Here's the plan for the rest of the month. First in order means higher priority.
2nd to 8th
Develope 3rd prototype
Work on thesis paper
9th to 15th
Work on thesis document
Develope 3rd prototype
16th to 22nd
User testing
Finalize all prototype
Prepare final presentation
23rd to 29th
Final presentation
Hardware refinement
Introduction
Just ten years ago, the term hacker was a predominantly negative term. People thought of hackers as security breachers, eager to steal information to benefit their own good at the expense of others. As technology has become more intertwined in our everyday activities, the term hacking has shed its negative connotation and taken a more positive spin. While hacking is still about breaching, it is no longer about exploiting. Rather, it is about exploration and understanding, and many times, recreating and innovation.
The Meaning of Hacking
The term hackers was first used by students in MIT and other campuses in the 1960’s and 70’s. At that time it was used to describe students who had the mastery to push mainframe computers and programs to the limit. In the 1980’s, after a series of security breaks into government and corporate mainframes, the media began to focus on one of many activities that hacking encompassed: breaking into other people’s computers. This labeled hackers as dangerous and malicious people, a definition that many self-proclaimed hackers resented and disagreed. In 2002, Richard Stallman, the most famous computer hacker in our generation, refuted this misunderstanding when he simply described hacking as “exploring the limit of what is possible, in the spirit of playful cleverness”.
A New Arts and Craft
In Stallman’s definition, hacking is a process that involves gaining knowledge of a subject matter, utilizing that knowledge for play and creativity, pushing the boundary of its intended use. These principals have been most recently applied to electronic devices and gadgets, where a plethora of websites, books, and instructions about hacking have appeared within the last couple of years. They teach people anything for how to make their iPhones work with other carries to ways to bluejack unsolicited message. Technical knowledge has become so widespread and easy to access, hacking has become the new arts and crafts movement of the 21st century.
Looking Under the Hood and Beyond
Just like most hackers, my thesis is shaped by the desire to understand and explore: to understand how personal technology devices work and explore ways to give them new forms. An integral part of my project is looking under the hood of these gadgets so that their functionality can be hijacked, manipulated, and redefined. The form I seek to express is combining physical interaction, expression, and play with digital functionality. These devices and hacks are driven by my nostalgia of toys and concepts seen in anime and cartoons, my (weird) sense of humor, as well as the desire to understand the potential of the objects I carry around daily.
Never Void the Warranty
Most of the skills I acquired that made this project possible were not learned from secret underground publications or specialized workshops. Rather, the knowledge I used can be obtained in bookstores and on the Internet. However, despite hacking knowledge being more widely available than ever, applying them to commercial products is still an arduous and time-consuming task. Most of the hacks I did came through extensive trial and error. I cherish the day when I would get not just a user’s manual for my next gadget, but also the schematics of all its components and circuit board. Most importantly, I hope the warranty would never get voided, even after taking the gadget apart.
Interesting concept Shilya sent me today.
I spend the last week or so trying to figure out how to connect RN41 module to my Nokia phone. This would enable me to code all the necessary commands on Arduino and send it off to my phone via RN41 (bypassing my laptop). This proved to be a lot more complicated then imagine....
To make a long story short, RN41 works perfectly fine when you connect to it via your computer's hyperterminal or zterm. However, if you try to connect with some other device, the thing goes boink. You'll see some activity (as indicated by the flashing bluetooth symbol on your devices), but you won't be able to verify and sustain the connection. It's as if someone's knocking on your door, and the second you open it, he's gone.....
Luckily I came across this today. It comes with sample code on how to connect to bluetooth via RFCOMM. After installing rfcomm_client on my phone, I connected to my FireFly device, and wala! I got my arduino serial message!! =)
Now I just need to figure out command sets for everything else I need to do. Time to buy the book....
Last year Google announced this open-source OS for cellphones called Android. The SDK is free to download, and it easier to program than Apple's iPhone or Nokia's Symbian. Will probably take a look at it during spring break.
Today I started messing around with AT commands for Nokia phones, since I'm thinking of using this as part of my SMS project. There are quite a few sources to get Nokia's AT command set, none of which are too well organized. Right now I'm using a USB port to connect to my phone, then accessing it via zterm. In the future I might consider accessing it via a bluetooth (which is connected to arduino + other hwardware). Here's the AT commands for sending SMS messages (in bold).
