PROJECT: KUNERILITE
Posted January 14, 2008 at 2:50 pm
Whilst looking for a solution to my project idea I stumbled across KuneriLite, a toolkit to extend Adobe Flash Lite capabilities using Symbian S60 phones. This allows you to easily use a phones technology, such as GPS, camera, accelerometer, using plugins. A very useful solution but with 1 draw back, I need a phone with GPS and a good enough camera on it!
I’ve had a look at the software and it looks relatively easy to use and bolt in to a flash lite swf so if I can’t find a solution using the windows mobile platform I may have to invest in a GPS enabled phone!
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Comments (0)PROJECT: IPAQ & TOMTOM
Posted January 10, 2008 at 12:27 am
Ok, so today I’ve been looking at a few options in order to create my project. I started looking at GPS loggers for the iPaq and found a few useful links:
I’ve also been looking into hacking TomTom navigation systems. It started off when I read an article by David M Williams about Hacking the Tom Tom through Open Source here which was very interesting. There seems to be a community that has established itself and is quite prominent. TomTom themselves have even acknowledged this open source movement and have funded it.
So this leads me to why. Why do I would I want to use a TomTom for the project? That’s easy. Its portable, it looks like you can do a lot with it and it runs linux. Anything that runs linux must be hackable! People have also hooked up a webcam and displayed the feed through the TomTom. Very cool and I could see myself using that. Anyway here’s some useful links I found:
PROJECT: GPS WOES AND SOLUTIONS
Posted December 8, 2007 at 8:16 pm
At the end of my last meeting Chris kindly lent me a GPS receiver for me to have a play about with. Unfortunately it didn’t come with a usb cable so I was stuck with trying to get data off of it using its in built bluetooth. Another unfortunate thing is the fact that the manufacturer hasn’t had the foresight to write any good software or documentation for using it with bluetooth (typical). I guess it doesn’t help that they have discontinued the device as well.
So, I need to find another solution. Here’s a few things I’ve found or thought about;
- HP iPAQs - I borrowed 1 to take to Mscape Fest and I seem to remember some other software being on them which I believe will log GPS data. If there isn’t them I’m sure I can find some.
- I’ve been doing some searches and there’s 1 GPS data logger that keeps coming up time and time again, which is the GlobalStat DG100, link here. It seems to be a very value for money logger but that’s all it does.
- I’ve also found some do it yourself GPS receivers and logger; thomaspfeifer.net, jay-t.de, as well as plenty other on hack a day.
- You can also buy a logger that some one else has made that seems to be very good. Link here. This isn’t available again until the 15th Dec however and its a tad expensive.
I also managed to find a wiki from Openstreetmap.org that has reviewed many GPS devices which should come in handy when deciding where to go next. Link here.
Reading these reviews 1 of the devices seem to be a safe bet: the Scytex NaviGPS. Its water proof, lightweight, compact and great for cyclists. Its a good price too, so that’s another option if everything else fails.
SPACE: A FEW ARTISTS TO CONSIDER
Posted November 29, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I’ve been looking at the work of Alvin Lucier; a composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception, James Turrell; an artist primarily concerned with light and space and Christo; environmental installation artist. Here’s what I’ve found:
By Alvin Lucier: Music for Piano with One or More Snare Drums (1990). Description from his website:
“A pianist plays a series of notated pitches in chronological order, repeating them freely in overlapping patterns. As she does so, the tones sympathetically resonate snare drums positioned throughout the space. The drums respond in various ways depending on the pitch of the piano tones, the resonant regions of the drums and their geographical locations in space. This work was written for Hildegard Kleeb and was first performed by her on March 21, 1992, at the Galerie Sous-Sol, Geneva, Switzerland.”
This installation really deals with playing with acoustic properties of sound to produce other sounds from other sources within a space. An interesting, dis-jointed and un-typical way to produce sound relative to a particular space.
By James Turrell: Alta Pink (1968). This is a cross corner projection installation that plays with perception, depth and dimension. I really like the way he has played with a simple shape to create an illusion of an object that seems to have mass and weight. To me hes managed to represent the space of an object in another space and at the same time changed the way you might feel towards the space. Here’s a photo:
By Christo: Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin (1971-95). This is fairly self explanatory, where Christo along with Jeanne Claude wrapped the Reichstag with 100,000 square meters of thick woven polypropylene fabric with an aluminum surface. Both Christo and Jeanne Claude say that there is no deeper meaning to their work other than to make the world a “more beautiful place” or to create a new way of seeing a familiar landscape. To me this is creating a new perspective of the space through concealment, space of representation maybe? Here’s a photo:
So just by looking at these artists I can start to pool the different ideas. I would like to create a project that changes the way you feel and view a familiar space using light, not projected but by a different means and using sound. The sound and light will be affected depending on where you stand in relation to the space.
PROJECT: EQUIPMENT!
Posted November 28, 2007 at 12:44 am
Tom kindly pointed this website out for me that contains free GPS software as well blurp about a GPS receiver that will plug into a PC that only costs £10. Bargain! I’ll have a play about with the receiver Chris gave me as well as Adams phone and if I get no where with either of them I may consider buying one.
You can get them on PC World business if you go here.
I’m also off to MScapeFest 07 on Monday and Tuesday of next week for some workshops and talks on the HP Ipacs so I’m hoping to learn a thing or 2 that I may be able to apply to my project. I might be cheeky as well and see what I can get out of them. Have a looksie here if your interested.
