Artificial Sight On View In London

 

A fascinating blend of science, technology and design

Mobile phones and computer games consoles now carry sophisticated position detectors, video cameras, face recognition and tracking software, you name it.

And researchers have been looking for new ways to exploit this in other fields like medicine.

[...]

Researchers at Oxford University are developing the “bionic glasses” to help partially-sighted people who have just a small area of vision, or whose vision is blurred or cloudy, or who can’t process detailed images, such as they can see that a hand is front of them but they can’t make out the fingers. A good example would be someone with age-related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy.

Dr Stephen Hicks of Oxford University’s Department of Clinical Neurology said in a media statement:

“We want to be able to enhance vision in those who’ve lost it or who have little left or almost none.”

“The glasses should allow people to be more independent – finding their own directions and signposts, and spotting warning signals,” he explained.

The glasses have video cameras at the corners and arrays of tiny lights embedded in the see-through lenses. The camera collects images and feeds them to a smartphone-type computer in the wearer’s pocket which has software that can locate objects or people, and track their position. A feedback mechanism drives the colours and intensities of the lights in the lenses in real time, so the wearer can “see” what is happening in their surroundings well enough to navigate around a room, and pick out relevant objects.

via Artificial Sight On View In London.

(image: Dr Stephen Hicks)

Wearabraille: wireless braille keyboard for iOS devices

This is a fantastic concept – a wireless braille keyboard for iOS and other mobile devices. Watch the demonstration – if you’ve never come across the iPhone’s built in “voice over” technology for the vision impaired it’s well worth checking out.

The first digital camera

Interview and portrait of the inventor of the first digital camera, Steven Sasson by David Friedman. Note the camera in the shot above.

When he initially mentioned that the first digital camera held 30 pictures, I assumed that was due to the storage capacity of the digital tape. It was really interesting to hear that he picked 30 as an artificial limitation, and his explanation why.

True story: in the 1990s I saw a digital camera (from Apple – the first commercial digital camera) at a digital reprographics studio in Leeds. We were their clients, on a visit at the start of our relationship. They’d borrowed the camera and were trying to figure out what they could use it for. We stood around for ages trying to think of something.

The only idea anyone could come up with was “security passes” for visitors to a factory. You could take 640 x 480 pixel images, but could only fit eight at a time. If that seems small (which it is by today’s standards) bear in mind that a typical computer monitor in those days only did 640 x 480 pixels. So it was full screen! But still not good enough for print, which requires a much higher resolution. I think these images would be about 3cm across in print.

You can read a review of the camera with some examples of its images (which though small are surprisingly good – I seem to remember them being quite dithered when I saw the thing for real)

My boss said digital cameras would never be useful. I have to say, I hoped he’d be proved wrong, but thought he might not be.

Watch the interview over at Inventor Portrait: Steven Sasson – David Friedman Photography: Blog.

The sound of Fabric

 

 

An interesting experiment – turning textiles into audio speakers:

Sometimes people ask me if there is a way to replace headphones with smart textiles, sound coming out of a hood or from the fabric around the shoulder areas, near the ears.What at first seems impossible is actually feasible with a bit of eTextile magic. Hannah, one of the most innovative personalities in the wearable technology space, published on her newly created Kit-of-no-Parts wearable tech website a possible way how to make sound with Fabric speakers.

 

 

Read the full story at The sound of Fabric

Two sites worth subscribing to if you’re interested in wearable technology are talk2myshirt and kit-of-no-parts.

3D printing: The printed world

The Economist (I told you it was worth looking at!) carried a great cover article on 3D printing last week, and you can read it in full on their website. Here’s a snippet:

FILTON, just outside Bristol, is where Britain’s fleet of Concorde supersonic airliners was built. In a building near a wind tunnel on the same sprawling site, something even more remarkable is being created. Little by little a machine is “printing” a complex titanium landing-gear bracket, about the size of a shoe, which normally would have to be laboriously hewn from a solid block of metal. Brackets are only the beginning. The researchers at Filton have a much bigger ambition: to print the entire wing of an airliner.

 

Far-fetched as this may seem, many other people are using three-dimensional printing technology to create similarly remarkable things. These include medical implants, jewellery, football boots designed for individual feet, lampshades, racing-car parts, solid-state batteries and customised mobile phones. Some are even making mechanical devices. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Peter Schmitt, a PhD student, has been printing something that resembles the workings of a grandfather clock. It took him a few attempts to get right, but eventually he removed the plastic clock from a 3D printer, hung it on the wall and pulled down the counterweight. It started ticking.

Read the rest at 3D printing: The printed world | The Economist.

Fashioning Technology by Syuzi Pakhchyan

Browsing Amazon on Christmas Day (as you do) to see what I could spend my vouchers on, up popped this book. Fashioning Technology: A DIY Intro to Smart Crafting, by Syuzi Pakhchyan.