AT
Make sure phone responds OK
AT+CMGF=1
Set SMS text mode
AT+CSCA="+12063130004"
Set your service provider's sms centre number
AT+CMGS="+1XXXYYYZZZZ"
Set recipient. When you press enter, a command prompt appears.
Type in your message and press Ctrl-Z to exit
Your message should be sent immediately after you exit the command prompt! Just a side note, I tried the CMGS command without prepending "+1", and the message doesn't get sent out. It might differ from carrier to carrier, but that's what works for me.
Look what Jeff found on the news today. :-)
This week I've been working a lot on the hardware for the headphone-glove idea. The prototype is almost done!! I'll need to tidy everything up (like building a perf-board instead of using a breadboard, and buying some smaller reed relays) to be a completed piece, but what I have right now should be suffice for midterm and user testing.
The other two ideas (cellphone-glove and secret-SMS) still needs plenty of work. These two I'll definitely try to fake the interaction, maybe utilizing the performance glove I made last semester. One benefit of using the performance glove is it can accurately detect static gestures and orientation. I can program certain gestures into the glove and have it appear on screen when a person poses it correctly. Or I can ask them to perform gesture relating to a scenario and record it, using the data to build my cellphone and secret glove. Either way it will be helpful in figuring out if accelerometer and flex sensors is suffice to detect for the interaction I'm shooting for.
This week was all about user research, getting feedback regarding your project, and finding out what others think about it. I wanted to get a good feeling of how people of different age group thought about using gestures to control personal technology, so I focused on getting as diverse of a demographic as possible.
Instead of presenting users the three projects in the very beginning, I wanted to know what gestures they might want to add into their use of personal technology to enhance their experience, and what their concerns might be. I then slowly presented them the ideas I was working on.
Elderly - 50 and up
The three people I interviewed were concerned that a lot of personal tech devices were smaller and smaller (buttons and screens), making them harder to use. For them, familiarity seems to be a big issue. They would prefer to use one phone, and just one phone, instead of switching to the "newest" device all the time. Using gestures to control devices seems like a hard concept for them to understand, but I showed them what I meant and they all seem pretty excited about it. They had a lot of questions about accessing all the functionality of all the different devices I planned on hacking, but in general they seems quite enthusiastic about using gestures as a way to access them.
Adults - 25 to 50
Interviewed six people, four corporate, white-collar folks and two artists/musicians. The white-collar folks were mostly concerned about getting all the functionality they need through gestures, while the artists focused more on the interaction and the meaning of each gesture. Both artists loved the headphone and SMS idea, while the corporate people liked the hand-cellphone idea better. They were a bit concerned about holding your hand near your head all the time, since they often just hinged the phone between their cheek and their shoulders. I got a lot of questions regarding how they would dial a number through gestures.
Kids/Teens - 12 to 18
Interviewed four kids that were old enough to have personal technology. I was kind of caught off guard how much personal tech they have access to now a days. This group was by the most excited about my projects. They were really liked the headphone as well as the SMS idea, though not so much to the hand-cellphone idea. I guess they don't watch Inspector Gadget much. One kid wanted to "shoot" his friend a message, kind of like laser tag.
What this means
I read chapters seven of Dan Steinbock's The Mobile Revolution. One thing that struck me is that personal technology is not meant to fit everybody. Instead, there are many variants of the same device, some being more stylish, some have more functions, while others focus on fun and entertainment. It's quite reassuring to know that at least one demograph (mainly, kids and artist) find my project interesting. If I want to make these fully functional devices (to have what most people would need) I still need much more research.
Also, with the exception of one person, all the people I interviewed had both a cell phone (blackberry) and a iPod. Besides that, one of the artists carried a voice recorder around to record his thoughts and beats. So I guess hacking the two most popular type of devices means I'm some what on the right track.
Click here to access my thesis calender. Will be refined NUMEROUS times.
These series of photos represent what my thesis is about. I'm trying to find the intersection between technical and non-technical actions. I hope to create new ways to interact with personal technology that embody characteristics of both worlds.
Food for Thought:
Analog vs Digital behavior
My thesis is about blending function/utility with play/nostalgia/gestures in common personal technology. In particular, I'm looking to mess around with cellphones, music players, and SMS technology.
I'll be making a series of videos to show what I mean.