Fritzing

Fritzing is a new project from the emerging Interaction Design Lab at FH Potsdam lead by Prof. Reto Wettach and André Knörig


It is an open source initiative inspired by the Processing and Arduino projects to provide a similar easier learning and work flow for art and design students and practitioners to use EDA (Electronic Design Automation)

"We are aiming to create a software in the spirit of Processing and Arduino, that allows the designer/artist/researcher/hobbyist to document their Arduino-based prototype and create a PCB layout for manufacturing. The complimenting website helps to share and discuss drafts and experiences as well as to reduce manufacturing costs."

Having known Prof Reto and visited FH Potsdam I think its really a great place to start this.
It will be a really challenging project. Now that the Arduino and Wiring projects are really popular and in use through out art and design institutions around the world, it is interesting to consider the next part of the prototyping process, how to make bespoke PCBs and to produce more rapidly from the 'breadboard' stage to a more solid working piece.

From my own experience just looking at how PCBs are designed and produced it is currently complex and for a beginner daunting. It is great that there are open sourced examples from Arduino related projects, and MAKE(rs) availible, but dealing with the file formats .brd .sch software like EAGLE, etc. is far away from the stripped down simplicity and immediacy of Arduino or Processing.
As far as I got - I've been experimenting with cutting machines, and thinking more conceptually than practically looking at cutting ciruits on 2d CAD machines into different materials. The difficulty in transfering from the EAGLE format to a format that these machines or other CAD machines can use (.dxf, seemed to be prohibitive if not impossible.
I would hope that making these formats more open and compatible could be something that Fritzing could contribute to.

Report from Mediamatic RFID and Physical Computing Hackers Camp

I recently participated in the Mediamatic RFID and Physical Computing Hackers Camp.

Here are some findings about the technical set-up and the project made:

<..>

RFID Reader:

A USB based board with integrated Antenna.

http://www.sonmicro.com/1356/sm132.php

It is for HF (High Frequency) cards, such as Mifare, also similar to used by Oyster Card (London Transport) and NFC tags developed by Nokia etc for phone based tagging and payment.

How to get the data: you need to install the driver of course (uses FTDI USB Serial chip - same as Arduino) then you need to send the module messages in hex to get it to

For PICINC this was done by a script from Marco W. It sets the board to read continuously the ID type and serial number of any

In Mac OS X, make sure you have Perl + Serial Port module installed (that took lot longer than I thought!!) and run from command line - something like this.

[pic of terminal]

The PICNIC Network:

Part of the rationale for the workshop and the projects generated was to make use of the PICNIC Network as set up for the visitors to the PICNIC'07 conference. The content management system is a version of anyMeta developed by Mediamatic. Mediamatic.net also runs on this system. It creates a profile for each user and then allows them to add keywords or 'tags' to their profile.

http://www.picnicnetwork.org/

[pic my profile page]

During the PICNIC'07 conference visitors and staff were also given a Mifare RFID key fob, that could be connected to their PICNIC Network profile when registered.

In fact the system as such would allow any RFID tag or card to be registered. The technical spec would be that it was HF RFID type tag such as Mifare. (Apparently in Holland citizens usually carry up to 3 tagged ID cards or transport tickets already. London citizens could have tried their Oyster card. Gizmondo citizens could have tried their Nokia 6131 NFC phone, unfortunately even l though I had the last two, I had to leave early so couldn't try them. )

[pic of tag]

The project I worked on:

Before the workshop I had submitted some ideas that I would like to discuss and maybe develop.

These were titled 'Badge Collector' and 'Touch and plus'

The badge idea seemed to have more resonance for some of the participants,

However the original idea of actually making active RFID badges was put aside, as too technically difficult for this stage.

There was some debate about whether you can just mount a RFID tag sticker on a button badge, but unsure whether it interferes with antenna and transmission of signal.

So I had an idea to virtualise the badge collecting and visualise it using a magic mirror display. This was worked on for some time day one, a demo visualiser was made.

In discussion it was noted that the mirror display is quite 1 person, so it misses the idea that people make social networks and sociabilty through looking and sharing the badges, and its missed in the mirror display which is quite a private experience.

Group were selected - I was lucky to be joined by Mark Wubben and Audrey, then we truly were worked on the project together.

The project was then brainstormed further and became more about a profiling and grouping application that would corresponds to stickers or badges printed on demand.

12 groups were made based on a manual and then algorithmic analysis of the keywords users had added to their profile. There were about 100 keywords set up on the system that related to work and hobbies, professions etc.

The 12 groups were first called 'signs' as in star signs - and hence the 12. Then it became apparent to call them after animals.

In the time some icons were made from a font set that is quite cutesy, but appealed to a certain playfulness. The animals were hedgehog, koala, mouse, bird, bull, monkey, owl, deer, bear, dolphin, fox, penguin.

Thus the name of the project became 'badger' another mysterious animal.

The sticker machine was made from an inject printer linked to a mac and the Mifare reader. Scripted to read the tag ID, find the profile from database, parse the profile keywords and then assign an animal sign. Then controlled by an Applescript, which printed out a set of stickers from a file. (Great work there by Mark Wubben!)

