The last week was spend on getting iButtons, real tags that contain a serial code, to work with the roomba.
On Thursday, it all worked smoothly: tags are now coupled to behaviour, different tags result in different behaviour, perfect!
(the mini computer that is going to drive the whole has not yet arrived, so I’m not showing pictures/movies yet)

One immediate conclusion was the importance of context: if a tag with ‘wall-following’ is attached, the roomba nicely follows the wall. In a living room, with couches, sofas and tables, this behaviour changes radically of course: the roomba follows everything.
Here, the tag clearly does not ‘comply’ anymore, as it is not wall-following, but more object tracing?

The next focus will be on these ‘tags’: the visual appearances to the roomba, in order to change behaviour.

behaviour, exploration, ibuttons, roomba, tags Hide

Last week, I started working with the Roomba platform: the hovering robot.
As a first exploration, I created several tags (spiral, random, sweep, wall-follow, fast, slow), and matching behaviours.
The tags can also be combined: spiral + fast = a fast spiral. Wall-follow + wall-follow + spiral = a wall-following robot that moves in small spirals.

iRobot tags – actDresses exploration – robtieben.com/stockholm from Rob Tieben on Vimeo.

actDresses, end-user programming, exploration, roomba Hide

Just a real quick-and-dirty exploration, to see what you can do with 1 LED (a display in this case), and some combining & mixing of tags.

end-user programming, exploration, tags Hide

The last weeks involved exploration again, this time focused on direct manipulation and agents. Discussions, prototypes, and of course iterations created the base of this exploration.

Goal of exploration:
- create WYSIWYG functionality: appearance = behaviour
- create complex/abstract behaviour (interaction, emergence, if-then, etc)
* explore & analyse possibilities
* explore user interaction & understanding

Direct manipulation
* program 1 object
* wearables -> behaviour = complexity

Lemmings behaviour
* objects interact via simple command objects
* wearables + interaction = complexity

Manipulating the agent
* program different objects to activate each other
* “The Incredible Machine”: creating complex system = complexity

Infect the agents
* program different objects to change each other
* system, cause and effect = complexity

Follow up directions
* direct manipulation & users => focus on user userstanding & robot understanding
combine dresses, what happens?
user learns by doing, robot also learns?

* direct manipulative interaction => focus on manipulating interaction
user (unconscious?) designs a complex system
lemmings/TIM principle

* dress changes behaviour <-> behaviour changes dress
concrete vs abstract
changeable dress vs behaviour IS the dress

* shift from ‘understanding inner workings’ to ‘understanding perceivable behaviour’
behaviour ‘behaves’, user changes something, behaviour changes
user forms mental model, does not have to be correct -> understanding should ‘match’

4d, actDresses, direct manipulation, exploration, glowbots, Prototypes Hide

Mobile Life Centre participated in the Mobil Framtid conference, a business event about the near future of mobile applications and devices. As part of the exhibition, Ylva, Mattias, Jordi and myself presented the actDresses and mobile actDresses concepts, with some initial results from my exploration.

No tags Hide