PROJECT: TRIANGLE
Posted November 24, 2007 at 11:23 pm
So I’ve found a few other projects now and I have located them on my project triangle. This allows me to see where my project sits relative to other projects in the same area. Click to enlarge:
All of these projects can be accessed online, just follow the links below:
SPACE: DRAKE CIRCUS EMOTION MAPS
Posted November 15, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Last week we visited Drake Circus to document the space, taking influences from our precedent studies. As I was studying the work of Christian Nold, his Biomapping project in particular, I decided to try and map emotion in the space. At first I wanted to try and do this subtly by taking photos of peoples faces and judge for myself how they might have been feeling at the time.
Unfortunately because of security it was hard to do this, so on Saturday I went back and subjectively asked people how they felt in particular points in the space, giving me a rating on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being unhappy/annoyed/uncomfortable and 10 being happy/comfortable/great. Ok, I know the problems surrounding subjective views as there are other things that can influence how some one feels at the time in a particular space so I really asked them to just concentrate on the space itself, clearing anything else from their minds. This was backed up by Henri Lefebvres Dialectic of Space, taking into consideration representation of space, daily practice and space of representation.
I’ve come up with the following emotional maps, click to enlarge:
I’ve also put my presentation into a pdf which you can download here.
PROJECT: FIRST MEETING
Posted November 13, 2007 at 11:15 pm
So I had my first project meeting with Chris yesterday and I think it went rather well. What Chris aims to do first is outline where my project lies in a critical context. To do this he uses a triangle to map out the 3 main areas that surround the project and he asks us to go away and research similar work that is already out there, placing it within the triangle. This way I can relate my own work to that of others.
All this was done on a white board (picture below) I’ve redone it in photoshop just to make it clear:
Here’s the white board sketches:
So my task now is to find some related projects. Chris has already suggested milkproject.net, Feral Trade, Urban Tapestry and a project involving the London Opera house, GPS and headphones - geocaching stuff. I’ll then need to locate them within my triangle. I’ll update it once I’ve done it.
DISSERTATION: FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES?
Posted November 12, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I’ve come across a few interesting articles in the past week detailing (very near) future technologies and applications for GPS and RFID tags.
The first article involves a trial program involving 10 secondary school students in the UK who are being tracked with RFID tags embedded into their school uniforms. From Yahoo Tech:
Add the RFID chips to increased video surveillance and fingerprinting of kids, and this is a heavily tracked generation—for safety’s sake.
That extra peace of mind for adults comes with a heavy loss of privacy for kids. Do you agree with David Clouter, a parent and founder of the children’s advocacy group Leave Them Kids Alone, who says taking all these precautions has the effect of treating kids like criminals? Or do you agree with the parents who have OKed the pilot program who do not find it egregiously intrusive?
One possible side effect: Uniform sales may pick up as kids try to procure extra non-RFID-tagged clothing. As security expert Bruce Schneier writes on his blog: “So now it’s easy to cut class; just ask someone to carry your shirt around the building while you’re elsewhere.”
Obviously a lot of debate surrounds this subject. I can see this being a very good thing from a parents perspective as well as the schools but surely this is another invasion of privacy. What also gets to me is the whole “how safe is my child” thing. I mean fair enough there some nasty people out there but was this any different 10 years ago when I was a kid? I doubt it was any different but I’m sure there was far more important thing to be reported in the news at the time.
Great idea but I think its going a little far. Can I see this taking off? I don’t think so. Like the quote says “just ask someone to carry your shirt around the building” to get around the technology. The only way I can see that working properly is if they physically implant the chips. Extreme but who’s going to cut open their arm to dig it out? Ok, don’t answer that…
The second article talks about Apple customising Macbooks to supply to local school districts in Kansas City and southwest Louisiana. Whats so interesting about that? Well, they’re customising them to meet various security measures in place by the districts. From tuaw.com:
The Kansas City Star notes that each of the computers has a sticker “clearly identifying them as the property of the Kansas City, Kan., public schools… [which] will not come off without virtually destroying the laptop.” Furthermore, each computer will apparently have a GPS tracker and even “a remote device to destroy the hard drive” if stolen.
Interesting stuff really. GPS trackers have been used for years now in cars so why not in computers? I do like the sound of the remote device destroying your hard drive as well, don’t want a thief getting their hands on your sensitive data now do you? That next big question is whether or not this sort of technology will make it onto the commercial market and whether people really want it. For everyday use I can’t honestly say whether I would invest in a tracker, I mean if I take my Macbook out with me anywhere it doesn’t leave my sight. Another area worth discussing.
PROJECT: TESTING THE NIKE+ SPORTS KIT
Posted November 9, 2007 at 6:09 pm
To get an idea of how well the sports kit would work when I was on the bike I decided to do a test just to see if it recorded the data correctly. I used a set route, pictured below:
First off I jogged the route, mounting the sensor to my trainer using a special adapter, just so I could get a good base line reading which I could compare. After which I uploaded it to the Nike+ website which gave me the following results:
Next I cycled the route, again with the sensor still mounted to my trainer using the adapter. This I hoped would work fine but I was proved to be wrong. The results speak for themself:
Flatlined! As you can see it didn’t really do a lot compared to running normally. Obviously it took me less time complete but there’s nothing there! I think what I need to do now is devise a way of mounting the sensor to my bike so it moves similarly to a footstep. I think what was happening here was that the sensor was being subjected to centrifugal forces in an outwards direction giving a constant reading. Think the piezometer inside is very very very sensitive!
On a separate note I think I may have found a method of tracking bikes in real time using a GPS telemetry system by TinyLoc. This is meant for falconry purposes but I’m sure I can modify it so it does what I need it to do. I’ll post some more info up once I know more.
