///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Part One: An RFID-driven welcome application
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

We installed 1 RFID Alien reader, at the entrance, on a walk-through arch. The arch reader’s signal was boosted by 4 antennas which are the white blocks.

We distributed simple conference name tag holders fitted with a thin passive RFID tag. These were connected to guests contact details – name, company, email address, LinkedIn. Beyond the arch we projected each name and company related to name card/tag detected. It would pick you up from about 3 meters from the screen. We calibrated it to pop your name a little before reaching the arch.

We also projected the same inside the exhibition space (as another projector was available), while on side monitors we showed a variation of the welcome screen with “person x, company x, has just entered this space”. These were turned off early due to mix-ups as there was a lot going on.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Part deux: 2 physical “swap contact details” touchscreen consoles
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

We placed the other two readers inside vertical touch screen units.

Your badge triggers your name to appear on the screen in a circle. The signal reached 2 meters. People in front of the unit blocked this reach signal working as a perfect damper to return only those in front of the screen to show up. Test, test. This is not really the best sequence series. Video would be great showing people interacting (coming soon).

As all participants had already given us their contact details before entering, we could easily hook people together. See the steps below. Pressing the central button sent emails to respective swappers. It worked! And of course there are a million add-ons that might be possible now, but heck this is just a prototype.

This project helped kick-start development of some new goodies for the Roomware Server. Due to the miserable software support we received from the RFID hardware suppliers, we were forced to write drivers for the RFID reader to communicate with the Roomware Server. So now the Alien reader is supported. What is the state of middleware for RFID? Anything else open source with lots of support for different readers? I assume that as we can read an Alien RFID reader that we are now supporting all Gen 2 UHF readers as that’s an RFID standard.

So this concludes this small case study on a social use of RFID in an exhibition/conference environment.

Oh and they went crazy with segways and smoke machines plus all those LEDs.

And a bit of a tour of the location via dutchcowboys, a dutch marketing and tech blog.

Thanks go to Tom for saving the day (once again!), as 4 people in the team were seriously ill during the crunch period(me included!), so not enough time to test and integrate. Also a big shout out to our collaborators and new special “Internet of Things” operations hit team, Tim and Maarten. All ran smoothly from about 6.30pm onwards. The guests responded very positively!!

My only dark moment was reflecting on the possible extinction of the business card and what that might mean for graphic design on small pieces of card. I was also slightly surprised by how some people used the application. I noticed people in their haste to show it off, clicking on 3 or 4 people they had just met and not really spoken to, pressing the connect button before receiving consent. It was game-like, youthful enthusiasm on show. Treating it as a game when you just meet people was probably due to the nature of the event, which was to show of cool technology. Some people might see this as “connection-lite”, or a new form of spam in which you see your spammer. Shy people will get their email address sent to a stranger who they did not really want to be associated with. Let’s implement that on/off button for RFID tags for people soon.

Team:
Project Management + RFID : Tim and Maarten of Innoviting
Registration web application: Rob van der Burgt – Asva
Roomware Server, database: Tom Burger of Mimic Media, Roomware Project
UI development: Mark Barcinski and Adrien JeanJean of BarcinskiJeanJean
Concept development and creative direction: James Burke of Alchemyst and Roomware Project

Netniet.org wanted to explore what happens with rating people in a physical space. Inspired by reading, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom”, they reused the whuffie, a social currency in Cory Doctorow’s book which people use to rate each other and pass each other value which they use to live off.

“Are we heading towards a future in which social networks will also dominate real life? At the Impakt Festival, this future became reality. With your mobile phone you could judge the performances and especially the people around you, for instance, on whether they are drug free or dangerous. The way in which you are judged by people might also determines your experience of the festival: your popularity becomes tangible. Do you get an extra cookie to go with your tea?”

