Posts tagged Arduino

Aca-article: Democratizing Production through Open Source Knowledge: From Open Software to Open Hardware

The commercial success of open source software, along with a broader socio-cultural shift towards participation in media and cultural production, have inspired attempts to extend and expand open source practices. This article provides a critical perspective on the democratic potential of these broader ‘open’ contribution structures by examining how open source contributions to both software and hardware increase the opportunities for democratic participation in production, governance and knowledge exchange.

Author: Alison Powell, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Media and Communications

Published in: Media, Culture and Society

Open access: http://www.alisonpowell.ca/wp-content/2008/11/Powell-Open-Source-Knowledge_revision1.pdf

ABSTRACT - The commercial success of open source software, along with a broader socio-cultural shift towards participation in media and cultural production, have inspired attempts to extend and expand open source practices. These include expansions from software into general culture through ‘Free Culture’ movements and, more recently, expansions from software into hardware and design. This article provides a critical perspective on the democratic potential of these broader ‘open’ contribution structures by examining how open source contributions to both software and hardware increase the opportunities for democratic participation in production, governance and knowledge exchange. By analysing attempts to ‘open source’ the sharing of hardware designs, it also notes the limitations of this democratization. The insights developed in the article nuance the relationship between open source cultures and commercial and market structures, identifying how the generative opportunities created by certain aspects of open source contribution structures increase the potential for democratizing production of communication tools, but also how incongruities across different open-source cultures and communities of practice limit the democratic potential of these processes.

Masters thesis: Opening oportunities on outdated electronics

The disposal of electronic waste is becoming one of the growing problems that the planet is facing. This waste is perceived as useless by our society, and this project aims to challenge that idea by looking at sustainable ways of manipulating electronics.

Authors: Oko Mambo-Matala, Ngatye-Brian, Umeå University

Fulltext available here: http://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:540139

ABSTRACT - The disposal of electronic waste is becoming one of the growing problems that the planet is facing. Tons of electronic waste is dumped illegally to 3rd world countries. Consequently the local people in those countries are exposed to levels of toxicity that could cause them serious diseases as well as the degradation on the natural ecosystems. The electronic waste is perceived as useless by our society, and this project aims to challenge that idea by looking at sustainable ways of manipulating electronics.

Aca-article; Thingies for Dummies - A smart home infrastructure for the rest of us

In this paper, the authors introduce an infrastructure that enables end-users to bring simple smart home devices into their homes and install them. The infrastructure makes use of equipment already present in many homes – Wi-Fi networks and smartphones – and is based on common web technologies.

Authors: David Thomas, Egil Hansen, both IT University of Copenhagen

Published in: undisclosed.

ABSTRACT- A number of smart home infrastructures and technologies exist. However, these are not commonly adopted by homeowners as they are often too expensive, complex and difficult to retrofit in existing homes. We introduce an infrastructure that enables end-users to bring simple smart home devices into their homes and install them. Our infrastructure makes use of equipment already present in many homes – Wi-Fi networks and smartphones – and is based on common web technologies. We include a bootstrapping process to connect UI-less devices to Wi-Fi networks, and an approach to generate user interfaces for these devices. We have evaluated our designed infrastructure via a user test of an implemented prototype, and our evaluation participants found the prototype easy to install and use overall.

Access paper, open access: https://blog.itu.dk/SPCL-F2012/files/2012/06/5thingiesfordummies.pdf

Tiree Tech Wave: A hands-on making and meeting event exploring the edges of technology on the wild edge of Scotland (March 22-26)

Activities at past Tiree Tech Waves have ranged from mechanical digital chips to digitally augmented fish and chips, from theatrical improvisation in design to improvised assistive technology. Come to take time to explore ideas that keep being put on the backburner, to be stimulated by others, or simply to be intellectually refreshed.

22-26 March. 2012, Isle of Tiree, Scotland, UK (early bird registration 20th Feb)

Yes, the third Tiree Tech Wave (TTW) is coming soon. The Atlantic fringe was the haven of scholarship through the Dark Ages and is the haunt of wind-surfers today. The Tech Wave tries to capture a little of the spirit of each; from mashups to breadboards, Arduino to RDF, we will consider the social and philosophical challenges of technology by engaging directly with it.

Activities at past TTW have ranged from mechanical digital chips to digitally augmented fish and chips, from theatrical improvisation in design to improvised assistive technology. Come to take time to explore ideas that keep being put on the backburner, to be stimulated by others, or simply to be intellectually refreshed.

