todbot blog » ubicomp

NFC & RFID on Android, my Where2.0 2011 talk

todbot — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 17:38:52 +0000

I was invited to be a speaker at O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference. It’s a conference mostly about mapping technologies, location-based services, and interesting new location-aware mobile apps.

I spoke about RFID and NFC, in the context of the release of the new NFC-capable Android phone, the Google Nexus S. Having an RFID reader in a phone could cause a big change in how we interact with the world around us. I talked about what RFID and NFC technologies are, how they work, some examples of them in the world and on Android, and how to add [...]

WiFi for Arduino with Asus WL-520gu

todbot — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 09:48:42 +0000

I love Arduino but its lack of wireless bugs me. And it sucks that WiFi Shields for the Arduino cost as much a cell phone. I want something cheap. Turns out, small, cheap WiFi routers like the Asus WL-520gu can run the DD-WRT Linux firmware and act as serial-to-network gateway for Arduinos (or most any other USB device). Here’s how to do it.

(Hey, is this a Wifi-controlled BlinkM? I think it is.)

A quick video showing a router acting as a serial-to-network gateway:

This is not that new of a concept, hacking Linux onto a router for some [...]

Hacking USB HID for Easy Tethered Ubicomp

todbot — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:31:04 +0000

At this years Sketching in Hardware conference, I gave a talk on the general approach I used to create LinkM, ThingM’s USB-to-I2C adapter for programming and controlling BlinkMs. I called it “Hacking USB HID for Easy Tethered Ubicomp” (4.8MB PDF) to give it a form that fit within some of the larger issues I’ve been dealing with in creating easily usable ubiquitous computing devices.

USB has many different (and confusing) aspects to it. I’ve long advocated the creation of a set of libraries and patterns to make “driverless” USB a reality. A sort of training wheels for USB. [...]

Too Much RFID

todbot — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:11:37 +0000

[This post was part of a CrashSpace mailing list discussion on a "proximity t-shirt": a shirt that would light up or similar when other similar t-shirts were nearby. People were wondering how good RFID was at localized detection of tags.]

Okay so I’m a big RFID nerd, did a lot of consulting work using it. So here’s a quick brain dump.

Regular passive RFID is designed for identification not localization. The RFID tags can be reliably read only to within a few centimeters. But the readers are cheap. You can get 128kHz (LF) and 13.56MHz (HF) RFID [...]

“WiiChuck” Wii Nunchuck Adapter Available

todbot — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:41:17 +0000

Want to hook up a Wii Nunchuck to an Arduino but don’t want to cut up the cord on your Nunchuck? Yeah me too. So I made some of these:

It’s a small PCB that adapts the Wii Nunchuck connector to standard 4-pin header. I call it the “wiichuck adapter”. It plugs directly into the Arduino, no wiring necessary. You can get one too for $4.

Available from the following wonderful shops: - FunGizmos.com. FREE DOMESTIC SHIPPING. International shipping for $1 more. - Tinker.it (UK) - Little Bird Electronics (Australia) - Sparkfun. Ships domestic & internationally. [...]

WineM lights, a BlinkM predecessor

todbot — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:12:25 +0000

With BlinkMs available for purchase soon, I figured it would be neat to show what a large collection of them can do. BlinkMs were created from my desire to have a “smart LED” that did its own tri-color PWM. I didn’t want to build a real-time system to control the PWM of several hundred RGB LEDs. And existing LED controllers didn’t meet my needs. I wanted something that knew a bit about color and color patterns and could be networked together into clusters. Thus BlinkM. A single BlinkM is fun, but the real utility is seen when [...]

Things at ThingM, my Berkeley INFO290-13 talk

todbot — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 21:03:48 +0000

On Nov 8th I was a guest lecturer at the “Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces” class at UC Berkeley. It’s a physical computing course, about “a new approach to HCI which focuses on the physical interaction with computational media.” The class has both lecture and lab components. The lab section is hands-on experimenting with novel physical interfaces, using Arduino as the core. So of course I have a great fondness for the course.

