The Touch project has a new exhibition in collaboration with the Record project at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design.

In recent years we have witnessed the growth of a new breed of consumer products and services that are a hybrid of tangible atoms and online bits. This exhibition offers a selection of products, demonstrators, videos and art objects that highlight the ways in which online social media now are becoming an important part of the functionality, design and desirability of new products and services. As products and services become increasingly digital and disappear into screens, Hybrids exemplifies some alternative strategies, where some of the magic of the social web seep out into the physical world through tangible things.

There are a number of products and services on show, including a new project by Jørn Knutsen and Einar Sneve Martinussen:

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3. New film: Wireless in the World 2 In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been......
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In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been specifically designed for exhibition in HABITAR at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial.

Here is an excerpt from the exhibition description:

“Utopian and radical architects in the 1960s predicted that cities in the future would not only be made of brick and mortar, but also defined by bits and flows of information. The urban dweller would become a nomad who inhabits a space in constant flux, mutating in real time. Their vision has taken on new meaning in an age when information networks rule over many of the city’s functions, and define our experiences as much as the physical infrastructures, while mobile technologies transform our sense of time and of space.”

There are photos of the exhibition by Edgar Gonzalez here. The exhibition catalogue with essays by Anne Galloway, Usman Haque, Nicolas Nova and others is available to download here.

Related things:

1. Wireless in the world An ongoing Touch theme is about making invisible wireless technologies visible, in order to better understand and communicate with and about them (see a Graphic Language for RFID, Dashed lines and Fictional radio spaces).......
2. Designing with film We’ve compiled a short sequence of some of the design experiments and tests in audiovisual media in the Touch project. Here we show some of the ‘behind the scenes’ tests and processes where we......
3. Magnetic Movie In the same vein as the Bubbles of Radio work from last year, Magnetic Movie is a film that explores visible and audible manifestations of radio fields. The film is by Ruth Jarman &......
4. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
5. Immaterials: the ghost in the field This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. The......

In the Journal of Personal and Ubiquitous Computing the article Multi-field relations in designing for short-range RFID analyses some of the conceptual foundations for multi-field inputs with RFID enabled artifacts:

“Multi-field inputs are techniques driven by multiple short-range RFID-enabled artifacts like RFID-tags and RFID-tag readers. The technology is useful for designers so as to enable the construction of advanced interaction through the physical world. To take advantage of such opportunities, it is important to understand the technology in terms of what interactions it might offer designers. I address this issue by unwrapping and exposing elements that can be used to conceptualize multi-field interactions. This is done by way of a design driven inquiry in which design and research methods are used to investigate short-range RFID technology. My approach is informed by activity theory which I use to analyze RFID technology from a design perspective. The study presents multi-field relations as a conceptual framework that can be used to describe and generate multi-field inputs. Four types of multi-field relations are discussed: one-way, two-way, sequence and multiple relations. These are described and analyzed in context of a set of multi-field input examples. The multi-field relations expose elements that can be used to construct interactions. This is important for interaction designers, since new interactions presents designers with opportunities for making entirely new types of interfaces that can lead to interesting and surprising experiences.”

In the International Journal of Design the article Conceptual Designing and Technology: Short-Range RFID as Design Material unpacks RFID—or fields—as design material, and looks at designers motives around emerging technologies:

“Short-Range Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an emerging technology that interaction designers are currently embracing. There are, however, few systematic efforts to utilize the technology as a tool for the development of new design concepts. This article focuses on technology as a design material and its role in the formative process of conceptual design. My approach involves the use of activity theory and the concept of motives, used to analyze short-range RFID technology when considering the field of design. I employ practice-based research where qualitative design and research methods are used to scrutinize the use of this technology in design. A design material perspective frames the short-range RFID technology as a composite consisting of near-fields and the computational. This material is coined near-field material and is further described through six form-making qualities: Tap and Hold, Multi-Field Relations, Multi-Field Distribution, Field Shape, Context Sharing and Mediation Type. I propose that the near-field material and thus the six form-making qualities cited above, offer designers engaged in creating user-oriented experiences, a morphology of form types. I argue that by synthesizing and analyzing emerging technology in relation to designers’ motives for using them, we may further support research and practice by placing technology inside design discourse and culture.”

See more publications from Touch.

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3. Designing with RFID In Designing with RFID we explore the potential for RFID objects in everyday contexts. Because RFID is a wireless, radio-based technology it is inherently invisible once embedded, and this raises issues around visibility and......
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5. Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2009 We recently presented our paper Designing with RFID at the Tangible and Embedded Interaction conference in Cambridge UK. This presentation was part of a session on ‘enabling technologies and design techniques’. The presentation focused......

We’ve compiled a short sequence of some of the design experiments and tests in audiovisual media in the Touch project. Here we show some of the ‘behind the scenes’ tests and processes where we used cinematic/video/filmmaking tools as a means to uncover potentials and constraints around an emerging technology.

In these experiments we designed and invented spaces, objects, movements and audiovisual techniques that map and visualise the interactive phenomena of RFID. Many of the visual/cinematic concepts for Nearness and Immaterials were invented by exploring and experimenting with film.

Rather than investing time in creating complex software and hardware prototypes, the interactive experience can be quickly explored inside film compositing applications. These experiments have shown us that there is great value in having tools that offer efficient prototyping of interactions at an experiential level, that don’t need to rely on complex electronics or physical design. There is also value in working within a medium that is not tied to a specific location or a unique demonstrator, and that is editable, reproducible and transmissible allowing it to be shared freely and widely amongst a research group and across the internet.

This is the subject of a forthcoming paper that we’ll flag up here as soon as it is published.

Related things:

1. New film: Wireless in the World 2 In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been......
2. Designing with RFID In Designing with RFID we explore the potential for RFID objects in everyday contexts. Because RFID is a wireless, radio-based technology it is inherently invisible once embedded, and this raises issues around visibility and......
3. ‘Nearness’ goes further Since the launch three weeks ago, our film Nearness has been seen almost 100,000 times, and favourited by over 500 people. Thanks for all the feedback and commentary! Creativity contacted us for a “Behind......
4. Nearness One of the essential properties of Near Field Communication is nearness, but this is set against one of the paradoxes of touch-based interaction where, in fact, nothing needs to touch. In a very short......
5. iPhone RFID: object-based media This is a video prototype of an iPhone media player that uses physical objects to control media playback. It is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that triggers various iPhone interactions when in the......

These are some of his lovely experimental renderings of a three dimensional interpretation of the RFID symbol that we developed from the immaterials visualisations.

Related things:

1. RFID icon based on Immaterials Jack Schulze has written up some thoughts and background on the new RFID icon based on our Immaterials’ visualisation work from last week. Download a vector file of this creative commons symbol.......
2. Responses to ‘Immaterials’ In the two weeks since we launched our film Immaterials we’ve seen it spread across the internet, going much further than we anticipated for such an esoteric exploration! So far it’s been covered by......
3. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
4. Immaterials: the ghost in the field This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. The......
5. Wireless in the world An ongoing Touch theme is about making invisible wireless technologies visible, in order to better understand and communicate with and about them (see a Graphic Language for RFID, Dashed lines and Fictional radio spaces).......

“The iCarteTM is a Near Field Communication (NFC) / Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Reader, designed to provide NFC two-way communication, RFID read/write and contactless payment capability for the iPhone. NFC and RFID tag information can be written and read by the iCarteTM and communicated to the iPhone or to any Computer with a USB port. iCarteTM has an embedded smart-chip that can be configured as debit, credit, pre-paid and loyalty cards, for secure contactless transactions. iCarteTM can also read NFC Smart Posters, download or upload electronic coupons, tickets or receipts. iCarteTM is ideal for iPhone users who want to use their iPhones for fast and secure contactless payments, transit payments, loyalty rewards, checking balances, top-up, discovering new services from smart posters or kiosks and exchanging information with other NFC phones. Business iPhone users can use the iCarteTM for commercial applications such as asset tracking, document tracking, healthcare, security and access control.”

I’ve also heard rumours that Core RFID is about to have a reader available for the iPhone, and we’ll flag that up here as soon as we hear anything more.

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One of the first long-exposure photographs that proved the mapping technique.

Adam Greenfield uses the work to reflect on how design decisions about seemingly small details—such as the range of an RFID reader—can have significant implications for wider systems and infrastructures:

“Rather than asserting “an RFID” as some eternal given, something that will produce the same linear, determinate effect each and every time it is deployed, Immaterials reminds us that the choice of material, shape, size, direction, orientation and power rating of the components involved have distinct consequences for the uses to which those components can be put. And as we’ve seen, these choices can produce effects on levels seemingly entirely removed from the interaction itself.”

Dan Hill goes back to the ‘invisibility’ of electricity and relates the work to his own experiments looking at the immaterial aspects of the city:

“In their work I even see something of the early experiments of, say, Benjamin Franklin and Nikola Tesla in terms of understanding the behaviour of electricity, such that it can then be tamed, conducted, and put to work. It’s perhaps drawing a long bow to make that comparison, but it feels like a similar sentiment. Whilst electricity is hardly invisible, there is a sense of trying to understand such immaterial phenomena through prototyping and experimentation. ”

Here in the discussion Mitchell Whitelaw responds to what he sees as the false opposition between material and immaterial, suggesting transmaterial as a suitable alternative term for the new kinds of materials that we are working with. Have a look at Mitchell’s weblog for more on the term transmaterial and ‘expanded computing’.

The technically focused audience at Slashdot questioned the reasons for doing such a study. A common criticism here is that manufacturers data sheets and computer simulations should be able to give us a quicker and more accurate model of the interaction:

“For a theoretical/measured depiction they could just read the reader manufacturer’s data sheet, which will almost certainly contain a diagram of the antenna sensitivity pattern in a couple of planes and probably some concrete figures.”

“The subtlety seems to be that they’re not plotting an RF field, they’re plotting the volume in which the passive tag will respond to an RF field (of a given strength). It’s another level of abstraction. Yes, once somebody has come up with the idea then the implementation looks simple enough, but the idea is quite remarkable.”

“The main reason they did this is to map out the field interaction between the RFID tag and the reader, which is not a trivial thing to visualize based on the two data sheets.”

Also discussed here was a technical point that raises wider concerns about privacy, security and eavesdropping:

“Remember, anything radio is not theoretically limited in range. Only practical implementations have set limits. ”

“Yes, but RFID passive responses very quickly go below ambient background noise, in effect limiting even the theoretical range to 1-2 m for all but most exotic radio-noise free environments.”

This discussion shows that—even though we are keen for these images to be used as material in the discussion of privacy and the problem of invisibility—the physical limitations for snooping or eavesdropping are more complex. And if we then take RFID systems as a whole, there are far wider concerns that are much broader than physical/spatial relationships such as the long-term storage of data on travelcard or passport usage for instance.

A glimpse behind the scenes of the Immaterials filmmaking.

We received lots of emails and comments from specialists involved in radio and antenna design, who saw the visualisations as empirical evidence:

From Paul B. via email:

“I’ve worked in both passive and active RFID for about 15 years and want to congratulate you on the very effective and entertaining visualizations. I’ve done my share of winding coils, blinking LEDs and have created diagrams mapping fields so I know how hard it is to make something that is useful and actually helps non-tech people understand the weird world of RFID.”

From Dave H. via email:

“We have had to use huge anechoic chambers with massive parabolic reflectors and extremely stable transmitters to measure the field strength pattern of antennae. I know it’s a world away from that sort of large scale tech but your RFID visualisations blew me away. It’s fantastic. A brilliant idea. And it works perfectly.”

And finally some kind words from both Fast Company:

“As technology progresses, we need better symbols to understand all the gadgets and electrical hubbub that surrounds us. What could be better than symbols that actually reveal a bit about how a technology works?”

And the Helsinki Design Lab 2010:

“Rarely does one have the opportunity to watch a discourse take large strides, but I get the feeling that’s exactly what we’re witnessing as Touch/BERG elaborate nearfield communications as something with nuance – in other words, as a material.”

Related things:

1. Responses to ‘Nearness’ The broad response to the short film Nearness has been tremendous. In the two days since it was launched it has received over 55,000 views and has been covered all over the internet. It......
2. RFID icon based on Immaterials Jack Schulze has written up some thoughts and background on the new RFID icon based on our Immaterials’ visualisation work from last week. Download a vector file of this creative commons symbol.......
3. Rendering immaterials into 3D Our Immaterials film, that visualises the spatial qualities of RFID, inspired architect Oliviu Lugojan-Ghenciu (from the Architectural Association) to explore the three dimensional representations of fields. These are some of his lovely experimental renderings......
4. Immaterials: the ghost in the field This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. The......
5. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......

Download a vector file of this creative commons symbol.

Related things:

1. Rendering immaterials into 3D Our Immaterials film, that visualises the spatial qualities of RFID, inspired architect Oliviu Lugojan-Ghenciu (from the Architectural Association) to explore the three dimensional representations of fields. These are some of his lovely experimental renderings......
2. Immaterials: the ghost in the field This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. The......
3. iPhone RFID: object-based media This is a video prototype of an iPhone media player that uses physical objects to control media playback. It is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that triggers various iPhone interactions when in the......
4. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......
5. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......

This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG.

The problem and opportunity of invisibility

RFID is still badly understood as an interactive technology. Many aspects of RFID interaction are fundamentally invisible; as users we experience two objects communicating through the ‘magic’ of radio waves. This invisibility is also key to the controversial aspects of RFID technology; once RFID antennas are hidden inside products or in environments, they can be invoked or initiated without explicit knowledge or permission. (See here for more on the invisibility of radio.)

But invisibility also offers opportunities: the lack of touch is an enormous usability and efficiency leap for many systems we interact with everyday (hence the success of Oyster, Suica and Octopus cards). But there is also the ‘magic’ of nearness one of the most compelling experiential aspects of RFID.

As designers we took this invisibility as a challenge. We needed to know more about the way that RFID technology inhabits space so that we could better understand the kinds of interactions that can be built with it and the ways it can be used effectively and playfully inside physical products.

The experiments

In order to study the readable volume around an RFID reader, we built experimental probes that would flash an LED light when they successfully read an RFID tag. The readable volume is not the same as the radio field, instead it shows the space within the field in which an RFID tag and an RFID reader will interact with each other.

One version of our probe containing a tag and LED light connected to the RFID reader that is being studied.

In a dark room, the probes were moved around the various RFID tags and readers that we wanted to study, with a camera taking long-exposure photographs of the resulting patterns of light. In this way we could build up layers by slicing through the field in different ways, creating animations that clearly reveal the spatial properties of this interaction.

These experiments were carried out in order to help us flesh out our own models of the technology, and were not intended to be scientifically accurate. So although they accurately reflect the behaviour of the technologies in the situations that we work with, there were no controlled environments or settings for generalisable technical accuracy.

Innovations ID 20

The Innovations ID 20 RFID reader has become one of the standard components in a lot of our work, it is small, robust and relatively cheap. So it has been very important for us to gain an understanding of the readable volume it produces when we embed the reader inside products such as Sniff and Skål.

Details: Innovations ID20 low-frequency EM4102 reader, 20mm circular EM4102 tag.

The resulting visualisation shows the way in which we have mapped the boundary of the readable volume, although a tag will read anywhere inside this, we have only mapped the edge for the sake of clarity. From the animation (see the video) we start to clearly see that the readable volume is made up of a strong central sphere, accompanied by a smaller lobe that surrounds the edge of the reader.

Oyster card

Mifare cards are one of the largest public applications of RFID, used in many transit systems around the world such as the Oyster and Suica cards. It has become common to have to touch in and touch out of subway stations, and many people have become accustomed to this interaction. So what does the readable volume around an Oyster card look like?

Details: Standard Mifare Oyster card, probed with a Sonmicro high-frequency reader.

With a square antenna inside the Oyster and the Sonmicro reader, we get an elongated main volume, accompanied by long skinny lobes on each edge of the card. This looks very different from the ID 20 mapping.

Orientation

The first two mappings held the reader and the tag parallel to each other, but we predicted that there would be a higher degree of complexity in the relationship if the tag and the reader moved in different orientations. The rig below was built so that we could control the angle between the reader and the tag, which moved along the surface of the table.

Details: Innovations ID20 low-frequency EM4102 reader, 50mm circular EM4102 tag.

There is clearly enormous physical complexity in this relationship, in the animation we can see the volume growing and shrinking, lobes turning into spheres, and vice-versa. But the animation gives us a very clear picture of the ‘throw’ of the reader onto a single two-dimensional plane, almost like looking at it as a torch.

Parallel and perpendicular

To show the two extremes of the relationship between orientation and the readable volume, we created two mappings, one with the tag parallel to the reader, and the other with the tag perpendicular. We mapped them using two different colours of LED: green for parallel and red for perpendicular.

Details: Innovations ID20 low-frequency EM4102 reader, 20mm circular EM4102 tag.

This image is a composite of the two mappings (see the video for animations of the two mappings separately) and it is clear that the readable volume is significantly different. When the tag is perpendicular to the reader, there is a sizeable gap in the middle of the reader where the tag will not read, creating two readable volumes side by side.

Conclusions

We have been continually challenging the ways in which RFID technology has been framed. It is incredible how often RFID is seen as a long-range ‘detector’ or how little relevant information is contained in technical data-sheets. When this information is the primary material that we are working with as designers, this is highly problematic. By doing these kind of experiments we can re-frame the technology according to our experience of it, and generate our own material knowledge.

One of the early motivations in this project was the way in which the animations really captured our tacit, embodied knowledge of the readable volume in a visual way, it was almost as if you could wave your hand through the floating green LEDs and feel them. Of course we had felt it hundreds of times in experimenting with tags and readers, but we had never seen it captured in an image, in a way that was communicable to others without having them try an interactive demonstrator. With this visual material, we can communicate about RFID in ways that we couldn’t previously.

So we hope that this work goes some way towards building better spatial and gestural models of RFID, as material for designers to build better products and to take full advantage of the various ways in which spatial proximity can be used. And with this better understanding we hope to be able to discuss and design for privacy and the ‘leakage’ of data in a more rigorous way.

Field icon

Download a PDF file of the RFID icon.

This RFID icon is based on the shape of the ‘readable volume’. Created by Timo Arnall & Jack Schulze, it is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Go ahead and use it!

Credits

The project was made by Timo Arnall and Einar Sneve Martinussen from AHO and Jack Schulze from BERG. Thanks to Jørn Knutsen for help in building the rigs.

Related things:

1. Making radio tangible Next week we’re launching some new work that explores the spatial aspects of RFID. So before we publish that, here is a quick summary of existing work on radio, sensors and space that I’ve......
2. Wireless in the world An ongoing Touch theme is about making invisible wireless technologies visible, in order to better understand and communicate with and about them (see a Graphic Language for RFID, Dashed lines and Fictional radio spaces).......
3. New film: Wireless in the World 2 In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been......
4. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
5. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......

Creativity contacted us for a “Behind the Work” feature where Jack Schulze goes deeper into the film:

“RFID is a complex and fairly abstract technology to grasp. We have to be careful in how we communicate with it. There are many leaps of imagination and understanding required to grasp it and hold a useful model of how it works and what is happening, let alone see how it maps usefully and elegantly into the world around us. The familiarity of the chain reaction form, means the audience quickly grasps that the normal kinetic transfer of force in the sequence is replaced by invisible forces that work very closely together. Like invisible digital breaths between objects. Because the form was familiar, our hope was the concept of nearness without touching would be clearly understood.”

Shots Magazine asked us to write about new design futures with rfid chips. Here we went a bit further into our film production process in general:

“There has been constant refinement of the production techniques not only to convey designed objects and their surroundings evocatively, but also the invisible layers of interchange and interaction that are increasingly both digital and physical. It turns out that contemporary cinematic techniques such as motion tracking, match moving and the integration of video with 3D motion graphics are ideal tools for visualising, prototyping and communicating about ubiquitous technology.”

And—in a twist that I find particularly satisfying—the UK newspaper Metro wrote about the film, calling it a ‘fun glimpse at a future where you control machines by waving your mobile at them, and everything goes ‘beep’ as you walk by.’

Since Metro is distributed mainly on public transport, it’s lovely to think of their 1.3 million readers all clutching their Oyster cards while reading about the film.

Related things:

1. Nearness One of the essential properties of Near Field Communication is nearness, but this is set against one of the paradoxes of touch-based interaction where, in fact, nothing needs to touch. In a very short......
2. Responses to ‘Nearness’ The broad response to the short film Nearness has been tremendous. In the two days since it was launched it has received over 55,000 views and has been covered all over the internet. It......
3. Designing with film We’ve compiled a short sequence of some of the design experiments and tests in audiovisual media in the Touch project. Here we show some of the ‘behind the scenes’ tests and processes where we......
4. New film: Wireless in the World 2 In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been......
5. Responses to ‘Immaterials’ In the two weeks since we launched our film Immaterials we’ve seen it spread across the internet, going much further than we anticipated for such an esoteric exploration! So far it’s been covered by......

