For my final project for Redial, I built a phone alert system for my thesis, End Times Girls Club. My thesis is an apocalypse preparedness guide, featuring instructional videos and a webstore with survival kits, created and run by my persona, @EndTimesGirl. For the phone alert system, when @EndTimesGirl gets a tweet on her timeline that mentions the apocalypse or other important keywords, an alert phone call goes out to all the club members (who have signed up at www.endtimesgirlsclub.com/phonealert) which uses google talk-to-speech to tell them who is calling and read them the latest alarming tweet.

How does this all work?!  Well, I have a rackspace server, set up with asterisk, ruby and a flowroute account so I can have outgoing calls. I set all that up using Chris Kairalla’s instructions.I also used the tweetstream Twitter API for Ruby to link to the @EndTimesGirl’s twitter account and monitor for keywords. In that ruby script, when the keyword trigger happens, the script generates a callfile in asterisk and pushes it out, generating one for each phone number in my database (which I query using the Curb ruby gem to curl the URL of my database).

Here is my ruby script:

#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'tweetstream' ;
require 'curb'
require 'fileutils'
#authorize access to twitter account
TweetStream.configure do |config|
  config.consumer_key       = 'YOURKEY'
  config.consumer_secret    = 'YOURPASSWORD'
  config.oauth_token        = 'YOURTOKEN'
  config.oauth_token_secret = 'TOKENPASSWORD'
  config.auth_method        =  auth
end

test = Curl.get("http://www.endtimesgirlsclub.com/db")
    mynums = test.body_str.split(',')

def gencallfile(num,text, user)
time = (Time.now.to_f * 1000).to_i #current timestamp
  temp_dir = "/tmp/"
  callfile = "call_" + time.to_s + ".call"
  startcallfile = temp_dir + callfile
  end_dir = "/var/spool/asterisk/outgoing/"
  endcallfile = end_dir + callfile
  #write file to disk
  file = File.open(startcallfile,"w")
  file.puts("Channel: SIP/flowroute/#{num}\n")
  file.puts("MaxRetries: 1\n")
  file.puts("RetryTime: 60\n")
  file.puts("WaitTime: 30\n")
  file.puts("Context: alert\n")
  file.puts("Extension: s\n")
  file.puts("CallerID: END TIMES GIRLS CLUB <6666666666>\n")
  file.puts("Set: tweettext=#{text}\n")
  file.puts("Set: user=#{user}\n")

  file.close
  #change file permission
  File.chmod(0777, startcallfile)
  FileUtils.chown(ENV['USER'],'asterisk',startcallfile)
  #move file to /var/spool/outgoing
  #  puts "here3".to_s
  FileUtils.mv(startcallfile,endcallfile)
 # puts "rose".to_s
  puts "I am generating a call file for #{num}"

end

client = TweetStream::Client.new
#instantiate tweetstream monitor
client.on_timeline_status do |status|
 #search for keywords on timeline
  if status.text.include?('apocalypse')or status.text.include?('brimstone') or status.text.include?('end times')

  puts "[#{status.user.screen_name}] #{status.text}"

	user=status.user.screen_name #tweet username
	text=status.text #tweet text
	mynums= mynums.uniq #no duplicate callfiles
	mynums.each do |number|
	 number = number.gsub(/-/,'') #get rid of '-'
	number.strip! #get rid of whitespace
# 		check the length of the number
	next if number.to_i == 0 #skip if its not a number
	if number.length == 10 #if it has 10 digits add 1 at the beginning
		number = "1"+number
			puts "[#{number}]"
		gencallfile(number,text,user) #call
			end
	if number.length == 11
	       gencallfile(number,text,user)
end
end
end
end

client.userstream

This is what my asterisk extensions.conf looks like in the extensions I use to read a greeting and the text of the trigger tweet.

