Hopper Analytical - DIY

Arduino Homing Device Prototype

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:01:02 -0400

And now, for something highly dorky.

I have begun to play with DIY electronics. This is principally because it's tremendous fun. You should try it. Seriously. The possibilities are endless.

Here is a video of a range test for my prototype homing device built with an Arduino microcontroller module and an XBee radio transceiver. The portable, handheld device cost me about $60 to make, but theoretically could be a lot less if you designed a PCB and didn't rely on prototyping components.

Short-term, I hope to join fellow Boston Dorkbot members to build on this prototype and construct a location-based game. Stay tuned...

My longer-term goal is to develop a standardized radio/micontroller platform on which to load and share user-oriented software applications (like the homing software shown here) for proximity-based device communications.

The range for the "homing device" seems to well exceed the 300' that the XBee specs claim. Cool.

Please send me suggestions for improvements, other ideas, etc.

Boston Fab Lab

Wed, 6 Feb 2008 18:40:32 -0500

A couple years ago, I wrote about Neil Gershenfeld’s cool MIT Fab Lab (fabrication laboratory). On Monday I was fortunate enough to join the Boston Dorkbot crew for a tour of the Boston Fab Lab. I’ve posted a photoset of a few machines. Pictured are three computer-controlled prototyping machines, including a room-sized router, a micro-milling machine, and a laser cutter. Missing from the photos is a sign/vinyl cutter, several non-computer-controlled tools, and a nicely-outfitted electronics workbench.

The mission of the fab lab is a noble one: to empower creative people to make things with the assumption that, well, we’re all creative. Exposing individuals to commercial prototyping machines encourages people to explore, learn and have a significantly wider range of choices – both in what we might envision and make, but also in how we view the world and imagine our role in its future.

The History of User Participation

Sun, 9 Jul 2006 13:56:12 -0400

About a year ago, the subjects of user-driven value creation and distributed amateur participation had only the beginnings of popular interest. To be fair, these ideas had already been explored aggressively by academics like Eric Von Hippel and had popped up in blog posts by pundits like Chris Anderson, but most of the popular thinking was only notes in the margins of larger and more familiar success stories. These initial successes, such as open source software development, paved the way for more modern ideas by triggering important realizations in the eyes of those that saw their ground breaking potential.

The curious success of Open Source Software Development got a lot of people wondering how they too could build software for free. A million Wikipedia entries helped us realize that fantastic content assets could be built by strangers scattered across the globe. Flickr and YouTube reminded us that content wasn’t only text. The rise of social networks like Friendster and Myspace showed that value can be in the connections as well as the content. The value in phenomena like tagging and Google’s search algorithm taught us that intelligent solutions can emerge from aggregate participation. User-driven product reviews on sites like Amazon nudged us to see that seas of people may be willing to expend valuable effort for reasons other than cold, hard cash. Posing as the poster child for The Long Tail, Amazon also created collective head-scratching around the potential of a million individually-driven niche markets and the idea of selling less of more.

Of course the list continues. Since I began writing on this topic about a year ago, several high visibility events have heralded in the age of the participant. But more on that in another post…

The Pro-Am Revolution

Wed, 8 Mar 2006 21:48:13 -0500

Links to popular writings on The Pro-Am Revolution are long overdue. Here's a good lead-in post on The Long Tail and the real meat of the pro-am diet can be found in Demo UK's Downloadable book (PDF).

The Pro-Ams (Professional Amateurs) are "innovative, committed and networked amateurs working to professional standards." Pro-ams threaten to overthrow the entrenched professionals and corporations who once held undisputed control of our economy. Due to many factors, such as the plummeting costs of creative production and easy access to knowledge and distribution through the Internet, the popularity of pro-am activities and its subsequent recognition has grown significantly. There are many successful examples providing inspiration for burgeoning amateurs world-wide, such as the adoption of open source software and amateur astronomical contributions to eBay storefronts, blogging, and myriad innovative web solutions emerging from the social network of the web.

More Links:
BBC Article
Institute for the Future

Electroplankton Noodling as Democratized Creativity

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 11:01:34 -0500

Wired just published an article on how Nintendo's new Electroplankton audio creativity game/tool represents a creativity toolkit for a new generation of audiophiles. The article compares the nascent audio tool to the word processing and Photoshop revolutions of the 80s and 90s, begrudging the imminent sea of mediocre amateur song output, yet heralding a future where this tool inspires a new level of audio fluency. Good or bad, I'm loving that Wired is writing about my passion.

Creators of the World, Emerge!

Thu, 9 Feb 2006 17:57:54 -0500

I've spent the past few days immersed in the web, seeking out environments where individually creativity is encouraged to emerge. I'm looking for successful examples of these creative environments, provided through a range of organizations, domains, media, and technologies (Got one to share?). What I've discovered is mindboggling. Providing individuals with the ability to create and distribute their own content is not a new idea, but the depth to which this idea is being embraced is inspiring. Better yet, the concept has matured. It's not about customizing your Nikes or skinning your mp3 player any more. We've got active, well realized examples like Wikipedia, crafting, and (of course) the phenomenon of blogging itself.

Core principles are developing. For example, it's not enough to give your audience tools to create. You must provide a mechanism for these creations to be distributed, shared in a network, and allowed to emerge to stimulate more interaction. This is where the magic is. It's not just providing the tools for creative expression but stimulating the very motivation to create.

This post will be the first in a series aimed at unveiling some of the core principles behind this wildly expanding phenomenon. For each post, I will highlight an environment that I believe embraces each principle, first introduces its usage, or serves as a shining example of its application.