Organisers: Alan Dix, Talis and Lancaster University; Graham Dean, Highwire, Lancaster University

For more information http://tireetechwave.org/

Aca-article: Co-creating the Internet of Things - First experiences in the participatory design of Intelligent Products with Arduino

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion about the co-creation of Intelligent Products in the emerging paradigm of the “Internet of Things”. The direct involvement of human actors such as designers, manufacturers, end-users, and recycling operators into the design process of Intelligent Products is a powerful means to ensure a high degree of the fulfilment of requirements towards functionality, ergonomics, sustainability and other factors which directly affect the acceptance of Intelligent Products. This paper discusses the potential of applying the Arduino Platform as a low-cost, easy-to-use micro-controller and sensor kit to facilitate co-creation Use cases illustrating first experiences with the Arduino platform in the co-creation of Intelligent Products are presented. A critical appraisal of the approach and an outlook towards future work in the area concludes the paper.

By: Hribernik, Karl A.; Ghrairi, Zied; Hans, Carl; Thoben, Klaus-Dieter; BIBA - Bremer Institut für Produktion und Logistik GmbH, Hochschulring 20, 28359 Bremen, Germany

This paper appears in: Concurrent Enterprising (ICE), 2011. Access the paper here, toll-access.

New Book: Arduino Robotics

This book was written for anyone interested in learning more about the Arduino and robotics in general. Though some projects are geared toward college students and adults, several chapters cover robotics projects suitable for middle-school to high-school students.

by John-David Warren, Josh Adams and Harald Molle

The Arduino microcontroller is like a little command center that is awaiting your orders. With a few lines of code, you can make your Arduino turn a light on or off, read a sensor value and display it on your computer screen, or even use it to build a homemade circuit to repair a broken kitchen appliance. Because of the versatility of the Arduino and the massive support available from the online community of Arduino users, it has attracted a new breed of electronics hobbyists who have never before touched a microcontroller, let alone programmed one.

Access the book on Google Books.

Aca-article: Interactions you Already Know - Smart Artifacts

Access the article here, will set you back USD 5 for a digital version. I couldn’t find a self-archived version of it. Article published in Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal.

Abstract

Research into human-computer interaction is on-going all over the world and is increasingly important as computers become further entrenched in our everyday experiences. Will the news soon be recited by our coffee makers, and our t-shirt be able to act as a GPS to guide us to our destinations? What are the basic needs and wants of users and how can we design smart artifacts that will better address these needs and in so doing, create intuitive interactions between humans and computers?

I propose that the most effective way to approach this problem is to examine the problems’ essential parts in an attempt to create new and better solutions. As a result of recent innovations in open source software and hardware such as the Arduino micro-controller and an array of input and output devices, it is possible for a design researcher to make use of these small computers to create and test interactions. This paper will examine the development of interactive solutions from the ground up, from the creation of a multi-disciplinary interactives class that introduced students to this technology for the first time to the design and creation of artifacts that communicate with humans using natural, intuitive means.

Aca-article: Virtual Sensors - Rapid Prototyping of Ubiquitous Interaction with a Mobile Phone and a Kinect

By Lauren Norrie and Roderick Murray-Smith, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow.

Access full article on here, open access.

ABSTRACT

The Microsoft Kinect sensor can be combined with a modern mobile phone to rapidly create digitally augmented environments. This can be used either directly as a form of ubiquitous computing environment or indirectly as framework for rapidly prototyping ubicomp environments that are otherwise implemented using conventional sensors.

We describe an Android mobile application that supports rapid prototyping of spacial interaction by using 3D position data from the Kinect to simulate a proximity sensor. This allows a developer, or end user, to easily associate content or services on the device with surfaces or regions of a room. The accuracy of the hotspot marking was tested in an experiment where users selected points marked on a whiteboard using a mobile phone. The distribution of the sample points were analysed and showed that the bulk of the selections were within about 13cm of the target and the distributions were characteristically skewed depending on whether the user came to the target from the left or right. This range is sufficient for prototyping many common ubicomp scenarios based on proximity in a room.

To illustrate this approach, we describe the design of a novel mobile application that associates a virtual book library with a region of a room, integrating the additional sensors and actuators of a smartphone with the position sensing of the Kinect. We highlight limitations of this approach and suggest areas for future work.

MobileHCI 2011, Aug 30-Sept 2, 2011, Stockholm, Sweden