I saw this beautifully crafted electronic parts drawer cubby at Distance Lab the other day – a great example of upcycling old cardboard packaging into a very useful piece of furniture that feels and works much better than the cheap plastic alternative.
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How to get what you want is a rich resource for anyone working in wearable technology – whether you’re looking to to knit your own stretch sensor, solder conductive fabric or crochet a pressure sensor, you can find detailed instructions on this site. It’s the most expansive repository of techniques for prototyping the electronics of the future, when hard and impersonal objectss will (hopefully) be replaced by soft, crafted artifacts. The site is a product of Distance Lab researchers Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Satomi.
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There are a number of plant-growing appliances out there meant to sit on your countertop and look nice next to your iPod – but not the Omega Garden Carousel. This industrial hydroponic behemoth packs 1,500 sf of farming into 150sf of floor space with cylindrical stainless steel cages that take turns soaking in a nutrient bath. The plants don’t experience gravity as they are constantly rotating, making optimal use of the light spread by powerful fluorescent light bulbs. If my ceilings were twenty feet high I would snap one right up.
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At this year’s Future of News and Civic Media conference I learned about The Open Planning Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to civic empowerment through public space and transporation reform. They have produced a number of interesting web-based projects to catalyze change in the urban landscape, including ‘Uncivil Servants,’ a website for citizens to report parking abuses by public servants. The project seeks to prompt structural changes in the way parking violations are handled in New York City through a combination of research, education and advocacy. Starting with a survey of city drivers using government-issued permits to park illegally (pdf of the report is available here), they built a site where you can learn about the validity of these permits, blog about violations (above) and map them (below). The project aims to reduce the number of permits issued and hold accountable those that abuse them to make the streets safer for everyone.
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This is an old idea, but it remains relevant because of its elegance in treating the windows desktop as a physical space with paper windows: you can fold back the corners of any sheet to move items between various layers. It is a navigation technique called ‘Fold ‘n’ Drop;’ I saw Pierre Dragicevic present it at UIST 2004.
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This week Scot Frank showed me his pre-alpha of Citizen Water, a cohesive effort to monitor water quality around the world in order to empower community advocacy and direct development efforts. The effort is two-pronged: Scot’s team has been on the ground in numerous locations to help locals test their own water quality using low-cost kits specially developed to work without training or electricity (below). An online database stores the water quality information on a map, so that governments and aid agencies can identify which areas need assistance (above). The combination of grassroots workshops with a global digital presence approach is becoming a hallmark of civic media projects, ensuring that no matter how widespread the adoption, there is an effort to represent and educate those without a voice.
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Ayah Bdeir launched ‘Little Bits‘ last week at Eyebeam: a kit of magnet-studded circuit components that naturally snap together with the right polarity. The idea is to make prototyping of simple interaction possible for those outside the electrical engineering profession – such as this example of a product designer experimenting with lights on a mock-up of a coffee machine (below). The little components are very sturdy, like tiny building blocks, transforming the traditionally ornate and delicate circuit components into a material in themselves. These electronic tectonics are inspiring not only for rapid prototyping, but also as a way to visualize the function and re-purposing of consumer products of all kinds.
littleBits coffeemaker from ayah bdeir on Vimeo.
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Electronic Pop-up Book
One of my favorite pieces at this year’s Ars Electronica / MIT Media Lab exhibit is an electronic pop-up book made by Leah Buechley’s student Jie Qi of the High-Low Tech research group. She has layered the traditional materials with copper films, conductive ink and lights and speakers to add a digital dimension to the already interactive book. The entire thing is powered by a Lilypad arduino, underscoring the potential of ubiquitous electronics to transform even the most simple and universal materials.
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