For this posting, I present the big player, Wikipedia. Oft the shining example of distributed content development. Now not just a shining example to individuals, but apparently the new model for Microsoft

Amateur Revolution

Sun, 5 Feb 2006 16:42:54 -0500

Another article has popped up today on amateur innovation. The authors make a case for the rising tide of digital content producers threatening established media companies being a sort-of post-napster Act II.

The majority of the article deals with the battleground of digital copyright law. An interesting point arises about government regulation interrupting innovation in an emerging technology landscape; making the case that iTunes would not have existed without unauthorized file sharing paving the way.

I'm most interested in what the rise of this empowered amateur will create:
"...distinctions between those who consume and those who create are disappearing"

In a point that I believe Nicolas also alludes to, if creative production helps drive our economy, how will widespread individual contributions distributed and adopted instantaneously through the net ultimately change the shape of organizations, business, and the very way stuff gets done?

Tracking DIY Alpha Geeks

Sun, 29 Jan 2006 22:39:32 -0500

While Make Magazine is fascinating, what domains are requesting subscriber access to Make is perhaps equally so. Dan Woods, associate publisher of Make ran a little research on his access logs and presented a list of the top 30 subscriber access domains.

When you're tracking a new phenomenon, it's always cool to see who else may care about it, too. And in the spirit of the blogosphere, it's also fun to see who cares about who cares about it.

The World's Best How-to

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:17:45 -0500

I was excited to discover Kevin Kelly's online request for The World's Best How-to. Aside from the nifty responses (60), I am intrigued by his solictation of people's input on this topic. I secretly hope that he's thinking what I'm thinking. Kelly's penchant for knowing what's coming next (he founded Wired Magazine, the Well, and the Whole Earth Catalog), encourages me to read between the lines on all his curiosities. Perhaps he is banking on the impending importance and impact of our growing authorship-oriented society. If so, he may believe in the importance of facilitating individual creativity and better understanding how to best teach, encourage, fuel, and connect people. Either way, I'll keep reading his blog.

How to do nothing with nobody, all alone by yourself

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 21:06:26 -0500

This is either the ultimate DIY book or the ultimate anti-DIY book. If for nothing else, this author should get props for the book title: How to do nothing with nobody, all alone by yourself

DIY Hero

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 22:58:31 -0500

The rise of this creative culture will have its heroes. The cost of making meaningful things continues to plummet across media. The ability to distribute globally now a given. Those who have the desire are only limited by their creative capacity and commitment to deliver. Today's heroes brave new media. Take Roger Ingraham.

Roger dropped out of high school, and at 19 has shot the DV (digital video) movie Moonshine for a grand total of $9,200 (including the cost of a Panasonic camera, a PowerBook G4 and website hosting). A sleuthing agent found his trailer on the web and the film has been entered into this year's Sundance Film Festival.

The beauty of DIY heroes is they help provide the hope and inspiration that fuel the other potential makers out there. We believe that given the right inspiration and tools, we might even do it ourselves!

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

Sun, 8 Jan 2006 15:52:46 -0500

The popularity of modern DIY (do-it-yourself) and the notion of a creative culture are on the rise. By modern DIY, I mean a deviation from more traditional DIY activities like home improvement (ala This Old House) or creative homemaking (ala Martha Stewart). The new movement in DIY is instead characterized by the phenomena of modding, skinning, hacking, and crafting. It is chronicled and popularized by websites like hackaday.com, magazines like ReadyMade, and publishers like O’Reilly.

So what makes this new movement unique?
Where old DIY was driven by practical methods to improve your home’s value, distribute your ‘zine, or build grassroots support for your political ideology, this movement appears to be more about the experiential benefits of creativity. Specifically, the modern DIYer seeks pleasure in finding things out - by learning through exploration and conceptual discovery rather than by more traditional, structured domain instruction. As an example, ReadyMade magazine Editor in Chief Shoshana Berger stated in an NPR Interview on Modern DIY that her magazine is “…really all about how stuff works and understanding the processes of life.” This sounds like a Feynman dream to me, exemplified in the Nobel Prize Physicist’s "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out," where he quotes the importance of his indomitable curiosity as a budding young Scientist. Feynman is referring to his youthful delight in learning about the world, in trying to make sense of things by making abstract concepts real, and by forcibly “figuring things out” as a path to understanding.

In this core difference in DIY movements, I wonder if the majority of modern DIYers are really making anything, or are instead vicariously witnessing other people’s nifty ideas and experiencing the rush that comes from believing that one could possibly (if necessary) actually do-it-yourself.

I Could Do It Myself

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 00:51:27 -0400

Make Magazine, fresh off of Issue #3, are clearly on to something. Sort of a Martha Stewart's Living for technology geeks, Make releases four "mook" issues per year (combine magazine with book and you get the idea). Highly visual and explanatory, Make claims status as "the first magazine devoted to digital projects, hardware hacks, and D.I.Y. inspiration." Readers will probably find themselves in the rubber-necking reader category. I doubt most will rewire a VOIP phone or decypher the magnetic strip off a credit card, but dang it's cool to check out how someone's done it.

Which brings me to my point: Someone figured it out, and if someone figured it out and can explain it to me it's almost like I figured it out - or at least I could have. What I'm suggesting is that there's magic in the possibility. When we witness someone wield a technology that is familar to us (PVC, digital cameras, TiVO, Google) but in a unique and inventive way, we become open to new possibilities. We see potential. We are inspired for a moment thinking "I could do it myself!"