BLA [Be Like Ants]
The Ant [ring with ant image, LED brightness meter]
the ant image daily resets to emitting no light, so it looks"invisible" until your daily environmental impact starts accruing. Then it will start to grow stronger throughout the day- making the ant more of a noticeable species- analogous to the burdening presence of the human species as we continue to have a negative impact on the environment.
The Colony
Friday, May 30, 2008
Technology
Internet
- Main website with online profile, provides access and allows manual data input
- Facebook Application linked to website, shared database, provides access and allows manual data input
- Mobile devices, provides access and allows manual data input
- Wireless internet access required for use with the RFID technology for automatic data collection
RFID [Radio Frequency ID] - appeals for personal/home use only
- User's ring (unisex), serves as the reader, and data storage, then communicates via any wireless router device with the online database
- The portable device (ring) will be designed to be connect via wireless LAN 802.11b to any wireless enabled PDA or PC.
- 900MHz
- reading range - 6 - 300cm
- writing range - 30 - 60cm
- - optical LED (light ranging from invisible to white =active, green=reading)
- mountable passive RFID tags (stickable) - provides visual access (LED meter) and allows automatic data input
- ring antenna frequency will be set to read tags from a 0-4in distance/ LowFID
- polymer tags will be roll-printable, like a magazine, and much less expensive than silicon-based tags
- tag inlays include both the RFID chip and antenna mounted on a substrate. The adhesive inlay format simply adds a pressure-sensitive adhesive to the back of the inlay.
- Operating frequency: 915 MHz (902-928 MHz)
- Read Range: up to 5 meters • Write Range: up to 3 meters
- Simultaneous Identification of Tags: Up to 1000 tags per second
- Tag Power: RF Beam Powered (Passive)
- reading duration: The RFID tag of claim 26, wherein the response enable module is configured to enable a response to the read signal if the measured duration of time is greater than a stored threshold time value. WIPO source
Barcoding software
Microsoft® Windows Mobile 2003 models:
omnidirectional 1D and 2D imaging
Microsoft® Windows CE.NET 4.2 models:
omnidirectional 1D scanning
- Main website with online profile, provides access and allows manual data input
- Facebook Application linked to website, shared database, provides access and allows manual data input
- Mobile devices, provides access and allows manual data input
- Wireless internet access required for use with the RFID technology for automatic data collection
RFID [Radio Frequency ID] - appeals for personal/home use only
- User's ring (unisex), serves as the reader, and data storage, then communicates via any wireless router device with the online database
- The portable device (ring) will be designed to be connect via wireless LAN 802.11b to any wireless enabled PDA or PC.
- 900MHz
- reading range - 6 - 300cm
- writing range - 30 - 60cm
- - optical LED (light ranging from invisible to white =active, green=reading)
- mountable passive RFID tags (stickable) - provides visual access (LED meter) and allows automatic data input
- ring antenna frequency will be set to read tags from a 0-4in distance/ LowFID
- polymer tags will be roll-printable, like a magazine, and much less expensive than silicon-based tags
- tag inlays include both the RFID chip and antenna mounted on a substrate. The adhesive inlay format simply adds a pressure-sensitive adhesive to the back of the inlay.
- Operating frequency: 915 MHz (902-928 MHz)
- Read Range: up to 5 meters • Write Range: up to 3 meters
- Simultaneous Identification of Tags: Up to 1000 tags per second
- Tag Power: RF Beam Powered (Passive)
- reading duration: The RFID tag of claim 26, wherein the response enable module is configured to enable a response to the read signal if the measured duration of time is greater than a stored threshold time value. WIPO source
Barcoding software
Microsoft® Windows Mobile 2003 models:
omnidirectional 1D and 2D imaging
Microsoft® Windows CE.NET 4.2 models:
omnidirectional 1D scanning
Friday, May 9, 2008
N(Qu)otes
Cradle to Cradle By William McDonough & Michael Braungart
p. 16 Human industry has been in full swing for little over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do.
