Related project - geotwitter

There are three ways to identify where the twitter is.

<1>Goe-located by smart phone:
Twinkle (free), TwitterFon (free), Tweetie ($2.99), and Twittelator Pro ($4.99). The main purpose of these applications is for twittering on phone and using gps to geo-tag the twitter post. Therefore, users can see the twitters nearby. It is very precise but the information is not so location-related.

<2>Hashtag:
Localtweeps is attempting to organize the local Twitterverse using a hashtag. The idea is that users add themselves on the Localtweeps site by registering their zip code, then any time they tweet about something relevant to their local audience, they append the #lt hashtag. Localtweeps them parses those tweets on their web site and publishes them in a city-restricted stream.

<3>Twitter search engine api
Nearby Tweets


These applications are devoted to find the twitters nearby. It is more like using the other way to access twitters. However, when trying to find the twitters about a location, it is not easy. In the other words, there are a lots of opportunities in it.

Insights from User research

Here are the insights from user research

on-the-go information:
Every thing is news, but journalists extract the parts which related to most of people as news on newspaper and TV. Therefore, there are still some news useful to small group of people or people in specific place and time. This kind of information could be the meat super discount before store closing or rainbow in the sky. There are two features of on-the-go information, location specific and expired in a short time.

Real-time micro news
The news on newspaper normally are the average of an area. For example, the weather is the average of a city during a day. However, people may want to know what is the weather in the park now. Take education information as the other example. Parents may want to know the news about the school nearby instead of the national education policy.

Personality of the store
This is directly from the last post Nokia's chef(http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=5825667414375488540).


By the personal interest, I will go for the "personality of the store". However, it doesn't mean giving up the other two, because these concepts will be used when realizing the "personality of the store"

Nokia's Chef

The chef of Nokia canteen uses twitter a lot. Everyday he will share his happiness of making great food. For example my vivid impression is last time he shared his proud pancake and everyone rushed to get it. This is an interesting example that technology bringing back the intimacy to the relationship of the restaurant and customer.


In the old day, the restaurants are every close to customers. They are neighbors almost for life long, so they know each other very well just like friend relationship. Therefore, there are more intimacy interaction between restaurant and customer. For example, when there are more fresh or great food material, they will share and recommend with neighbors.

In modern society restaurants serve for mass. The restaurants are trained to be de-humanized for providing a image of standard food quality. There is no personality inside. With the technology nowadays, it is good chance to bring this intimacy back to cold communication between people.

Interview with journalist

Journalists are the mediator of communication between people. They find the story and broadcast to mass like an agent.

Journalist First
quotes
“They will publish the official press release before the event”
“Journalists like a magnet to news. When people want to speak out, they will have the way to find the journalist”
“Journalists try to maintain good relationship with stakeholders such polish officer to get social news”
“Most of the news about new restaurant are paid by them”
“Audiences don’t buy the advertisement from restaurant but they believe the report of restaurant in the newspaper”
“For politics news journalist, they almost always stay at government’s journalist room”
“Micro-news media is more about gathering the same interest people and sharing information”
“I will see the sharing, twitter and blogs, of specific group of people”


Journalist Second
“Media company will spy the radio to know where there is a fire or car accident”
“TV company has two deadline during a day, 12:00 and 5:00. We will follow the newspaper’s news for 12:00 deadline. We have to find the new news for the 5:00 deadline”
“There are four ways of finding news:
asking the police officer and fireman
research on internet like bbs or twitter
citizen expose
informer like friends
”
“Every thing is news but we only report what mass concerns”
“There are two kind of news, event and trend. We have to interpret what we see into trend”
“Local tv station focus on very local news which is very different from national news”
“We all use cell phone to communicate with coordinator who take control of every journalist”
“Blog becomes a usual way to find news”

Obseration - communication on the street

I try to get a sense of how people communicate in urban scale. Here is a series of photos , evidences, I shot on the street.

<1> The sign in front of the store is like a index of the store.
<2> The stores directly show the quality of the goods.