The talk itself was a sort of summary of the things we’ve been pondering at ThingM. If you’re already familiar with the [...]

WineM prototype at NextFest

todbot — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:16:14 +0000

WineM solves the problem of remembering all the information about the wines in a large wine rack, cellar or cabinet, or searching through that data. This smart wine rack makes that information always accessible and updatable.

ThingM will be at Wired’s NextFest conference, showing off a prototype of our WineM product. Come visit us if you’re in LA!

You can even read a press release about WineM.

WineM has a bank of RGB LEDs for every cell a bottle can go in. Each cell has a microcontroller implementing a high-power variant of a SmartLED. There are 576 total LEDs in the [...]

Smart Interface Components, my Sketching07 talk

todbot — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:24:23 +0000

The Sketching in Hardware 2 conference was a blast. So many interesting people and ideas. I wish we could have it every few months. Mike has his notes and a good summary of this year’s Sketching.

My talk was on “Smart Interface Components”. It was a generalization of the things I’ve been thinking about with the Smart LED prototypes.

Slides from the talk: sketching07-tod-smartcomponents.pdf

What are Smart Interface Components? Current interface components, the sensors and actuators that comprise the user interface of the gadgets we use, are dumb. They require specialized domain-specific knowledge to make work correctly, non-trivial [...]

Smart LED Prototypes

todbot — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 03:13:09 +0000

LEDs should be smarter. Sure we have flashing LED assemblies and even rudimentary RGB-flashing discrete LEDs. But LEDs themselves are predominately just dumb lights. There’s no real reason for this. Fab processes for microcontrollers and LEDs aren’t that dissimilar. It should be possible to have both in a single LED-like package.

There is a glimmer of this happening, like the “RGB LED Slow Colour Change” LEDs you can get. You can see an example of these being used on the Embarrasingly Easy CaseMod. Unfortunately you can’t change the cycle time or anything else [...]

The Ubicomp of Tomorrow, After These Messages

todbot — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:47:37 +0000

In my periodic perusal of Warren Ellis’s blog, I see he’s linked to Nicolas Nova’s post about “The Ubiquitous Computing of Today”. Nicolas discusses a great LIFT07 paper, “Yesterdayâ€™s tomorrows: notes on ubiquitous computingâ€™s dominant vision” by Genevieve Bell and Paul Dourish (Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 2006). He and the paper highlight a persistent problem with ubicomp research: the ever-receding horizon of technology.

It’s a truism that the technology we need is “just around the corner”. This “proximal future” described in the paper is comforting because it means we don’t have to focus on the actual implementation issues. [...]

LoveM Memory Chocolates technology sketch

todbot — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:14:36 +0000

Another technology sketch from my company ThingM. This time it’s Valentine’s Day-themed, with LoveM, a heart-shaped box of “memory chocolates”.

(revver link)

Abstract: LoveM is a Technology Sketch of an augmented box of chocolates that displays personal memories on an LCD screen as chocolates are removed from the box. It attempts to evoke joy and surprise through the use of available, inexpensive technology embedded into a familiar object. It investigates what happens when we put technology in a non-utilitarian, non-game context and explores the ideas of introducing personal, intimate content into an otherwise mass-produced product.

It’s also our Valentine’s Day present to you. [...]

WineM, a ThingM technology sketch

todbot — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 02:44:27 +0000

At my new company ThingM, Mike and I have completed a technology sketch for WineM, a smart wine rack. Below is a video demonstration and an abstract. A full description can be found on the ThingM site. We periodically create Technology Sketches as a way to explore the ideas we’re thinking about.

(revver link)

Abstract: WineM is a Technology Sketch of a smart wine rack. It’s designed to locate wines in a wine rack using RFIDs attached to bottles and to display which wines have been located using LED backlights behind the bottles. Collectors (or anyone with a large wine [...]