The book presents a series of projects showing how to embed electronics in crafted objects, and assumes no technological knowledge on the reader’s part (though it does assume you know how to sew, solder, and generally craft stuff). It looks like something that might interest anyone thinking of embedding technology – motion sensors, LEDs, RFID chips, you name it – in to the things they make, and who wants an introduction to the basic techniques.

A reviewer on Amazon comments: “The first chapter covers the materials, electronic components and tools that you may come across. The materials section covers a range of smart and conductive materials, some of which will be fairly familiar to most DIY-ers and crafters but some will be distinctly new – up until reading this book I didn’t know you could get conductive Velcro!”

Actually, I didn’t know you could get conductive Velcro either, but it’s true – that opens up lots of possibilities (no pun intended).

Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

Ready to take your craft projects to the next level? With “smart” materials, unorthodox assembly techniques, and the right tools, you can create accessories, housewares, and toys that light up, make sounds, or do even more. Fashioning Technology is an introductory DIY book that brings technology and crafts together in a fun and unique way. You get jargon-free primers and lots of how-to projects that will have you making — and even wearing — functional works of art.

Written for a broad audience, this book demonstrates how to blend sewing and assembly techniques with traditional electronics to assemble simple circuits using conductive thread, solder joints for snaps, and switches for buttons. With the sewing machine as a viable substitute for the soldering iron, you can craft a new generation of objects that are interactive, quirky, and fashion-conscious.

Author Syuzi Pakhchyan, a seasoned artist, roboticist, and teacher, explains how to use smart materials such as thermo- and photochromatic inks that change color by touch or sunlight, magnetic and conductive paints, polymorph plastic, fiber optics, and more.

In Fashioning Technology, you’ll find:

• An invaluable reference section that breaks down the materials, components, and tools with clear, concise explanations and photos
• A wide range of projects, including electronic accessories, interactive plush toys, and color-changing blinds, all using diverse crafting techniques
• Techniques for seasoned crafters interested in incorporating simple electronics into their own projects
• Methods for makers proficient in electronics who are looking for unconventional ways to create novel projects

Each project encourages you to personalize and customize using your own designs, materials, and craft skills. Fashioning Technology translates traditional electronics into fun, fashionable interactive projects for the geek, fashionista, and the craft aficionado alike. Now you really can be the flashiest dresser in town.

Selling at £16.09 on Amazon today (25/12/10), or £22.99 in the shops, it might be worth a look. Click here to view on Amazon.

 

Wear I go and CatCams

This project, Wear I Go,  has been mentioned by a couple of people following Friday’s lecture. It’s an interesting idea relating to wearable technology that I think has lots of potential applications. It reminds me a bit of the CatCam (pictured below), something I’m rather tempted to get for my own cat as I have so many questions…

 

 

Here’s the creator of Wear I Go, Yves, explaining her project. I recommend taking a look at her other videos.

“Wear I Go” is a camera-wearable that introduces new perception into your everyday. You believe you knew where you live but this device will help you think again. As a font of inspiration, photographic experiment or just for the fun of it, Wear I Go will put your life in to a whole new perspective.

The initial device is a self-contained ring. When you buy this ring, you are automatically subscribed to a service that allows you to upload photos and videos as they are taken. On the ring itself, there is a built-in diamond like camera which you can use as just another camera and take pictures on demand. Or, you can also use it as a “second-eye” by setting it up to automatically take pictures at pre-defined intervals, and in this case your device will pleasantly surprise you by giving you unexpected angles and bringing a new light into known and new grounds.

By setting your ring to “public mode” when you and your friends are together, will also allow you to sync your photos to your friend’s online account, meaning pictures will be taken at the same time from the Wear I Go devices worn by different people, documenting “this moment” from a variety of view points.

The Wear I Go ring is only the starting point. You can expand your collection and bring newer angles by buying accessories, such as pendants, earrings or bracelets, which also have built-in cameras and are part of the full concept. In this case, your ring works not only as a self-standing device, but also as a “remote-control” to the other Wear I Go devices.

via Wear I go on Vimeo.

What do you think? Fancy having your every move and encounter saved for posterity? What potential uses do you think it might have? Social, medical, emergency? (A video camera on a ferret, sent down into collapsed buildings, perhaps?)

 

Jan Chipchase on the power of design

Jan Chipchase, executive creative director of global insights at Frog Design, speaking on the power and importance of design at the Activate 2010 conference.