<3> Show the intagible status outside<4> Spread the events to mass
<5>to find the cat
<6> to find the job<7> to find the same interest people
<8>unveil the function inside the building
<9>the space with all events of the city
<10> In Denmark, if living in an apartment, it is usual to post a note on building board to inform neighbors that they are going to have a party. This communication is interesting, because it is like a proof of consideration.

Interview with people in work environment

I try to understand people who have high demand on communication and the characters of communication.

User 1
male
TSMC, semiconductor, biggest company in Taiwan
works in a nine people team
responds to maintain the quality of chips by fixing machine

Qutoes
“my supervisor knows what I am working on by the request email from clients”
“we will have meeting all together once a week, it is good time to know what each other are doing now”
“There is a database with formal reports”
“I have too many unsolved problems, I don’t have time to deal with it”
“My boss wants me to have ability of working individually”
“sometime I am too busy, I will ignore the 84% yield rate by averaging with 98%”
“When I face-to-face talk to my supervisor, we always only talk about the problems I face and then help me. I want to share my findings.”


User 2
male
team leader in design consultancy firm
interaction designer

Quotes
“Understanding the culture in Big company is similar to peeking a room in a hole”
“it is important to share the same vision in the team of Design consultancy”
“there are two part of the work. One is design. the other is get-thing-done. Averagely it is 50% to 50% of time”
“I think there is no communication problem but collaborating with wrong person”
“Small company communicate face-to-face and make decision very fast”
“When I divide the project to specific task, I finish 70% of work”
“The best work environment is everyone woking in the same space”
“We had a project working remotely. I discuss by phone with the other leader in xxxx, and we both made sure our own team’s result ”
“Sometimes some colleges are not good to decide something together, because them have different mental model. However, he is the stakeholder. It is good to inform he officially but doesn’t know”
“Design is not like manufacture. It is impossible to deliver things with standard to the others”
“Communication in company under 35 persons is the ideal for every one, because it is easy to face-to-face communication. Company beyond 35 persons is totally different story”



User 3
male
working in R&D department of P&G
interaction designer

Quotes
“we have internal instant message system. It is easy to discuss, sharing and arrange things”
“There are lots of powerful function on internal communication system such as meeting, redirect skype call to cell phone. However, I never use it”
“In design team, it is more important to establish unspoken consensus than to have good communication tool”
“Design work can’t be managed by time”

Interview with micro-blogging user

User 1
Femal
She is 20 years old, girl. She is from Taiwan, studies at denmark high school and has been here for four years.
Using bbs from 12 years old
ptt heavy user
have a personal board on bbs

Quotes
“There is no category in plurk. It is not easy to find and maintain resources”
“My mon lives in US. When we are on phone, I don’t talk too much detail about what happens to me. However, now she will check my plurk where she knows lots of details such as I feel headache today. Now, she has more reasons to nag me”
“Karma makes me feel accomplishment, and if it is high I have more emotion icon to use”
“I will feel comforted, if friend sends me a hug icon”
“Most of the friends on Plurk is the friend on net. I have not met them before”
“I don’t have to rise a conversation but still can keep posted what happened to friends”
“I want to mark the post like star in gmail”
“I will check my friends’ friends. It is good way to meet new friend”
“It is more “real” to meet new friend on Plurk, because I can see the his Plurk first”
“I check friends Plurk for keeping posted. I check net star for new information”
“It is more easy to have conversation topic with friends after using plurk”
“For me, blog is for writing something serious such as introducing Denmark, because it is very public space. BBS’s personal board is for venting her emotion, because not so many people know this place. Plurk is for nagging or something not so serious.”
“I don’t like facebook, because I always spent too much time on that”
“I will open computer for Plurk”



User 2
Male
30 years old
phd student in japan
first time using internet is 17 years old(13 years ago).
interaction designer