The ‘Radiogenic’

Dunne & Raby introduce the idea of ‘Hertzian space’ in Design Noir and Hertzian Tales where they describe a landscape of electronic products creating a “new, invisible but physical environment”.

In Tunable cities they map the radio signals from domestic equipment such as babycoms and begin to examine the “role of electronic products in the aesthetic inhabitation of a rapidly dematerialising, ubiquitous and intelligent environment.” Here there are visualisations of radio fields as bright red spaces overlaid on the streets of Chiswick, London.

Although their work specifically avoided issues around making the invisible visible or visualising radio, it explored the “links between the material and the immaterial that lead to new aesthetic possibilities for life in an electromagnetic environment”.

“It might seem strange to write about radio, a long-established medium, when discussion today centres on cyberspace, virtual reality, networks, smart materials and other electronic tehcnologies. But radio, meaning part of the electromagnetic spectrum is fundamental to electronics. Objects not only “dematerialise” into software in response to minituarisation and replacement by services but literally dematerialise into radiation. All electronic products are hybrids of radiation and matter. [...] Whereas cyberspace is a metaphor that spatialises what happens in computers distributed around the world, radio space is actual and physical, even though our senses detect only a tiny part of it.”

As Matt Jones points out, they go on to coin the term “radiogenic” to describe objects that:

“function as unwitting interfaces between the abstract space of electromagnetism and the material cultures of everyday life, revealing unexpected points of contact between them.”

The Faraday chair offers a slightly more nuanced ‘visualisation’ of the boundaries of electromagnetic waves through a physical object. These works operate by visualising and making tangible the boundaries between electromagnetic phenomena, and as such, serve to highlight and create discourse around the issue of radio in emerging products and systems

Celebrating the magic of remote action

The language used to describe RFID interaction includes closeness, touch, proximity and pointing but there are few explorations of the way that RFID systems shape the gestural and tangible aspects of this interaction. Within Human Computer Interaction (HCI) there is some discussion of the spatial aspects of sensor technologies. For instance Ailisto et al (2003) discuss the ways that RFID creates contactless interactions on mobile phones: “Physical selection may be based on proximity or pointing. In the case of proximity, the selection is activated by bringing the activating device, e.g. a smart phone, close to the target device.”.

In the Touch project we have experimented with the spatial aspects of RFID interaction, developing a tacit design knowledge of the technology over time. At an early RFID hacking workshop with BERG/Schulze & Webb we experimented with playful interactions that involved “the magic of remote action” where invisible interactions triggered events in the world.

This is something we went on to explore in much more detail in the film Nearness, where the relationship between proximity and physical interaction is explored in detail.

In projects like the Graphic language for touch we have begun to find ways of representing invisible radio as a tangible design material in a functional setting.

And in her project the Bubbles of Radio (that emerged from our Fields and Seams brief) Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas imagined and visualised many fictional representations of radio fields including Bluetooth and RFID. These drawings provide a playful starting point for the discussion of our relationship to radio fields and the possibilities they open up for interaction.

Exploring and experiencing waves

The political, social and phenomenological aspects of the electromagnetic spectrum are a recurring theme within contemporary media art practice. For instance the exhibition Waves at RIXC tuned in to artistic engagements with the electro-magnetic spectrum and suggested that “artists should take control of the very principles and materiality of the ‘network waves’.”

A common practice is to translate radio space into an audible, sonic experience. In projects like ætherspace, Aeriology, Electroprobes and in many RFID projects some kind of probe that senses radio and offers audible output is held or attached to the body. The experience is then about being mobile, moving through and probing the world to discover how the lanscape and patterns of radio changes through space.

Then there are a number of visual, interactive visualisation projects such as the Wifi camera, the sightseeing telescope that reveals open wifi networks in urban space and the Free Network Visible Network project. In most cases the visual representations of the radio waves are merged and overlaid into optical or video backgrounds of the physical world, in a kind of ‘augmented reality’ genre.

In Edge Town by Ben Hooker and Shona Kitchen visual approaches are used to explore the ways in which we can “design interfaces with the flows of electronic data that run through our cities so that they can be experienced as an enriching complement to other, more ‘earthly’ phenomena.” Their garden-like visualisations represent the desire to turn these invisible flows into something more tangible. In another architectural approach, Pedro Sepulveda-Sandoval proposes the demarcation of public areas that are free of mobile phone signals, using the visual language of yellow/black warning tape.

Artists Ruth Jarman & Joe Gerhardt visualised many kinds of fields in Magnetic Movie, where the fields are seen animated as crackling, pulsing and swirling waves that uncomfortably inhabit physical spaces. This animation reinforced by a strong soundtrack that crackles in time with the motion is one of the most engaging and compelling visualisations of radio fields that we have seen.

Spatial and seamful sensors

For engineers and scientists, accurately modelling and visualising invisible radio fields, and engaging in antenna measurement is a difficult task, if not almost a ‘black art’. Using specialist robotic equipment and slowly measuring the intensity of radio signals at various points in space, it is possible to build up a three dimensional map of a radio field. There are also specialist 3D simulation tools that create models of radio fields and their interactions with physical material. These tools are mainly used to optimise the design of radio antennae, probe and problem-solve radio interference problems in electronic equipment and to assess safety issues with human exposure to radio systems.

In a paper called The spatial character of sensor technology Reeves et al (2006) describe the importance of understanding seams and spatiality in sensor-based systems. Although they concentrate on ‘torch-based’ interactions, their concerns are relevant for other sensor technologies:

“We are primarily concerned with the way in which seams between devices create a particular spatial character for the location in which they are deployed. This spatial character of seams derives from the use of spatially-embedded sensor technologies (e.g., GPS, Wifi, etc.) which are particularly prevalent in ubiquitous computing. Sensor technology plays a fundamental part in the creation of seams, and thus the character of the space in which such technology is deployed. The main issue, then, is how interactive and ubiquitous system design may appropriately address this essential spatiality.”

There is also a discussion of the ‘seamful’ character of many ubiquitous technologies.

Chalmers and Galani (2001) describes the ways in which “wireless networks have distinct physical characteristics such as a tendency to be absorbed by metal, water and other conductive materials, and a pattern of coverage that makes for a limited area of usable network connectivity.” They suggest that there may be a method or conceptual process of ‘seamful design’ that builds upon the way that “people accommodate and take advantage of seams and heterogeneity, in and through the process of interaction.”

“We critique the ‘disappearance’ mentioned by Weiser as a goal for ubicomp, and Dourish’s ‘embodied interaction’ approach to HCI, suggesting that these design ideals may be unachievable or incomplete because they underemphasise the interdependence of ‘invisible’ non-rationalising interaction and focused rationalising interaction within ongoing activity.”

There is something in this ‘seamful design’ process that may help us to understand of the way that we deal with the invisible aspects of radio-based interaction, and the ways that mental models are built out of these systems.

Related things:

1. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
2. Immaterials: the ghost in the field This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. The......
3. Everyware icons (visualising ubicomp situations) In December 2005 Adam Greenfield asked me to work with him on icon concepts for his book Everyware. Here is Adam’s description of his book: “The age of ubiquitous computing is here: a computing......
4. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
5. New film: Wireless in the World 2 In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been......

Sara developed a speech bubble approach to annotating physical objects, so that they look like they are ‘saying’ the audio and haptic feedback.

The representation of sound and vibration uses waveforms, showing amplitude over time. Although this is quite limited, it seems to be a useful shorthand for communicating a small range of tangible feedback.

On this note, I’m getting increasingly interested in the use of speech bubbles in popular media.

Related things:

1. Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2009 We recently presented our paper Designing with RFID at the Tangible and Embedded Interaction conference in Cambridge UK. This presentation was part of a session on ‘enabling technologies and design techniques’. The presentation focused......
2. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
3. Making radio tangible Next week we’re launching some new work that explores the spatial aspects of RFID. So before we publish that, here is a quick summary of existing work on radio, sensors and space that I’ve......
4. Two new articles on RFID interaction Touch project PhD researcher Kjetil Nordby has just published two journal articles on interactions with RFID and NFC. These articles pull together concepts from ubiquitous computing and HCI, integrated with high-level interaction design practice,......
5. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......

Sniff is first and foremost a high-quality physical toy dog, that can withstand the rough and tumble of everyday play and activities. But Sniff’s interactive elements add an extra dimension of experience and engagement. Through the use of Radio Frequency IDentification technology Sniff can identify objects that he comes close to, which trigger behaviours that are expressed through sound and vibration. In the Sniff video above you can see three of Sniff’s ‘activities’ in action, in real settings.

Sniff is designed as a companion in daily situations as well as in play and games, alone or together with other children, and including one or more Sniffs. Special attention has been devoted to the design of interaction between sound and vibration. Auditory feedback is important for the sociality of the toy, and makes it possible for a larger number of people to participate in play. Haptic feedback deepens the experience, support hands-on operation and creates a special bond between user and toy.

Sniff is a robust and fully working prototype that has been through several iterations it its physical design, interaction design and technology. This has happened as part of a long evaluation process where it has been tested with many kids and adults.

Book, website and paper

The Sniff website goes further into some of the design and conceptual issues, as well as background material and references.

Sara Johansson presented some of the background and research behind Sniff at The Interaction design and children conference in June 2009. Here is the paper that goes deeper into the design issues particularly issues of abstraction in character and interaction design.

Finally there is also a lovely book available to buy. The book is presented as a ‘day in the life of Sniff’ and details many of the interactive, playful concepts that have been designed.

Related things:

1. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
2. Sniff wins prize for ‘Design for all’ Sara Johansson’s project ‘Sniff’ has won the IT Funk prize for best student project in Design for all at this year’s Oslo School of Architecture & Design prize giving. “Sniff is a toy dog......
3. More press for Sniff Dagens Næringsliv Norway’s daily business newspaper covered two of the Unge Talenter winners last Friday, including Sniff. Some quotes: Vinner Design for alle: Kosehunden og spillet Sniff av Sara Johansson “FOLSOM HUND. -Jeg tenkte......
4. Pling Plong Silje Softing’s project Pling Plong from last year’s Touch course is a soft pillow that plays back audiobooks based on the physical objects or books that are placed on it. Silje writes: “Pling Plong......
5. Visual representation of tangible interaction In the design of the interactive elements of Sniff, Sara had to use visual diagramming as a way of exploring, understanding and prototyping with non-visual feedback such as sound and vibration (haptics). Sara developed......

It is great when a project is not just just well received, but thoroughly understood and appreciated for the underlying reasons it was made. The purpose of making the film was to introduce the ‘magic of proximity’ which is largely left out of the discourse around RFID. The film attempts to communicate the delicate and subtle aspects of a rather obscure technology, so we were pleasantly surprised by the engaged, thoughtful and broad discussions that it has initiated.

Adam Greenfield was one of the first people to pick up on the intertwined concept and aesthetics:

“What really gets me about it is the fusion of technical insight, aesthetic sense, skill in execution and sheer patience it represents. If every made thing in the world were even one-twentieth as carefully thought out as the most offhanded gesture here, we’d all of us be in inestimably better shape.”

While Lisa Smith at Core77 immediately saw the way in which the film explores RFID from a new direction:

“The video very sensitively explores the physical implications of proximity, using RFID for much more than identification.”

Moving Brands responded to the strong legacy of Fischli & Weiss and Honda Cog but saw how:

“Nearness takes the Fischli & Weiss concept further though as it explores how modern day interactive technologies (RFID) with the use of proximity detection make “touching” redundant. It’s an original modern day version of a masterpiece.”

We have always framed the film through a vivid memory of our first viewing of Der Lauf Der Dinge. But a cultural reference that emerged very quickly was Heath Robinson and Rube Goldberg. The Goldberg reference in particular stuck in many discussions, where the relative merits of physical versus virtual interactions were argued out. On Boingboing some commenters disparagingly described Nearness as the “Phantom Menace of Rube Goldbergs”, while another commenter thought the electronic aspect added a contemporary twist:

“The fact that it is entitled “Nearness” and each interface is from indirect interaction elevates this from science project to art for me.”

Guybrush over at Warrenellis.com has an amusing take on RFID chain reactions that manages to take RFID paranoia to new heights:

“Would be funnier with one of the new Barclaycards: swap your card to pay for groceries, see how thieves invisibly get your number, print a cloned card which is then used to access your bank account and to transfer all your money to Russia, where mafia associates can use it right away to pay for a plasma tv on the web which is then delivered to them in a few minutes. Closing shot of smiling Putin-lookalike turning on the tv by remote control.”

There were lots of lovely links from Delicious:

“A nice way to demonstrate near-field communication without getting all swipe-to-pay-for-x” by technekai

“No surprise, but this single page has possibly the highest concentration of awesome on the internet.” by Blaine Cook

“Lovely film of glancing blows, near-misses, wielded fields, touches-without-touching” by Rod McLaren.

And Twitter:

“Now mildly obsessed by non touch thanks to the awesome twist” by macintosh

“Beautiful piece of design and thinking. Like Moustrap for the digital generation.” by TheLeith

“Quite a thought provoking movie, such a rich capture of the nearness concept” by Dries De Roeck

But we’ll leave the final word (for now) to Bruce Sterling:

“Just cut to the chase and give them the Nobel, that’s what I say.”

Related things:

1. ‘Nearness’ goes further Since the launch three weeks ago, our film Nearness has been seen almost 100,000 times, and favourited by over 500 people. Thanks for all the feedback and commentary! Creativity contacted us for a “Behind......
2. Responses to ‘Immaterials’ In the two weeks since we launched our film Immaterials we’ve seen it spread across the internet, going much further than we anticipated for such an esoteric exploration! So far it’s been covered by......
3. Nearness One of the essential properties of Near Field Communication is nearness, but this is set against one of the paradoxes of touch-based interaction where, in fact, nothing needs to touch. In a very short......
4. Designing with film We’ve compiled a short sequence of some of the design experiments and tests in audiovisual media in the Touch project. Here we show some of the ‘behind the scenes’ tests and processes where we......

Hat tip towards The way things go, that Honda commercial and Pythagora Switch.

Some photos.

Related things:

1. ‘Nearness’ goes further Since the launch three weeks ago, our film Nearness has been seen almost 100,000 times, and favourited by over 500 people. Thanks for all the feedback and commentary! Creativity contacted us for a “Behind......
2. Responses to ‘Nearness’ The broad response to the short film Nearness has been tremendous. In the two days since it was launched it has received over 55,000 views and has been covered all over the internet. It......
3. Designing with film We’ve compiled a short sequence of some of the design experiments and tests in audiovisual media in the Touch project. Here we show some of the ‘behind the scenes’ tests and processes where we......
4. Making radio tangible Next week we’re launching some new work that explores the spatial aspects of RFID. So before we publish that, here is a quick summary of existing work on radio, sensors and space that I’ve......
5. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......

What is especially lovely is the way in which the images from our paper are carefully interpreted and annotated visually with notes and explanations. In many ways it communicates better than the original paper.

And on that note, Nicolas Nova also has a good writeup here.

Related things:

1. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......
2. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
3. RFID as material in design Here I am presenting at Recalling RFID (photo by Anne Helmond). I talked about the ways in which Touch is exploring RFID interactions from a design perspective. In particular I looked at the physicality......
4. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
5. Playful augmented products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID with an emphasis on exploring material and experience prototyping. Last week Interaction......

Today has been spent setting up the exhibition space, which consists of three interactive installations that show various aspects of Touch design, innovation and research work including Anne Galloway’s Re/touch and many of the Touch design projects.

The exhibition itself is free to the public, so if you are in Oslo please drop by, and there will be more on the exhibition here next week.

Related things:

1. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
2. Touch at Kreative Oslo We recently had the chance to present Touch at the event Kreative Oslo 09 at DogA, the Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture. Kreative Oslo is a broad seminar that gathers the creative fields......
3. Two Touch projects on show at DogA Two projects from Touch are on show at the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (DogA) in Oslo for the next month. Sniff and Bowl are part of the Unge Talenter exhibition that runs......
4. Touch project Touch is a research project at the Interaction Design department at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Touch takes a user-centred approach to Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a technology that enables......
5. Teaching Touch This spring we have an MA interaction design course dedicated to the Touch research project at AHO called ‘Tangible interactions’. On this course there are 10 students, mainly with an industrial and interaction design......

The hype and doom predictions around RFID and NFC have been fun to watch, but we’re happy to be working with a technology that is now mature and cheap enough to be useful. (We disagree with ReadWriteWeb that it is fear of RFID that is potentially killing Violet, more like a lack of compelling user-experience).

No related posts.

RFID is becoming more common in mobile phones (under the term Near Field Communication or NFC) from manufacturers such as Nokia. By looking at Apple’s patents we know that the technology is being considered for the iPhone. With the iPhone SDK 3.0 external hardware accessories can be accessed by iPhone software, so third party RFID or NFC readers are also possible.

So what kinds of applications would emerge if an iPhone had an NFC reader? Here we have prototyped a simple media player, which triggers the playback of content on the touch of a tag, and created a set of augmented objects that have relationships to different kinds of audiovisual content.

A lens for media

Compared to other mobile handsets the iPhone is a particularly media-friendly device, with a large, bright screen and high quality audiovisual playback. What if this screen could act as a ‘lens’ to content that resides in the world?

In a screen-based interface content may be buried many levels deep inside an information architecture. But in a physical RFID-driven interface a simple gesture can offer quick and direct access to content. Physical objects afford tangible manipulation that screens cannot, and this is great for playful products. Our Bowl prototype showed a natural blending of media consumption and playful activitiy in children, where media viewing became less passive and a more active experience.

Durrell Bishop has discussed these ideas in a more general way, what if objects were augmented with new properties, that can be perceived through an iPhone lens?

Media objects

In this video demo, the objects have been chosen to physically or visually represent the content. There are some obvious relationships, such as the Moomin figure leading to a favourite episode of a Moomin animation. The less obvious relationships such as the wooden house leading to home videos were chosen because they just somehow felt right. In fact the exact relationship may be of secondary importance, as over time the behaviour of the physical and digital objects becomes known and transparent through exploration and repetition.

Some of the objects felt particularly satisfying. The Make Podcast object for instance—where touching the ‘geek’ plays the latest ‘Weekend project’— shows how an object can be used for exploring a dynamic stream of content.

Going further

This video prototype is basic and intended to open up for discussion and new exploration around the experience of media selection through physical objects. At the moment the interaction is a trigger, but what if the phone doesn’t just react as output but also as input to physical objects? How do we programme and manage our sets of media and applications in these objects?

Overall this points towards opportunities around the distribution of media through physical objects, it is an example of general ideas around an ‘internet of things’ or ‘spimes’ applied to the world of media. What opportunities would the distribution of RFID-embedded products open up in terms of media, gaming, services and marketing? What does this mean for the future of products?

Related things:

1. Bowl: Token-based media for children In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
2. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
3. Skål: playing with media Skål (Norwegian for bowl) is a product that has emerged from the Bowl project. It is a media player designed for the home that acts as the interface between physical objects and related digital......
4. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
5. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......

Tom recently used an updated version of this library in his RFID workshop at ETech 2009 and has written a series of thorough tutorials on his weblog. The tutorials covers the basics of the library and also shows how a SM130 can be used with an Arduino: Sonmicro RFID reader for Processing, Reading Mifare RFID tags, Writing to Mifare RFID tags, Arduino-based RFID reader and RFID to Web interface.

In a future post we will look more closely on the technicalities of designing behaviours with RFID readers, presenting our tools for both the Sonmicro SM130 and the Innovation ID12.

Related things:

1. RFID form factors As our interaction design students get deeper into prototyping with RFID, we needed to start looking at the range of possibilities around the materials and forms of RFID tags. Last week we created a......
2. Making things talk Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples. Tom’s previous book Physical computing has been the definitive reference for all hardware hacking that goes on at......
3. Phidget RFID Ten Phidget RFID boards arrived today. The Phidgets are an extremely cheap prototyping platform for simple RFID. They are low power, with a maximum read range of about 8 centimetres, so perfect for quick......
4. Sparkfun now selling ID12 readers We have been making a lot of prototypes with the Innovations ID12 RFID readers in the past few months. We’ve been getting them from the super-helpful Core RFID, and now Sparkfun is selling them.......

Right now I am sitting near fourteen objects sending and receiving radio signals, from Oyster cards to mobile phones and wireless routers in a multitude of overlapping and competing fields. Here we are creating communicative material that uses dashed-line abstractions to visualise the presence of wireless technologies in the everyday environment. What if we could see every field produced by an Oyster card or NFC enabled mobile phone for instance?

Using simple abstractions such as the dashed line and the kinds of visual language that we have previously proposed for RFID allow us to quickly communicate aspects such as the spatial properties of wireless technologies that are often overlooked. I’ve been using these images in presentations for a while, to sensitise designers and students to the spatial and embodied properties of RFID, Bluetooth and WIFI.

We are also experimenting with video, where the visualisations are part of an environment in a moving sequence. This is looking like a useful technique for making visual explanations of invisible materials.

