We have started to develop some ideas for the stencil of the rocks. At this time we are producing some vector diagrams of the rocks, we are going to look at going for a very straight edged diagram of the rocks rather than having curves in it.

This is the first prototype for our project.

The car is being controlled using the left and right arrow keys on the computer keyboard. The computer sends the input to the Arduino. The Arduino is used to alter the current on the breadboard which is connect to the R/C controller.
The breadboard consists of two 5V Relays, when activated they act as switch, letting current through and stopping it. When current is let though it is sent to the R/C controller onto its appropriate switch. (Later we will test using Transistors rather than Relays)

The software code that is used for this project was written by JBProjects and comes with its own Java interface.

Background

I really want to use the chance to do something with physical computing before I leave uni. Once uni is finished it is hard to say when I would ever get the opportunity to use physical computing again. Multiplicities and using multiple screen didn’t seem that appealing to me and it felt very unoriginal.
Speaking to other members of the DECO class I found a few different people who were keen to do something with physical computing and in particular robotics. Myself and Ben did some research into how to use robotics and think it would be possible to develop a small robot.

Concept / Ideation

The idea for this concept came during the presentation by Deb(?) about the final year exhibition. Andy Dong explained that the exhibition going to be off campus this year because in previous years the B.Design Computing works were often overshadowed by Architecture works. Often the wrong audience were attending the shows, which meant the artworks lost their value (a person coming to look at architecture doesn’t usually have the same strong interest in computing). With this in mind our concept is:

The audience give the artwork meaning, without them the artwork has no purpose.

With this in mind we would like to develop a small autonomous robot that will fall in love with audience members and follow them around the exhibition for a short period of time and express its love to them. This idea we think is quite ambitious, due to our limited knowledge of the material we are using. We decided to split the concept into various goals (which we are still developing) so our first goal would be to create a small robot that can move, the second would be to automate the robot and etc…

Technology

The robot would be made using various materials and an Arduino to help operated.

Once we have a robot developed we were hoping to use either a webcam or a Kinect to allow the robot to follow specific objects around. Again we have very little knowledge in this area so it will be a bit ambitious to get the robot working autonomously.

Produce a prototype artwork based on the theme of “media multiplicities”

Ideation and Development

Our first idea for the multiplicities art worked looked at creating a juxtaposition between two mediums, one being film and the other book. The idea was to create a short clip with Disney characters reading an extract from the book 50 Shades Of Grey. This would create a very unconformable yet comedic setting of multiplicities, where the merging of many different Disney clips to read the extract would be the multiplicity. This idea wasn’t used because we thought it would be quite difficult to get the Disney characters to say the words we needed for the extract and we also felt we could do more with the theme of multiplicities.

Rather then just using one screen we decided it would be more inline with the theme to use multiple screens to create the artwork. Our second idea looked at how the public has become desensitized because of reality TV. To achieve this we originally hoped to use insults from only Reality TV shows, but we thought it would be to time consuming and repetitive doing this. So we expanded to finding insults from any type of film media. The work would start out with insults coming from the front screen and they would slowly spread to the other machines. After a period of time the audience member would be receiving insults from all  monitors (we planned to have 5 wrapped in a semi-cirlce). Our concept developed further to include more then just insults (however we didn’t include this in our prototype). We wanted to look at the idea of multiplicities and emotions, to achieve this we planned to demonstrate how different emotions flow into each other. So rather than just insulting someone we would try and find another emotion close to how a person would feel when they are being insulted and play off it.

Prototype

Everyone got clips from multiple sources (mainly YouTube), edited them and put them into a shared Dropbox.

Ro developed the website prototype using web sockets and by altering the YouTube API.

What impact will physical computing technology have on “the sharing economy”, and in general on sharing and ownership? 

Physical computing has the potential to revolutionise how we share both information and property. It will also change the way in which Governments and largecompanies vi ownership by leading with new examples of sharing. Physical computing has allowed the sharing economy to push beyond just the sharing of digital media and online information to physical property.

Physical computing includes areas such as NFC, GPS tagging and sensors. In recent years we have seen increasing availability of these technology to consumer mainly through mobile technology. The iPhone made GPS simple to use and allowed for social interactions through the help of 3G and wireless technology. Apps such as Foursquare have simplified the use of these features and delivered to consumers.

RFID changed the London and Hong Kong transit industries through the development of the Oyster Card and the Octopus Card, respectively. The contactless smartcards streamlined the transit industries ticketing systems and made it easier for commuters to use the systems. With NFC become available more widely in phones from developers such as Google (Google Nexus S) there is great potential for NFC to revolutionise the way people make payments as well as introduce new security features.

The sharing economy developed strongly thanks to social media and the internet. Peer to Peer sharing has revolutionised the way ownership is viewed and how digital media is shared over the internet. Governments and companies have struggled to deal with issues that surround the ownership of media online. The development of the sharing company thanks to physical computing might help change the way that not only individuals view ownership but also companies and Governments.

The Sharing Economy has been able to develop into the physical world through previous technologies such as ticketing machines. With new physical computing technologies becoming more available to consumer through mobile phones and other mobile technology, there will be a shift to newer streamlined devices. It means that terminals will become obsolete in the sharing processes. This not only dramatically reduces cost from maintenance, design and vandalism, but also makes sharing easier and more secures.

An example of how physical computing could potentially impact the current sharing economy is through the Velib bicycle sharing scheme in Paris. Currently customers must use the terminals provided to them, if the terminal is out of order or has been vandalised it means that customers aren’t able to use the bikes. Other issues such as language and how to use the machines may also impact not only the current customers but others waiting to use the terminals.
Physical computing such as NFC embedded in phones can eliminate the need for such terminals and replace it with a new more streamlined and safe way to use the bikes. A free WiFi zone around the bikes could be set up to allow customers to make an account online and download any necessary apps, which could then be used to unlock the bikes. Most phones that currently have NFC enabled with in them also have GPS, this means that customers could be tracked with the bikes and prevent any theft or other unsupported activities.

Perhaps NFC could even change the way the car sharing companies work. Companies such as GoGet have allowed car sharing to work. Rather than people requiring a key or swipe cards to unlock the car, devices such as mobile phones could allow users to unlock devices. Ford recently produced an App that allowed users to walk up to a computer and automatically be logged in to the Facebook and other set-up accounts (via Bluetooth). This app is an example of how physical computing can allow for not just secure sharing of computing but also impact the sharing of cars.

Physical Computing will have a dramatic affect on streamlining and promoting the sharing economy in the future. As the sharing economy develops thanks to the availability of physical computing we see a shift in how communities view the ownership of not only online media but also through physical objects. The sharing economy has potential to reduce the wasteful societies we live in.