Course summary
This class completed in December 2005. Scroll down for descriptions of the final student projects. Here is the course brief:
What happens when every object and space has a life of its own? What if, sitting in your closet, your old pair of shoes could talk to your new pair? What would they communicate? Suppose your sleeve could tell you about the ten different DVD players for sale at the store. What would that look like and how would you interact with it? If you were at a party, how would the space tell you about the cool person across the room, or where the conversation about music is?
This Graduate Funded Educational Project/TDS course had the funding of legendary network computer company Sun Microsystems Laboratories, and was taught by Art Center's Graduate Media Design Program core faculty member Philip van Allen, ACCD Visionary in Residence and Sci-Fi writer Bruce Sterling, and Graphic Design Chair Nik Hafermaas. Additional support came from Ewan Branda for programming, and Adriana Parcero for documentation.
With massive RFID tagging and the deployment of smart networked sensors and wireless personal information devices, a new ecology of things is developing. Objects and spaces gain accessible, query-able, up-datable histories and meta-data, and they exchange information with each other and network servers to form a new, pervasive thing-ecology.
This complex, emergent system will arise from pyramid of integrated, pervasive technologies: RFIDs at the bottom in huge numbers providing identity and trackability; sensors at the next level up monitoring everything (water/air quality, GPS locations, efficiency, operational status, purchases, etc.); networked tiny computational systems (e.g. motes, Sun Spots) embedded in things and spaces, analyzing, collecting and passing on sensor data; personal computational devices used by people as their interface to the ecology; and back-end servers for storage and deep data-mining power, accessible everywhere.
How will people and things interact in this fluid environment of tangible artifacts and the data-spheres that surround them? Who will determine how this interaction works? Through discourse and making, this course will explore how design can influence and address the new ecology of things.
Working technologies to be used in the course include groundbreaking devices called Sun Spots provided by the class sponsor. These are very small, wireless devices that sense the world and communicate with other Sun Spots and a network. In addition, the class may have access to standard microcontrollers, RFID readers, and GPS units.
Each student team will design an interactive system (form, interface, function, content) that embraces the coming ecology of smart things in 2015. The project should challenge traditional ideas of devices and applications, and imagine new relationships between people, sellers, objects and environments. The interactive system must include a working prototype that helps communicate the project and provide the discipline of designing real, functional applications—e.g. smart shoes, talkative sleeves, match-making environments. The project deliverables may include any combination of products, interfaces, environments and systems, addressing retail, domestic and social contexts. In addition, students will look and design for the hackability of the new ecology - exploring how it can be creatively abused, reused, and leveraged for unintended uses.
Teams will research specific audiences and contexts to define design opportunities in the new ecology of things. Out of this research, students will develop designs that provide inspiration and insight for the technical, management and design communities.
Sun is providing groundbreaking devices called Sun Spots (PDF) which are very small, wireless devices that sense the world and communicate with other Sun Spots and a network.
What happens when every object and space has a life of its own? What if, sitting in your closet, your old pair of shoes could talk to your new pair? What would they communicate? Suppose your sleeve could tell you about the ten different DVD players for sale at the store. What would that look like and how would you interact with it? If you were at a party, how would the space tell you about the cool person across the room, or where the conversation about music is?
This Graduate Funded Educational Project/TDS course had the funding of legendary network computer company Sun Microsystems Laboratories, and was taught by Art Center's Graduate Media Design Program core faculty member Philip van Allen, ACCD Visionary in Residence and Sci-Fi writer Bruce Sterling, and Graphic Design Chair Nik Hafermaas. Additional support came from Ewan Branda for programming, and Adriana Parcero for documentation.
With massive RFID tagging and the deployment of smart networked sensors and wireless personal information devices, a new ecology of things is developing. Objects and spaces gain accessible, query-able, up-datable histories and meta-data, and they exchange information with each other and network servers to form a new, pervasive thing-ecology.
This complex, emergent system will arise from pyramid of integrated, pervasive technologies: RFIDs at the bottom in huge numbers providing identity and trackability; sensors at the next level up monitoring everything (water/air quality, GPS locations, efficiency, operational status, purchases, etc.); networked tiny computational systems (e.g. motes, Sun Spots) embedded in things and spaces, analyzing, collecting and passing on sensor data; personal computational devices used by people as their interface to the ecology; and back-end servers for storage and deep data-mining power, accessible everywhere.
How will people and things interact in this fluid environment of tangible artifacts and the data-spheres that surround them? Who will determine how this interaction works? Through discourse and making, this course will explore how design can influence and address the new ecology of things.
Working technologies to be used in the course include groundbreaking devices called Sun Spots provided by the class sponsor. These are very small, wireless devices that sense the world and communicate with other Sun Spots and a network. In addition, the class may have access to standard microcontrollers, RFID readers, and GPS units.
Each student team will design an interactive system (form, interface, function, content) that embraces the coming ecology of smart things in 2015. The project should challenge traditional ideas of devices and applications, and imagine new relationships between people, sellers, objects and environments. The interactive system must include a working prototype that helps communicate the project and provide the discipline of designing real, functional applications—e.g. smart shoes, talkative sleeves, match-making environments. The project deliverables may include any combination of products, interfaces, environments and systems, addressing retail, domestic and social contexts. In addition, students will look and design for the hackability of the new ecology - exploring how it can be creatively abused, reused, and leveraged for unintended uses.
Teams will research specific audiences and contexts to define design opportunities in the new ecology of things. Out of this research, students will develop designs that provide inspiration and insight for the technical, management and design communities.
Sun is providing groundbreaking devices called Sun Spots (PDF) which are very small, wireless devices that sense the world and communicate with other Sun Spots and a network.
