Tinker it now!

Arduino has the random() function, that generates random numbers.

Try this code:

int count;
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Here are some random numbers");
  for (count=1; count<=10; count++) {
    Serial.println(random(100));
  }
}
void loop() {
}

I get the numbers 7, 49, 73, 58, 30, 72, 44, 78, 23, 9. You probably did too. Not very random.

Generating truly random numbers in electronics isn’t easy. There are all sorts of problems to solve – where to get the random numbers from. How to make sure they really are even and fair.

We often have need for truly random numbers on Tinker.it! projects, so we wrote a library to do just that. We’ve released it so that others can use it too. TrueRandom is downloadable from our Google Code pages.

So lets try that again, with TrueRandom installed.

#include <TrueRandom.h>

int count;
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  Serial.println("Here are some random numbers");
  for (count=1; count<=10; count++) {
    Serial.println(TrueRandom.random(100));
  }
}
void loop() {
}

Much better.

We’re looking at using this library for games, ESP experiments, fortune telling, cryptography (generating keys, challenges and nonces) and automatically allocating unique serial numbers (UUID, Ethernet MAC addresses). We’d love to know what you use it for.

++ Lovely application of more flexible electronics in the context of pop-up books.

++ Project Infomania, a research project on RIFD and ubiquitous computing in the Netherlands.

++ Pics of the Creative Quarter event at the V&A this fall that introduced children to the creative industries through various workshops. Wish there could have been more hacking!

++ Decode exhibition at the V&A is now on Daniel and Brock went to the opening and will be reporting back shortly.

** The problems with attending conferences you don’t quite fit into…is that you don’t quite fit in :) and organisers have a hard time being able to put a value on what you’re talking about because it might appear a little too far away from what people want to hear about. eComm was definitely like that and I got cut off 2 slides from the end of my talk which prevented me from making a point properly, so I thought I’d write about it here instead. **

If “The Internet of Things” is the answer, what is the question?

I’ve been thinking around this subject for a number of years now and I thought I’d try out another meme: The Internet of Stuff. I think the first expression is starting to sound dated and things have changed since I first encountered the phrase circa 2007 that are making me want a new terminology:

- Things is a term we mostly associate with an inanimate object, something we might have at home, in our kitchen or bedroom, something that’s part of our domestic life more often than not. I saw the reaction to the term in a class at Domus Academy when I was teaching there last month. Domesticity has somehow shaped our idea of what a “thing” is supposed to be and maybe that’s too restrictive. I would like to have intelligence, or sentient capability outside the home. I think the term “stuff” can be a little more of a grey area and include the clothes we wear, the park benches we sit on, the services we use.

- We don’t often include our selves and our devices in the “internet of things” and we think about a system that is in isolation to the current technologies that we use. Something for the future. I think that, as Tom and Matt pointed out, we have developed the ability to track ourselves and use our devices to do so, so why shouldn’t that be part of the equation as well. We can be stuff too in other words. Our devices, things and ourselves should be in direct or indirect communication through the Cloud and those things can be Arduino-enabled, RFID enabled, sensors or actuator enabled or passively recognised with semacodes or other low-tech tools.

Moving forward in this space there is tremendous opportunity for flexible systems where we talk to each other directly, through our things, or our devices talk to us through other devices, etc… Flexible systems mean flexible infrastructures on top of large networks, whether they are radio, cell phone, wifi, 3G, wimax, xbee… and that’s why the large tecos should pay attention. Innovation that happens at an initial small scale of a few Arduinos in a space can then start flooding the network with tiny whispers and conversations between myself, my watch, my bathtub, my mom’s cell phone, her chair and everything else in the middle. The tiny chatter of these systems will have to be funneled and managed somehow so that we can expect the same “stability” as the rest of the basic services. Building a business model around that will be another matter entirely and something that the providers will have to figure out hand in hand with the designers of the services.

The physical world is made of stuff. Stuff costs money. It has to be transported. Building things takes time. And yet software is virtual. Data. A pattern of electrons. It can move from one continent to another in a split-second, for a microscopic fraction of a penny. Installation is one mouse click away. But you can’t touch it. Software is locked behind the monitor, trapped beneath your mouse.

What if the electronic world were more like the software world? What if trying out a new circuit was as simple as downloading new software and moving a few wires around a breadboard.

There are numerous Arduinos all around the world. They are standardised and compatible – they all run the same software. They are cheap, and easy to acquire or build.

Auduino launch event

Auduino is a synthesiser based on this principle. It is based around an Arduino, with the absolute minimum of extra components. A beginner can build one in less than 15 minutes. If you have an Arduino already, the rest of the components cost little more than the price of a pint of beer. You may have everything you need in a drawer right now.

With the obstacles of ’stuff’ reduced, Auduino starts to behave like ethereal data. Money and distribution are no longer a barrier. Anyone can download with a single click. Within days of its release, experimenters around the globe were not only building Auduino, but building upon it.

Auduino was released in late 2008. Within two weeks of release, it had crossed the Atlantic with new sliding controls. In the Netherlands, it got a shiny case of aluminium. New year passed, and a cardboard encased version appeared. The Arduino Mega and new 328 based Duemilanove appeared, and Auduino was updated to support them.

By the middle of 2009, there were experiments in paper based circuit fabrication. Paperduino was swiftly followed by a paper based Auduino. Circular arrays of dials and LEDs were added. A hybrid with a stylus control. And it continued. A colour reactive synthesiser. Making sounds from fabric.