Quotes
“ I use iphone to Plurk with photo. I don’t write by iPhone, because it is too hard to use keyboard”
“Sometimes, I just to want to document my life. I don’t care the quality of photo but care the events”
“At beginning, I just want to write some program with twitter”
“I have an Plurk account long time ago. There are no so many people using it then, so I didn’t use it. However now lots of my friends use it, so I use it a lot now”
“I connect all my social network by Plurk. When I publish something in Plurk, it will also appear on my facebook, twitter and blog.”
“I don’t care who see my post. My collage can see my personal life”
“My professor in collage is very busy. It always take days to reply my email and sometimes he misses it. Last week, I tried to reach him by the Plurk and the result is much faster than email”
“I bought a new iPhone, I asked some questions on Plurk. Some strangers answer my questions. It is amazing. I have no ideas why they know my post.”
“I follow john maeda’s twitter”
“I used to check my friends’ nickname of msn but after using Plurk I don’t do that anymore”
“There is one kind of friend who will contact once a month. After using Plurk, I keep posted with them”
“I will write special things on blog and unimportant things on Plurk”
“One of my friend write Plurk by iPhone. He writes lots of details such as I am eating now. It is my routine to see it everyday”
“Recently, I don’t have regular life. I go to bed too late. I try to document the time I wake up and go to bed. Now I have better idea of my life”
“For me, Plurk is a tool to broadcast to friends”
“I would like to subscribe some interesting information. I depend on google reader a lot now”
“Most of time when I am in break I will check my friends’ Plurk and post new one”

Initial research framework & thougts of industrial project

We have great two weeks industrial project from Nokia. It is very intensive short period of time, but my team has done very good and rigorous design process from user research, persona, concept generation to video prototype. We did very well at very step. It is my first to make flash animation and I really made it. I still remember at last two day I was still learning how to make moving animation. I have to thank my classmates they are so helpful. My team also sat good expectation of the presentation, so there is nothing out of control. This project is confidential, so unfortunately I can't write detail about it.

Industrial project is great but too intensive, so I took one week to recover from that. Maybe the other reason why it takes me so long to recover is that I was confused with my thesis. I have no ideas how to continue. I have done something, user research, brainstorming and some intuitive ideas , but there is no clear user needs or problems that I can rely on to develop. What I have done is more like a tool to understand what I want to do.

I concluded what I have now into a initial research framework showed below.


Understand how information flow in the urban and how poeple communication in urban scale.
Then design an channel for efficient information transmission on mobile phone in the urban scale.

I will conduct a series of interviews relative to this topic to discover design opportunities.

The abilities a designer should have to make good design

I have background in architecture and my collage training is the best in Taiwan design education. I nearly never change the way I do design. When I did interaction design in Taiwan, it is more like design with new technology and advanced concept. After CIID, I totally change the process I do design. In the thesis phase, I can feel more and more about the power of design thinking.

Here are thoughts of abilities which a designer should have to make a good design. It is a reflection not a serious report.

ASK GOOD QUESTION / DEFINE A GOOD DESIGN CHALLENGE
Especially for thesis, it is very important to ask good question. This defines how high and how good a design could be. This represents designer's vision and personality. It is hardest design skill to teach.

CREATE GOOD ENVIRONMENT THAT INSPIRING AND SECURING CONCEPT
For my personal experience, every design decision is based on the resources now, so it is important to have rich resources to lead to a good decision. User research, brainstorming and prototype are great skill to create good environment to make good design decision. These skills are also great to failure earlier and proof of feasibility as earlier as possible.

PROTOTYPING
Prototyping is an ability to realize and evaluate the concept. It is similar to architect makes the model to visualize what is in their mind. Only through prototyping, we can failure earlier and evolve the design with evidence.

ABILITY TO CREATE INSIGHT
It is not only about creating insights from user research but also the insights of every phase of design such as brainstorming, prototyping. It is about seeing through the true values behind it or making a great philosophy to explain it.

ABILITY TO MAKE TOOLS
Design is about bridging expectation and resources with good strategy. Ability to make tools means that designer should have ability to design a design process according to the project.

Mobile Context

I want to do "Web2.0 application in mobile context". From my research, I found out we use the computer to access internet in a specific context. We will do it in a room, only focus on the using computer, individually and sit in front of the computer( see the chart in the first picture). Furthermore, use computer before or after an activity. In contrast, mobile context is more about outdoor, in an activity, with friends and on-the-go.

I made a little experiment in the afternoon open lecture to explore what we need in mobile context. There are few insights. First, before lecture we chatted and one classmate showed the iPhone app. This software is more about showing something not about finding something new. Second, I would like some software that can record this experience in simple reusable media. Third, I want to know what others opinions are in more casual way or opinion for specific section .

The second picture shows some mobile contexts to inspire me. Originally I made a attention distribution of the different mobile context scenario to understand the relationships of these context. I feel that there could be two kinds of the software used in an activity. One is the complement of the main activity. For example, in a lecture I have a device to record the experience. The other one is sub-activity that means a totally different activity parallel happens. For example, when biking, listen to music.

This week, Christena Nippert Eng from IIT(http://www.iit.edu/csl/ss/faculty/nippert_christena.shtml) is our visiting faculty. She gives me a great point of view about attention distribution. Attention should not be related to the different kinds of context. For example, if biking in the crowded traffic, user should pay lots of attention on it. Like the right side chart, it changes in different time not strongly relative to activity.

Small exercise - I want to know ......

My personal view point of Web 2.0 app is fulfill one human's curiosity. Digg is a platform for people to know what others are reading now and Twitter is a platform for people to know what others are doing now. Because every classmates are very busy for their own thesis, I do a small exercise for myself instead of brainstorming. This exercise is to write down everything I want to know about for inspiring.

In this phase, it is not easy to point out a direction only from this exercise. I do this for two reasons. I kept thinking something like this, so best strategy is to write it down and release some mental loading. This may not directly useful, but it aims to create a rich background with lots of similar activity. Once I have a great concept. It is easy to connect every thing to make a great design.

Mobile Phone Usage Diary

Many thanks to my good friend who did the cell phone diary for me every day. He is a PHD student and teaches at collage. He uses iPhone with unlimited subscription. I just take three days diary as example. The result looks most of the tasks are still phone function. There are two additional kind of usage: tool and social. Alarm and listening to music take phone as a tool. Originally we have alarm clock and walk man, now they are integrated into phone. The other finding is the iPhone is good to "show off" and invoke some social activity. In my plan, I want to see relationship between using cell phone and context. There is no astonishing findings, but it is great to visualize the true usage pattern.

20090514

0730 wake up alarm (home)

0830 check facebook and app store on iPhone (home)

0930 received a phone call from father (home)

1040 received a phone call from a commercial company (home)

1100 Sync iPhone to PC outlook (home)

1108 Set up laundry alarm on phone (home)

1220 received a phone call from a commercial company (home)

1700 check facebook on iPhone

1710 Play app KiDoWi on iPhone

1830 make a phone call to a friend (home)

1900-1950 Listen music on iPhone (dinner out)

1950 received a phone call from father (home)

2030 received a phone call from elder sister (home)

2300 make a phone call to a friend (home)

20090513

0730 wake up alarm (home)

0820-0840 download an app,(郵政資訊), from app store (Starbucks)

0850 Received a phone call from father (Starbucks)

0900-0920 Received and make few phone calls to co-workers (Starbucks)

1000-1130 Received and make few phone calls to co-workers (home)

1330 Received a phone call from a friend (home)

1430 make a phone call to a friend (home)

1700-1800 Received few phone calls from co-workers (gym)

1700-1830 Listen music on iPhone and workout (gym)

2050-2150 Received few phone calls from co-workers (home)

2300 make a phone call to a friend (home)

20090512

0730 Wake up alarm (home)

0930 Received a phone call from father (work school)

1008 Received a commercial phone call (work school)

1150 Received a phone call from a friend (work school)

1430 Received a phone call from a Student (work school)

1630 make a phone call to a co-worker (work school)

1850-1910 demo iPhone apps to co-workers (work school)

2300 download a app from App Store (Home)

2330 make a phone call to a friend (Home)

Interview with internet heavy user

I interviewed with three people, one boy and two girls, who are from Taiwan and study master degree at Denmark now about their internet usage behavior. They have been addicted to internet for more than 5 years and surfing internet is the routine every day . The main applications they use is BBS (Bullet Board System http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system) which is super popular in Taiwan's college students and has existed for 15 years. It has its own sub-culture and they often invent new proper noun. The repondants also use some popular social network applications such as facebook and blog.

Here are the quotes:
"My new boy friend and I host a new board on BBS to collect our memory"
"I love to share information on bbs than facebook or blog, because it is faster to deliver information"
"I don't have time to see NBA live on TV, so I will see NBA board on BBS where lots of people will live broadcast through post"
"When there is live NBA game, lots of people will share the free link, watch online together and discuss. It is super interesting to watch them arguing"
"I can't help eliminating the new article sign of the board"
"When I browse the article, I will start from most responded one"
"Facebook is the place gathering friends' information"
"The most amazing board on BBS is beauty board. For example, some one saw a beauty at architecture department and post it on board. There are always someone know the girl"
"I like the group shopping board. We buy goods together for cheaper price with strangers"
"I like facebook can tag people on photo. It is great to collect my memory"
"The great restaurant board on BBS is my favorite. Once people found new restaurant near the school. There are always lots of people provide reviews"
"After using BBS for three years, I only brows my friends board now"

Brianstorming - what others are " "ing now?

My thesis focuses on "Web 2.0 Apps in Mobile Context"

What is Web 2.0 App? I have a very personal and not well defined view point that it is a platform satisfying human's curiosity. For instance, digg is a platform that you can know what others are reading now. Twitter is a platform that you can know what others are doing now. Facebook is a platform that you can know how and what your friends are doing now.

The Web 2.o Apps now are developed for the unique context for instance we use it at home or office individually and only focus on doing it. There are increasingly people using mobile phone to access internet. The context we use internet is dramatically different for instance accessing internet is more on-the-go, within a event or with others together. There should be some essential difference between accessing internet on mobile phone and pc.

Web 2.0 Apps in Mobile Context means a platform you can know something others are doing now in mobile context which is different from context using pc. Therefore, I want to do a brainstorming what do you want to know others are doing now and in what context? This could be very simple, for instance I want to know which store nearby sells great and cheap vegetable, which restaurant has good "today special" or which art piece is popular in the museum.

Brainstorming questions:
Please write down your favorite web services / applications with one sentence that it makes you know what. ex Twitter is a platform that you can know what others are doing now.

In the mobile context which means on-the-go, in the activity or with friends, what who how and why do you want to know about? ex I am curious about the pictures every one took in my wedding. It is the important moment in my life and I want to know every detail.

User Research Plan

There are two phases in my user research plan: traditional user research and intrusive user research. The intrusive user research is in between user research and prototype. It aims to observe how people change their behavior by objects we give than existing behavior. Because most of the web 2.0 apps are not based on existing user needs, intrusive user research is to bridge this gap.

The first phase is traditional user research. There are three things need to be observed: internet usage, mobile phone usage and normal life. Understanding internet usage is to catch some trends of relationship between internet and user. Understanding mobile phone usage will more focus on the context people use phone and internet by phone. Try to understand how and why accessing internet by phone change qualitatively by context. Observing the normal life will focus on how people communicate or interact with others and information, and some urban life or events such as transportation, cleaning trash..

For internet usage, there are two things to do: analyzing online behavior and analyzing screen behavior. Analyzing online behavior will be done by carnivore (http://r-s-g.org/carnivore/) which will surveillance all internet traffic and be visualized by processing to see the usage pattern. This will let us know more about how we use internet. Analyzing screen behavior will be done by shadowing someone using computer and try to identify the task they do and visualize it. Or find a software that can record the screen.

For mobile phone usage, I will find some users who use 3G with smartphone to record everything they do on it with the format below.
When: 2009/05/01 3:00
What: call
Who: to student
Why: for video exhibition
Where: home
Note: we talked for ten minutes
Then, visualize it by processing and try to find out the relationship between using phone and context.

For the normal life, it will be conducted by interview. It is hard part for me. How to get inspiring data is challenging. There should be two rounds of pilot interview to get the good interview questions.

After traditional user research, I hope there will be some interesting ideas and then use intrusive user research to get deeper understanding of what it means and what it could be.

What I want to do with mobile phone

This week, there is a open lecture by James Haliburton, TAT (http://tat.se/) . They did great job about improving mobile phone UI through gesture, sound, tactile and try to go beyond wimp user interface. These are definitely fascinating to explore. However, these projects make me sure that I am more interested in how people interact or communicate with others and information than new mobile phone input methodology.

Service design course opens my eyes and it shows me how innovation could be by users. In my past design, I always tried hard to get insights from my own experience. It is weird that designer can do any design before really understanding the users or context. The mobile phone applications now seem almost all come from technology such as gps plus map goads lots of social network around location. I think we need to zoom out to view how "mobile phone always online" weaves into our life pattern deeply.

After digesting all thoughts across my mind, I want to focus on "Web 2.0 application in Mobile context". This means I want to do something that improves people's relationship, generates some valuable information such as twitter or creating a new behavior / verb named as application name sush as google this.

In this phase, Simona, head of CIID, encourages us to have a big vision, even it is not clear or we don't know how to achieve it. She took The Duomo of Florence as example. At the begining, italians just want to make a huge church that is astonished and makes everyone remember it and they took two hundred years to make it happened. It is really helpful@@

Initial Thesis Statement/Mission

I want my thesis to …

• I want to build my own philosophy of design and my own way of design process which is fit to my personal character.
• I would like this thesis could represent what I am thinking, my personality and my ability.
• I want to get a design consultant job that could challenge design paradigm through this thesis.
• I need to write a conference paper.
• I would like to submit the thesis to red dot design competition.

I’m interested in/inspired by…

• I am also very interested in what happened if mobile phone can always online, know where we are by GPS and know our status by accelerormeter. How does this reshape our urban, architecture and our lives?
• I am interested in design process. Can “design thinking” be improved?

During my thesis I would like to challenge myself in…

• The clear design thinking and smart design strategy is my goal. Do the design with just enough prototype not to be fascinated in making working prototype. Make the best of communication of my design with proper media. Do things step by step not to be too ambitious at beginning.
• Do good user research. Inspired and co-design with user.
• Make good document of the process.

Who would you like your adviser to be?

Please state a first option and a second option.
First Simona
Second Vinay


Comfort zone:

• software programming: processing, flash action script 3, python, pys60, reactivision
• hardware: arduino, button hack
• design skill: architecture, product design, urban design, photoshop, video prototype

Risk zone: (H: highly risk M: middle level risk L: Low level risk)

• software programming: H android sdk(mobile phone), H google app engine(web site), Flex
• design: L illustrator, L flash as2 (rapid prototype GUI), CSS, FLEX
• hardware: M zebee networked programming

Entry point of thesis

The hardest part of doing a thesis for me is to give myself a brief. What should I do with the last chance that I can do what ever I want? Basically, I want to make mobile phone applications which may success on apple store or nokia ovi store. However, what is the issue inside it? It could be design methods of making mobile phone application, focusing on one application, or from a big theme such as next social communication app on the mobile phone context. I can do well in each way, but I hesitate to chose one because how high a design can reach depends on the initial vision.

The diagram is visualization of what I have thought so far. There are there catagories: How, Who, Why and I list what acrossed my mind. This three cagetories are questions that every design should answer: why this design is important, who it is for and how it works. These could also be there entry points to my thesis.

As you can see, technology category is longest and this is also the reflection of industrial actuality. Most of the innovative design comes from new technology and then marketing people try to focus potential users. At this moment, unless I can build something from fundamental hardware, there is no new technology. Too many people has done many interesting innovative projects in lab.

About the user group, I am more interested in organizational relationship. For example, the elementary school is composed of teachers, students and parents and there are some subtle interactions between these stakeholders. For web 2.0 spirits, these kind of relationship is easy to spread out a app.

Personally, I am very interested in the movement of next generation communication app. From digg, facebook to twitter, they hit or invent some essential human needs. Maybe, it is good to start from a theme, what is the next communication app on the mobile context.

case study for inspiration

Here is the quick survey of mobile phone applications that interest me.
It is not a research framework yet just for inspiration.

• phone accesory
  • Mobiscope
    • ~ iphoneapplicationlist.com > 2009 > 03 > 11 > Mobiscope
    • Their Words

      • Mobiscope is the most comprehensive IP video surveillance software for iPhone and iPod Touch. Monitor your home, office, or warehouse activities anywhere in the world.

        • -View live, full motion video from your IP network camera.
        • -Watch any public webcam streaming places of interest worldwide.
        • -Get motion detection alerts via email.
        • -View up to 4 cameras simultaneously.
    • My Notes
      • extend the phone ability to the outside world
      • phone + Arduino Ethernet Shield
  • Citizen Science
    • ~ Citizenscience
    • Their Words

      • In this research we highlight an important new shift in mobile phone usage – from communication tool to "networked mobile personal measurement instrument". We explore how these new “personal measurement instruments” enable an entirely novel and empowering genre of mobile computing usage called citizen science. Through the use of sensors paired with personal mobile phones, everyday people are invited to participate in collecting and sharing measurements of their everyday environment that matter to them.

        What are you sensing?

        • The sensors are commercially available gas sensors for sensing carbon monoxide (CO), NOx, and Ozone (O3). We also have sensors for temperature and humidity. We have integrated them into a custom board we designed and fabricated.

        How do you transmit the data?

        • The data is sampled evey 60 seconds and sent from the board via bluetooth to the phone. From there we send the data via SMS along with the GPS data from the phone to a central server where it can be rendered into the visualization.

    • My Notes
      • accumulate segment data to understand urban
      • customize electronic accessory
  • iPhone RFID: object-based media
    • Their Words

      • This is a prototype of an iPhone media player that uses physical objects to control media playback. It is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that triggers various iPhone interactions when in the range of a wireless tag embedded inside a physical object.

    • My Notes
      • novel user interface
      • phone talks to external world
• spacific domain
  • Video DJ
    • ~ prototype on youtube
    • Their Words

      • The idea here was that a company, let's say the New York Times, would hire brand-name DJs to mix video clips of the news into 2-minute videos, and at the end, the user could tap on any of the video clips to full a longer version of that news video

        ~ Redesigning Journalism At Stanford's Design School

    • My Notes
      • solve the problem of browsing news
      • the way we receive media under cell phone constrain
  • Epocrates
    • ~ epocrates
    • Their Words

      • Epocrates, Inc. develops clinical information and decision support tools that enable healthcare professionals to find answers more quickly and confidently at the point of care.

    • My Notes
      • specific domain need
  • Cooking Capsules
    • Their Words

      • Resources for quick dinner ideas, party 5ps, or elegant snacks at your finger5ps

        ‐ Simplicity of the app is universally appealing

        ‐ Useful combination of videos, maps & easy‐to‐use grocery lists and recipes

    • My Notes
      • specific user group
• new interface
  • BodySpace
    • inferring body pose for natural control of a music player
    • ~ portal.acm.org > Citation ? ...
    • Their Words

      • CHI conference paper

        We describe the BodySpace system, which uses inertial sensing and pattern recognition to allow the gestural control of a music player by placing the device at different parts of the body. We demonstrate a new approach to the segmentation and recognition of gestures for this kind of application and show how simulated physical model-based techniques can shape gestural interaction.

    • My Notes
      • innovate user interface
      • input function when moving
  • Ocarina
    • ~ Quirky App Turns Your iPhone Into a Flute
    • Their Words

      • Called Ocarina, the $1 app creates sounds in real-time based on gestures, tilt, wind input and finger placement on the four "holes" displayed on the multi-touchscreen. The app also includes a globe view allowing users to hear other performances from around the world.

    • My Notes
      • see other's performance nearby realtime
      • very good to show off
• location based service
  • JotYou
    • ~ webpage
    • ~ readwriteweb.com > Archives > Jotyou location-based mobile phone messaging
    • Their Words

      • JotYou™ is location based messaging for your mobile phone. Greet your friends when they are in your neighborhood! Have fun with scavenger hunts, mobile hide and seek, or other games you make up!

    • My Notes
      • location based service
  • social light
    • ~ socialight.com
    • Their Words

      • Socialight lets you discover right here, right now information about places all around you. Simple.

        The basic building block of Socialight is the Sticky Note- similar to a yellow Post-it note that you find at the office, except that it can contain text, images, audio and even video! Sticky Notes can be stuck to any location in the world and you can choose who can see yours...

    • My Notes
      • social networking through the map
      • augment information on the real world
  • GPS:: Tron
    • ~ we-make-money-not-art.com > Archives > 2005 > 01 > The-gps-applica
    • Their Words

      • The player's movements in real space, which are tracked by GPS and transmitted to the phone's display, influence his/her position in the game. Each player is represented by a line that gets longer and longer. But the player's own line is never allowed to cross itself or the opponent's line. Which makes the game harder as time passes. The goal is to drive your opponent into a corner so that he can no longer extend his line without breaking the rules and losing. This is a game for two players who can be geographically distant from one another.

    • My Notes
      • very simple game rule
      • turn physical world to the play ground
      • connect physical and virtual
• apply existing concept to phone
  • reality mining
    • ~ readwriteweb.com > Archives > Reality mining
    • Their Words

      • processing more than 350,000 hours of data collected from peoples' cell phones. More than just who calls who, Pentland is also studying proximity, location and activity data using information like interactions recorded between Bluetooth devices.

    • My Notes
      • apply web activity algorithm to life
      • mobile phone as a sensor device
• merge digital and physical world
  • MyCloset
    • Their Words
      • Manage and plan your fashion items
      • ‐ Build your closet inventory in the phone
      • ‐ With easy touch opera5ons, plan your daily fashion coordinates
    • My Notes
      • personal management
      • digitalize the physical
  • Jigsaw
    • Their Words

      • Enables users to capture, process and share whiteboard data.

        ‐ With edge detec5on, geometric transforma5ons and image enhancements provides users with simple yet useful tool to capture whiteboard data

    • My Notes
      • very specific usage
  • goCart
    • Their Words
      • The perfect marriage of online shopping and window shopping.
      • ‐ Scan the barcode of any product using your phone’s camera
      • ‐ Compare prices of online merchants and nearby local stores
      • ‐ Build wish lists that can be shared with your friends on your favorite social network
    • My Notes
      • merge digital information to life
• connecting people
  • Fingerprint
    • Their Words

      • Fingerprint is a collabora5ve pain5ng applica5on. Draw by yourself, or together with friends – anywhere in the world.

        ‐ Share your canvas and invite your friends to draw with you

        ‐ Draw on photographs, snap a picture and then change it as a group

        ‐ Play on an infinite canvas; move around, zoom, and draw freely

    • My Notes
      • realtime sharing memory
• know yourself
  • Eco2Go
    • ~ Eco2go Android Interview
    • Their Words

      • Track & reduce your carbon footprint. Share ideas on sustainable living with friends from around the world!

        ‐ Track car trips and carbon output automa5cally; discover public transit alterna5ves that reduce your footprint

        ‐ Share your sustainable living story, as it happens, with the global eco2go community – you're not alone!

        ‐ Offset what you can't reduce intelligently; track how your offsets are used to counter carbon emissions

    • My Notes
      • sustainability
      • know yourself