[googletts]
exten => s,1,Answer()
exten => s,n,AGI(googletts.agi,"this is an alert from end times girls club.",en)
exten => s,n,AGI(googletts.agi,"the following tweet leads us to believe the apocalypse is upon us",en)
exten => s,n,wait(1)
exten => s,n,Goto(tweetread,s,1)

[tweetread]
exten => s,1,Answer()
exten =>s,n,Set(tweet=${CUT(tweettext,,1)})
exten =>s,n,Set(twitteruser=${CUT(user,,1)})
exten => s,n,AGI(googletts.agi,${tweet},en)
exten => s,n,AGI(googletts.agi,"from user",en)
exten => s,n,AGI(googletts.agi,${twitteruser},en)
exten => s,n,Hangup()

APRIL FOOLS – ASTERISK WILL CALL YOU AND READ YOU THE WASTE LAND by T.S. ELIOT

or

I will create  a Poem of The Day phonecall service that calls you up and reads you a poem. I like hearing poetry more than reading it sometimes. This would mostly just be a gift for my mom.

This week I used contexts and priorities in asterisk to make a horoscope phone tree, complete with up-to-date and largely misleading prophecies.

call 917-534-6464 ext. 20 to find out what this week holds for you……….!!!!

[rs3836]
exten => s, 1,Wait(1)
exten => s,n,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/welcome1) ; WELCOME
exten=>s,n,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/options);options
same => n,WaitExten(5)

exten =>1,1,Goto(rs3836_FireSigns,s,1)
exten =>2,1,Goto(rs3836_AirSigns,s,1)
exten =>3,1,Goto(rs3836_EarthSigns,s,1)
exten =>4,1,Goto(rs3836_WaterSigns,s,1)
exten =>0,1,Goto(rs3836,s,1) ;repeat welcome
exten =>i,n,Playback(pbx-invalid)
same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1)
exten =>t,n,Goto(rs3836,s,1)

[rs3836_FireSigns]
exten =>s,1,Wait(1)
exten=>s,n,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/firesigns)
same => n,WaitExten(5)

	exten=>0,1,Goto(rs3836,s,1) repeat welcome
	exten=>1,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/aries) ;ARIES
	same=>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1) 

	exten=>2,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/leo) ;LEO
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1) 

	exten=>3,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/sag);SAG
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1)

	exten => i,1,Playback(pbx-invalid)
	same => n,Goto(rs3836_FireSigns,s,1)

	exten => t,1,Goto(rs3836_FireSigns,s,1)

[rs3836_AirSigns]

	exten=>s,1,Wait(1)
	exten=>s,n,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/airsigns); AIRSIGN WELCOME
	same => n,WaitExten(5)

	exten =>0,1,Goto(rs3836,s,1) ;repeat welcome

	exten =>1,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/gemini); GEMINI
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	exten =>2,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/libra); LIBRA
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	exten =>3,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/aquarius); AQUARIUS
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	;exten => i,1,Playback(pbx-invalid)
   same => n,Goto(rs3836_AirSigns,s,1)

exten => t,1,Goto(rs3836_AirSigns,s,1)

[rs3836_EarthSigns]

	exten =>s,1,Wait(1)
	exten=>s,n,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/earthsigns); EARTHSIGN WELCOME
	same =>n,WaitExten(5)

	exten =>0,1,Goto(rs3836,s,1) ;repeat welcome

	exten =>1,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/taurus); TAURUS
	same=>n,Wait(1);
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	exten =>2,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/virgo); VIRGO
	same=>n,Wait(1);
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	exten =>3,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/capricorn); CAPRICORN
	same=>n,Wait(1);
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	;exten => i,1,Playback(pbx-invalid)
	same=>n,Wait(1);
   same => n,Goto(rs3836_EarthSigns,s,1)

exten => t,1,Goto(rs3836_EarthSigns,s,1)

[rs3836_WaterSigns]

exten =>s,1,Wait(1)
exten=>s,n,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/watersigns); WATERSIGN WELCOME
	same => n,WaitExten(5)

	exten=>0,1,Goto(rs3836,s,1) ;repeat welcome

	exten =>1,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/cancer); CANCER
	same=>n,Wait(1);
	same=>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	exten =>2,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/scorpio); SCORPIO
	same=>n,Wait(1);
	same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	exten =>3,1,Background(/home/rs3836/asterisk_sounds/pisces); PISCES
	same=>n,Wait(1);
		same =>n,Goto(rs3836,s,1); 