p. 27 Think about it: you may be referred to as the consumer, but there is very little that you actually consume- some food, some liquids. Everything else is designed for you to throw away when you are finished with it.
p. 37 Loss of resources, cultural depletion, negative social and environmental effects, reduction of quality of life- these ills can all be taking place, an entire region can be in decline, yet they are all negated by a simplistic economic figure that says economic life is good.
p. 50 This devouring impulse in Western culture is comparable, they maintain, to a drug or alcohol addiction: "Recycling is an aspirin, alleviating a rather large collective hangover...overconsumption." "The best way to reduce any environmental impact is not to recycle more, but to produce and dispose of less." - Robert Lilienfeld and William Rathje's Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are.
p. 59 Just because a material is recycled does not automatically make it ecologically benign, especially if it was not designed specifically for recycling. Blindly adopting superficial environmental approaches without fully understanding their effects can be no better- and perhaps even worse- than doing nothing.
p. 65 Efficient destruction is harder to detect and thus harder to stop.
p. 66 Humans are condemned as the one species on the planet guilty of burdening it beyond what it can withstand; as such, we must shrink our presence, our systems, our activities, and even our population so as to become almost invisible.
p. 67 But to be less bad is to accept things as they are, to believe that poorly designed, dishonorable, destructive systems are the best humans can do. This is the ultimate failure of the "be less bad" approach: a failure of imagination... What would it mean to be 100 percent good?
p. 78 Thus the "right things" for manufacturers and industrialists to do are those that lead to good growth- more niches, health, nourishment, diversity, intelligence, and abundance- for this generation of inhabitants on the planet and for generations to come.
p. 79 Individually we are much larger than ants, but collectively their biomass exceeds ours. Just as there is almost no corner of the globe untouched by human presence, there is almost no land habitat, from harsh desert to inner city, untouched by some species of ant. They are a good example of a population whose density and productiveness are not a problem for the rest of the world, because everything they make and use returns to the cradle-to-cradle cycles of nature... [they supply nutrients, recycle, aerate the soil, etc]...But although they may run the world, they do not overrun it...they make the world a better place.
p. 127 In planetary terms, we're all downstream.
p. 152 Does waste equal food? Are we using current solar income? Are we sustaining not only our own species but all species?
Shaping Things By Bruce Serling
p. 22 Designers must design, not just for objects or for people, but for the technolsocial interactions that unite people and objects: designing for opportunity costs and cognitive load.
p. 23 We interact with infrastructure differently in a world with representative design. In particular, with enough informational power, the "invisible hand of the market" becomes visible. The hand of the market was called "invisible" because Adam Smith, and 18th century economist, had very few ways to measure it. Adam Smith lacked metrics. Metrics make things visible.
p. 38 All around us we see obsolescence - but our ideas about obsolescence are not supposed to obsolesce.
p. 47 Generating new knowledge is very good, but in a world with superb archives, accessing knowledge that you didn't know you possessed is both faster and more reliable than discovering it.
p. 50 Then there are sensors, which do not merely measure qualities, but measure changes.
p. 58 Humans have always failed to deal with our trash as we made it. The role of trash is therefore exalted over the longer term. Civilizations collapse, but their ruins are a byword. Trash is always our premier cultural export to the future.
p. 16 Human industry has been in full swing for little over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do.
p. 27 Think about it: you may be referred to as the consumer, but there is very little that you actually consume- some food, some liquids. Everything else is designed for you to throw away when you are finished with it.
p. 37 Loss of resources, cultural depletion, negative social and environmental effects, reduction of quality of life- these ills can all be taking place, an entire region can be in decline, yet they are all negated by a simplistic economic figure that says economic life is good.
p. 50 This devouring impulse in Western culture is comparable, they maintain, to a drug or alcohol addiction: "Recycling is an aspirin, alleviating a rather large collective hangover...overconsumption." "The best way to reduce any environmental impact is not to recycle more, but to produce and dispose of less." - Robert Lilienfeld and William Rathje's Use Less Stuff: Environmental Solutions for Who We Really Are.
