Interdependent Things

I have created a mindmap of all FabLab initiatives around the world, and added all the information I could find. What stands out for me is the sketchiness of a lot of this information. Only a few sound web presences, and above all only few hints of sharing designs etc. There is much to be done to turn this into a network or even community that lives up to 'design global, build local'. The latter is a core principle of the FabLab concept.

Technorati Tags: fablab, community, mindmeister

Today I spent the day at the Protospace FabLab in Utrecht. Not that I really had something to make there, but being at that location meant I was focussed on doing something related to personal fabrication and Arduino, and not get distracted by other things around our house.

My main goal to start with was to get my Arduino board to send data to Processing. This way you can build applications around data that is coming from the Arduino board, or have apps send data to the Arduino.

Basically what you do is load the Arduino with a Fermata script that continuously reads/writes the Arduino's digital and analog in/outputs. Then in Processing you actually create your script (which you otherwise would create in the Arduino software tool).

First you need to make sure that the right libraries are available to both Arduino and Processing. Good instructions for this are on the Arduino website.

With the Arduino board I created a simple circuit with a temperature sensitive resistor connected to an analog input, so that with changing temperature the reading of that temperature would change.

I loaded the Arduino board with the Simple_Analog_Firmata script (the other Analog_Firmata I could not get to work properly yet). Simple_Analog_Firmata is part of the Library_Firmata library, and should be available under Open, Examples.

Then in Processing I loaded arduino_input from Libraries, Arduino, Examples.
The example script reads all digital and analog input ports of the Arduino, but I only needed the analog one that was connected to the thermistor. So I simplified the setup() routine by deleting the initialisation for the 13 digital inputs, and simplified the draw() routine to:

void draw() {
background(off);
stroke(on);
fill(on);

ellipse(235, 140, (arduino.analogRead(2)-300), 20);
}

This little statement draws an ellipse with the value from analog port 2 on the Arduino as the horizontal radius. I substracted 300 from the Arduino reading, as that brought the value within a range that was easy to draw. I kept the vertical radius constant, so I could see a vertical line even when there was no reading from the Arduino. Then I ran the Processing script.

Now when I touched the thermistor (causing its temperature to rise, and its value to fall) the ellipse's horizontal radius became smaller. How pleased can you be with a small blue ellipse on your screen? Very! :)


Screenshot of the ellipse


At higher temperature the ellipse becomes smaller

Technorati Tags: arduino, processing

I have decided to create a new blog next to my Interdependent Thoughts, to write about Transient Technology, the Internet of Things, Mobile Applications, and Personal Production. In general these topics I think are fine to cover in my regular blog. However, I am now also experimenting with electronics, internet aware objects and personal production in a FabLab. Any reports on those experiments, sharing designs etc., don't fit well in my main blog I think. For that purpose I've created this side blog.

The title speaks for itself: Interdependent Things
Because interdependent these things truly are. They connect to the internet or to each other, or the way these things get created is the result of different people contributing and building different parts. It is all about the digital world nestling on a more basic level in our physical world. The world of bits is becoming an embedded part of the world of atoms.

The internet of things, increases the role of physical objects as social objects enormously, because it adds heaps of context that can serve relationships. Physical objects always have been social objects, but only in their immediate physical context. A social object is an enabler for human interaction and to form relationships around. Human networks grow, interact, change, take on meaning, through social objects. They can be the (temporary) subject of a conversation, relationships and group forming, and transactions.


Some 'internetted' things in our household: Nabaztag, Chumby, Arduino board, Tikitag RFID reader.

Making physical objects internet-aware creates a slew of possible new uses for it as social objects.
Think of aspects like:

Where has the object been, where is it now, where is it going?
Who has owned this object, who owns it now?
Where can you get it, how much is it?
What do people think about it?
Who is near the object now?
Who has handled the object?
What does it notice in its environment?
What can this object be connected to, part of?
What is it currently connected to or part of?
What parts does this object consist of?
What materials is it made of, what other uses have these materials?
What does it take to produce it, what are alternatives?
How can I reuse this object, where do I dispose of it?
Can you create/copy this object yourself?
What uses does this object have, what uses have people come up with?
Where can I use it?
How does it work?
Who designed or manufactured it, what else did they design or manufacture?
What are its physical attributes?
Is this object useful today, will I need it? (think connecting your umbrella to the weather forecast for today)
Why did the object change hands?
How does it relate to other objects?
What other objects did it interact with and where?
What other objects did it come in contact and where?
What does the object look/feel like, in different settings, colors etc?
What does the object look/feel like when used in different ways?
What other stuff do people that use this object use?

And if you add more sensors or actuators to a product (object hacks so to speak), the list grows accordingly.
My explorations into FabLab and transient technology are meant as experimenting around this internet of things.

Technorati Tags: internetofthings, socialobjects, nabaztag, arduino, tikitag, chumby

After the workshop last week Friday on experimenting with Lego Mindstorms and Arduino open source hardware, I returned to the ProtoSpace FabLab in Utrecht today. This time around it was all about learning to work with the machines the FabLab is equipped with: a laser cutter, a vinyl cutter, a milling machine and a full colour 3D printer. 