	;exten => i,1,Playback(pbx-invalid)
   same => n,Goto(rs3836_WaterSigns,s,1)

	exten => t,1,Goto(rs3836_WaterSigns,start,1)

IN ORDER TO KEEP THE THREAT OF THE RISING RIVER ON THE FRONT OF OUR MINDS, WE EMPLOYED THE LANGUAGE OF THE EVIL EYE, THE WATCHFUL GUARDIAN, AND THE NATURAL RESPONSE TO FOLLOW THE GAZE OF A GRAPHICAL EYEBALL. WE PUSH THE GAZE OF PASSERS-BY TOWARDS THE RECENTLY TRANSGRESSIVE RIVER – REMINDING US TO BE VIGILANT AND WATCHFUL.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> more <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Sarah Hallacher and I installed our series of signs bringing awareness to the East River yesterday in East River Park. All of our hand-painted eye signs were hung facing the river, remind New Yorkers to #lookoutbehindU and remember that we live in a city surrounded by potentially dangerous bodies of water. Ultimately, we’d love to refine our style and install our eyes all around the city. We’d also like to explore making smaller eyes that may allude to danger; but the large signs we created this time were so wonderfully ominous! It was great to see them out in the public.

They’ve been hanging for about 10 days, so we feel like the installation is a success. We were also excited when people from the neighborhood engaged with us while we were installing & documenting on a few different occasions. The people who spoke to us seemed interested but not bothered by the eyes, so we see no reason why they’d be taken down anytime soon.

Making of video

INSTALLATION PHOTOS

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> SUCCESS <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

AND ACTION

This project plays off the idea of exotic fad diets, promising access to ancient and elusive health secrets from non-western and self-sufficient cultures. We tried to make the diet somewhat absurd and unappealing in its actual practices, but brand it as best we could to see how much attention we could get. In order to shift this from being a parody of this kind of marketed cure-all diet, we decided to advertise it in Mongolia (in addition to the US), which ought to have undercut and rendered absurd its exotic appeal and otherness. This ad ultimately performed the best, which was surprising and exciting for us.

We advertised our diet and its site on Facebook, making three separate campaigns; one targeted to men in America who are interested in health and organic food between the ages of 18-30, one targeting women between 16-40 who are interested in health or Buddhism, and one which targeted all facebook users in Mongolia. The first ad didn’t make it through Facebook’s review system for an unknown reason, but the second two were fairly successful.

This is the ad which targeted women into Buddhism:

We made the text un-gendered, though much of the text on the diet site is geared towards men seeking enhanced virility

Here are the stats on how this ad performed during the week:

Here is the ad which was seen in Mongolia and statistics on its performance:

visit mongolianhorseman.com today and feel your power.

It was really difficult to figure out how to test the interactions I wanted to have in my game, and when i tried to plan tests for some of the elements I had, they seemed to make less and less sense, leading me to re-imagine and more rigorously examine the experience and setup of my game (which, needless to say, was an extremely useful process). I settled on a game for user testing with two rounds, to test two different embodied actions: round one was a race to drop balls in a bin using only your legs, to see if it was fun to plié to release your ammunition, and the second round was a race to knock a bunch of boxes off a table using only one’s head, to see how a head-focused interaction would go.

I asked the following of my users after they played the game:

scale the following statements from 1 -5 ranging from false to true:

you had fun  1     2      3     4     5

you have never played a game like this before 1     2      3     4     5

you thought it was sort of funny to drop a ball by plié-ing  1     2      3     4     5

you wanted to use your hands to knock the boxes off 1     2      3     4     5

its fun to play a game using your head  1     2      3     4     5

and here are my results:

Schlossworld User Testing – Sheet1

3dsav homework #3

Got data about my left eyebrow position from faceshift- got into openFrameworks using Kyle McDonalds ofxfaceshift visualizer example, send serial data to arduino