p. 59 Just because a material is recycled does not automatically make it ecologically benign, especially if it was not designed specifically for recycling. Blindly adopting superficial environmental approaches without fully understanding their effects can be no better- and perhaps even worse- than doing nothing.
p. 65 Efficient destruction is harder to detect and thus harder to stop.
p. 66 Humans are condemned as the one species on the planet guilty of burdening it beyond what it can withstand; as such, we must shrink our presence, our systems, our activities, and even our population so as to become almost invisible.
p. 67 But to be less bad is to accept things as they are, to believe that poorly designed, dishonorable, destructive systems are the best humans can do. This is the ultimate failure of the "be less bad" approach: a failure of imagination... What would it mean to be 100 percent good?
p. 78 Thus the "right things" for manufacturers and industrialists to do are those that lead to good growth- more niches, health, nourishment, diversity, intelligence, and abundance- for this generation of inhabitants on the planet and for generations to come.
p. 79 Individually we are much larger than ants, but collectively their biomass exceeds ours. Just as there is almost no corner of the globe untouched by human presence, there is almost no land habitat, from harsh desert to inner city, untouched by some species of ant. They are a good example of a population whose density and productiveness are not a problem for the rest of the world, because everything they make and use returns to the cradle-to-cradle cycles of nature... [they supply nutrients, recycle, aerate the soil, etc]...But although they may run the world, they do not overrun it...they make the world a better place.
p. 127 In planetary terms, we're all downstream.
p. 152 Does waste equal food? Are we using current solar income? Are we sustaining not only our own species but all species?
Shaping Things By Bruce Serling
p. 22 Designers must design, not just for objects or for people, but for the technolsocial interactions that unite people and objects: designing for opportunity costs and cognitive load.
p. 23 We interact with infrastructure differently in a world with representative design. In particular, with enough informational power, the "invisible hand of the market" becomes visible. The hand of the market was called "invisible" because Adam Smith, and 18th century economist, had very few ways to measure it. Adam Smith lacked metrics. Metrics make things visible.
p. 38 All around us we see obsolescence - but our ideas about obsolescence are not supposed to obsolesce.
p. 47 Generating new knowledge is very good, but in a world with superb archives, accessing knowledge that you didn't know you possessed is both faster and more reliable than discovering it.
p. 50 Then there are sensors, which do not merely measure qualities, but measure changes.
p. 58 Humans have always failed to deal with our trash as we made it. The role of trash is therefore exalted over the longer term. Civilizations collapse, but their ruins are a byword. Trash is always our premier cultural export to the future.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Schedule
Spring 2008
Week of 5/5
Read/Research books
Formulate specs on technology
Week of 5/12
Read/Research books
MEET: present and finalize specs on technology
Week of 5/19
Outline content mapping for interface
Sketch web interface and handheld adaptability
Week of 5/26
MEET: Present content map and interface
Finalize content map
Week of 6/2
Work on prototype
Week of 6/9
MEET: Present prototype
Week of 6/16
Revise prototype
Week of 6/23
MEET: Submit Final Work
Week of 5/5
Read/Research books
Formulate specs on technology
Week of 5/12
Read/Research books
MEET: present and finalize specs on technology
Week of 5/19
Outline content mapping for interface
Sketch web interface and handheld adaptability
Week of 5/26
MEET: Present content map and interface
Finalize content map
Week of 6/2
Work on prototype
Week of 6/9
MEET: Present prototype
Week of 6/16
Revise prototype
Week of 6/23
MEET: Submit Final Work
Bibliography
Books I just bought
Shaping Things (Mediaworks Pamphlets)
Bruce Sterling, Lorraine Wild
In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World
John Thackara
Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next 50 Years
Bruce Sterling
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
Alex Steffen
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
William McDonough, Michael Braungart
Bruce Mau
It's Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living (Paperback)
by Crissy Trask
Links
http://designcanchange.org/
http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/index.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/energy_meters_uk.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6550361.stm
http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/
http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/notables.asp
http://enerjar.net/http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/
http://eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=exhibitions