The impressive bit of FabLab is not the fact that the type of machines it offers exist. The impressive part is that you can get these machines to do your bidding by feeding it things as simple as PDF files. You create your model or drawing and then basically hit the print button, select 'laser cutter' instead of your regular ink jet printer, and watch the machine get to work.

We played with the 3D full colour printer, which is very impressive.
In the 5 minute video below I documented the whole process. From the example object, to making 7 smaller copies of it. 3D printing is time consuming, but you can do amazing things with it.

Siert and I created a card board casing for Arduino boards to prevent it from short-circuiting because of the surface it is lying on. For the first version I simply drew a first sketch in Neooffice (the Mac version of Open Office), in a text document. I then imported that text document as PDF into Corel Draw on one of the PCs in the FabLab and hit the print button. The lasercutter cut a piece of card board according to my sketch, which assembled resulted in the first version of our Arduino holder.


Version 1.0 of Arduino board holder

Then Sierts education as an engineer kicked in and he adapted the design into version 2.0. Again hitting Print resulted in a handful of pieces of cardboard coming out of the lasercutter that fitted snugly together. Who would have guessed I could be so pleased with a few bits of card board?


Version 2.0 of the Arduino holder

The video below shows another run with the laser cutter for a different item (part of a 3D game board)



Last week as well as today I made a point of showing the other participants how easy it is to share pictures and video of what you are doing while you are doing it. To help lower the threshold for them to start sharing their FabLab work as well.

Technorati Tags: protospace, fablab, utrecht, lasercutter, 3dprinting, learningbyplaying

When I attended the Spimes workshop at SHiFT08, we used a recipe to brainstorm spime applications.

This was the 5 point recipe:
1) Choose the spime's sensors for its interaction (electromagnetic, mechanical, chemical, social sensors etc.)
2) Choose the level of spime data aggregation for your application (loca, global, non-geographic)
3) Choose a point in the timeline of technological development (now, at some specific point in the future)
4) Design machine to machine interaction (reliability, redundancy, systems needed etc.)
5) Design machine to human interaction (what is 'friending', information display, social objects)

Thinking this weekend on how to brainstorm interesting projects for my Arduino prototyping kit or my Lego Mindstorms kit, I decided to extend the recipe by a 6th point: choosing your actuators. Or perhaps it can replace the 3rd point, as in experimenting with Arduino and the like, you are using available technology by definition.
So my Arduino recipe becomes:

1) Choose the project's sensors for its interaction (electromagnetic, mechanical, chemical, social sensors etc.)
2) Choose the level of data aggregation for your application (loca, global, non-geographic)
3) Choose the project's actuators for its interaction (servo's, switches, displays, sounds, lights etc.)
4) Design machine to machine interaction (reliability, redundancy, systems needed etc.)
5) Design machine to human interaction (what is 'friending', information display, social objects)


Playing with my Arduino kit

Transient Technology
For about 18 months now I've been looking into transient technologies. Digital applications are breaking the boundaries of our laptop screens, and the internet of things, as well as internet connected peripheral devices, both sensors and actuators, are moving into our physical surroundings. This means that it is now no longer enough for me to have a sense of what is happening in software development circles to see what kind of new apps are coming, and that I also feel the need to look into hardware more.  Open source hardware like Arduino, sensor based space and time aware applications (Spimes), RFID tech, Chumby and Nabaztag etc. That is why I proposed an Arduino workshop to Reboot last June, even though I did not know much about it myself. Alexandra and Nick of Tinker.it in London stepped up and made it happen, but in the end I did not get to attend my 'own' workshop (except for opening it and closing it), because I was speaking at the same time in the hall next door. 



Workshop at ProtoSpace
But today I finally attended an Arduino workshop. It's been a long time since I tinkered with electronics. About 18 years I guess, but I assume I still have a soldering iron in the attic. The workshop was organized by ProtoSpace, one of the FabLabs in the Netherlands. My brother in law is the lab manager there, and he attended the Arduino workshop at Reboot I mentioned. He is now spreading that knowledge again.
In the morning of the day we covered a basic introduction about FabLab and ProtoSpace, and talked about Phidgets (physical widgets) and Lego Mindstorms, before getting to Arduino. The entire afternoon was then spend on playing with Arduino.

Play
I have been used to playing with software tools for so long I really rediscovered the fun of playing with tangible stuff again. A lot of old knowledge of electronics resurfaced. The physics of it hasn't changed of course, but the threshold to make programmable stuff has been seriously lowered, as has the cost of acquiring sensors and actuators that enable you to do interesting stuff.

Playing with Lego Mindstorms:


The trajectory the Mindstorms robot has to follow



Designing the trajectory before programming



Programming the robot via USB

Video of the finished experiment

Experimenting with Arduino open source hardware:


FabLab
Next week Friday I will return to ProtoSpace for a workshop on how to use the different machines that make up the FabLab there: a lasercutter, a milling machine, a vinyl cutter, and a full color 3D printer. All programmable of course. Already looking forward to it.

Lasercutting an apple during lunch:



3D printing examples lying around:



Technorati Tags: fablab, protospace, arduino, utrecht, legomindstorms, reboot10, shift08