More on the iPads in School project

I’ve referred to this project as Fraser Spiers’s project, conscious of the fact that it’s really everyone’s at the school. It’s just that he seems to be the lead for it, and is blogging about it. For a project like that to succeed it requires committment from everyone. DJCAD Jewellery student Dougie Kinnear was at a talk recently by a teacher from the school and reports that

The school only has 150 pupils and they have all been supplied with iPads. During the presentation the teacher demonstrated some of the ways she has been using the iPad to teach art related skills. She said that the pupils were engaging more with activities since the technology was introduced, one of the reasons she gave was that mistakes could be easily rectified and that gave the pupils the confidence to be more experimental.

The school itself, which now features the iPad in its advertising, has posted some of the reactions of their pupils on its own blog:

It makes homework and work in class more enjoyable. Jonathan

It’s pure awesome. It’s the size of a book but it can do a million things! Zander

Magical! It helps in all subjects especially art. It makes all of school more interesting. Beth

It makes homework much easier to do and so much easier to submit – you can do it all through email… it’s just very exciting! Chloe

Those are great early reactions (and the reactions of parents have been equally positive) but like I said yesterday, the proof of the pudding is in the cross-referencing and objective data collection (a little known proverb, admittedly). Some of the things the project has thrown up are limitations with the iPad itself that make full-scale implementation in education difficult – the lack of all-round screen mirroring being one (something that’s stopping me using it in class, in fact). Easily solved by Apple, I reckon, and such an obvious winner.

Hopefully the results live up to the expectations. Maybe we can get someone from the school in to DJCAD to give us a first-hand report.

The iPad Project: How It’s Going

Fraser Spiers’s Scottish iPad-in-schools experiment (not pictured above) continues apace, and he’s just blogged some of his thoughts so far.

What we’re reaching in some classes is the transformation stage. We’re seeing the iPad completely change the way that certain subjects are taught. Our best example so far is Art. I will write and share more about what we’re doing in Art over time but it’s fair to say that it is already far beyond anything I expected in the first year, let alone the first month.

At this point, all I can give you are some practical anecdotes which, I hope, will give you a flavour of the change.

• I picked up a ream of printer paper yesterday. It had dust on top of it.
• Primary 2 pupils have now memorised their passwords. That’s not something that happens when they get 40 minutes a week on computers.
• Last week, we couldn’t get the Primary 3 pupils to stop doing maths and go for lunch.
• My daughter April asked me if I could install the educational apps from school on my iPad so she could use them at home.
• We’re seeing a reduction in the amount of homework forgotten or not done.
• “Forgetting your folder” for a subject is now a thing of the past.

via Fraser Speirs – Blog – The iPad Project: How It’s Going.

I’m intrigued by how it’s affecting art education, and suspect it would give some of the more traditional educators in this area a coronory, but I’m more interested in design education or if, in fact, what the iPad is doing is integrating previously distinct areas of the curriculum.

For example, earlier today I read a tweet from a teacher who was wondering why no schools in the UK claimed to specialise in “creativity” – a fair point. But my response was that I’d hope creativity would be part of the fabric of the place. Creativity isn’t a subject in its own right, and it certainly doesn’t belong solely in “art”. Instead it is the lifeblood of every subject from science to maths, from languages to music, from – well you get the idea. Why creativity is seen as something “separate” is, I suspect, one of the reasons why we’re not especially good at teaching it.

So take technology. When I was at school, technology was a subject in its own right, confusingly split in to “craft, design and technology” (or learning how not to cut your hand off with a bandsaw, as it really was) and “computer studies”, a subject so new in the 1980s we were still being taught about punched cards while loading programs from floppy disks – the curriculum had not only failed to catch up with reality, it probably never would. But what technology never did was encroach into other subjects. Oh dear no. Even calculators were still viewed with suspicion in maths where until a few years previously slide rules and log tables were about as exciting as it got.

In Fraser Speirs’s “experiment” (I hesitate to use the word as it suggests it’s something risky, temporary or bad) it’s clear just from the  impressions above that the kids aren’t being taught “how to use technology” or even “taught using technology” but simply being taught. And actually, not so much being taught as “learning” – there is a difference.

Forcing them to put their maths down and go to lunch is a great story. But is it because they’re enjoying the maths, or is it because they’re enjoying the iPads? And does it matter? I hope someone’s doing a study of this process otherwise people are going to jump to all sorts of conclusions, but in the meantime what I think is interesting from a design point of view is that this is the implementation of technology as part of an action research project, i.e. “give them iPads, see what happens. If something goes wrong, adapt. Carry on”. That’s “design thinking” in action.

Having worked with technology in industry and education now for twenty years, and been frustrated by the (to my mind) overly cautious implementation of new products and approaches (which usually boils down to “IT say they’ve not approved that for general use”) this is refreshing. But at some point the powers that be will need to see the reports, the data, the graphs and so on to spread this further. I’d love to see them myself because I bet they’re interesting.

So what do you think? Take a look at Fraser’s blog and give us your responses.