http://ross.gatech.edu/research.php
http://www.tiltool.com/Power_Eco_Pods.htm
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2005/11/erez-kikin-gils.php
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/
http://pm-air.net/dataVis/full.php
http://stamen.com/
http://en.oreilly.com/et2008/public/schedule/detail/1585
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/home
http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/superfund/index.php
http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2008/video-stream/
http://www.designinggesturalinterfaces.com/posts/welcome-to-designing-gestural-interfaces/
Video
Design and the Elastic Mind Interview with MoMA Curator (2008)
Design e2 (2006)
The 11th Hour (2007)
The Human Footprint (2007)
Thesis
Maureen Ton | Master of Professional Studies in Digital Media | Spring 2008
The Evolution of Information and Our Natural Habitat
The mode of tracking and building data is a modern technology often utilized most in times of mass information propagation. Such macro level information can serve as a powerful vehicle for environmental and social changes. However, these changes start on a micro level, one person at a time. Information evolution has consistently shown the advantages of compiling data on a micro level. Utilizing modern technological tools, micro sources of data are much more obtainable and can start on a much smaller scale than ever before. Therefore, macro data benefits by being more reliable and conclusive. Such precision is necessary to invoke important social and environmental improvements. On the other hand, the evolution of the environment has taken a more disintegrative path. Waste, over-consumption, rapid depletion of natural resources, and lack of human-environmental sustainability has created a downward spiral that will require such great changes possible only via micro changes that add up to macro progress. By introducing the power of tracking information on a personal level, the motivation to alleviate our current negative impact on the environment and its resources would become tangible. Positive personal change on a micro level can therefore create positive changes to the natural evolution of the world on a macro level if the information is harnessed and disseminated accurately.
My proposal to illustrate such a process involves tracking personal behavior and choices made on a daily basis. Utilizing current sensor technology, such as the automated paper towel dispensers in public restrooms, it is feasible to track the usage of the most common household activities, many of which need to be altered to a less destructive degree. Such actions, as the amount of time faucets are turned on in one’s home, paired with calculations and averages of how much a little more reduction can have an impact not only financially, but also by the extent of environmental preservation the sparing usage can incur. Another use of sensors can be the weight of trash, rate of accrual, frequency, and possibly the amount of recyclable materials that have been put in the trash, by means of RFID technology already used in supermarkets. Personal profiles can also be compared to the average of all data assessed, and produce calculations on the “group” impact as a whole, with goal-oriented comparative statistics. To organize the tracked data, each sensor would have unique IDs that send the time-based or counter-style data to the online interface via the home’s wireless router. The user interface would then allow the owner to name and categorize each device, such as Bathroom 2 faucet, set under the pre-set category of “Water Usage”, which is then pooled into the parent database holding all the cumulative data of all profiles’ “Water Usage”. Moreover, there would be non-exploitative use of profile data for the purpose of data mapping, such as how many people live in this household, the zip code of where this data is coming from, the ages of the people in the household, and so forth. There would also be the ability to name and organize sensors under personalized or miscellaneous categories for more creative or unforeseen uses, such as the amount one specific household uses solar powered energy and also how much they contribute back into the grid. The online interface, easily accessible to the percentage of the world population with computers and Internet, would allow for global access to one’s account, and also the ability to send and receive information through personal wireless device connectivity. The use of mobile sensors paired with a mobile device interface furthermore represents a portal of tracking when outside the home, driving or commuting, and at work.
In conclusion, these sensor kits available to individual households would allow for better comprehension of the ways individuals can make a difference on both a micro and a macro level. For the purpose of revealing the benefits and human interaction of such a tool, I propose to design the functionality and information architecture of such an online interface. I would also research and design the schematics necessary to produce such sensor devices and how they would communicate and send data to the parent and users’ databases.
