How can we implement a new use for phonebooths that would not interfere with its functionality but expand it? The project is both a commentary on this antequated technology as well as a call to action to find and implement new uses for a system that is intact across the world.

For my proof of concept, I will be using a rotary phone as the interface. I find it a nice aesthetic for an abandoned technology. Instructions will be silkscreened onto the face of the phone module. As of now, they will toggle the flash, control number of photos, delay between photos, to name the core features.

Operator is a physical installation that puts the user in the role of a switchboard operator. Presented with a patchcord the user can bridge a connection by selecting a node from a grid of locations and placing a live conference call with the respective location’s public telephones.

Players use their GPS-equipped iPhone to retrieve text and image based clues. The solution to the clues are actual locations. In order to solve the clue, the player must travel to the location and check in. Points are awarded in decreasing value as more players solve a clue.

The first few players who solve a clue are given credits to create their own clues. As other players solve clues, the clue creators receive residual point values.

The game is ongoing, with a neighborhood-based leaderboard.

21st Century Confession Booth is a peaceful place where the one can dispense the heavy burden of sins and secrets in the privacy of a quiet booth. The booth is equipped with an analogue vintage desk microphone, a soft cushion for kneeling, and a highly intelligent speech to text algorithm. Visitors can anonymously confess their sins and secrets to be broadcast immediately onto twitter.

This game requires a laptop and works anywhere in the world where there\’s a wifi connection. Your laptop\’s wifi connection is used to triangulate your position.

Gangs are assigned by the zip code of your home address. The goal of each gang is to gain as much territory as possible.

Territories are acquired as players plant time bombs at different locations in physical space. If the bomb is not diffused by a local gang member in time, the bomb will explode and the territory will be turned over to the gang that planted the bomb.

There are 4 ranks within each gang. General > Lieutenant > Sergeant > Civilians. Your rank is determined by your share of the gang\’s territory. Higher ranking players have more power and influence.

Throughout the day we constantly ask about the whereabouts of our friends. This iPhone application gives the user a quick way of asking where a person on their contact list is, without needing to make a phone call or type in an SMS.

A wearable sensor measures the expansion and contraction of a person\’s rib cage as he/she breathes. This data is streamed to a mobile phone via bluetooth and written to an online file via PHP. The partner phone reads this file and visualizes the other person\’s breathing (stretch sensor) and proximity (GPS capability on a smartphone). The two people are thereby able to feel connected without conscious communication and are also made more in touch with their own breath rate and sense of spatial awareness.

The project is a wristband designed for visually impaired users and consists of an RFID reader, a bluetooth module, and a flat battery. When the wristband approaches one of the assigned RFID tags, it produces a beep on a cellphone which is then followed by an audio message assigned to the particular tag.

Mobile phones have now permeated the market such that virtually everyone has one and they are no longer simply phones, but advanced electronic devices that people use everyday as MP3 players, schedule planners, email inboxes, instant messengers, and digital camera/camcorders. In addition to these powerfully versatile functionalities, a particularly exploitable fact is that people carry their phones around wherever they go. My30seconds is a project that takes advantage of this: using mobile phones to take and immediately share videos whenever and wherever you are. That\’s the tagline: \”Your Motion Memories Captured, Shared anywhere, anytime\”.

My30seconds would consist of three main components: the website (my30seconds.net) the SMS and the MMS function on mobile phones. The website serves as a portal where users can store, manage, and share the videos that were taken and sent from their mobile phones using the MMS functionalities. MMS also allows a real-time sharing experience by sending videos to other mobile phones seconds after their capture.

Although this use of existing technology is not new, my30seconds attempts to distinguish itself by presenting several designed functions. First is that all videos are limited to 30 seconds in length. This is intended to force users to submit original and creative content that only captures salient highlights of their day. These videos would then be automatically mapped onto a \”personal calendar\”, forming a kind of video-based profile/diary of the users. These videos can further be socially linked. A user can initiate a SMS message to his friends and call for a particular kind of video to be recorded, for example, to send a birthday message. This collection of videos centered on a particular theme can then be viewed by the recipient successively or even concurrently on mini-streams on his screen.

Another method of organizing and sharing the user videos would be to divide them into geographical locations where they were taken. Videos organized this way would add an extra dimension above that of the individual user by presenting a video profile of the community/locality/city/country. Users can both present and learn about their own and others\’ communities by sharing these video clips of themselves and events in and around their communities. This snapshot in videos of the particular community would be of interest to both locals and tourists. Finally, local small business owners can also use my30seconds to post self-made advertisement videos for their businesses, adding a commercial and convenient facet to my30seconds.