Hopper Analytical - Play

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…

Whistle While You Work

Fri, 12 May 2006 11:13:01 -0400

Great Business Week article zooming in on the happiness factor of innovation and (yeah!) trashing traditional innovation rhetoric. Death to creativity consulting processes! Incidently, the article was written by Diego Rodriguez from Metacool.

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.

Escaping Aldultitis

Wed, 1 Feb 2006 21:41:00 -0500

"Adultitis is a silent epidemic that has been ignored for far too long. It’s a disease that slowly erodes our inborn childlike spirit, wreaking havoc on our world, our nation, and our families. It kills laughter, dreams, curiosity, faith, happiness, and hope. It stresses us out. It causes us to take ourselves too seriously. And in some extreme cases, it can cause smile amnesia. (Pretty serious stuff.)"
- Kim & Jason

Kim and Jason, self-proclaimed sherpas on the path to escape from Aldultitis, have authored a highly entertaining "experiential blog" entitled The Escape Plan. The two have faced off in a 40 day competition to out-do each other in their attempts to rekindle their childlike natures. You're invited to join them, of course.

While many of the entries are downright silly (and there's nothing wrong with being silly you big poop), there are some real gems in their daily challenges and the creative ways they try to meet them. I find their endeavor really embraces the essence of Child's Play, complete with innovative strategies to get their message out and engage their audience. I am inspired by their efforts. Go Kim and Jason!

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

The Power of Toolkits

Sun, 2 Oct 2005 01:04:05 -0400

A toolkit for innovation and design is a set of helpful devices, modular materials, examples and guidelines for the purpose of facilitating the creative process.
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If you've ever seen a child discover LEGO Blocks, you've witnessed the power of toolkits in action. A child will voraciously construct, fashion, destroy and attempt everything she can imagine. She will also bend, throw, taste, and try to break - this is the nature of exploration. What is unique about toolkits over other toys is the initial level of excitement and desire to create that occurs when a child is exposed to the potential of a toolkit. For example, when a child first encounters a simple construction toolkit (like duplo blocks) and is shown an easy to understand construction, there is a realization followed by an unstoppable need to make what was just modeled. Older children working with more complex construction sets or artistic projects need only initial displays of toolkit potential and are then devising unique ideas and expressive solutions. Scale this innovative potential to more complex environments or pressing problems and you can see the possibilities for toolkit use across all areas of 'adult' learning, expression, and creative problem solving.

Toolkits are particularly powerful because:

They stimulate the making of real things
They provide a safe method of testing ideas, allowing for trial and error with minimal risk
They provide an outlet for exploration and self-expression
They teach us about ourselves and how we interact with our environment
They can be a self-rewarding method for getting stuff done, including solving problems, creating "new" things, and teaching valuable insights
They can help foster an encouraging can-do belief system

While all toolkits facilitate creation, they vary widely in form and complexity. For example, some toolkits involve physical manipulation (like LEGOs) while others are virtual (like software development kits). Some produce objects (like clay) and others help express ideas (like language). Some are unrestrained and expansive (like painting) and others are highly focused (like skinning an .mp3 player). Some are designed for innovative expression (like creating art) while others concentrate on re-fabricating existing models (like jigsaw puzzles).

Serious Play

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 01:06:21 -0400

"Business executives as well as kids like hands-on interfaces, immediate feedback on their actions, and the ability to work together in groups to solve problems. There's very little difference in the technology for serious work and serious play."
-- Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms

In an attempt to educate MIT research engineers on the use of hi-tech fabrication equipment, a course was created and curiously named "How to Make (Almost) Anything." On the first fall day in 1998 a hundred or so MIT students showed up for a class that could hold only ten. The surprises didn't stop there. There were as many artists and architects as engineers, and prospective students claimed things like "All my life I've been waiting to take a class like this," and "I'll do anything to get into this class." Hardly the typical student attitude.

What was happening here? There seemed to be a demand for the practical ability to make things. Students saw endless possibility in the cutting, printing, and assembling tools made available to the class. Perhaps it wasn't the necessity-driven needs of research that drove students to participate, but the potential of the tools that inspired them.

Professor Neil Gershenfeld, in his book FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop--From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication commented of the students "They were motivated by the desire to make things they'd always wanted but that didn't exist." And, he adds, "they routinely and single-handedly managed to design and build complete functioning systems."

Child's Play

Mon, 5 Sep 2005 12:26:25 -0400

As children, our days were filled with exploration, play, fun and adventure. This is how we learn and grow. This is how we express ourselves. At some point in our maturation, most of us abandoned these labels of play for a more serious endeavor: life. How sad - and I believe, a collective social mistake. Giving ourselves permission to have fun with our lives, to create and expand through often reckless experimentation is the core of successful innovation.

Perhaps without us realizing, the innovation structure within "serious" business endeavors relies upon this creative spirit. It is not enterprise innovation directives, creativity incentive plans, or even well-researched user needs that drive successful innovation. I believe that it is our individual yearning for fun and our loosing the shackles of corporate and customer requirements that provide each of us with the power and inspiration to create effectively and prolifically.