Shaping Things (Mediaworks Pamphlets)
Bruce Sterling, Lorraine Wild
In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World
John Thackara
Tomorrow Now: Envisioning the Next 50 Years
Bruce Sterling
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
Alex Steffen
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
William McDonough, Michael Braungart
Bruce Mau
It's Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living (Paperback)
by Crissy Trask
Links
http://designcanchange.org/
http://www.ambientdevices.com/cat/index.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/energy_meters_uk.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6550361.stm
http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/
http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/notables.asp
http://enerjar.net/http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/
http://eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=exhibitions
http://ross.gatech.edu/research.php
http://www.tiltool.com/Power_Eco_Pods.htm
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2005/11/erez-kikin-gils.php
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/
http://pm-air.net/dataVis/full.php
http://stamen.com/
http://en.oreilly.com/et2008/public/schedule/detail/1585
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/home
http://transition.turbulence.org/Works/superfund/index.php
http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2008/video-stream/
http://www.designinggesturalinterfaces.com/posts/welcome-to-designing-gestural-interfaces/
Video
Design and the Elastic Mind Interview with MoMA Curator (2008)
Design e2 (2006)
The 11th Hour (2007)
The Human Footprint (2007)
Thesis
Maureen Ton | Master of Professional Studies in Digital Media | Spring 2008
The Evolution of Information and Our Natural Habitat
The mode of tracking and building data is a modern technology often utilized most in times of mass information propagation. Such macro level information can serve as a powerful vehicle for environmental and social changes. However, these changes start on a micro level, one person at a time. Information evolution has consistently shown the advantages of compiling data on a micro level. Utilizing modern technological tools, micro sources of data are much more obtainable and can start on a much smaller scale than ever before. Therefore, macro data benefits by being more reliable and conclusive. Such precision is necessary to invoke important social and environmental improvements. On the other hand, the evolution of the environment has taken a more disintegrative path. Waste, over-consumption, rapid depletion of natural resources, and lack of human-environmental sustainability has created a downward spiral that will require such great changes possible only via micro changes that add up to macro progress. By introducing the power of tracking information on a personal level, the motivation to alleviate our current negative impact on the environment and its resources would become tangible. Positive personal change on a micro level can therefore create positive changes to the natural evolution of the world on a macro level if the information is harnessed and disseminated accurately.
My proposal to illustrate such a process involves tracking personal behavior and choices made on a daily basis. Utilizing current sensor technology, such as the automated paper towel dispensers in public restrooms, it is feasible to track the usage of the most common household activities, many of which need to be altered to a less destructive degree. Such actions, as the amount of time faucets are turned on in one’s home, paired with calculations and averages of how much a little more reduction can have an impact not only financially, but also by the extent of environmental preservation the sparing usage can incur. Another use of sensors can be the weight of trash, rate of accrual, frequency, and possibly the amount of recyclable materials that have been put in the trash, by means of RFID technology already used in supermarkets. Personal profiles can also be compared to the average of all data assessed, and produce calculations on the “group” impact as a whole, with goal-oriented comparative statistics. To organize the tracked data, each sensor would have unique IDs that send the time-based or counter-style data to the online interface via the home’s wireless router. The user interface would then allow the owner to name and categorize each device, such as Bathroom 2 faucet, set under the pre-set category of “Water Usage”, which is then pooled into the parent database holding all the cumulative data of all profiles’ “Water Usage”. Moreover, there would be non-exploitative use of profile data for the purpose of data mapping, such as how many people live in this household, the zip code of where this data is coming from, the ages of the people in the household, and so forth. There would also be the ability to name and organize sensors under personalized or miscellaneous categories for more creative or unforeseen uses, such as the amount one specific household uses solar powered energy and also how much they contribute back into the grid. The online interface, easily accessible to the percentage of the world population with computers and Internet, would allow for global access to one’s account, and also the ability to send and receive information through personal wireless device connectivity. The use of mobile sensors paired with a mobile device interface furthermore represents a portal of tracking when outside the home, driving or commuting, and at work.
In conclusion, these sensor kits available to individual households would allow for better comprehension of the ways individuals can make a difference on both a micro and a macro level. For the purpose of revealing the benefits and human interaction of such a tool, I propose to design the functionality and information architecture of such an online interface. I would also research and design the schematics necessary to produce such sensor devices and how they would communicate and send data to the parent and users’ databases.
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