Here are more images:

NFC phones and contactless cards.

NFC phones.

Wifi and bluetooth.

An NFC-enabled bus timetable.

An NFC-enabled ‘smart poster’.

An Oyster card reader and cards

Related things:

1. New film: Wireless in the World 2 In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been......
2. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
3. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
4. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......
5. The dashed line in use In previous work I have advocated for the use of dashed lines, my paper for Mobile HCI 2006 [pdf] represents Touch-based interactions with dashed lines, and work on ubicomp iconography uses the dashed line......

Presenting Touch at a event like this is a good opportunity to provide a glimpse into ongoing design and research and a chance to communicate to a broader audience. The talk focused on design as an approach to RFID and how we can use design to understand, communicate and explore emerging technologies.

The presentation consists of condensed presentation of RFID from a technical and material perspective and goes on to describe various aspects of designing with RFID. In this presentation we use the Touch-projects Bowl and Sniff to illustrate the process of designing RFID products. The presentation is available on Slideshare.

Related things:

1. Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2009 We recently presented our paper Designing with RFID at the Tangible and Embedded Interaction conference in Cambridge UK. This presentation was part of a session on ‘enabling technologies and design techniques’. The presentation focused......
2. Touch network building The Touch project is receiving considerable interest and over the next few months it will be represented at many events and workshops. The idea of using RFID beyond the supply chain is gaining significant......
3. Touch at Nordes’09 Touch has an exhibition at Nordes’09 Engaging Artifacts that is taking place at AHO from Sunday 30th August until Wednesday 2 September 2009. Nordes is the Nordic Design Research Conference and this event brings......
4. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
5. Upcoming events Two upcoming events in New York: Identity and Identification in a Networked World This is a free symposium open to all on the 29-30 September 2006 organised by graduates at the NYU School of......

(I’m a big fan of dotted or dashed lines, it’s a great visual trick for representing hidden things. Glad to see that Mike is taking up this language, we should develop it further!)

Here’s the description of the talk in full, the slides are available from slideshare and at Mike’s weblog:

Things have long had identifying marks, from silversmiths’ hallmarks to barcodes, but mating machine-readable identification with pervasive networking greatly increases the value of the marks.

For example, when a machine-readable identification method such as an RFID or a high-density visual code is combined with the wireless networking of a mobile phone, a new way of interacting with everyday objects is created. Once you have the capability uniquely identify anything immediately, you can attach meta information to it. Any meta-information. How much is this worth on eBay? Which of my friends has one? Will this go with my Mom’s china? Will it make me sick if I eat it? Was it made by children?

I call this digital representation as accessed through a unique ID, an object’s “information shadow” and I now see them attached to just about everything. Beyond getting meta information, however, lies an even more powerful concept: changing the physical object to a service, for which the thing you’re looking at is but a single instantiation of that agreement. It’s already happened to media, and to car-shared cars and shared bicycles in urban areas.

When this happens, the objects have to change at a fundamental level. They have to be designed differently and they have to be described and discussed differently. The “owner’s” relationship to the object changes. The very idea of ownership changes. The solid object grows a dotted line that is filled-in as-needed, when-needed, and with the features that are needed. This is not the same thing as renting or co-ownership, its anytime/anywhere nature-enabled by the underlying technology makes these new service objects fundamentally new.

Many recent products point in this direction, where objects such as the Amazon Kindle are useless without the service contract, where a Nabaztag/tag is an empty shell waiting for connection to a network full of personal information and social connections, and where NFC phones and RFID peripherals are just the touchpoints between the online and the offline.

Related things:

1. Everyware icons (visualising ubicomp situations) In December 2005 Adam Greenfield asked me to work with him on icon concepts for his book Everyware. Here is Adam’s description of his book: “The age of ubiquitous computing is here: a computing......
2. Lightweight, parasitic services Touch and travel is a German pilot scheme (one of many) that is testing NFC for ticketing on public transport. One of the partners in the trial Giesecke and Devrient describe it: “With the......
3. The dashed line in use In previous work I have advocated for the use of dashed lines, my paper for Mobile HCI 2006 [pdf] represents Touch-based interactions with dashed lines, and work on ubicomp iconography uses the dashed line......
4. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
5. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......

The ikTag is an extremely simple interface for social networks, both on and offline. Mediamatic developed the ikTag for people to do nice stuff with their online profile without sitting behind your computer. The ikTag is an innovative and cultural application of RFID technology.

Also, in the past few days, O’Reilly has launched an RFID system at Etech:

That’s why we are giving all of the attendees at ETech RFID tags that can be linked to their conference profiles. Activating your RFID tag and linking it to your profile will be completely opt-in, but with these tags you can interact with several projects we’ll have at the conference.

As we discovered with the Picnic photo booth, there are lots of interesting opportunities to be discovered when a physical tag is linked to a social network…

Related things:

1. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
2. Upcoming conferences There are two ‘Internet of Things’ workshops in the next couple of months, the first is called From RFID to the Internet of Things from 6-7 March 2006 at the EU in Brussels: A......
3. Photos and connections Our photo booth is now up and running in the Extraction Hall East at Picnic 07. It is a very conceptually simple ‘photo booth that knows your name’. Physically it’s a large enclosure that......
4. Touch at Picnic 07 We are at the Picnic 07 conference in Amsterdam, where we are participating in the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. There are six projects using RFID to track, entertain, frighten and socialise the 1500 or......
5. RFID and physical social networks Poken is offering a physical networking platform, with physical, RFID-based objects that plug into a PC via USB (where have we heard that before?) A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet......

The RFID sniffer is a simple analog electronic circuit which can detect the presence of 13.56 MHz RFID tags. These tags are commonly used in all kinds of plastic cards like access badges, bank cards, library cards, loyalty cards and so on.

RFID is everywhere. Use the easy to build RFID sniffer to find out if objects are tagged. Also many other objects may carry RFID tags without you knowing it. Books, toys, and even clothing might be tagged. Carrying tagged objects with you can reveal your identity or whereabouts to anyone equipped with the appropiate tools to read RFID tags. The RFID sniffer helps you identify which objects are tagged, and which are not.

Looks like a great workshop! And the Sniffers are available to buy from here.

Related things:

1. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
2. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
3. Touch at Recalling RFID I will be presenting at Recalling RFID in Amsterdam on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 October 2007. The programme includes ‘presentations and debates on RFID and digital connectivity scenarios with speakers from the industry,......
4. Playful augmented products workshop Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a three-day Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this......
5. RFID hacking workshop So this week Touch is running an informal workshop where we are looking at the materiality of RFID, potentials in Radio Frequency and EMF, and building simple interactions and services using the technology. With......

Silje writes:

“Pling Plong is a media player for stories and sounds, placed inside a pillow. It is designed for the home environment and is meant to stimulate children’s imagination and interest for books. Its low-tech appearance in form, material and its simple functions makes the pillow seem magical. The fact that you can lay your head on it makes the toy very calming and it is meant for relaxing play alone.”

Pling Plong is a simple but carefully crafted product, where everything from the textures of the fabric, to the graspability of the audiobook tokens to the sound design and audio levels have been explored and refined.

A video shows Silje’s experiments with characterful faces for the pillow, showing some of the exploration of different metaphors for RFID that are important aspects of making contactless interaction understandable and playful.

Pling Plong has been receiving a lot of attention online recently, being picked up by Trendhunter, Coolgadgetconcept, Yankodesign, Crecebebe, Talk2myshirt, Techviva, Ubergizmo, Weirdgizmos and more.

Some comments:

“The “low-tech appearance” should be given some stormy applause, because toys nowadays have nothing to do with the idea of play and having a good time.”

“We had our share on interactive pillow coverage like illuminated pillows or sound pillows but the Pling Plong pillow created by Silje Softing sticks out by it’s playful use of ’soft’ low tech to give an twist to the story telling for small children.”

“I hope that this will soon make its way to market and finally to our homes. I don’t have any kids but I’ll surely love a pillow that can sing to me!”

“Hurry up Silje Softing and find someone to manufacture this already! It could be the next big thing this holiday season.”

Silje’s weblog documents some of the making process, there are more photos of Pling Plong and a gallery making pictures here.

Related things:

1. Playful augmented products workshop Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a three-day Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this......
2. Touch. Or sight, smell, taste The dominant metaphor for RFID interaction is touch where the gesture of touching or the contact between two objects is seen as a suitable model for near field interactions. However touch may be a......
3. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
4. Bowl: Token-based media for children In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
5. Sniff After two years of development, many awards and publications, we have finally given Sara Johanssons’s Sniff the proper communication it deserves. Sniff is first and foremost a high-quality physical toy dog, that can withstand......

The full presentation is available on Slideshare and you can read more about the paper here.

Related things:

1. Designing with RFID In Designing with RFID we explore the potential for RFID objects in everyday contexts. Because RFID is a wireless, radio-based technology it is inherently invisible once embedded, and this raises issues around visibility and......
2. Visual representation of tangible interaction In the design of the interactive elements of Sniff, Sara had to use visual diagramming as a way of exploring, understanding and prototyping with non-visual feedback such as sound and vibration (haptics). Sara developed......
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4. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
5. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......

One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or not touching in any given situation. When I first saw Sameer D’Costa’s photo on Flickr, it reminded me of people’s desire to touch things that we aren’t supposed to, and I wondered what that might mean in terms of research.

A year later we’re excited to share the result of that wondering: re/touch, an online resource for designers and researchers interested in touch-based interactions and relations. As the action of touch is technologically mediated by both contactless interactions in the world and through multi-touch on screen, awareness and reflection on the richness of touch is becoming increasingly important.

The re/touch website

re/touch brings together hundreds of cross-cultural examples of social norms and values involving touch—all categorised according to actions related to touching.

A collection of quotes from ethnographic accounts written between the late 1800s and the present, re/touch encourages designers and researchers to explore how touch is used by people to relate to one another and the worlds in which we live.

You can browse the quotes to create design briefs, refine interaction scenarios or otherwise inspire you to think, make or do things touch-related.

About the project

We like to think of re/touch as a work-in-progress. So far, it contains almost five hundred quotes from dozens of cultural groups around the world, and we’re working to add more. As the collection grows, we expect the action tags to change as well, so over the next couple of months you may notice different words in the tag cloud. In the end, we anticipate having over one thousand quotes and more than fifty categories of touch-related action.

The re/touch website also includes some background information on the content, and we plan to publish a paper on the research methodology and some thoughts on collaborations between anthropology and design.

If you notice any database problems or errors, please leave a comment below and we’ll look into it. We’re also still working on the web design—including making the site work well and look good on the iPhone—so we’d certainly appreciate any feedback you might have along those lines as well.

Ultimately, we hope you’ll find this resource as interesting and inspiring as we do!

Related things:

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2. Touch as culture This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Anne Galloway is a social researcher working at the intersections of technology, space and culture. Anne’s research in the......
3. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
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5. Touch project Touch is a research project at the Interaction Design department at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Touch takes a user-centred approach to Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a technology that enables......

In this process we explore ways in which RFID objects can be designed to balance various physical and digital qualities. This approach has illuminated opportunities and constraints in designing augmented objects that enriches the vocabulary around RFID for industrial and interaction designers where physical and visual material are essential elements.

RFID is most commonly used by consumers for ticketing, payments and access control. The design challenges in these contexts has concentrated on infrastructures and systems as opposed to the design of physical tokens. The design of these objects is limited to simple, mostly flat enclosures; cards, key-fobs or stickers.

The bare RFID tag itself does not offer significant meaning beyond its technical appearance. In order to create meaningful relationships towards these objects, RFID tags must be embedded in an object or signified by shape or sign. The physical design of most current RFID objects are limited to the form factors of the protective encapsulation of the tag. It remains at the simple level of encapsulation and packaging that does not yet address the wide range of physical possibilities for objects in everyday contexts.

Product review

To understand the ways that RFID tags have been designed into consumer products, we conducted a product review that documents the physical aspects of RFID products from around the world. This has been a process of reflection on existing industrial and consumer products that includes a range of cards, keyfobs and tokens, the Mattel Hyperscan games console, Star Wars Commtech figures, Brio Network, Violet Ztamps and other RFID peripherals.

The product review shows many uses for RFID but limited exploration of design qualities such as materials, shape, size, construction, manufacture, build quality, affordance or metaphors. But the potential for RFID in consumer products is significant, given the inexpensive hardware of RFID systems and the opportunity to enable digital interactions with even the simplest of objects. The technical properties of RFID, such as the batteryless tags which allow for cheap and maintenance free operation are perhaps the most significant opportunity for playful products and toys.

Form experiments

The intention for this series of experiments was to gain a rich working knowledge of the kinds of design qualities that RFID objects may embody. We used an explorative design approach to the physical aspects of RFID and this involved a process of prototyping, where physical RFID objects were built and evaluated in the Bowl environment. Through a sketching process we developed an understanding of the relationships between physical forms and tags. Form-explorations were then used to visualise findings, to generate further models and to examine surface qualities.

This approach has illuminated opportunities and constraints in designing physical RFID objects that now need to be translated into patterns and models that are useful for interaction and industrial design. See the full paper below for more detail around the objects, sketches and models.

Literal associations

The interactions and gestures that have been learned over time for such objects as dolls, toys, chesspieces, microphones, shower heads, telephones, flashlights, magnifying glasses, spraycans, screwdrivers, hammers, kitchen utensils, stamps, and handles, with gestures like stirring, pointing, poking, drawing and shaking are useful starting points for imagining RFID objects and interactions.

Two very distinct kinds of gestures emerged from our workshops and experiments with the Bowl and Orooni Table interfaces. These gestures are pick and place (eg. moving a chess piece) and grab and point (eg. waving a wand).

A form vocabulary for RFID

Designing new gestures, taxonomies of form and affordances specifically for RFID will come only from designing a new set of objects, with their own elements and properties. Through the process of designing new RFID objects we uncovered properties such as direction, balance, similarity and geometry. Here we see some of the variations and abstractions around the elements of RFID form. This is the beginning of a form vocabulary for RFID including balance, similarity, direction and multi-direction.

Through introducing RFID as an element that influences the shape of physical products, we begin to design an inspirational or generative set of forms for RFID-enabled objects. They effectively communicate the physical aspects of the design findings and help us to evaluate and refine a vocabulary of forms.

Conclusions

As the internet of things emerges as an increasingly important discourse within research and consumer products, the design of the RFID things themselves needs to be addressed. Our practice-driven approach involving products, models, objects and visualisations has resulted in a vision for an ‘internet of things’ that places designed things in the centre.

A hands-on approach has allowed a re-evaluation of RFID technology through the lens of design, and communication of this in design-focused language. Through a process of making, evaluation and communicating a number of artefacts and an emergent design vocabulary is being built, that talks to the needs and concerns of interaction and industrial designers.

These making, sketching and visualisation processes may also be important for the design of emerging technologies in general. With the increasing implementation of networked and interactive technology in consumer electronics, aspects of digital and physical design will increasingly need to be addressed by both industrial and interaction designers. Physical design is a critical part of the way in which tangible technologies are experienced, and by allowing design processes to guide product development we are able to approach emerging technology in a plausible and understandable way.

Full paper

‘Designing with RFID’ is being presented at Tangible & Embedded Interaction 2009 in Cambridge UK.

The paper contains a full account of the product review, the sketching, making and modelling, and conclusions around the design for RFID objects. The paper from the Tangible and Embedded Interaction conference will be available at the ACM digital library. You can also download the full PDF here.

Related things:

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2. Designing with film We’ve compiled a short sequence of some of the design experiments and tests in audiovisual media in the Touch project. Here we show some of the ‘behind the scenes’ tests and processes where we......
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This video shows some of the student’s process, starting with a conceptual session where ideas were sketched on paper and enacted through props. A process of making followed in the wood, plastics and clay workshops where the products took shape. Finally the products are presented as experience prototypes.

Le Chef by Marius and Bilal. A product designed for the kitchen that ‘licks’ various ingredients and suggests recipes.

Poke a pig by Kjetil and Erik. A wooden pig that plays different sounds to different types of attention: a hand for petting, an apple for feeding, etc.

Star pillows by Elisa and Ane. Explored soft materials and audiovisual content for relaxing.

Musicology by Ingrid and Silje. Explored modular shapes and objects for playing playlists from last.fm.

Mood cup by Miray and Ruben. Personalised (or customisable) cups that play back different playlists from last.fm.

Musicframes by Astrid and Stine. A wall of photos each linked to a music file that has personal meaning connected to the photo.

The farm by Karin and Brynjar. An ‘Interactive storytelling space for children’ where animals crossing a river trigger sounds or audiobook content.

Related things:

1. Playful augmented products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID with an emphasis on exploring material and experience prototyping. Last week Interaction......
2. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......
3. Teaching Touch II For the second year we are teaching an MA interaction design course called Tangible Interactions that is driven by the Touch project at AHO. Last year the course was largely successful both for students......
4. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
5. Nordichi workshop papers Update The papers are available to download as PDF. A selection of images from submitted papers, click for larger image. The diverse range of topics and the varied backgrounds of the applicants for our......

Three recent Touch projects suggest different senses as metaphors for physical RFID interaction:

Silje Søftings Pling Plong project uses an eye as the ‘reader’ of audiobook tokens.

Bilal Chaudhry & Marius Johansen’s project Le Chef uses a huge tongue giving the appearance that the chef character is tasting the food tokens that are placed on it.

Sara Johansson’s Sniff project uses the nose of a toy dog as the reader, giving the impression that the dog is sniffing token objects.

Are these other human senses more successful than touch in creating the right kind of metaphors for RFID interaction? Can we use human senses as metaphors to create a richer design space for RFID, or does the inspiration have to come from somewhere else?

Related things:

1. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
2. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
3. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......
4. Teaching Touch II For the second year we are teaching an MA interaction design course called Tangible Interactions that is driven by the Touch project at AHO. Last year the course was largely successful both for students......
5. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......

Last week Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this workshop was on exploring the relationship between digital interaction through RFID and the material properties of physical objects.

The brief

This week we will be working with a technology called Radio Frequency IDentification or RFID. RFID is exciting for industrial and interaction designers because it is a cheap and simple technology that allows us to build quite advanced gestural and tangible interfaces. When an RFID tag is in the range of an RFID reader (usually about 10cm) it communicates a tiny amount of information, a simple short code that lets the computer know that it is present. This is usually used to identify an object, person or animal, for instance to open a door, to find the owner of a lost pet, to pay for a ticket, or to know if a product that is passing out of a shop door has been paid for.

RFID tags are tiny, fairly cheap and don’t require a battery. They can be embedded inside all sorts of materials easily and without much effort. RFID readers are also small and flat, enabling them to be embedded easily below surfaces such as wood, concrete or plastics. The only physical limitations are metal and water, which absorb radio signals and stop RFID systems from working effectively.

Designing playful RFID

You will design a physical interface that involves a reader, a few tags and a Tikitag application.

Industrial and interaction designer’s haven’t been working with RFID for very long. So RFID systems are usually dull and lifeless, with ordinary plastic or paper tags and flat plastic readers. There needs to be more experimentation with the physical aspects of RFID interfaces in applications such as toys, appliances and domestic interfaces. There may be great playful applications of the technology that have not yet been explored.

You must design the physical relationship between the tag, the reader and the resulting action. Your objects must be finished with quality and material choices that match the intended use and context of the application (such as waterproof plastics for the bathroom or turned wood for the coffeetable).

Methods

You will each choose a different application from our list of Tikitag applications. Sketch out ten ways in which the tags and the reader in that application should look, feel and behave. What kind of approach is most suitable? Should it be characterful, understated, loud? What other kinds of objects should it reference? List out the kind of materials that would be suitable for such an application.

Design one set of tags and a reader for your application. Think about size, shape, durability, surface texture, and the relationship between the reader and the tag. How do the objects relate to each other? How do the objects and the reader fit together? What metaphors and associations can you draw upon, are they like keys, do they encourage swiping, caressing, tickling? How will a user manipulate the objects? Will they have to place them in certain positions or sequences to achieve different results?

References

Bowl: Token based media for children

Designing with RFID

RFID peripherals

RFID and unique physical form

Images of touch interfaces

Previous ‘Touch’ student prototypes

Qubi - Tangible colour game

Hairfid

Storytelling pillow

Related things:

1. Playful augmented products workshop Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a three-day Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this......
2. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......
3. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
4. RFID peripherals Plug and play RFID-reading USB peripherals are all the rage, as indicated by a stream of recent product announcements. These readers plug into a PC and make various things happen when they are touched......
5. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......

The ad was made by BBH London with creative director Pete Bradly (more info and making of videos). Interesting to see a one minute commercial explain touch/contactless technology.

No related posts.

A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet people you want to connect to, you touch their ‘poken’ and get added to their Open Social network.

Just tap your poken to theirs, activating Poken’s wireless technology. The poken “high-four” lets you share your online social network profile(s) instantly. At any computer with web access the poken hand pulls out of the body, revealing a USB connector. Insert the poken USB connector into the computer’s USB port to upload your new contacts to the Poken web database.