The installation was spread across 4 different spaces and two separate buildings. Each space had a screen that visualized ratings and zone presence of people participating. 5 days, 5 questions or ways to rate each other. People wore badges with unique ids and a mobile application was used to rate people. Ratings also showed correlations between people as they rated each other.
Example: “Is this person drug free?” Correlation: both have a low rating, means people think they use a lot of drugs. We would then present a random meaning inside the rating-triggered visualization, for instance, ” person 1 is likely to meet person 2 in a cloud of smoke somewhere”.

Check out a video fragment of the Gifted project up and running.

For the Roomware Project, the big benefit is that any of you can now build applications that can take advantage of our new zoning ability. It’s easy to download and there’s documentation too. It was certainly the most complex installation so far. A mobile client handled the ratings using mobile internet. RW Server handled the bluetooth device tracking. That the mobile client handled the rating was a blessing in disguise. We were trying to handle all rating via bluetooth. Fortunately this failed (java does not support writing bluetooth friendly name). If it had, it would have meant a long wait for the plodding speed of bluetooth readers to pass the detection of a rating along. Mobile internet did it within 4 seconds. From a user experience perspective this was just fine;)

See further post on Barcinsky + Jean Jean’s blog

Project Team

Alchemyst – zoning, bluetooth detection

Barcinsky and Jean Jean - data visualization

Nietniet.org – concept, voting application

Lava – graphic design

Nulaz – mobile client for voting

Impakt festival – Festival organization

“Reverse Shadow Theatre is an installation created with the Animata real-time animation editor.

Wayang Kulit is the indonesian shadow puppet theatre, in which finely carved and painted leather puppets move behind a screen making the audiance see their shadows only. In our installation the situation is reversed. The role of the elaborate puppets is emphasized, while the visitor is a mere shadow trying to control the puppets by her movements.”

via WMMNA

Speakers include Katherine Albrecht (CASPIAN – Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion And Numbering, USA), Bart Schermer (privacy lawyer and coordinator of RFID Platform Netherlands), Melanie Rieback (Ubisec researcher, VU University Amsterdam), Stephan Engberg (Priway/Copenhagen Business School), Christian van ‘t Hof (researcher, Rathenau Instituut), Willem Velthoven (designer and director of Mediamatic) and many others.”

Episode 14 – Roomware Devhouse

Having previously viewed this, it was a pleasure to see Alexandra’s posting over on the tinker blog on this project. It’s a wonderfully simple solution to crowd interaction in a space where it’s harder to speak than gesture. It also brings people together in the most elegant of ways.

“ZYGOTE is a lightweight inflated ball, illuminated from within, that responds to pressure applied to its surface. Interacting with the ball is simple: punch it, bounce it, squeeze it, or tap it and the ball’s internal LEDs react instantaneously. Dozens of balls released to an energetic audience at a major music concert, transform the environment into a multi-sensorial, interactive playground, actively engaging the crowd in a shared experience. Each ball also can act as both an input and an output device by being networked to a central computer. This allows for more complex interaction, as the crowd can modify the graphics on a screen, make the balls light up in unison, or even affect the music.”

Upcoming server updates:

- RFID support, scan those passports
- Java Bluetooth library for the Mac, the one and only
- Server redesign, “more configurable, less fuzzy”

We are always open to ad-hoc presentations and showing off your latest code, tech or ideas. Let us know if you’ve built anything cool that you would like to present.

We’ve moved this DevHuis to the Post CS building next to Amsterdam Central Station where Wakoopa will kindly host our event on the 8th Floor (suite 804). We’ll be there starting around 12:00 until dinner in town nearby.

Add your name to the Upcoming guest roster!

For a semi live stream of the conference check out my Flickr photo’s…

Our latest DevHouse, or DevHuis as Andy thinks we should call it, was held this saturday and led to a much clearer picture of our architecture and roadmap. We did get merry and drink beer also. All was well. I’ll post some notes to the wiki as soon as i have that up and running again. We are working on a new site too which is being HTML-ed as i type this by the wonderful Sjors. We’ll try to have that online a.s.a.p. Furthermore i’m setting up a single mailinglist for all the people involved in the project, you should receive notifcation when i have set it up and you joined us in the past.

For some event pics check out Andy’s Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/termie/tags/roomware/