – snow machine, table lights, wall lights, beacon lights, inflatable sky dancer. Every 40 tweets, an all-on-holicray event is triggered. Once the jobs have been created, an event is broadcast via websockets to all the webclients (the website) to update the real-time website. These jobs are processed one at a time and sent to the Arduino node.js application sitting in the conference room.

On the Mac Pro, there is a local Node.js application that is connected to the web server via websockets (socket.io). This server is responsible for accepting job instructions from the web server, turning on Arduinio for 9 seconds, and then turning it off, and then reporting back to the web server to say the action took place.

We built out our own power circuits using PowerSwitch Tail II hooked up to an Arduino Uno board connected to a Mac Pro in the conference room. All of the holiday decorations are then plugged in downstream on those PowerSwitches, always on, waiting for the control pin on Arduino to complete the circuit and make stuff go HoliCray!

Check it out at http://holiday.designkitchen.com

 

Dasha Zhukova | Garage Magazine

Starting out with a bit of a bang, Garage magazine is making headlines with its controversial "peel-away" cover. Take the time to check the site out too, it's is simple and fun, and I love the idea behind the "stops" section.

I keep leaning toward raw content, with a raw feel. In the future you will find less and less ornate design surrounding our information / content. Dasha promises to make every issue unique and non-formulaic. Thank you Dasha for rethinking content around the unexpected.

http://garagemag.com/

http://garagemag.com/stops

 

A Tale of Loyalty: Virtual Brand Currency Wars | SXSW 2012

Mcdonald_war

painting: Andrew Wyeth’s, Christina’s World (1948)* has been modified

Event Interactive 2012
Format Solo
Organizer Cameron Friedlander – Designkitchen [WPP]
Speakers
  1. Cameron Friedlander – Designkitchen [WPP]
Description Loyalty used to be simple, drink a soda and get rewarded for it. As brands expand their “social currencies” into a virtual Federal Reserve, based around larger partnerships, what will the future look like? Consumer loyalty is being targeted in exchange for virtual cash. From the utopic to the dystopic, we’ll take a look at alternate futures: The idealist agency perspective that each brand should have its own economy. What could go wrong? We’ll explore visions of consumers making transactions with 50+ currency options. “I’ll pay with ‘widget’ points ma’am, they’re trading well today.” Then let’s shift into brand-based personal economies, with each consumer having their own “virtual exchange.” What happens when brands go to war over your “loyalty economy?” Lastly, an economist asks what happens when everyone cashes out, flooding our gold-based standard with virtual cash? Complete devaluation of our current economy? I’m sure we’ll be fine, I’ll just drink a bitcoin and shut the %@! up.
Questions
Answered
  1. Why mobile is a catalyst for the push to virtual brand currencies?
  2. How will consumers handle all these virtual economies?
  3. What happens if each individual has their own 'exchange' for loyalty?
  4. Can our global economy survive when people are rewarded for 'virtual' tasks?
  5. What happens when you bring together gold, virtual, and digital based currencies? Baysplosions!?
Level Beginner

Intro music confirmed:

Category Branding / Marketing / Advertising
Tags Bitcoin, Economic Concerns, Loyalty

Toddlers’ Favorite Toy: The iPhone | NYTimes

A little piece put out by The New York Times the other day showcasing the accessibility of the iPhone for children, which can be extended to the Natural User Interface. The piece also looks at the guilt parents have with letting their kids play with such devices for extended periods of time. As I have said before in my reviews of iPad applications for kids; they must be accompanied by adult interaction with the child and the application, otherwise it's just useless/meaningless information with no context.

Worth the quick read.

"Apple, the iPhone’s designer and manufacturer, has built its success on machines so simple and intuitive that even technologically befuddled adults can figure out how to work them, so it makes sense that sophisticated children would follow. The most recent model is 4.5 inches tall, 2.31 inches wide and weighs 4.8 ounces: sleek, but not too small for those with developing motor skills. Tap a picture on the screen and something happens. What could be more fun?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/fashion/17TODDLERS.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

Also you can view my reviews, journals, and presentations on the topic of the natural user interface for kids here:

http://posterous.nullintovoid.com/tag/interface

TEDx | Fabian Hemmert : The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone

This short clip tries to answer the question: how do we make digital content, via the mobile phone, more graspable? Essentially to give it more meaning and context. He postulates that humans should not get more technical but that technology should be a bit more human.

Fabian looks at the 3 phone mods to make this happen:

1. Add weight - imagine if your phone tilted in the direction you needed to go on Google Maps.

2. Add dimension - if you are reading a book why not have the device grow.

3. Add a heartbeat - a device that gets excited for you.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/fabian_hemmert_the_shape_shifting_future_of_the_mobile_phone.html