It would have been hoped to have a automated button press, that just spit out badges pre-pressed (but those are £5000+)

Further developments - as suggested/commented

• customised badges, the image made on the badge is somehow scraped from images in the Picnic network then assigned to the user profile, ie carnivore or driftnet.
  
• the original 'tag' badge,
  
• the future fully electronic badge, something like the nfc phone - tag and reader in one, protoype in thought - 1st version maybe 5" diameter!
  

Open Source Electronics wiki

http://www.opencircuits.com/Main_Page

Explosions in the sky and fire in the eye

It was great to see them live finally....just missed every time they
came to town last few years, even last month in Camdem, now they are
a headlining band. Last months show at Koko was like a triumphant 2nd
homecoming so I've read and heard - check out the live music archive,
thanks to the tapers :) another social music revolution. But, not
without incident: the Koko stage invasion is now legendary. There was
some expectation about what this follow-up London show would bring.
I think EITS kind of figured this, they went for something a bit
different. A more varied selection of songs, and some new kind of
segways between them.
Mid way to the end...a bit of a slow burning set, I was
thinking....now realising that it's their new set :p - more songs off
the new record like 'Catastrophe And The Cure', 'Welcome Ghosts' and
even 'Its Natural to Be Afraid' including piano which was a new
texture...

The sounds were a bit muddy thats typical of this kind of London
venue, but the playing of EITS is spot on.
I'm wondering if when at full tilt their sound is closest to the kind
of expressway drone of a sonic youth bad moon rising/evol era,
there's not many that got to that kind of 1000 bells tone without
just falling into sludge.

So what about to the fire in the eye? The set lifts for a finale as
we get the classic 'The Only Moment We Were Alone' to fill our
hearts. The heat and intensity rises through the familiar strumming
and melodic intro.
Then the fire starts - literally - just before getting up to full
tilt in the song smoke starts billowing out of Munaf's rented (i
guess) Marshall amp. To the bands disbelief, but quiet amazement, and
the song was halted.
'oh, this was gonna be the last song, anyway.. but i guess thats it'.
I was thinking before in gearhead mind, why he's using a Marshall,
when I associated their sound so much with Fender amps, maybe thats a
karma clue, go back to Fender?
Well a replacement amp was found and 'The Only Moment... lifted up
again, complete with a roused crowd now clapping along...
It was the last moment with EITS for now too, no encores here, so
you have to wait until their next triumphant challenge headling ATP
vs the Fans or a second chance offer on their postponed Manchester gig.
I would say take any take offer and mode of transport to get to see
them.

jimw

[album artist=Explosions in the Sky]All Of a Sudden[/album]
[url=http://www.archive.org]live music archive[/url]

Bruce Sterling at Innovationsforum Interaktionsdesign, Postdam

from the talk of Bruce Sterling on SPIMES

Coming through the convergence of technologies, are the Spime. 6 qualities distinguish them:

1- they are conceived and designed within a network,
2- they are given a unique (digital) identity distinct from the others,
3- they are physically fabricated as opposed to manufactured in a factory. They are not made until they are sold,
4- they can be tracked through technologies of geo-localization,
5- they can be searched out through network search engines,
6- they are designed for disassembling.

- then there's a 7th one: they leave an historical trace behind them, a valuable pool of metadata.

via WMMNA

Gillian Crampton Smith questioned by Boris Muller at Innovationsforum Interaktionsdesign, Postdam

Boris Muller asking questions to Gillian Crampton Smith on the "craft of interaction design"

...It seems interaction design has become much more powerful in terms of creating prototypes. ..And those tools like Processing and Arduino, you can really do more than just static prototypes, you can really create experiences that really work. Do you really think it would be possible to have to ?$?$? evolve and really become craftsman that its able to go to a designer and say ok I would like to have this, and then they craft this?

I think one of the things that happened is because the pace of invention has been so rapid, and the technology is changing all the time that is very difficult for people to keep up with the craft, there isn't enough time that you need to get to the experience you need with the particular technologies. So I think that's one problem.

I think another thing is - to be a crafts-person you have to understand the medium, and that for us does mean understanding something about how the underlying technologies work. So I think there's an interesting er tension between a way of thinking that is more a program(er) way of thinking and a way of thinking that is more a holistic, if you like way of thinking, which is what traditionally the craftsman, designer, uses in their work, and I think we haven't resolved that yet.

That's probably because its so..... If we think of the web, Web 2.0 something really interesting has happened ..suddenly data becomes available, and kind of Flicker opens up an API, so just anyone can just create his or her very own Flicker viewer and I think if this would also happen in the physical world, a new way of...for design objects could emerge.

Yes, Well I think the whole thing of platforms - where a certain level of complexity is done for you, and then you can work on top of that. I think that web 2.0 is, in a way a lot of hype, but I think it has opened up a fantastic opportunity, really, to break the monopoly of Microsoft. (laughs) Im sorry if its one of your sponsors... But I think before it was very difficult for anyone to design new types of software because they just had such a grip on the market. But now I'm using a software on the web called 'Basecamp' and its been written by 3 people, and it suits me fine..so i think there's a tremendous opportunity for innovation again, just suddenly now, so I'm very excited.

Department of Experiment

1972 Department of Experiment (later known as the Department of Experimental and Electronic Art) at the Slade in 1972.

http://www.chart.ac.uk/chart2004/papers/mason.html