In the last few days, we have spotted a physical sequencer, and a great case made from cardboard and a Sharpie.

Auduino and many other free projects are hosted at the Tinker.it! Google Code repository.

Busy times at TInker.it! these days but here are some things that caught our eye.

++ Sensorpedia kinda feels like Pachube, but supported by Homeland Security…yikes.

++ We could write a book about how hard it is to build installations for events. Wired UK highlights a lot of the problems in this article aptly titled “Augmented reality? More like awkward hilarity”.

++ Wall Street Journal talks about slow tech and returning to asynchronous communication methods.

++ Victoria and Albert Museum are running a laser cutting class on November 16th….tempting.

++ Nice BBC Technology article on the growth of open source. They’ve also written about whether programming skills will become essential on the market and covered the latest Dorkbot event.

++ Dave Mellis, main software developer on the Arduino team, gave a talk at Reboot11 a design conference in Copenhagen last week on “Making money from open source hardware”. He was kind enough to mention Tinker.it! in his talk as well!

++ Violet, founders of the Nabaztag rabbit are coming out soon with Dal:dal a sort of ambiant web connected orb, not unlike the one from Ambient devices.

++ TInker.it!’s frequent collaborator John Nussey has just completed a series of multitouch tables for London College of Fashion end of year show. It’s on till end of July, go check it out if you’re around Oxford Circus.

It seems that the energy monitoring stuff has been taking off lately so I thought I’d collate all the projects we know about this space here:

++ Future Currents project by the design council in 2005 around home energy efficiency (disclaimer: I worked on this)

++ Holmes is the software interface that goes with the very stylish Wattson home energy monitor designed by DIY Kyoto.

++ Nicholas O’Leary from IBM monitors his energy use with an Orb and got it to talk to the MQTT protocol.

++ Richard Parker built a gaz meter connected to Arduino and posted up the documentation (very thorough).

++ Pachube has of course been the platform of choice for publishing and sharing energy consumption data.

++ Adrian McEwen from the Bubblino project also built a mains power meter using a Lava lamp.

++ OpenSpime has become Widetag which as a “social energy meter”.

++ Open Energy Monitor project by Trystan Lea

Just came back from Newcastle this weekend for the first ever UK Makerfaire and I had a blast. I thought I’d report on the cool stuff I saw there before crashing (6 hours to travel back to London took its toll).

We were there with Folksy to present the work done during Makers & Hackers 2 weeks ago, which was great. People’s response was very positive overall. More photos on Flickr and a I did a short interview on the BBC’s Channel 5 Live on the weekend (around 0:50 seconds in).

Other fantastic people who were there included:

- The Curiosity Collective presented a series of great physical projects based on proverbs.

- BBC RAD (Research and development) team was there presenting some of their work including a lovely how-to on building your own cheap multi-touch table.

- The guys behind the Tv Be Gone project were there running soldering workshops.

- Aaron Nielsen from Oomlout was there and showed off his fantastic instructables leaflets for Arduino-based projects.

- Guido Maciocci had a fantastic touch-sensitive plant-based animation.

- Adrian McEwen was showing off the Bubblino and also had a Lava Lamp that responded to the energy level on the national grid.

- The guys from Shapeways were there too and gave a talk about fabrication, 3d printing and mass customisation.

- Kosbo was showing off some of their Nixie tubes clocks and displays, really pretty.

- Brian Degger had some lovely light-shy bots with colored heads.

I also met some fantastic people for the first time and was happy to see familiar faces. Thanks to Brian and Pete for showing us Newcastle and generally making me fall in love with the city, its 6 bridges and incessant hills.

We’ve been working on this behind the scenes for a while and thought it might be good to share it with the community and see what sticks.

TinkerKit is an Arduino-compatible physical computing prototyping toolkit aimed at design professionals. We wanted to be able to simplify even more the process of designing with hardware, iterating during the creative process in the area of interaction design and generally just trying things out quickly and with not much effort or soldering needed.

We’ll be releasing a few videos to show you what’s possible, but I thought we should start with Crystal Campbell (a great designer who interned with us last fall) and Daniel Soltis, our interaction design in the London office working on a body sensitive interaction in just a few minutes and finding out what works best.

We’re looking for collaborators and feedback on this project so if you’re interested, please give us a shout!

++ A nice project, SpinVox WishingWell, produced by Freestate for the Covent Garden Christmas festival. Powered by SpinVox’s Speech-to-Text technology, you call a number (free of charge) to make a wish. Your words are converted to text and projected onto the walls inside the Wishing Well installation. Your words also appear online. It reminds me of Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar’s We Feel Fine, visualising and sharing your mood, but WishingWell is more tangible. I love to see street installation combing tech and art in such a clever way and also encouraging people to get involved. I was out of town, a real pity I missed it.

++ More from Freestate: Hall of Mirrors, a lovely installation for the Sony Europe building in Berlin. Think tactile trees and mirrors all over the place.

++ Here’s another group of Tinkerers. The UKC Tinkering Society is a group of like-minded students who are into experimenting with new things at the University of Kent in Canterbury. Headed by Omer Kilic, this is an official society where robotics, computing and installations are just part of their interests. It’s great to see interest rising from the ground up. Follow their creations on their blog.