They have a few interactions that are intended to deal with different social situations, I wonder how they came up with these ‘modes’:

“If you simply touch your poken to another poken without having pressed the palm button, your “Normal” identity is shared. ‘Discreet’ mode requires a double- click of the poken palm. This mode allows you to poken without actually sharing your profile, if you have selected the ‘Ghost’ option or to share a limited profile of your choosing. To be as discreet as possible there is no visible lighting effect. You can, however, check for a little green light that will afterwards flash inside the poken by removing the poken body from the hand. A lengthy press (more than two seconds) of the palm button of your poken will make the hand glow different colors for ten (10) seconds.”

So they are attempting to create culture around the product, of ‘high fours’, ‘light shows’ and discreet ‘ghosting’. But behaviours in social life are so sensitive and context dependent—particularly around the exchange of contact information—it’s hard to see how they will be able to influence them through software or hardware. On the other hand, these limited behaviours might just take off like Tamagotchi or Lighter.

While it’s good that they are taking an open approach to managing contacts (using Open Social and an API), where they can plug into almost any other social network platform, the physical interface presents much harder problems. There is an enormous effort to reach the critical point at which cluster effects can take place, and many users will feel the full brunt of the ‘first fax machine’ problem.

We are currently spoilt by abundant network connectivity, compressing time and space. But the traditional limitations of the physical world such as scarcity and distance affect all physically situated interfaces, and design approaches that deal with these limitations will increasingly be needed.

Related things:

1. RFID peripherals Plug and play RFID-reading USB peripherals are all the rage, as indicated by a stream of recent product announcements. These readers plug into a PC and make various things happen when they are touched......
2. RFID and unique physical form Lisa Smith is a Masters of Design student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago / Designed objects. I first encountered her work through pictures of her project ‘Cuteness generator’ on Flickr.......
3. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
4. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
5. ikTag and RFID at ETech conferences Conferences make great places for relatively large scale testing grounds of new technologies, with their self-contained setting, physical venues, registered participants and impetus for social networking. Two years ago we built our RFID photo......

The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games, Hide and Seek and Charades. The base-station connects to the internet for uploading scores and downloading content.

The movie on their home page demonstrates some of the simple game mechanics.

It seems that many of the games are about measurement, tracking and timing of otherwise person-to-person negotiated activities. In this way the product becomes more about tagging people and measuring their activity, particuarly when combined with the wristband attached to the body rather than tagged objects.

This might sound insignificant, but the difference between tagged objects and tagged people is quite pertinent, particularly as this is intended as a playful, learning environment for children. The kinds of learnings that are achieved through a digital system that tracks you rather than the objects you manipulate could be very different.

Related things:

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2. RFID peripherals Plug and play RFID-reading USB peripherals are all the rage, as indicated by a stream of recent product announcements. These readers plug into a PC and make various things happen when they are touched......
3. Playful augmented products workshop Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a three-day Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this......
4. Playful augmented products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID with an emphasis on exploring material and experience prototyping. Last week Interaction......
5. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......

Edit The book is now available as both a free booklet and downloadable PDF.

Related things:

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2. Rob van Kranenburg at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered......
3. Alternative RFID infrastructures This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. The landscape of RFID technology is focused on surveillance, efficiency and control. The near-future possibility of RFID implants, identity......
4. Practical explorations Interesting meeting with Dori, Maz and others at KHiO today, discussing overlap of themes between Touch and KHiO disciplines like furniture, fashion, communication and space-design. This is a brief mapping of the things we......
5. Interfacing the ‘internet of things’ This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. The ‘internet of things’ is a vision of a world full of interconnected things that participate in a wider......

RFID readers are small and cheap, encapsulating them in packaging and offering a standard USB interface makes for a versatile product. What we need to see now is some applications and platforms that make these products useful and desirable.

Mir:ror

Designed as a commercially available product, similar to the Nabaztag rabbit, the Mir:ror is intended to allow physical objects to work with online services. “Violet was inspired by a simple fact: the rift between the virtual world - everything happening on the other side of your computer screen - and the physical world we live in is growing, and growing fast.”

Mir:ror

Tikitag

Tikitag is offering a small, cheap USB reader that plugs into any computer with compatible drivers “Tikitag is an Alcatel-Lucent Venture based in Antwerp, Belgium which provides a service to link the real world with the online world.”

Tikitag

Bowl

The Bowl was created as part of the Touch project and designed to be an object that wouldn’t look out of place in the living room. “The Bowl is a simple media player that can be used by people of all ages, particularly young children. A bowl sits on the living room table and range of physical objects can be placed within it. When an object is placed in the bowl related media is played back on the TV.”

Bowl

ThingM

ThingM has been developing RFID-driven interfaces in their WineM concept for a while, and they have developed a smaller, USB version finished in wood.

ThingM / WineM

Airtag

Aimed more towards the high-end, for custom installations in retail environments, “the Airtag reader is a contactless reader for point of sale (POS). Easy to install it can be plugged to any cashier system, or standalone for smart poster.”

Airtag

RFID mon amour

For the sake of completeness, this was perhaps the first commercially available plug-and-play RFID prototyping platform. “Rfid mon amour 1.0 is a kit for designers, artists and architects, which allows the realization of interactive exhibitions in a very simple manner, without any specific knowledge of programming or electronics. The kit comes with an USB based RFID player, Mac OS X compatible software, 10 RFID tags and some sample videos.”

RFID mon amour

Related things:

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2. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......
3. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
4. Playful augmented products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID with an emphasis on exploring material and experience prototyping. Last week Interaction......
5. Skål: playing with media Skål (Norwegian for bowl) is a product that has emerged from the Bowl project. It is a media player designed for the home that acts as the interface between physical objects and related digital......

This collection of ‘vernacular’ designs for RFID-based interfaces is extremely interesting for us, as we delve deeper into the visual representation of emerging technologies.

If you have images of good, bad and especially odd interfaces where interaction with an RFID tag or NFC mobile phone is indicated with an icon or an interestingly designed physical enclosure, please add it to the pool by tagging it ‘touch interface’.

Related things:

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2. Immaterials: the ghost in the field This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. The......
3. The dashed line in use In previous work I have advocated for the use of dashed lines, my paper for Mobile HCI 2006 [pdf] represents Touch-based interactions with dashed lines, and work on ubicomp iconography uses the dashed line......
4. Teaching Touch II For the second year we are teaching an MA interaction design course called Tangible Interactions that is driven by the Touch project at AHO. Last year the course was largely successful both for students......
5. Touch project interview In December 2005 I was interviewed for Printed and Disposable Electronics News about the Touch project, the future of RFID and on the social implications of NFC. Here is the plain interview, since an......

From the Picnic conference last year, Mediamatic’s ‘RFID safe’ which protects your wireless RFID cards from being read or ‘skimmed’. With Mifare security problems a reality, and the ability to skim cards such as the Oyster fairly easily, I wonder how common these things will become?

Related

Related things:

1. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
2. Wireless in the world An ongoing Touch theme is about making invisible wireless technologies visible, in order to better understand and communicate with and about them (see a Graphic Language for RFID, Dashed lines and Fictional radio spaces).......
3. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
4. About & contact Touch is a research project that investigates Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that enables connections between mobile phones and physical things. We are developing applications and services that enable people to interact with......
5. Tangible and Embedded Interaction 2009 We recently presented our paper Designing with RFID at the Tangible and Embedded Interaction conference in Cambridge UK. This presentation was part of a session on ‘enabling technologies and design techniques’. The presentation focused......

One of the aims of the Mediamatic workshop was to experiment with ubiquitous technology for social and playful purposes. Every participant in Picnic was issued with an RFID tag that could be used by various installations around the conference venue. As a controlled setting this was a very interesting environment to experiment with RFID technology in use, and in particular to experiment with physical interactions in online social networks.

One of the participants on the first day. Photo by Anne Helmond.

The photo booth team consisted of Timo Arnall, Anne Helmond, Jorn Knutsen and Einar Sneve Martinussen. We wanted to create something that brought people together both in a physical activity and in an online social network. Initially we described it like this:

A photo booth that encourages people to take photos of themselves with others. By waving multiple tags over a touchpoint inside the booth, a photo is taken, a connection is made and pictures are added to the Picnic website.

We built the booth in three days, with many design iterations, and ended up with a large white box with a picnic-themed grassy interior that allowed up to about 10 people to have their photo taken at once.

Inside there was an RFID reader, a camera and a screen that would show what was being recorded, as well as showing a countdown for picture taking. Outside a large LCD screen showed recent and random pictures from the booth, encouraging participation. By touching your tag to a reader outside, you could see pictures of yourself.

Over the course of the three-day event the photo-booth was extremely popular and resulted in literally thousands of pictures and social connections.

Physical interactions manipulate the network

Every attendee’s RFID tag contained a link to their profile within the Picnic network site (their tags were registered and connected at the registration desk). This profile contained their name and any descriptions or tags that they had decided to include, we also had access to their contact details and payment information if we had chosen to do so. When the photo booth detected their tag, it could look them up in the Picnic social network, get their details and manipulate their profiles.

Left: Inside the booth. Right: Tags on the RFID touchpoint.

The booth attracted curious attendees, who looked at the photos playing on the outside. When they walked into the booth, and touched their tag to a ‘touchpoint’ their name would appear on a screen and a countdown would start. If others then touched their tags within this countdown they would also have their names appear in the photo. People who had their photo taken together would have a connection created between them on the Picnic network site.

On the web the Picnic network showed the pictures from the booth with the names of all the people that had been photographed together. People’s profiles included the photos of them and their connections. This was a different and new way of exploring the network and seeing the connections that had been made.

Photos from the booth were also uploaded to Flickr and tagged with the people’s first name (see for example all the photos taken of me and the tag cloud of the names and IDs of people who used the booth most).

This realtime Flickr stream appeared on the outside of the booth, where people stood around watching their recent creations, as well as seeing random photos where they or their friends appeared.

Physical proximity

With around two thousand tagged attendees this was a great opportunity to design for and study the application of social networks in physical space, and to better understand the relationship between physical interactions and the resulting effects in online spaces. The way in which the photo booth took elements of a digital network and made it manipulable in a physical context was very interesting to us.

We were interested in the details of the interactions between people, their tags and readers. In practice RFID is a relatively mundane technology, it doesn’t flash or beep or cry out for attention when it’s encased in plastic packaging. It is also very limited technically: the read-ranges are typically so low that we require people to ‘touch’ their tags to the readers.

Without explicit instruction or ‘attractor loops’ the booth worked through certain ‘gestures’ that were socially learned; people observed and then participated. The activity of ‘touching’ actually brought people—who perhaps had only recently met—into very close physical proximity. This strangely intimate setting, combined with the activity of negotiating, framing and posing for a group photo provided a space for new connections to be formed, and existing relationships to be reinforced.

The attendees also became familiar with RFID interactions over time, and once they had experienced one kind of interaction, wanted to try more. Other RFID-based installations, in particular the free-beer-machine was a very low-threshold introduction to RFID interaction with a very high-degree of motivation… This benefited us all by lowering the threshold to participation.

Playing with controversial technology

With a single touch of a tag to a reader, we could have initiated many different actions within the Picnic network site; we had access to names, profiles, contact information including addresses and phone numbers and even perhaps payment information. But we chose fairly simple events: displaying people’s first name, updating the relationships between people, and relating photos to profiles.

However given that we had access to this data, we were very surprised that nobody questioned the fact that the booth knew their name. We expected there to be questions of privacy and security and perhaps some resentment towards the ease with which the booth accessed data. It seemed that the gesture and the resulting feedback was so natural that there didn’t seem to be anything scary about a name appearing on screen, in fact people assumed that somehow the RFID tag contained the information, the network wasn’t seen as part of the interaction. This shows how readily emerging technologies can be accepted without question, and how their implications remain obscure under the surface of an engaging experience.

Low-threshold interactions with social media

Conferences are a relatively constrained setting where there is an impetus to connect with people and social networks that expand, shift and change over the course of a few days. Social networks in this controlled space have many different qualities to the ones experienced in everyday life. So installations such as the photo booth must be designed to play with the existing social fabric and activities of the conference environment.

There are many different ways in which technology can intervene in these settings, something Clay Shirky has called situated software. Whereas most online social networks require users to explicitly state relationships to each other such as ‘friend’, ‘contact’ or ‘follower’ with these physically-based interactions the connection is much more implicit and less formal.

A simple physical gesture—touching some tags together at the same time—is all it takes to create a connection. Browsing through the Picnic network after having used the booth for a few days was an entirely new experience; the network was more random and chaotic, but because it had emerged from physical, social proximity there is a richer texture to the network than one built through explicit selection. Growing an online social network through these kinds of low-threshold physical interactions seems like a interesting pattern that we might see more of in the future.

More photos from the booth and of the booth.

Related things:

1. ikTag and RFID at ETech conferences Conferences make great places for relatively large scale testing grounds of new technologies, with their self-contained setting, physical venues, registered participants and impetus for social networking. Two years ago we built our RFID photo......
2. Photos and connections Our photo booth is now up and running in the Extraction Hall East at Picnic 07. It is a very conceptually simple ‘photo booth that knows your name’. Physically it’s a large enclosure that......
3. RFID and physical social networks Poken is offering a physical networking platform, with physical, RFID-based objects that plug into a PC via USB (where have we heard that before?) A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet......
4. Orooni table Although the Touch project is primarily about NFC and mobile phones, we recently created a table-based interface. Why have we done this? Because it’s a quick demonstrator of near-field interactions in a setup that......
5. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......

“If you really want to know what information processing dissolving in behaviour really looks like, catch the way women swing their handbags across the Octopus readers at the turnstiles of the Mong Kok subway station; there’s nothing in the slightest to suggest that this casual 0.3-second gesture is the site of intense technical intervention.”

Some of the most common RFID gestures that have truly become part of everyday life are in contactless ticketing. Here are some images I took in Seoul, South Korea:

Surprisingly, there is not a lot of work on the spatial or gestural aspects of radio-based interfaces. There is some work towards looking at the spatial aspects of camera-based interactions:

Reeves, S. et al., 2006. The spatial character of sensor technology. In Proceedings of the 6th ACM conference on Designing Interactive systems. University Park, PA, USA: ACM Press, pp. 31-40.

Related things:

1. RFID in Seoul: first impressions I’m in Seoul, South Korea looking at the use of mobile technology and RFID. The first encounter with RFID came only an hour or so off the plane by the Metro ticketing machines, a......
2. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
3. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......
4. Lightweight, parasitic services Touch and travel is a German pilot scheme (one of many) that is testing NFC for ticketing on public transport. One of the partners in the trial Giesecke and Devrient describe it: “With the......
5. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......

This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology. This years exhibition includes games, token-based media, transactions, wayshowing, a story-telling pillow, ‘twittering’ things and more.

The exhibition is a part of AHO Works.

• 9-12 June 2008 09:00-18:00 in the AHO library (map)
• Official opening 11 June 17:00
• @ Underskog
• Tangible Interactions course blog

• AHO Interaction design Flickr group

Related things:

1. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
2. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
3. Touchable services: Underskog In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked......
4. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
5. Teaching Touch II For the second year we are teaching an MA interaction design course called Tangible Interactions that is driven by the Touch project at AHO. Last year the course was largely successful both for students......

The most compelling content was the early visualisations of cellular networks, made by Motorola and AT&T at the time that they were trying to convince the FCC that mobile telephony was important.

It also features rather nice footage and photos of early mobile phone prototypes from Motorola, that displayed many contemporary form factors such as sliders and flip-phones. Worth checking out that full article for a bit of emerging tech/design history.

Related things:

1. Interactions of transactions This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It is likely that NFC has a role to play in the future of our interactions with infrastructures like......
2. RFID and physical social networks Poken is offering a physical networking platform, with physical, RFID-based objects that plug into a PC via USB (where have we heard that before?) A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet......
3. NFC in action A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a......
4. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......

“With the new eTicketing System Touch&Travel from Deutsche Bahn (DB), the mobile phone serves as an electronic ticket on trains, buses, streetcars, subways, etc. The SIM cards inside the phones are provided by Giesecke & Devrient. The Touch&Travel project is initiated by Deutsche Bahn, the German railway, and the mobile operator Vodafone.”

This trial shows one of the ways that NFC changes the infrastructure required for a ticketing or payment service. In this case it is a lightweight, parasitic infrastructure that can fairly cheaply be added to other ticketing methods. The service relies on three elements:

• Passive NFC tags at stations that contain a unique identifier or geographic information for that location. In this case they are embedded inside what must be a cheap container of aluminium, a printed surface and glass. This doesn’t require power or a network connection, and serves the same function as a large, powered, and networked ticket machine.
• The mobile phone is the window into the service; it interprets the location/identification data, connects to the ‘cloud’ and provides an interface. This interface could show location, ticket prices, ticket options, time of journey, routes, transaction history, etc. Here there is the opportunity to create a service that offers more utility, value and experience than traditional ticketing.

• The mobile data network connects the user to the service, in many cases this data connection already exists, and doesn’t require infrastructural development. Of course here there are issues with underground metro systems that don’t offer mobile coverage.

  

  More details on the service/interaction design:

• By waving your NFC mobile handset over the so called Touchpoint before entering the train, located at the platforms, the system registers the beginning of a trip.
• The ticket is stored on the SIM card inside the mobile phone
• The conductor checks the ticket by scanning the phone with a portable reader.
• Having arrived at the destination, the handset is waved over the Touchpoint again. The system registers the end of your trip. The system processes the data and calculates the correct cost for the distance traveled.

• The passenger is billed once a month

  Of course the service requires that NFC handsets are easily available, or that the service is sold through SIM add-ons for existing mobiles (perhaps as an alternative to a contactless card like Oyster/Suica).

  I wonder how a service that relies so heavily on an ad-hoc infrastructure will be accountable to failure and who holds responsibility and the problem-solving ability for errors and misunderstandings?

  Thinking also about the parasitic; might multiple services compete with each other for approachable station space? In a de-regulated environment (I’m thinking of the UK here) who you touch might define what service you get…

  Related things:

  1. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
  2. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
  3. Touchable services: Underskog In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked......
  4. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
  5. Local applications and services This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. One of the most important features of NFC is that it only works at a very short range. This......
  ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/05/magnetic-moviehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/05/magnetic-movieThu, 08 May 2008 19:29:43 +0000In the same vein as the Bubbles of Radio work from last year, Magnetic Movie is a film that explores visible and audible manifestations of radio fields.In the same vein as the Bubbles of Radio work from last year, Magnetic Movie is a film that explores visible and audible manifestations of radio fields. The film is by Ruth Jarman & Joe Gerhardt of Semiconductor and commissioned by Animate Projects that remains on the forefront of “exploring the relationship between art and animation”.

  

  “Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic, ever-changing geometries… Are we observing a series of scientific experiments, the universe in flux, or a documentary of a fictional world?” The stills don’t do the pulsing, crackling, moving visuals justice, I highly recommend that you go and watch the film.

  

  

  Related things:

  1. New film: Wireless in the World 2 In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been......
  2. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
  3. Making radio tangible Next week we’re launching some new work that explores the spatial aspects of RFID. So before we publish that, here is a quick summary of existing work on radio, sensors and space that I’ve......
  4. Immaterials: the ghost in the field This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. The......
  5. Wireless in the world An ongoing Touch theme is about making invisible wireless technologies visible, in order to better understand and communicate with and about them (see a Graphic Language for RFID, Dashed lines and Fictional radio spaces).......
  ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/05/thoughts-on-nokias-nfc-developmentshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/05/thoughts-on-nokias-nfc-developmentsWed, 07 May 2008 22:41:34 +0000On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology.On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC device that supports 3G data connections.

  

  This is a simple ‘classic’ or ‘candybar’ design like the earliest NFC models. Nokia has a history of basing its NFC devices on existing models (see the 5140 from 2004, the 3220 from 2005, and 6131 from 2007). The 6212 looks like it is based on the 3120 classic (announced in February 2008) with the addition of an NFC module and a slightly simplified physical design. Compared with the most recent NFC phone, the 6131, the 6212 is slightly smaller and lighter with a smaller display at the same resolution. More notes on the design details below.

  The demo

  This interview with Jeremy Belostock—Nokia’s NFC Sales & Marketing Director—has a number of cutaways that show some of the new NFC features in action.

  There is a discussion about the path towards the mass market: whether to focus on user acceptance or building infrastructural ‘ecosystems’. NFC is discussed as being immediately suitable for developed markets where there is infrastructure already in place (such as RFID ticketing and credit card systems such as Oyster and Visa Wave). Although emerging markets are interesting, there is a particular emphasises on Western Europe and Asia in NFC transport and payment, because of the immediate benefits in these areas. The interview ends with a brief (and rather odd) discussion of the environmental benefits of NFC. I’m not sure replacing a stack of plastic cards with a mobile phone is necessarily an improvement towards sustainability (most of my credit and debit cards outlast my mobile phones by a factor of 2 or 3).

  Interaction design notes

  Nokia is attempting to focus on features such as sharing content through touch-interactions and using tags as a way of controlling phone functions. Nokia seems to call these emerging interactions “tapping and sharing”. In the demo we see:

  • Tag access to the system functions: we see a tag setting an alarm
  • Tag access to files on the system: we see loading and playing of music files
  • Peer to peer exchange of content: we see the ‘sharing’ of files

    The specifications also note that it’s possible to “share business cards, bookmarks, calendar notes, images, profiles, and more” so there is clearly a deeper integration between the Series 40 system and the NFC functions here than with earlier devices (we called for this in 2005 when we had the first look at the 3220). What is not shown is the before/after interactions that are required to set up these sharing actions. How do I set up the transfer? What happens if we simply touch phones together? What are the default events? Where and how are these actions phrased within the menu system? Without seeing these we cannot yet assess the quality of these new NFC interactions.

    

    Touch-based interactions are super-simple, orders of magnitude less button clicks and less security hassles than a technology like Bluetooth. This simplicity stems from the physical proximity required when interacting with tiny RFID fields. The demo shows NFC pairing between two devices working in various physical ways: two phones are tapped side to side, face to face and face to back. Previously these interactions were imagined to work back to back but since RFID works through electromagnetic induction, which creates a field that encompasses both sides of the antenna, other physical gestures are possible.

    

    When the NFC chip is given enough power and when the interaction involves two readers rather than a reader powering a passive tag, phone-to-phone interactions will work in many configurations around the device. Although this seems to be a technical reality, I wonder if it makes sense to visualise and explain NFC in this way? Should there be an active point of connection on the phone that is more like a button rather than an active aura surrounding the entire phone? There is an interesting study to be created here about the user’s mental models formed by these subtly different interaction types. More on touch-interaction affordances later.

    This launch is not just about the NFC phone, but points towards a range of NFC appliances: “pairing with a Bluetooth NFC-enabled device, like the new NFC variant of the Nokia BH-210 headset, happens with just one touch”.

    

    At first glance this suggests that new Nokia accessories may have embedded NFC tags, but it seems that “the Bluetooth Headset BH-210 sales package includes a pairing tag that has BH-210 address information in it. Pair the device and headset conveniently by tapping the tag with the device.” When suitable Mifare tags are available down to about 10mm in diameter, why not embed the pairing tag inside the device itself? Perhaps the fear is that pranksters could sneak up to unsuspecting bluetooth-headset-wearing businesspeople and pair with their devices through a sneaky swipe…

    Nonetheless, this points in some interesting directions, towards interfaces and control for all sorts of consumer devices. It highlights the possibility of the mobile phone as a ubiquitous controller where it interacts with a multitude of inputs and outputs from games controllers and sensors to printers and screens, and then perhaps a whole host of other devices that require a rich interface but don’t have the physical form or price range to justify one. For more on this see our thoughts on the universal controller and this research paper by Christof Roduner.

    

    The phone is packaged with three tags, one of which is a ‘tutorial’ tag that teaches the use of NFC with on-screen tutorials. This learning mode seems to include lots of animations where phones and tags are brought into contact with each other, perhaps the least complicated part of NFC interactions. Without seeing it for ourselves its difficult to say, but the tutorials could perhaps be more useful for explaining the possibilities inherent in putting URLs, phone numbers, etc. onto tags.

    Physical design notes

    If we are expected to regularly touch our phones against grubby payment terminals, subway gates and public advertising, the surfaces and materials both on the phone and in the world must encourage this touching action. A robust and rugged shell is essential.

    From the very first mobile phones that could be operated with one hand, Nokia has traditionally been good at creating robust, over-engineered devices that play well in the messy, physical world. The challenge with NFC is to create natural, basic touch interactions through material, ergonomic or other affordances. What are the physical affordances that would encourage—- as Dourish puts it—‘interacting in the world, participating in it and acting through it, in the absorbed and unreflective manner of normal experience.’? So beyond ruggedness and a degree of scratch-proofing, what is necessary for these touch-interaction affordances?

    

    The first consideration is the placement of the reader. The above image is a quick excercise imagining where readers might be placed on various phone models. The 5140 RFID kit and the 3220 NFC shell had a ‘classic’ or ‘candybar’ form that meant that the NFC reader was placed on the lower back of the device. Apparently this was to separate the various radio antennae (GSM, Bluetooth, etc.) from the RFID antenna, but all of our experiments showed that this was confusing to users. The 6131 solved this by placing the NFC reader at the top of the flip-up screen, away from the other antennae at the hinge.

    Somehow the NFC reader in the 6212 is at the top of the device. This is a very good place to have an ‘active area’, it’s outside of the natural hand-grip, and its the part of the phone that most often faces the world, encouraging intuitive pointing and selecting gestures. With this placement the phone becomes a kind of ‘wand’, that perhaps draws on the metaphor of magic in ubiquitous computing. Whatever our thoughts on magic in interaction design, there is no doubt that this gesture is culturally significant and is likely to be a useful model.

    

    More practically, the 6212 features a camera lens in roughly the same position as the reader. This combined with the perforated loudspeaker work against the idea of a robust active area. This is clearly a tradeoff, will scratches and grit getting into these delicate areas hinder touch-based interactions, and will keeping the phone pristine in general be a problem? Would a shiny iPhone ever be suitable for touch-based interactions?

    The second consideration is signs and symbols. There was a time when Nokia thought it necessary to indicate the active area of NFC phones with a visual icon, starting with two concentric rings and moving on to the ‘wireless fingerprint’:

    

    But the 6131 and 6212 have no visible indication whatsoever that they offer any sort of NFC functionality. The clear plastic film that protects the 6131 screen had a diagram of a phone-tag interaction but that of course gets quickly removed.

    My feeling is that there should be clearer markings for the NFC active areas on these phones, even if it is a change in texture, colour or material, it seems like a functional necessity until NFC is properly accepted and understood in the mass market. It’s also a particularly easy thing to do. When music phones have very clearly marked dedicated buttons devoted to specific media functions, why shouldn’t a significant functional and interactional surface be clearly marked on the device?

    

    A few quick sketches using some of the icons from the graphic language for touch. Whether the possibilities inherent in NFC are indicated through clear affordances or explicit symbology, this is extremely important to get right.

    Other technicalities

    The 6212 has a slightly better higher resolution camera than the 6131. It also offers a second video camera on the display side (why do they still include these, does anyone actually do video calling? Is there a secondary usage that I’m missing, YouTube?)

    The press-release and demos emphasise the new level of integration between NFC and Bluetooth but the specifications don’t list Bluetooth 2.1. Of course it supports the standard contactless communication API (JSR 257) so that 3rd parties like us can develop applications for NFC. We hope that it gives us more leeway than the implementation on the 6131. Includes MIDP 2.1 and a few other Java APIs.

    The phone also supports the Nokia Software Market for application discovery and this might be very useful for distributing consumer-focused NFC applications.

    Related things:

    1. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
    2. NFC in action A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a......
    3. Developing NFC applications Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications. The main stumbling block at the moment seems to be working out what......
    4. Bluetooth 2.1 incorporating NFC The Bluetooth people are now getting on the NFC bandwaggon, the following video shows Mike Foley of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group demonstrating features that are NFC-based: Bluetooth has historically lacked a compelling ‘user-experience’,......
    5. Green Touch at Dott07 In collaboration with Helsinki-based development project Social Objects we have developed an installation called Green Touch. The exhibition encourage visitors to touch the design objects on display with mobile devices, in order to explore......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/05/three-papers-on-mobile-paymentshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/05/three-papers-on-mobile-paymentsMon, 05 May 2008 14:06:55 +0000The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments.The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments.

    From meiwaku to tokushita!

    Lessons for digital money design from Japan. Mainwaring, S., March, W., and Maurer, B. 2008. In Proceeding of the Twenty-Sixth Annual SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

    “As an example of ubiquitous computing in the here and now, the adoption of digital money is found to be messy and contingent, shot through with cultural and social factors that do not hinder this adoption but rather constitute its specific character. Adoption is strongly tied to Japanese conceptions of the aesthetic and moral virtue of smooth flow and avoidance of commotion, as well as the excitement at winning something for nothing.”

    Reminds me of Bell & Dourish’s Yesterday’s tomorrows where ubicomp is ‘highly present, visible, and branded’.

    Human-Currency Interaction

    Learning from virtual currency use in China. Wang, Y. and Mainwaring, S. D. 2008. In Proceeding of the Twenty-Sixth Annual SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. [PDF]

    “Virtual and real currencies can interact in complex ways that promote, extend, and/or interfere with the value and character of game worlds. Bringing money into HCI design heightens existing issues of realness, trust, and fairness, and thus presents new challenges and opportunities for user experience innovation.”

    I like the way that money as a constraint within HCI research is seen as a way of strengthening research around realness and trust.

    Ubipay

    Conducting everyday payments with minimum user involvement. Lehdonvirta, V., Soma, H., Ito, H., Kimura, H., and Nakajima, T. 2008. In CHI ‘08 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems. [PDF]

    “The aim is to make paying like breathing: something we are only peripherally aware of unless we exert our resources beyond the usual. This idea has powerful implications for business and design.”

    Wow, towards true frictionless capitalism.

    Related things:

    1. Nordichi workshop papers Update The papers are available to download as PDF. A selection of images from submitted papers, click for larger image. The diverse range of topics and the varied backgrounds of the applicants for our......
    2. The universal controller This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Much research in ubiquitous computing focuses on the idea of a universal controller; a device that can adapt from......
    3. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
    4. Mobile payment demo The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news......
    5. Reboot 8: Mobile presence The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform. In particular, this platform is finally allowing the kinds of 3rd party and community development that......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/03/two-touch-projects-on-show-at-dogahttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/03/two-touch-projects-on-show-at-dogaMon, 31 Mar 2008 15:32:38 +0000Two projects from Touch are on show at the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (DogA) in Oslo for the next month.Two projects from Touch are on show at the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (DogA) in Oslo for the next month. Sniff and Bowl are part of the Unge Talenter exhibition that runs until 27 April 2008.

    Both are interactive and are running at the exhibition for you to try them out.

    

    Sniff is also featured in the DESIGNBOKEN 2008 from the Norwegian Design Council.

    Related things:

    1. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
    2. Touch at Kreative Oslo We recently had the chance to present Touch at the event Kreative Oslo 09 at DogA, the Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture. Kreative Oslo is a broad seminar that gathers the creative fields......
    3. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
    4. Touch at Nordes’09 Touch has an exhibition at Nordes’09 Engaging Artifacts that is taking place at AHO from Sunday 30th August until Wednesday 2 September 2009. Nordes is the Nordic Design Research Conference and this event brings......
    5. More press for Sniff Dagens Næringsliv Norway’s daily business newspaper covered two of the Unge Talenter winners last Friday, including Sniff. Some quotes: Vinner Design for alle: Kosehunden og spillet Sniff av Sara Johansson “FOLSOM HUND. -Jeg tenkte......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/03/more-press-for-sniffhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/03/more-press-for-sniffTue, 18 Mar 2008 12:35:53 +0000Dagens Næringsliv Norway’s daily business newspaper covered two of the Unge Talenter winners last Friday, including Sniff.Dagens Næringsliv Norway’s daily business newspaper covered two of the Unge Talenter winners last Friday, including Sniff.

    

    Some quotes:

    Vinner Design for alle: Kosehunden og spillet Sniff av Sara Johansson

    “FOLSOM HUND. -Jeg tenkte litt på å lage en rotte, men da jeg tok kontakt med Tamtbartun kompetansesenter for blinde for feedback i designprosessen, mente de at det var lurt at det var en hund, siden mange av barna skal forholde seg til en hund senere i livet, sier industridesigner Sara Johansson (34), som fullførte studiene på Arkitekthøgskolen i Oslo forrige semester.”

    “Hun har utviklet spillet Sniff, et kosedyr som identifiserer radiofrekvenser. Når Sniff snuser på en gjenstand lager den forskjellige lyder og vibrasjoner. Med denne teknologien har Johansson designet både et Memory-spill og en lek der man kan gjemme klistremerker rundt om i huset. Hunden kan identifisere ulike type stemminger som glede og sinne, takket være RFID-teknologi.”

    “Nå jobber hun med å utvikle prototypen, både for å gjøre hunden mer robust og for å få inn en Mp3-spiller som kan inneholde flere lyder. Foreløpig er det mest blipp og blopp. -Jeg synes ikke det finnes noe verre enn dyr og leker som snakker. Jeg vil heller forsøke å abstrahere noen lyder som passer til sniffs karakter. Finne en stemme som kan gi ham liv, sier designeren.”

    “Johansson, som kommer fra Umeå i Sverige, begynte å sy forskjellige type kosedyr da hun var 10-12 år. Det er med andre ord ikke helt tilfeldig at bullterrieren Sniffs pels består av typisk syttitallsvelur og cordfløyelprikker.

    - Det var også viktig for meg at ikke kosedyret skulle se ut som en teknologisk leke, sier hun. Da Blindesenteret hjalp Johansson med å finne testpersoner for spillet, var de blinde og svaksynte barnas foreldre opptatt av hundens potensial for å uttrykke følelser.

    - Noen av foreldrene mente at det kan være vanskelig å snakke om følelser. De kan for eksempel ikke tollke følelser i barnas blikk. Jeg tror Sniffl kan være et nyttig redskap i så måte. Barna var mest opptatt av å kjenne på selve hunden. Det var viktig at den hadde fire ben, hale og snute. Jeg fikk lov til å gjøre noe noe med det, sier Johansson.

    - Hva betyr det for deg å vinne Unge Talenter?

    - Det er noe av det fineste du kan vinne her i Norge, men det betyr først og fremst at noen har tro på prosjektet. Nå har jeg en god grunn til å fortsette arbeidet. Jeg håper det kan bli enklere å få spillet i produksjon, eller å skaffe en investor.”

    Other press (in Norwegian) includes Aftenposten, Østkantavisa, Dagbladet, Dinside and Norske Industridesignere NID. Press release.

    Related things:

    1. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
    2. Sniff After two years of development, many awards and publications, we have finally given Sara Johanssons’s Sniff the proper communication it deserves. Sniff is first and foremost a high-quality physical toy dog, that can withstand......
    3. Framtidens mobil / near future of mobility Norsk Form, the centre for design, architecture and urban area planning, hosted an evening seminar on the Near future of mobility on 11 April 2007. The seminar intended to look at trends and patterns......
    4. 50 things, places and people for 2008 On the last day of 2007 Dagbladet rounded up the 50 things, places and people they tip for 2008 (50 ting, steder og mennesker vi tror på i 2008). Sara Johansson is tipped at......
    5. Sniff wins prize for ‘Design for all’ Sara Johansson’s project ‘Sniff’ has won the IT Funk prize for best student project in Design for all at this year’s Oslo School of Architecture & Design prize giving. “Sniff is a toy dog......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/03/norwegian-design-council-awards-sniffhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/03/norwegian-design-council-awards-sniffMon, 17 Mar 2008 15:14:44 +0000Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council.Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly for overcoming spoken or physical barriers to communication between people of different ages and abilities. It also gets praised for its self-explanatory approach to play and its appropriate use of technology.

    Previously Sniff won AHO’s prize for Design for all, and has been included as one of Dagbladet’s trends for 2008.

    

    Here is the feedback from the jury, in Norwegian:

    “Sniff er et veldig morsomt spill som inkluderer alle. Det er lett å forstå, og stiller krav til barna uten å kreve forkunnskaper eller stigmatisere. Bruk av RFID-teknologi, som sender ut et signal og skaper kommunikasjon mellom kosedyret og figurene, gjør spillet til en innovasjon på sitt område.

    “Tilgang til forskjellige brikker med ulike lyder og funksjoner, gir spillet imponerende mange variasjonsmuligheter. Det fins også RFID-klistremerker, som man kan gjemme rundt i huset og lage enda en ny lek med. Sniff er rett og slett en kjempegod idé, som på en nyskapende måte tar i bruk ny og spennende teknologi.”

    “Utformingen er tydelig rettet mot barn, men spillet kan utmerket godt brukes av alle mennesker i alle aldersgrupper. Det egner seg svært godt som en døråpner mellom mennesker når språkbarrierer eller fysiske begrensninger hindrer dem i å kommunisere.”

    If you want to try out Sniff for yourself, the exhibition will be open from 27 March until 27 April at DogA in Oslo. The Bowl project will also be exhibited.

    If you like Sniff you will be happy to hear that Sara Johansson and the Touch project are developing Sniff 2.0 that includes a revised physical design, new feedback and interactional possibilities.

    Related things:

    1. More press for Sniff Dagens Næringsliv Norway’s daily business newspaper covered two of the Unge Talenter winners last Friday, including Sniff. Some quotes: Vinner Design for alle: Kosehunden og spillet Sniff av Sara Johansson “FOLSOM HUND. -Jeg tenkte......
    2. Sniff wins prize for ‘Design for all’ Sara Johansson’s project ‘Sniff’ has won the IT Funk prize for best student project in Design for all at this year’s Oslo School of Architecture & Design prize giving. “Sniff is a toy dog......
    3. Sniff After two years of development, many awards and publications, we have finally given Sara Johanssons’s Sniff the proper communication it deserves. Sniff is first and foremost a high-quality physical toy dog, that can withstand......
    4. 50 things, places and people for 2008 On the last day of 2007 Dagbladet rounded up the 50 things, places and people they tip for 2008 (50 ting, steder og mennesker vi tror på i 2008). Sara Johansson is tipped at......
    5. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/03/the-eu-on-the-visibility-of-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/03/the-eu-on-the-visibility-of-rfidTue, 11 Mar 2008 11:13:29 +0000The EU is conducting a new online consultancy on privacy, data protection and information security principles in RFID applications.The EU is conducting a new online consultancy on privacy, data protection and information security principles in RFID applications.

    I am happy to see that in Article 5 they begin to address the invisible nature of RFID readers in public space:

    “RFID applications can technically operate without any visible or otherwise perceivable action [...]”

    They go further to recommend that there be mandated signage for RFID applications:

    “Where RFID applications are implemented in public places, RFID application operators should inform individuals on the use of RFID by providing at least a clear sign, accessible by all, that signifies the presence of RFID readers. Information should include, where appropriate, that RFID tags and readers may broadcast information without an individual engaging in any active action, a reference to the policy governing the use of the RFID application and a point of contact for individuals to obtain additional information.”

    While this sounds like a lot of information to get across in a sign, there may be ways of creating recognisable levels of security, various levels of private data use, and visible indications of the ways in which that data is stored or used (something along the lines of better food labelling examples). The success of this depends on creating a useful, user-oriented taxonomy of risks.

    See also my work on the graphic language for RFID (paper, design brief).

    Related things:

    1. Alternative RFID infrastructures This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. The landscape of RFID technology is focused on surveillance, efficiency and control. The near-future possibility of RFID implants, identity......
    2. Rob van Kranenburg at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered......
    3. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
    4. RFID, logistics and material flow On the final day of How I learned to love RFID we visited the Fraunhofer institute for material flow and logistics. The institute concentrates on supply chain, logistic and robotic applications. They also foster......
    5. Everyware icons (visualising ubicomp situations) In December 2005 Adam Greenfield asked me to work with him on icon concepts for his book Everyware. Here is Adam’s description of his book: “The age of ubiquitous computing is here: a computing......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/02/rfid-and-unique-physical-formhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/02/rfid-and-unique-physical-formThu, 21 Feb 2008 16:05:47 +0000Lisa Smith is a Masters of Design student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago / Designed objects.Lisa Smith is a Masters of Design student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago / Designed objects. I first encountered her work through pictures of her project ‘Cuteness generator’ on Flickr. This looks like a lovely project dealing with many issues through visual, physical and interactional material.

    One of the key aspects of the project for me is the translation of the unique identity of RFID into a unique physical form. Each object in the project has a visual appearance and shape that is generated uniquely for each user. This reflects the unique identity contained in the RFID chip. This is an interesting approach to the visual and physical affordances of RFID technology.

    

    The object above (photo by Lisa Smith) is a rapid prototyped object that has a unique shape:

    They’re designed to be artifacts for schoolkids (K-12) that slowly gather informational histories as the kids interact with each other and grow. It’s part of a larger project about turning a school and its artifacts into its own yearbook while also encouraging the development of criticality through annotation.

    The unique form emerged from what looks like a parametric model that generates unique shapes:

    The cuteness generator is a visual language for RFID. The project uses identity, legibility, and desirability in order to help us sort through the large amounts of information that can be represented by RFID and spatial annotation.

    

    The forms are generated with a small piece of front end software, with partial control from the user (for example, there is a cuteness<->grossness slider, and they can specify the number of eyes, but the form is also linked to their age and other friends/family in the system, etc). It pulls from sticker/graffiti culture, urban toy culture, and also heraldry (allows for the visual expression of human relationships and room for a visual subculture to emerge in the system).

    

    This project shows one way in which fundamentals of RFID technology such as uniqueness, identifiability, recognition and personalisation can be explored through visual and physical affordances.

    Related things:

    1. RFID and physical social networks Poken is offering a physical networking platform, with physical, RFID-based objects that plug into a PC via USB (where have we heard that before?) A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet......
    2. RFID form factors As our interaction design students get deeper into prototyping with RFID, we needed to start looking at the range of possibilities around the materials and forms of RFID tags. Last week we created a......
    3. Designing with RFID In Designing with RFID we explore the potential for RFID objects in everyday contexts. Because RFID is a wireless, radio-based technology it is inherently invisible once embedded, and this raises issues around visibility and......
    4. Two new articles on RFID interaction Touch project PhD researcher Kjetil Nordby has just published two journal articles on interactions with RFID and NFC. These articles pull together concepts from ubiquitous computing and HCI, integrated with high-level interaction design practice,......
    5. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/02/teaching-touch-iihttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/02/teaching-touch-iiTue, 12 Feb 2008 14:28:33 +0000For the second year we are teaching an MA interaction design course called Tangible Interactions that is driven by the Touch project at AHO.

    For the second year we are teaching an MA interaction design course called Tangible Interactions that is driven by the Touch project at AHO. Last year the course was largely successful both for students and for our research interests. It resulted in such projects as Sniff and The Bubbles of Radio.

    

    This year we are building on our experience and creating both a better formal framework and a more focused environment for industrial, product and interaction design with RFID. The course plan can be downloaded here.

    For the framework we have created a course compendium that introduces themes from ubiquitous, mobile and tangible computing as well as products and methods. Practically we have taken the RFID platforms from last year and are using them to get the students into interactive prototyping at a much earlier stage. We are also lucky enough to have Einar Sneve Martinussen working on Touch, and he is supporting much of the practical and theoretical side of the course alongside Mosse Sjaastad.

    

    For the first four weeks the students received four short design briefs that explored both the context of mobile, ubiquitous and tangible computing and the detail of with interactions with RFID. This has created great momentum and resulted in various vocabularies, material explorations, evidence and paper prototypes amongst other things.

    The students now start a major project based on the Touch design briefs, where they work through a number of iterations in research, ideation, concepting, sketching, prototyping and evaluating.

    The students have weblogs again this year: Alice, Christer, Fan Fan, Gudmund, Gunnar, Ingrid, Knut, Kyrre, Marianne, Martin, Natacha and Silje.

    More photos in the AHO interaction design pool at Flickr.

    

    

    

    

    Related things:

    1. Teaching Touch This spring we have an MA interaction design course dedicated to the Touch research project at AHO called ‘Tangible interactions’. On this course there are 10 students, mainly with an industrial and interaction design......
    2. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
    3. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
    4. Fictional radio-spaces In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
    5. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/01/50-things-places-and-people-for-2008https://nearfieldarchive.org/2008/01/50-things-places-and-people-for-2008Tue, 15 Jan 2008 18:50:39 +0000On the last day of 2007 Dagbladet rounded up the 50 things, places and people they tip for 2008 (50 ting, steder og mennesker vi tror på i 2008).On the last day of 2007 Dagbladet rounded up the 50 things, places and people they tip for 2008 (50 ting, steder og mennesker vi tror på i 2008).

    

    Sara Johansson is tipped at number 19 with her Sniff project also featured in Making Things Talk.

    Related things:

    1. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
    2. More press for Sniff Dagens Næringsliv Norway’s daily business newspaper covered two of the Unge Talenter winners last Friday, including Sniff. Some quotes: Vinner Design for alle: Kosehunden og spillet Sniff av Sara Johansson “FOLSOM HUND. -Jeg tenkte......
    3. Sniff After two years of development, many awards and publications, we have finally given Sara Johanssons’s Sniff the proper communication it deserves. Sniff is first and foremost a high-quality physical toy dog, that can withstand......
    4. Making things talk Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples. Tom’s previous book Physical computing has been the definitive reference for all hardware hacking that goes on at......
    5. Visual representation of tangible interaction In the design of the interactive elements of Sniff, Sara had to use visual diagramming as a way of exploring, understanding and prototyping with non-visual feedback such as sound and vibration (haptics). Sara developed......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/12/fictional-radio-spaceshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/12/fictional-radio-spacesWed, 05 Dec 2007 22:41:39 +0000In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around…In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged from the course.

    

    In this project called “the bubbles of radio” Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas used critical, visual design as a way of exploring the perception of many kinds of electromagnetic fields. The project answered the brief Fields and Seams that asks “How can we use the increasingly radio-saturated landscape for creative or functional purposes?”

    Inspired by Hertzian Tales by Dunne and Raby as well as other projects including Cell Phone Disco, Ingeborg explored many critical design products or services that would engage with the landscape of radio. Some of these early concepts can be seen on her weblog.

    Using inspiration from richly illustrated books on botany, zoology and natural history, Ingeborg arrived at the concept of an encyclopeadia of radio waves that contains a selection of fictional radio ‘species’. Armed with a well researched and advanced knowledge of the use, application and technicalities of each radio technology she created fictional visualisations of the ways in which radio waves inhabit space. These are creative expressions based as much on personal creativity as on technical or scientific data like range and signal strength. Six contemporary radio technologies were visualised: Bluetooth, DMB, GSM, RFID, Wifi and Zigbee.

    Like all good scientific guides, the bubbles of radio includes a visual scale:

    

    The scale of radio is usefully measured at the scale of the device, at the scale of the body and at the scale of the building (see also Everyware on scale). The visualisations are thus placed in this context and we are left with the drawings themselves, where the shape, texture, direction and density gives us a sense of each technology. Click on the following for full size images:

    

    These visualisations are not intended to be technically accurate or to offer actionable information. Instead they provide a playful cue to reflect and consider radio as something tangible and physical to be experienced by other senses, not just through a screen.

    Just for fun, here are the latin names of each field:

    Bluetooth : Nevrotis Dentus Aquarae
    DMB : Spherum Elektrum Multanum
    GSM : Spherum Magnea Globalum
    RFID : Raptus Arphadus
    Wifi : Videus Fidelus
    Zigbee : Nevrotis

    Ingeborg then hand-crafted a pocket field-guide from these illustrations, in a physical form that even smells like an age-old dusty guide to flora and fauna.

    

    This book also included pattern samples; a mixture of wallpaper, fabric and textile patterns that could act as ways of identifying wirelessly augmented spaces or objects. Here is a pattern for RFID:

    

    And here is a pattern for Bluetooth:

    

    This project explored radio in a unique way. Ingeborg has created visual expressions of radio that are immediately accessible and beautiful. Although their usefulness is harder to define they have provided us with many opportunities to discuss and reflect on these intangible technologies.

    Download a poster (PDF) of all the radio visualisations here.

    

    See more student work from the Touch project.

    Related things:

    1. Making radio tangible Next week we’re launching some new work that explores the spatial aspects of RFID. So before we publish that, here is a quick summary of existing work on radio, sensors and space that I’ve......
    2. Wireless in the world An ongoing Touch theme is about making invisible wireless technologies visible, in order to better understand and communicate with and about them (see a Graphic Language for RFID, Dashed lines and Fictional radio spaces).......
    3. Immaterials: the ghost in the field This video is about exploring the spatial qualities of RFID, visualised through an RFID probe, long exposure photography and animation. It features Timo Arnall of the Touch project and Jack Schulze of BERG. The......
    4. New film: Wireless in the World 2 In this film, Wireless in the world 2, simple visualisations of radio ‘spaces’ are overlaid into urban spaces. The film has been made as a follow up to this video experiment and has been......
    5. Teaching Touch II For the second year we are teaching an MA interaction design course called Tangible Interactions that is driven by the Touch project at AHO. Last year the course was largely successful both for students......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/12/bowl-token-based-media-for-childrenhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/12/bowl-token-based-media-for-childrenMon, 03 Dec 2007 16:19:28 +0000In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around…In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged from the course.

    Bowl is a project by Einar Sneve Martinussen, Jørn Knutsen and Timo Arnall and investigated two design briefs: RFID and the everyday and Playful RFID. The concept, technicalities, process and results are described in detail in the paper at the end of this post, read on for a summary.

    Simple access to media

    The Bowl is a simple media player that can be used by people of all ages, particularly young children. A bowl sits on the living room table and range of physical objects can be placed within it. When an object is placed in the bowl related media is played back on the TV.

    

    For example a physical Moomin character like Little My will play a sequence from the Moomin cartoon where she is featured. Through this simple interface, Bowl encourages new, engaging and playful activities around the media experience.

    Background

    The project draws on a long history of research into ‘tangible interfaces’ for media (some examples). But it is distinct from other projects in that it applies the idea of tangible manipulation of media to the very specific context of the home. It also disregards complex editing, browsing or manipulation of media in favour of providing simple interactions that work for young children.

    There are very few products which allow access to media in a way that can be used by children younger than four. Although it might be argued that children under four shouldn’t have access to media, there is no doubt that they do and in fact there is an enormous amount of content designed exclusively for this audience (see Teletubbies).

    Existing media interfaces are overly complex, allow access to unsuitable content and encourage extended viewing habits. By creating a space for physical and playful engagement where screen-media is only a part of the experience, the Bowl intends to create constrained but self-directed activities that are not only passive, lean-back experiences.

    Testing

    Einar’s daughter, Anna – who features as our main user in this project – was 2 years old at the start of the project. We saw an opportunity here to design, evaluate and iterate an interface aimed particularly at children of that age.

    

    The prototype has been developed through an extensive user-driven process where the product was tested and developed in-situ. The interface has been refined and the content re-edited as we learnt about problems and opportunities through a series of tests.

    

    A standard platform was built very early in the project, from which many bowls and tokens could be evaluated. It was important for this set-up to be lightweight and dynamic so that important interaction parameters could be tweaked and altered. The early prototype was constructed in wood from a simple 2×4 with existing bowls as the interface. This allowed rapid modifications to the setup and although not aesthetically pleasing, didn’t disrupt the home environment or introduce any explicit new ‘gadget’ to the living room.

    

    Through the development of the physical prototype the technical possibilities and challenges were rapidly discovered. Interestingly many technical limitations inherent in the RFID system that we used for prototyping turned out to be non-issues. Some of these limitations actually turned out to be opportunities in the interaction design of the interface. See the paper below for more details.

    Conclusions

    This study has been rich in both the details of physical interactions and conceptual possibilities. We have come a long way towards realising a suitable home media interface for children, using everyday objects and containers. The interaction is simple, natural and works seamlessly as a media experience. The interface can be immediately satisfying without guidance or instruction. As a simple interface rather than a ‘gadget’, it doesn’t depend on changing media infrastructures, standards or platforms. We have designed it as a ‘front-end’ that can be adapted to any kind of home-media system, thus its requirements are likely to stay the same over the lifetime of it’s use and even be adaptable to future technologies.

    The initial planning involved five user-test tasks but due to the richness of the process, we ended up conducting about ten discrete topics and twenty different tests. We regard this sustained, rich access to relevant people and contexts and essential part of developing new interactive products.

    One of our goals was to examine the effects of the changing role of digital technology and content in the home as a result of new interfaces. The long-term testing has offered us an insight into this changing television-based experience. We see increasing connection between playing and watching and more physical activity around media usage.

    Further work

    Beyond this testing process we are in the process of building the next prototype. It has been designed as a durable product that fits within the home context by using standard components and high quality materials.

    

    Here the project is being extended to look at how it might be turned into a product. How it might be ‘shelf explanatory’ and how it might relate to existing media products and services.

    More about Bowl

    Einar has posted more pictures and information about his design case study presentation at DUX 07 including an annotated PDF of his very accessible presentation.

    

    This paper contains a full account of the background, the design process, the testing, technicalities and a discussion of the results. The paper from ‘Designing For User Experiences’ in the Proceedings of the 2007 conference on Designing for User eXperiences are available at the ACM digital library. You can also download the full PDF here.

    See more student work from the Touch project.

    Related things:

    1. iPhone RFID: object-based media This is a video prototype of an iPhone media player that uses physical objects to control media playback. It is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that triggers various iPhone interactions when in the......
    2. Skål: playing with media Skål (Norwegian for bowl) is a product that has emerged from the Bowl project. It is a media player designed for the home that acts as the interface between physical objects and related digital......
    3. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
    4. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......
    5. Playful augmented products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID with an emphasis on exploring material and experience prototyping. Last week Interaction......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/11/making-things-talkhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/11/making-things-talkThu, 01 Nov 2007 12:37:21 +0000Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples.

    Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples. Tom’s previous book Physical computing has been the definitive reference for all hardware hacking that goes on at AHO and in the Touch project. Making things talk is structured into specific projects, and covers technology as part of practical examples.

    The section on RFID uses the ever-useful ID12 RFID readers with project examples created using Processing.

    

    The processing code was developed with Sara Johansson as part of the Sniff project in our tangible interactions course earlier this year, and it is great to see Sniff in a double page spread:

    

    From our initial reading the book looks like an excellent introduction to creating physical networked things, using a very wide diversity of technologies. The project examples are well designed and extremely useful in order to move beyond conceptually simple networked things. As a place to start prototyping with RFID this is a great complement to some of the other RFID books out there.

    

    Related things:

    1. Sparkfun now selling ID12 readers We have been making a lot of prototypes with the Innovations ID12 RFID readers in the past few months. We’ve been getting them from the super-helpful Core RFID, and now Sparkfun is selling them.......
    2. Future (NFC) phone is talk of festival! The Green Touch installation at DOTT07 in Newcastle that we created with Helsinki-based Thinglink was a great success. There are a few photos of the event from Ulla-Maaria Mutanen. The local newspaper Evening Chronicle......
    3. Sonmicro RFID Processing library Last year we made a Processing library for the Sonmicro SM130 RFID read/write module together with Jørn Knutsen and Tom Igoe. The SM130 is a little module that lets you read and write to......
    4. 50 things, places and people for 2008 On the last day of 2007 Dagbladet rounded up the 50 things, places and people they tip for 2008 (50 ting, steder og mennesker vi tror på i 2008). Sara Johansson is tipped at......
    5. Internet of Things booklet Rob van Kranenburg is creating what looks like an interesting critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID: “The Internet of Things is the second issue in the series of Network Notebooks.......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/future-nfc-phone-is-talk-of-festivalhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/future-nfc-phone-is-talk-of-festivalTue, 30 Oct 2007 16:39:04 +0000The Green Touch installation at DOTT07 in Newcastle that we created with Helsinki-based Thinglink was a great success.

    The Green Touch installation at DOTT07 in Newcastle that we created with Helsinki-based Thinglink was a great success. There are a few photos of the event from Ulla-Maaria Mutanen. The local newspaper Evening Chronicle wrote a story on the exhibition:

    

    Expect a write-up of the experience soon.

    Related things:

    1. Green Touch at Dott07 In collaboration with Helsinki-based development project Social Objects we have developed an installation called Green Touch. The exhibition encourage visitors to touch the design objects on display with mobile devices, in order to explore......
    2. Framtidens mobil / near future of mobility Norsk Form, the centre for design, architecture and urban area planning, hosted an evening seminar on the Near future of mobility on 11 April 2007. The seminar intended to look at trends and patterns......
    3. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
    4. Making things talk Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples. Tom’s previous book Physical computing has been the definitive reference for all hardware hacking that goes on at......
    5. Developing NFC applications Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications. The main stumbling block at the moment seems to be working out what......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/mapping-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/mapping-rfidTue, 30 Oct 2007 13:21:48 +0000RFID: Mapping Future Histories was a workshop that took place at the recent Recalling RFID conference in Amsterdam.RFID: Mapping Future Histories was a workshop that took place at the recent Recalling RFID conference in Amsterdam. The workshop attempted to visually map some of the issues around RFID by using various methods to extract language, location, time and ranking from various web services.

    The workshop was initiated by the Digital Methods Initiative that specialises in online research methods:

    “The Digital Methods Initiative is a contribution to doing research into the “natively digital”. [...] How does one do research online? What are the new objects of study, and how do they alter pre-existing methods? [...] Which digital methods innovate with and also critically display the recommender culture that is at the heart of new media information environments?”

    They have developed a very extensive set of tools that can be used to scrape, crawl and otherwise interrogate online data:

    ”[A] set of allied tools and independent modules have been made to extend the research into the blogosphere, online newssphere, discussion lists and forums, folksonomies as well as search engine behavior. These tools include scripts to scrape web, blog, news, image and social bookmarking search engines, as well as simple analytical machines that output data sets as well as graphical visualizations.”

    The workshop resulted in five visualisations:

    The Substantive Composition of RFID According to Folksonomy and the Web

    This project asked the question: “which issue language is significantly associated with RFID?” by looking at both del.icio.us tags and Google results.

    

    

    More…

    Wikipedia Anonymous Authorship Cartogram

    This project simply asks: “Where do anonymous Wikipedia edits for RFID originate” by using a specialised Wikipedia edit scraper.

    

    More…

    Drama in Search Space: RFID and Arphid Queries Over Time

    This project looks at the relative rankings of sites in Google over time, to find when and what issues emerged or disappeared.

    

    More…

    RFID Imagery: ‘Wet’ and ‘Dry’ Associations Compared

    This project asks “Is RFID in its imagery (according to Google Images) largely associated with technonature or technoculture” by visually analysing the results of Google image searches.

    

    

    More…

    Issue Packaging on the Web: Style Sheets for RFID Sites by Site Type

    Looking at the colors and styles on RFID-related websites and trying to cluster them. What patterns emerge?

    

    More…

    It’s fantastic to have such visual material emerging from a one-day workshop. All of these visualisations feel like they would benefit from some dynamic or interactive elements: representing some variable in time for instance, so that we could see shifts and changes in the landscape.

    Related things:

    1. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
    2. Hybrid World Lab I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007: Mediamatic organizes a new workshop in which the participants develop......
    3. Bruce Sterling at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Bruce Sterling talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. He covers a lot of ground, including approaches to sustainability, artist use of RFID and......
    4. FoeBud: How we learned to stop RFID FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID. Rena Tangens and Padeluun presented their work at the recent workshop How I......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/rfid-as-material-in-designhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/rfid-as-material-in-designThu, 25 Oct 2007 13:46:36 +0000Here I am presenting at Recalling RFID (photo by Anne Helmond).

    Here I am presenting at Recalling RFID (photo by Anne Helmond). I talked about the ways in which Touch is exploring RFID interactions from a design perspective. In particular I looked at the physicality of RFID readers and tags and the ways in which we can visualise RFID fields and applications.

    Here is my presentation from the conference, with notes on each slide.

    

    Download presentation: RFID as material in design [pdf]

    Anne has a great summary, and there are more notes on the talk here and here.

    Related things:

    1. RFID, logistics and material flow On the final day of How I learned to love RFID we visited the Fraunhofer institute for material flow and logistics. The institute concentrates on supply chain, logistic and robotic applications. They also foster......
    2. Post-nearfield interactions workshop More photos at Flickr Last weekend’s workshop was intense and productive, everybody brought a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm which made the two days extremely exciting. Both Nicolas and Julian have already posted......
    3. Mobile Camp NYC I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be presenting at Mobile Camp NYC on Saturday 19th May in New York City. I’ll be presenting some history and context around Physical Hyperlinks and Touch-based interactions. Update......
    4. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
    5. Framtidens mobil / near future of mobility Norsk Form, the centre for design, architecture and urban area planning, hosted an evening seminar on the Near future of mobility on 11 April 2007. The seminar intended to look at trends and patterns......
    ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/recalling-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/recalling-rfidMon, 22 Oct 2007 18:52:27 +0000Recalling RFID was exceptionally successful at creating a space where diverse viewpoints on RFID were expressed, shared and debated.

    Recalling RFID was exceptionally successful at creating a space where diverse viewpoints on RFID were expressed, shared and debated. The level of understanding of the issues from all sides was very high. This resulted in a measured sense of agreement, rather than opposition. I found this rather refreshing and even managed to concentrate through lengthy discussions of privacy, security, freedom and control.

    Here are my raw notes from the first day conference.

    Rob van Kranenberg: intro

    You cannot see RFID unless you have an opinion on the ways in which smart / ubiquitous environments work. RFID is like the glue that sticks all these things together.

    Today there are many diverse viewpoints: pro, against, and people attempting to re-write the map of RFID.

    Christian van ‘t Hof: RFID and police investigation

    RFID is digitalising public space: we use rfid in daily life, for transactions, identifying, etc. Every time we access these public everyday services there is some registering of your action: time, date, place, and in many cases, your personal details.

    Leaving digital footprints on public transport (most people choose personalised cards, so your data is being linked to your actions). As soon as this data is collected, you can start to profile, pattern match, etc.: all of the stuff that is possible with data mining.

    Public support for using personal travel data is very high: over 70% support using the chip card to track suspects.

    Is exploring how RFID works in practice, legal issues, etc. Moving towards total internet of ubiquitous network society. Rathenau instituut: www.rathenau.nl

    RFID is an enabling technology: there are many other ID technologies. And it depends how much you trust data-mining technologies: costs a lot of money, throws up a lot of results, and means that there is a lack of human resources to follow up on leads.

    Melanie Rieback: Security and privacy in RFID: the RFID virus.

    History: IFF systems, using radar and modulating signals to change the signals of planes.

    Auto-ID labs were the first to publish papers on RFID privacy and security.
    The RSA blocker tag was one of the first.
    Problems: unauthorised tag reading (most tags are not secure), eavesdropping, tracking, tag cloning, denial of service (breaking tags)

    RFID malware. RFID is not just a new barcode, it’s the low-end of computing!

    There are three kinds of malware: exploits (buffer overflows, code injection, sequel), RFID worms, RFID viruses (getting them to replicate).

    The RFID guardian is like a firewall for RFID: a tool for testing RFID deployment. A handheld device for personal RFID privacy management: portable, battery-powered, 2-way communications (can be a reader or imitate a tag, up to 16 tags)

    It allows auditing of RFID usage: who is using what and when, are they tracking in the way they say? It allows us to manage keys: we can kill, enable tags, etc. It can also create access control for RFID, do we want to allow reading or writing of tags.

    Stephan J. Engberg: Priway.com

    Identity management: RFID is one of the largest problems for identity management. The locks on their RFID tags can lock down a tag so that it doesn’t communicate, doesn’t give up any kind of identifyable data.

    Defeatism, fatalism. Is individual sovereignty doomed?
    Stephan is a constructivist: making and solving things.

    We cannot use physical paradigms from the 60’s for digital space.

    How to design devices that don’t leak information: zeroleak™
    Why are we not starting to secure RFID?
    Semantic resolution: dealing with knowledge about others to determine whether transactions should take place.
    What should we do when things go wrong?

    About transferring control to you. Collaborative mechanisms, where we have control and interfaces for the technology.

    Rafi Haladjian: Violet

    Why do teddy-bears speak? To add-value to a commoditised teddy-bear.

    The vision of the smart house has so many barriers: high costs, not appealing, no fun factor, complex, proprietary technologies, consumers losing control.

    How do we get from the Flintstones to the Jetsons with ubiquitous computing? What’s important is in the middle. The process shapes the way things go.

    Violet wants to make affordable (€20-200) objects that are one-at-a-time buying decisions. Fun and interpersonal communication are as powerful as usefulness.

    Some intentions for Violet:

    • Design matters
    • Simple
    • New image of technology
    • Use open standards, explot existing contents, interoperate with existing devices
    • Empower the user
    • Build a community to help build the brand and make killer apps.

      An anthropomorphic rabbit that you can deal with on an emotive level. Nabaztag was interfaced only through a computer, but Nabaztag/tag offers a spontaneous, direct relationship.

      Why a rabbit? Rabbits multiply, rabbits are trojan horses (monty python), etc.

      Going beyond the rabbit:
      Ztamps: RFID tags that you can define yourself. To allow users the same control over RFID as the big guys. A collaboration between Nabaztag + Gallimard Jeunesse to make physical audiobooks.

      Mentions the interesting photographer Peter Menzel: material world taking photos of household belongings.

      Wouter Schilpzand: RFID in Japan

      The Japanese market is relatively homogenous and convenience driven, new products get lapped up, good for RFID adoption.

      It’s not just Suica: lots of loyalty cards too.

      Suica has 13 million transactions a day. It was introduced to cut costs, it was developed to improve services.

      Next step is integrating smart cards into mobile felica. 80% of new mobile phones have felica. Since 2004. More than 10 million users and 120 different handsets.

      These are mainly used for paying for things, collecting coca-cola points. Mainly used for small payments or loyalty cards.

      Felica adds something very powerful to this smart card system: the internet. It allows more information than a smart card: more services, and value added stuff.

      Children tracking service: active RFID tags that track kids. “peace of mind” and a sense of control, allows parents to have this feeling (scary). But children started sharing codes and seeing where each other are (cool).
      Ken Sakamura: driving user-applications of RFID in Japan.

      A vision is developing in Japan: that everything will be connected and there is a convergence of networks: everything will be internet based. And RFID is expected to play a major role in this vision.

      Willem Velthoven: social RFID in libraries

      The public library: all the books are tagged, everybody is tagged.
      The ‘lendomat’ scans the books, confirms the books, and prints a receipt.
      Nice interface: replacing people.
      RFID is an update to their barcode system.

      Katherine Albrecht

      The RFID industry has used the comparison to barcodes to their advantage: it seems safe if it’s just a barcode. But unlike barcodes RFID has unique IDs, which differentiates between individual items.

      

      The very contentious Hitachi mu chip does have an integrated antennae but only an extremely short read range (the one the size of a grain of sand).

      What about increased exposure to EMF and the safety of it?

      Some other RFID-like technologies: Inkode : chipless tags and conductive ink used as antennae: printed technology, EnOcean: powering devices through vibrations.

      The scariest company at the moment: Checkpoint systems: they do retail anti-theft technology which in itself is ok, but they have a service called sourcetagging: where they work with suppliers and sources to deeply embed unique RFID chips into products, inside the mouldings, the fabrics, the plastics, etc.

      Even with a short read range, the technology can be used to be invasive. If we put a ubiquitous computing network around us, then we are creating a space for surveillance and control that we may not want. No matter how much privacy or limits we put into the technology, someone will find a way to exploit it.

      All consumer use of RFID should be stopped – dead – right now, so we don’t have to try to clean up a huge ubiquitous mess.

      Bart Schermer

      Picturing the internet from a utopian or dystopian perspective can be very extreme. Argues that RFID is the same. It is easy to create dystopian scenario and more fun, but we shouldn’t create a debate based just on possible misuse or abuse.

      RFID can be used to surreptitiously gather personal data, etc. But that it is not in the interest of business to do so.

      Reasons why companies won’t surreptitiously gather data:

    • They are in violation of the law: data protection directive
    * Using personal data for other purposes than they have been gathered is a violation
    • Surreptiously monitoring and following people is a criminal offence
    • Targeted advertising without prior permission from consumers is also a violation of the data protection directive.

      Privacy is very difficult and context sensitive. Privacy is a means to maintain economic equality between consumers and companies.

      Consumers are overwhelmingly in favour of using RFID for law-enforcement: valuing convenience, price and speed over privacy (even if they say different).

      Therefore the single biggest threat to privacy is you. (Big brother awards)

      Consumers must always be made aware of how, where and when RFID is used.
      Should be made more aware of the importance of privacy

      Conclusions

    • Use RFID in a responsible manner: privacy is good business sense
    • Provide benefits not only to themselves but to consumers
    • Provide openness and transparency about the use of RFID
    • Create tools for the protection of privacy (PETs, RFID guardians, logo systems)

      Working towards a mandatory logo system for RFID in the Netherlands

      Discussion between Katherine Albrecht and Bart Schermer

      KA:
      With ubiquitous networks such as RFID it’s so difficult to find violations; what was read, by who, when, what info, etc. with who was it shared? Who has a backend connection with this card, and this ID? i.e. who knows who I am.
      The problem with ubiquitous technology is that enforcement is virtually impossible. So prevention is better than the cure.

      BS: we need more critical consumers, who can create backlashes for companies.
      People are becoming very open with their data: Facebook et al doesn’t give strong indications and people don’t realise that the data may leak from one container to another.

      KA: The technology is not inherently malevolent but some technologies invite abuse.
      When you see something like RFID you see that history is flowing towards collecting more data and more control. If that is where the money and R&D is flowing then we shouldn’t be surprised if RFID ends up in the same place.

      BS: You can’t stop technology, particularly if it has so many benefits. Technology will work out for the best: take the example of the internet. Stop the dictator rather than stop the technology that enables the dictator.

      KA: developing networks that forget. When does the forgetting occur? Negotiating the kind of databases and timings and permissions. Look at existing technologies that are problematic and look at solving them.

      More

      More notes here and here. Photos at Flickr.

      Related things:

      1. Touch at Recalling RFID I will be presenting at Recalling RFID in Amsterdam on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 October 2007. The programme includes ‘presentations and debates on RFID and digital connectivity scenarios with speakers from the industry,......
      2. Rob van Kranenburg at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered......
      3. FoeBud: How we learned to stop RFID FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID. Rena Tangens and Padeluun presented their work at the recent workshop How I......
      4. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
      5. Alternative RFID infrastructures This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. The landscape of RFID technology is focused on surveillance, efficiency and control. The near-future possibility of RFID implants, identity......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/green-touch-at-dott07https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/green-touch-at-dott07Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:23:24 +0000In collaboration with Helsinki-based development project Social Objects we have developed an installation called Green Touch.

      In collaboration with Helsinki-based development project Social Objects we have developed an installation called Green Touch. The exhibition encourage visitors to touch the design objects on display with mobile devices, in order to explore different aspects of their making, production and impact.

      Green Touch builds upon Thinglink that socially connects and creates information surrounding products, and brings the interface to mobile devices. We use the NFC-enabled Nokia 6131 to connect design objects to information about the maker, the materials and processes behind the objects. Although this has been explored from a system perspective – particularly with barcodes – here we focus on the experience of using a mobile interface to access this kind of information: through images, sound and tactile feedback.

      

      The installation consists of Finnish design products that all carry a unique story. The products are marked with Near Field Communication (NFC) tags that link to content that can be seen and heard on the mobile phone. When you touch these products with a Nokia 6131 they give you audiovisual and tactile feedback.

      Come and see it demonstrated at Dott07 in Newcastle on Tuesday 23 October 2007.

      Related things:

      1. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
      2. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
      3. Framtidens mobil / near future of mobility Norsk Form, the centre for design, architecture and urban area planning, hosted an evening seminar on the Near future of mobility on 11 April 2007. The seminar intended to look at trends and patterns......
      4. Future (NFC) phone is talk of festival! The Green Touch installation at DOTT07 in Newcastle that we created with Helsinki-based Thinglink was a great success. There are a few photos of the event from Ulla-Maaria Mutanen. The local newspaper Evening Chronicle......
      5. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/touch-orders-with-rfid-dongleshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/touch-orders-with-rfid-donglesWed, 17 Oct 2007 18:17:56 +0000A while ago some interesting projects attached passive RFID tags to ordinary mobile phones to enable participation within RFID-based ticketing, payment…A while ago some interesting projects attached passive RFID tags to ordinary mobile phones to enable participation within RFID-based ticketing, payment or infrastructure.

      I wrote about this way of retro-fitting mobile phones with RFID. Simply attaching passive RFID tags to mobile handsets allows new functions to be added without integration into the phone itself. This offers some insight into the ways in which the phone is becoming central to everyday activity; where it acts as a hub for other touch-based functions like payment, ticketing and access.

      Now there are some very interesting observations by Flickr user Superlocal (on the Poketo blog) about the integration of NFC readers into standard Korean mobile phones. This is enabled by the mandated standards for data and power connections for mobile phones in Korea, so that any phone has a standard hardware interface.

      

      Here McDonalds is offering customers an “RFID Dongle” that plugs into the data and power connections of almost any phone. Once an application is downloaded, the dongle allows selection and payment to be made from an RFID menu at every table. The system is called ‘touch order’.

      

      This system allows much richer mobile interaction than a passive RFID tag allows, given that this is a reader, with access to secure phone applications, billing and data services – the full functions of NFC.

      There are other manufacturers such as SDID, Sirit and ACG that offer NFC modules that plug in to standard interfaces like SD slots, but these are not yet being used for mass-market applications.

      It is interesting to see McDonalds and SK Telecom introducing such a high-technology solution and providing shared hardware infrastructure to customers in order to enable it before NFC phones are mass-market. The application and service is rather mundane (in fact we might even call it an interaction design cliché), but it’s interesting that it has been made; it is out in the world being used. I’m interested to know how this works in practice, over the long-term.

      CNET Asia, My digital life and Far East Gizmos write more about the context of the ‘touch order’ system.

      More photos of the menus, instructions and screen interface from Superlocal.

      Related things:

      1. Mobile payment demo The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news......
      2. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
      3. Retro-fitting mobile phones with RFID The promise of NFC is about easily using mobile phones as a part of daily life: ticketing, paying with a credit card, opening doors, sharing, printing and downloading in the physical world. But until......
      4. Green Touch at Dott07 In collaboration with Helsinki-based development project Social Objects we have developed an installation called Green Touch. The exhibition encourage visitors to touch the design objects on display with mobile devices, in order to explore......
      5. Lightweight, parasitic services Touch and travel is a German pilot scheme (one of many) that is testing NFC for ticketing on public transport. One of the partners in the trial Giesecke and Devrient describe it: “With the......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/touch-at-recalling-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/10/touch-at-recalling-rfidWed, 17 Oct 2007 13:07:21 +0000I will be presenting at Recalling RFID in Amsterdam on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 October 2007.

      I will be presenting at Recalling RFID in Amsterdam on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 October 2007. The programme includes ‘presentations and debates on RFID and digital connectivity scenarios with speakers from the industry, researchers, artists, privacy advocates, programmers and consultants.’

      “It’s in travel documents, building passes, pet animals, clothing stores, libraries, public pools, theme parks and prisons… and yet only a few of us know what RFID is. RFID (radio frequency identification) uses radio waves to identify people, animals or objects carrying encoded microchips. For government and industry, RFID signifies economic innovation, while for the futurist it marks the next stage in digital connectivity. RFID’s pervasiveness will only increase in the years to come, forcing shifts in perceptions of the public sphere and private domain.”

      “Alongside the promise RFID brings, there are implications for security, individual privacy and beyond. If it was not already clear, RFID clues us in to the fact that in digital networks, there is no forgetting or memory loss. As such, RFID lends itself both to optimism and fear, forming a microcosm through which a collective, ambivalent relationship to technology is put on display. Recalling RFID centers around this ‘invisible’ technology with a public seminar, workshops and a smart opera. The program brings together distinctive conceptions of RFID and its uses, reconfiguring discourses as dialogue.”

      Hope to see you there!

      Related things:

      1. Recalling RFID Recalling RFID was exceptionally successful at creating a space where diverse viewpoints on RFID were expressed, shared and debated. The level of understanding of the issues from all sides was very high. This resulted......
      2. RFID as material in design Here I am presenting at Recalling RFID (photo by Anne Helmond). I talked about the ways in which Touch is exploring RFID interactions from a design perspective. In particular I looked at the physicality......
      3. FoeBud: How we learned to stop RFID FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID. Rena Tangens and Padeluun presented their work at the recent workshop How I......
      4. Rob van Kranenburg at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/09/photos-and-connectionshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/09/photos-and-connectionsWed, 26 Sep 2007 16:31:18 +0000Our photo booth is now up and running in the Extraction Hall East at Picnic 07.Our photo booth is now up and running in the Extraction Hall East at Picnic 07. It is a very conceptually simple ‘photo booth that knows your name’.

      

      Physically it’s a large enclosure that takes pictures of participants, when they touch their RFID tags to a spot inside the booth. The photos get uploaded to Flickr and connections between the people being photographed are made within the Picnic website.

      The photos are displayed on the outside, where participants can touch another point and see the photos that they have taken of themselves.

      It’s interesting to see the development of the photos from the late-night hacking sessions through the elation of the first trial runs to the mass usage. Now we’re at 200 photos in 3 hours.

      

      Come and see us, we’re running until Saturday.

      Related things:

      1. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
      2. ikTag and RFID at ETech conferences Conferences make great places for relatively large scale testing grounds of new technologies, with their self-contained setting, physical venues, registered participants and impetus for social networking. Two years ago we built our RFID photo......
      3. Touch at Picnic 07 We are at the Picnic 07 conference in Amsterdam, where we are participating in the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. There are six projects using RFID to track, entertain, frighten and socialise the 1500 or......
      4. RFID hacking workshop So this week Touch is running an informal workshop where we are looking at the materiality of RFID, potentials in Radio Frequency and EMF, and building simple interactions and services using the technology. With......
      5. Hybrid World Lab I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007: Mediamatic organizes a new workshop in which the participants develop......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/09/touch-at-picnic-07https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/09/touch-at-picnic-07Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:12:23 +0000We are at the Picnic 07 conference in Amsterdam, where we are participating in the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp.We are at the Picnic 07 conference in Amsterdam, where we are participating in the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp.

      

      There are six projects using RFID to track, entertain, frighten and socialise the 1500 or so participants, who have all been tagged with RFID keychains.

      You can follow the progress at the Mediamatic weblog and come visit us in Extraction Hall East!

      Related things:

      1. Hackers Camp @ Picnic 07 Mediamatic is organising a Physical computing hackers camp in September. The workshop is for designers and hackers to put physical computing ideas into practice with lots of users. The workshop takes place just before......
      2. Photos and connections Our photo booth is now up and running in the Extraction Hall East at Picnic 07. It is a very conceptually simple ‘photo booth that knows your name’. Physically it’s a large enclosure that......
      3. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
      4. Hybrid World Lab I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007: Mediamatic organizes a new workshop in which the participants develop......
      5. RFID sniffer workshop Mediamatic is organising two RFID Sniffer workshops in Amsterdam on Friday March 27 or on Saturday April 4 2009. At this workshop you can assemble your own RFID Sniffer circuit with designer Marc Boon.......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/08/time-motion-and-touchhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/08/time-motion-and-touchWed, 29 Aug 2007 13:07:39 +0000The rhetoric of ‘mobile life’ is that technology will make motion more possible, easier, and that having access to information will make our lives…

      The rhetoric of ‘mobile life’ is that technology will make motion more possible, easier, and that having access to information will make our lives easier, transcending time and space. This spectacular notion of global mobility has been around since the mobile phone became an essential business tool. Indeed mobile telephony, mostly voice and SMS has had a great impact on many of our daily lives.

      But our conception of the internet hasn’t yet accounted well for the meanings of time, motion and touch. In a recent post Julian Bleecker begins to think about these semantics ways of approaching ‘the internets’ that involves a greater appreciation of context:

      “It might be interesting to consider time, motion and touch as idioms whose characteristics should not be mitigated against, at least for the purpose of reflecting up on what digital life would be like if we operated in a middle ground between eliminating time delays, for instance, and having some dependence upon it.”

      Look at for instance how the mobile internet has stumbled and failed in so many ways as it attempts to take the ‘fixed internet’ and apply it to mobile devices. In some respects this is a usability problem, where the newness of the devices are hindering our understanding of how to design well. But in most cases there is a lack of understanding of the way that our digital and physical selves overlap, how the chronology of our daily existence should be complemented, subverted, interrupted or engaged. How do we design for people in motion with routines and behaviours, in particular contexts where notions of interaction, interruption and engagement differ?

      Working with touch we constantly brush up against these issues: How does the gesture of touch define our relationship to things, places and other people? How do particular interactions relate to places or contexts? These are difficult design issues. In the end we think it comes down to designing things in context, usually within very narrowly defined contexts. Using tools like design probes, rapid prototyping and self-ethnography becomes critical.

      Julian is working towards some specific goals with his project:

      “The interaction semantics I’m angling at is this idea of creating an application syntax based on establishing a sense of Durable Affinity between a person, a lively designed object, and the expression in a digital, online form that these two can create through time, motion and touch based activity.”

      This approach of building and making in order to discover how these issues play out in practice should lead to interesting results.

      Related things:

      1. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
      2. Touch as culture This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Anne Galloway is a social researcher working at the intersections of technology, space and culture. Anne’s research in the......
      3. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
      4. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
      5. Reboot 8: Mobile presence The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform. In particular, this platform is finally allowing the kinds of 3rd party and community development that......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/08/sparkfun-now-selling-id12-readershttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/08/sparkfun-now-selling-id12-readersMon, 27 Aug 2007 14:30:28 +0000We have been making a lot of prototypes with the Innovations ID12 RFID readers in the past few months.We have been making a lot of prototypes with the Innovations ID12 RFID readers in the past few months. We’ve been getting them from the super-helpful Core RFID, and now Sparkfun is selling them.

      

      The ID12s measure just 25mm x 26mm and include their own antenna. They are great because they are packaged in a form that is very adaptable to many prototyping needs, including inside a toy dog’s nose.

      

      Sparkfun have designed their own breakout board for the ID12 which should make connecting it easier in the future.

      Update Tom Igoe’s latest book Making things talk includes lots of details about getting an ID12 to work with Arduino and processing code.

      Related things:

      1. Sonmicro RFID Processing library Last year we made a Processing library for the Sonmicro SM130 RFID read/write module together with Jørn Knutsen and Tom Igoe. The SM130 is a little module that lets you read and write to......
      2. RFID form factors As our interaction design students get deeper into prototyping with RFID, we needed to start looking at the range of possibilities around the materials and forms of RFID tags. Last week we created a......
      3. Making things talk Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples. Tom’s previous book Physical computing has been the definitive reference for all hardware hacking that goes on at......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/08/felica-promotional-videohttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/08/felica-promotional-videoFri, 24 Aug 2007 14:26:46 +0000Another video demonstrating NFC technology. Look past the promotional spin and there are a lot of interesting clips of various NFC technologies in use.Another video demonstrating NFC technology. Look past the promotional spin and there are a lot of interesting clips of various NFC technologies in use.

      Felica is developed by Sony and is compatible with NFC standards.

      Related things:

      1. Bluetooth 2.1 incorporating NFC The Bluetooth people are now getting on the NFC bandwaggon, the following video shows Mike Foley of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group demonstrating features that are NFC-based: Bluetooth has historically lacked a compelling ‘user-experience’,......
      2. NFC in action A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a......
      3. Developing NFC applications Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications. The main stumbling block at the moment seems to be working out what......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/mobile-payment-demohttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/mobile-payment-demoWed, 25 Jul 2007 13:47:31 +0000The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing.The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news suggests that there is little to recommend mobile payments unless they offer some useful new features (see Place and product based collaborative filtering).

      So it’s good to see work that explores the details of the transaction interface (see our design brief). This video shows “A mobile payment demo using Welcome’s NFC applet integrated with a payment application in a mobile phone.”:

      More detail at Aneace Haddad’s weblog.

      It’s great to see that the transaction is very fast and there is at least basic audible feedback at the point of touching. It’s also interesting to note the integration of a paper receipt into the process. While a mobile wallet can provide payment history and receipts, the paper receipt builds trust in the transaction and its value should not be overlooked.

      Compare and contrast to other NFC demo videos, what kinds of interactions are working here? Does anyone else notice that NFC interactions that rely heavily on the screen seem awkward?

      Related things:

      1. Interactions of transactions This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It is likely that NFC has a role to play in the future of our interactions with infrastructures like......
      2. Retro-fitting mobile phones with RFID The promise of NFC is about easily using mobile phones as a part of daily life: ticketing, paying with a credit card, opening doors, sharing, printing and downloading in the physical world. But until......
      3. Three papers on mobile payments The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments. From meiwaku to tokushita! Lessons for digital money design from Japan. Mainwaring, S., March, W., and Maurer, B.......
      4. ‘Touch orders’ with ‘RFID dongles’ A while ago some interesting projects attached passive RFID tags to ordinary mobile phones to enable participation within RFID-based ticketing, payment or infrastructure. I wrote about this way of retro-fitting mobile phones with RFID.......
      5. Reboot 8: Mobile presence The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform. In particular, this platform is finally allowing the kinds of 3rd party and community development that......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/hackers-camp-picnic-07https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/hackers-camp-picnic-07Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:36:38 +0000Mediamatic is organising a Physical computing hackers camp in September.

      Mediamatic is organising a Physical computing hackers camp in September. The workshop is for designers and hackers to put physical computing ideas into practice with lots of users. The workshop takes place just before Picnic 07.

      “A great opportunity to try out your physical computing fantasies with a large number of live-stock. Mediamatic will be providing a variety of resources with which the campers can build the projects including input and output gear that can be hooked up to RFID, Bluetooth, WiFi and the other hard- and software available on the site.”

      The exciting thing from our perspective is the opportunity to have a large potential audience for the workshop, each Picnic 07 attendee will get an RFID badge. There is an opportunity to create interactive, playful, social applications with RFID technology for around 2000 festival attendees.

      Related things:

      1. Touch at Picnic 07 We are at the Picnic 07 conference in Amsterdam, where we are participating in the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. There are six projects using RFID to track, entertain, frighten and socialise the 1500 or......
      2. Mobile Camp NYC I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be presenting at Mobile Camp NYC on Saturday 19th May in New York City. I’ll be presenting some history and context around Physical Hyperlinks and Touch-based interactions. Update......
      3. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
      4. Hybrid World Lab I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007: Mediamatic organizes a new workshop in which the participants develop......
      5. ikTag and RFID at ETech conferences Conferences make great places for relatively large scale testing grounds of new technologies, with their self-contained setting, physical venues, registered participants and impetus for social networking. Two years ago we built our RFID photo......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/airtag-and-blog-nfchttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/airtag-and-blog-nfcMon, 09 Jul 2007 14:22:31 +0000Discovered today is Airtag, makers of the AIR kiosk:Discovered today is Airtag, makers of the AIR kiosk:

      

      “AIRKIOSK is an interactive kiosk especially designed for points of sales.
      AIRKIOSK is connected to the AIRTAG central application platform.
      Multi-standard, it can read all RFID tags and cards (13,56MHz). Applications include: Express ordering kiosk, Contactless payment, Identification and animation on the POS, Loyalty and couponning, Interactive advertisement.”

      Their overall design profile and the attention to detail in their products looks promising.

      Their Blog NFC is also a new addition to our list of NFC/RFID related blogs.

      Related things:

      1. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
      2. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
      3. Recent NFC news and links Some recent news and links: The Daily Telegraph reports that the London Oyster card may soon offer NFC at least in a trial form: “Mobile phone companies Orange, O2 and Nokia are in talks......
      4. NFC at Wikipedia I revisited the Near Field Communication at Wikipedia page this week. For a long time it was a copy and paste of the About NFC page from the NFC Forum, but now it has......
      5. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/retro-fitting-mobile-phones-with-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/retro-fitting-mobile-phones-with-rfidSat, 07 Jul 2007 17:50:44 +0000The promise of NFC is about easily using mobile phones as a part of daily life: ticketing, paying with a credit card, opening doors, sharing, printing…The promise of NFC is about easily using mobile phones as a part of daily life: ticketing, paying with a credit card, opening doors, sharing, printing and downloading in the physical world. But until NFC technology is widely adopted, are there opportunities for using some of the features of RFID-interactions without the integration into the handset?

      In South Korea we noticed a strong trend towards using mobile phone straps as electronic money, specifically using T-Money services to pay on public transport and to make small purchases at shops.

      

      Almost all mobile phones offer some way of attaching straps. This is particularly important in Asia but from personal experience it is also becoming widespread everywhere. T-money is building upon this affordance and getting people to integrate the ticketing system into their daily use of the phone, as well as making a personal or even customised statement. In many ways attaching a travel card or credit card to a mobile phone makes a lot of sense: a mobile phone is part of essential daily activity that forms a key part of the three mobile essentials — the phone, keys and wallet — this is a form of casual, bottom-up convergence that works in practice.

      The Octopus card in Hong Kong has gone slightly further in the RFID/mobile integration; offering Octopus Xpress-on covers for Nokia phones that are available alongside other payment products like watches and key chains:

      

      “An Xpress-on cover that transforms the Nokia 3310 and 3330 mobile phones into an Octopus. The specially-designed cover comprises a full-function adult Octopus with no initial stored value or deposit. Customers can use the payment function after adding value to the Octopus in retail outlets or the Customer Service Centres at MTR or KCR Light Rail Stations.”

      Two recent projects have shown the value of retro-fitting any mobile phone with RFID tags. The first is Slippery Rock University that is giving RFID tags to students to attach to their mobile phones as a mode of payment:

      “The University’s 8,500 students and faculty members will each receive a passive 13.56 MHz RFID tag they can attach to their cell phones. This tag will allow them to pay for everything from laundry and copier services to movies and groceries in the surrounding town of Slippery Rock [...] “In the focus-group research, we found that students considered their cell phone a device they would always have with them, and which they expected greater use from,” Smith says. “Originally, we thought of embedding the tags in the phone, but decided to give the plastic card [the existing ID card with mag-strip and photo] and a separate chip with the intent to attach to the phone.””

      More on the story here and here.

      The second recent project is called Shifd which uses a mobile phone with an attached RFID to integrate some of the experiences of web-browsing with the mobile phone. “The goal of Shifd is to create a seamless transition between your computer and your mobile phone… and back again.” It uses SMS as the medium for transferring data, and the RFID tag/reader combination as a way of detecting the presence of the mobile phone and the computer. It sets up the mobile phone for accessing content when away from the PC, with RSS feeds, notes, maps, addresses and other content you have selected on the PC (a bit like Widsets).

      

      This project has clearly discovered the compelling aspect of RFID interactions: the ability to set presence, context or state through the action of touch. The services at the moment take some of the basic content types from the PC (with a lovely web interface) and make them usable on the mobile phone; the RFID interaction simply helps in this overall experience.

      The first downside of using simple RFID tags as opposed to NFC is that the phone is not an RFID reader. This means there is no opportunity to read passive tags embedded in things or to create phone-to-phone connections. This also means that there is no direct interface between the phone and the tag with no opportunity for any ‘mobile wallet’ or banking applications that have screen interfaces.

      But given that this is an easy hack and an inexpensive way to create new kinds of interactions, there might be a lot more of this kind of convergence. Our only advice at the moment would be to use high frequency Mifare compatible tags so that an easy transition to NFC doesn’t get ruled out in the future.

      Related things:

      1. Mobile payment demo The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news......
      2. Interactions of transactions This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It is likely that NFC has a role to play in the future of our interactions with infrastructures like......
      3. RFID in Seoul: first impressions I’m in Seoul, South Korea looking at the use of mobile technology and RFID. The first encounter with RFID came only an hour or so off the plane by the Metro ticketing machines, a......
      4. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
      5. ‘Touch orders’ with ‘RFID dongles’ A while ago some interesting projects attached passive RFID tags to ordinary mobile phones to enable participation within RFID-based ticketing, payment or infrastructure. I wrote about this way of retro-fitting mobile phones with RFID.......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/touch-design-briefs-for-this-springhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/touch-design-briefs-for-this-springSat, 07 Jul 2007 12:24:34 +0000All of the Touch design briefs we have been using this spring in the Touch course are now online, have a look.All of the Touch design briefs we have been using this spring in the Touch course are now online, have a look.

      

      The Touch course has also just finished, there will be case studies of the student work here sometime over the summer.

      Related things:

      1. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
      2. Sniff wins prize for ‘Design for all’ Sara Johansson’s project ‘Sniff’ has won the IT Funk prize for best student project in Design for all at this year’s Oslo School of Architecture & Design prize giving. “Sniff is a toy dog......
      3. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
      4. Introducing touch as culture Hello. My name is Anne Galloway and I’m very pleased to introduce myself as the newest member of the Touch research project team. Some of you may know me from my blog purselipsquarejaw, or......
      5. Touch as culture This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Anne Galloway is a social researcher working at the intersections of technology, space and culture. Anne’s research in the......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/nfc-at-wikipediahttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/nfc-at-wikipediaThu, 05 Jul 2007 18:27:41 +0000I revisited the Near Field Communication at Wikipedia page this week.I revisited the Near Field Communication at Wikipedia page this week. For a long time it was a copy and paste of the About NFC page from the NFC Forum, but now it has evolved into a page of its own:

      

      However it is still in a pretty sorry state, a mixture of history, standards, soapboxing and technical jargon. I know many people involved in the history and current development of NFC read this weblog, so this is my appeal to get involved making this a useful resource for a wider audience (I still don’t have a definitive page to send the uninitiated if they want to find out what NFC is). See the pages on the Hong Kong Octopus Card for an example of a good article.

      So far I have added an image, cleaned up some irrelevant smart card links from the references and added an initial list of NFC trials. There is an awful lot more to be done before it becomes useful.

      Related things:

      1. Recent NFC news and links Some recent news and links: The Daily Telegraph reports that the London Oyster card may soon offer NFC at least in a trial form: “Mobile phone companies Orange, O2 and Nokia are in talks......
      2. Airtag and Blog NFC Discovered today is Airtag, makers of the AIR kiosk: “AIRKIOSK is an interactive kiosk especially designed for points of sales. AIRKIOSK is connected to the AIRTAG central application platform. Multi-standard, it can read all......
      3. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
      4. Bluetooth 2.1 incorporating NFC The Bluetooth people are now getting on the NFC bandwaggon, the following video shows Mike Foley of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group demonstrating features that are NFC-based: Bluetooth has historically lacked a compelling ‘user-experience’,......
      5. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/playful-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/playful-rfidThu, 05 Jul 2007 13:26:42 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      RFID has the potential to enable new kinds of playful interactions in toys and consumer electronics. There are three features that make this interesting: passive RFID tags don’t require batteries, offer wireless communication and a scheme for identifying physical objects.

      The lack of batteries or serviceable parts allows the use of natural materials and uninterrupted surfaces; almost any object can become part of a gaming experience (excluding metal and water in most cases).

      The short-range wireless properties allow action at a distance; when objects are brought near to each other, things happen! If this is combined with natural materials there is the potential to create experiences akin to magic.

      Of course the fundamental feature of RFID is enabling the consistent identification of physical objects or users/players. In this context it allows game objects with memory or for users with a consistent identity within a game space.

      When combined, these features seem to offer an almost unique opportunity. How can we take these opportunities and make games, toys or playful products?

      This project should work towards making immediate, simple, ‘magic’ toys, games or playful consumer electronics. Taking these various opportunities afforded by RFID it should experiment with natural materials, game structures that require unique ID’s for either game objects or players and gameplay that relies on physical objects. It should focus more on the physical end of gameplay but could also consider interfaces for screen-based experiences.

      The project should create demonstrable prototypes at various levels. Simple techniques such as sketching and model-making should result in a body of visual and physical work, followed by simple experiments using RFID readers and tags. Game interaction methods should be tested out by using outsized or table-based interfaces before attempting to make 1:1 scale products.

      Initial prototypes should use self-contained low frequency RFID readers and transponders (Phidgets or ID12s) but keep in mind that NFC mobile phones might also fit into this product mix at some point in the future, with the ability to download settings, upgrades, power-ups or new behaviour from the internet via the phone for instance.

      References

      Brio Network. “A railway system based on the metaphor for the construction of a computer. The Network-world consists of ordinary wooden railway tracks and funky, small characters that live inside your computer.”

      Nabaztag/tag / Video demo “Through this first iconic object, we are exploring the “Internet of things,” or life after the PC-centric world. Our mission is to invent new objects that enable technologies, services and experiences to make the real world in which we live more intelligent, interactive, ambient, networked, rich, emotional, personalized, smart and fun.”

      Mattel Hyperscan review “Toward the end of our testing period, my friend Cameron wanted to play computer-based fighting games instead. As for me, I was ready to go read a book.”

      Treat your sick doll with rfid. “According to symptoms, kids must use one of the items including “syringe,” “candy” and “medicine.” The doll reads RFID tags embedded in these items and responds accordingly.”

      Little Tikes MagiCook Kitchen “Comes with pretend food embedded with electronic tags (RFID) that can be read by sensors on the stovetop which then respond with the appropriate comment.”

      3C products. “The confluence of social software and physical computing, as a way of making products that exist in our sensory worlds, and can therefore be part of our social experience of the environment (think activities like giving and hiding, and abilities such as peripheral vision). I’d point at both Availabot and Jaiku here.”

      RFID toys. “Contains step by step guides to building various RFID based projects, and stresses the concepts involved as well as the steps themselves.”

      The coming age of magic “What’s interesting about how animism relates to ubicomp is not that it literally represents people’s relationship to embedded information processing, but that it may represent at a gut level how people relate to all objects that exhibit behaviors which go beyond basic action-reaction physics.” See also presentation here.

      Adam Greenfield on animism Some thoughts on animism and magic in interaction design (read also the comments here )

      See also references in the Connected products brief.

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. Playful augmented products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID with an emphasis on exploring material and experience prototyping. Last week Interaction......
      2. Connected products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID may begin to enable cheap – even disposable – products that have identities and connections to a network.......
      3. Playful augmented products workshop Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a three-day Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this......
      4. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......
      5. Designing with RFID In Designing with RFID we explore the potential for RFID objects in everyday contexts. Because RFID is a wireless, radio-based technology it is inherently invisible once embedded, and this raises issues around visibility and......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/connected-productshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/connected-productsTue, 03 Jul 2007 17:46:08 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      

      RFID may begin to enable cheap – even disposable – products that have identities and connections to a network. What are the opportunities for integrating services, infrastructure, community and online brands into physical objects?

      In the longer-term, how does the economics, form and function of physical products change when every product is a service or touchpoint? What might we call this new class of service-object?

      What role might the mobile phone play in this infrastructure? Future products that are too cheap, simple or small to offer screens or buttons might use the NFC mobile phone as a rich interface and a network connection. This may enable a class of devices that don’t have input or output themselves, but still offer rich interactions or interfaces.

      This project should investigate the early opportunities of having identities and interactions in cheap and ubiquitous physical products.

      References

      Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling. “The future will see a new kind of object – we have the primitive forms of them now in our pockets and briefcases: user-alterable, baroquely multi-featured, and programmable – that will be sustainable, enhanceable, and uniquely identifiable.”

      Space, Place and Things, New Rules of Tenancy within the Internet of Things. :I am trying to create what I think is an important connect-the-dots game between Internet of Things euphoria, Internet of Things dystopia and a pragmatic set of “design patterns” so that this stuff becomes legible to the “doers”.”

      Neopets. Virtual pets with physical counterparts, see also Digital pets.

      Build a bear. “Every Build-A-Bear Workshop® furry friend you make is stuffed with a barcode.”

      Barcode Battler. “The game used barcodes to create a character for the player to use. Not all barcodes worked as players, instead some represented enemies or powerups. As well as the barcodes provided with the game itself, players were encouraged to find their own barcodes from everyday products.” See also Barcode games

      Skannerz. “a series of electronic toys made by Radica Games that use barcode technology to create an interactive battle game that resembles Digimon.”

      Hyperscan. “At least initially, HyperScan can fairly be described as a cross between trading card games (TCGs) and video games. It’s the first game system to use RFID technology.”

      Talsmann: Using products to introduce cross-country skiing as a spare time activity in China. RFID-enabled products to introduce online information and community.

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......
      2. Talsmann In the diploma project Talsmann: Using products to introduce cross-country skiing as a spare time activity in China, Birger Løype looked at cross-cultural translations of products and activities. After a wide-ranging study of cross-country......
      3. Playful RFID This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID has the potential to enable new kinds of playful interactions in toys and consumer electronics. There are three......
      4. Playful augmented products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID with an emphasis on exploring material and experience prototyping. Last week Interaction......
      5. Playful augmented products workshop Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a three-day Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/interactions-of-transactionshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/interactions-of-transactionsTue, 03 Jul 2007 16:44:07 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      It is likely that NFC has a role to play in the future of our interactions with infrastructures like payment, ticketing and access. But it is clear that mobile phones offer a different interface and experience to cash, cards, wallets and keys. So how should transactions be designed to take advantage of the change in interface?

      One of the apparent changes is in the speed of transaction: the ability to simply touch a payment terminal with a mobile phone. There is also the ability to enter a pin number on one’s own device instead of using a terminal. With the ability to change the security level to suit individual requirements (or paranoia) this should allow payment interactions to work more efficiently and to be more secure. This is the advantage that has interested payments companies; the ability to process more customers.

      But the simple assumption that increased efficiency makes an attractive new service has started to be questioned (see references). What kinds of interfaces would be ideal for transactions and how might they be implemented on the mobile phone? How might we add valuable new interactions, services or information into the transaction process that makes it more useful than simple payments?

      Might there be other significant downsides as we expose our phone for every transaction? What about keeping a phone concealed for safety or the perceived risk of disclosing personal data by touching un-trusted objects?

      In this project we would like you to study these emerging interactions around daily infrastructures. The project could start by studying the extensive marketing material on the proposed benefits of NFC from the mobile and payments industry. This study could form the basis of prototypes and scenarios that can be tested and evaluated by potential users. Another approach would be to design ideal ‘payment or ticketing objects’ for specific services, and to compare idealised designs with current implementations.

      Of particular interest is the issue of control and visibility: the ability to control when and to whom one is transacting with; to see a history of transactions and to be able to act on that history.

      References

      Chau, P. Y. and Poon, S. 2003. Octopus: an e-cash payment system success story. Commun. ACM 46, 9 (Sep. 2003), 129-133. Link

      Benjamin Lim, Heejin Lee and Sherah Kurnia. Why did an Electronic Payment System Fail? A Case Study from the System Provider’s Perspective. “The findings confirm the influence of EPS adoption factors identified from the literature, which include cooperation with established entities, simplicity, trust, security and mutuality of stakeholder benefits.” PDF

      NFC mobile payments fail to inspire. “Rules adopted by the payment card organizations allowing U.S. consumers to make low-value purchases without signing receipts, tapping cards or other tokens to pay is not appreciably faster or more convenient than swiping the cards at the point of sale.”

      Suica. “A rechargeable contactless smart card used as a fare card on train lines in Japan.”

      Octopus card. “A rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline systems in Hong Kong.”

      Mobile eCash’ could change the face of commerce “Cash or plastic? From starting with seashells, gold coins, and rewarding soldiers with salt, payment systems have evolved to keep lowering the cost of making each transaction, and separating the real item of value from the point of the transaction.”

      Touchable services project: Place and product-based collaborative filtering.

      See also Recent NFC news and links.

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. