USB Xtra for Director: USBXtra allows a programmer in Director or Flash, Visual Basic, Java, or Proce55ing to talk to USB devices.

The work of Josh Nimoy: Nimoy's work is playful in nature, and grounded in a working repertoire of digital and physical building. As an artist, Josh indulges in the pleasures of simple aesthetics, but is concerned with the effects of commercialism on the sensation of technological empowerment. He expresses a personal catharsis towards human-computer interaction in general.

From BBC tech pages, something that inspired me:

Technology is enabling us to keep in touch with each other far more easily but it is not often aesthetically pleasing.

At the Human Connectedness Group at The Media Labs Europe in Dublin researchers are determined to change that.

Cian Cullinan has come up with a eye-pleasing way to keep in touch with his girlfriend Ciara, via a fake potted plant that opens up into a beautiful flower when she logs on to her computer.

Read the rest

The drum|head: "drum|head is a percussion instrument developed by Murat Konar. The drum is a polystyrene wigstand onto which is projected -from a computer projector driven from a powerbook- a video of a face. Inside the back of the head is a piece of electric transducer. Its output feeds the audio input of the computer which in turn drives a custom piece of software which controls a video of a face and triggers the sound. When the transducer senses a strike, the video is rewind to a predetermined location and a sound is played

When the wigstand is struck, the face responds appropriately and a sound is generated.

Weird weird hilarious video 1 and 2.

Related: the loopqoob.

"

(Via we make money not art.)

picotux: “The picotux 100 is the world's smallest Linux computer, only slightly larger (35mmx19mmx19mm) than an RJ45 connector. Inside, there is an ARM7 CPU at 55 MHz running uClinux kernel 2.4.27 and Busybox 1.0. Two communication interfaces are provided, 10/100 Mbit half/full duplex Ethernet and a serial port with up to 230.400 baud. Five additional lines can be used for either general input/output or serial handshaking.”

gumstix - waysmall options: “waysmall computers are complete Linux systems that fit in the palm of your hand. each come in a case with MMC slot, USB Device plug and a power adapter. waysmalls come in way cool configurations.”

10 Research Areas

10 Key Technologies

10 Keywords

10 Research Areas

1. RISK - in the city, tagging, hypertext, semacode
2. history: the transitory nature of information in the ‘real world’", degradation, memory
3. Cathedral: city foundations
4. Geodesic Domes
5. By hand. qualities and characteristics of hand crafted elements
6. Found Type
7. Online / Offline Interaction
8. Low-res filming
9. Moblogging
10. Aggregation

10 Key Technologies

1. flickr (photo sharing)
2. semacode (real world hyperlinks)
3. WiFi
4. Wood (physical development material)
5. Paper
6. Mac OS X running on PowerBook (computing goodness)
7. ickle 'puters
8. Location Systems: mobile phone tracking, GPS
9. Light
10. SMS

10 Keywords

1. Ubiquitous
2. Physical
3. Locative
4. Pervasive
5. Sacred
6. Collaborative
7. Context
8. Craftsmanship
9. Ecological
10. Automagic!

5 links to improving the range of WIFI by building or tuning antennas

1. USB adaptors & DIY antenna = “Poor Man's WiFi” ?: "Make 2.4GHz parabolic mesh dishes from cheap but sturdy Chinese cookware scoops & a USB WiFi adaptor !

The largest (300mm diam)shows 15-18dB gain (enough for a LOS range extension to 3-5km), costs ~US$5 &

comes with a user friendly bamboo handle that suits WLAN fieldwork- if you can handle the curious stares!"

1. Deep Dish Cylindrical Parabolic Template: “power normally transmitted in that direction is ”bounced“ forward. Therefore you have more control of where your signal is going when using this reflector. That feature of this antenna can be used to enhance the privacy of your wireless network and that was my reason for designing it in the first place, the rest is just gravy but it is very real and rather tasty gravy. Please also note that antenna gain is preferable to amplifier gain because it adds to both transmitted and received power.”

2. Easy Homemade 2.4 Ghz Omni Antenna - Gumph: “An easy step-by-step guide go making a homemade wireless antenna, for a fraction of the cost of commercial antenna. Uses readily available parts, and requires no specialist tools or knowledge. Or in geek speak - a diy homebrew omnidirectional colinear dipole design suitable for 802.11 wifi compatible hardware with external antenna connector.”

3. How to build a tin can waveguide antenna: “Got no dough for a commercial WiFi antenna? Looking for an inexpensive way to increase the range of your wireless network? A tin can waveguide antenna, or Cantenna, may be just the ticket. This design can be built for under $5 U.S. and reuses a food, juice, or other tin can.”

4. 2.4Ghz antenna - redux: "The antenna is used for a home-based wireless LAN… there have been a number of on-line articles about such efforts, particularly by folks in Seattle and Linux-based homeboys in Australia. Necessity must be the mother of invention, and their results are encouraging. But there were few, if any, inexpensive 2.4Ghz-based external antenna solutions — until now!
   Note that the antenna I built is not a yagi-type, which is used to focus a tight beam to another point for point-to-point wireless connectivity. I wanted an ‘omni-directional’ type for a bigger radius of coverage. The yagi antennas are easier, cheaper, and faster to build"

Just a few URLs that I found inspiring:

Eleksen
Using GPS with GPSy and Macromedia Director MX
Build Your Own LCD Video Projector
Sensitive Object
10*10

On a related note - Mac Mini has to be one of the best devices for the brains for interactive art; small, powerful and a mac!!

— SteamSHIFT

From tents:

To houses:

Geodesic Domes are great! They need no internal supports:

And are supposedly actually pretty easy to build!

Concrete - that well known building material renowned generally for being cold and grey and generally, well, solid.

But all sorts of great techniques and technologies are beginning to come through that challenge those ideas.

For a start there is colouring concrete - either by adding a dye to the mix or by acid staining it.

Challenging traditional notions further, how about concrete that can heat up also here

And perhaps for the maddest of all … concrete that allows light through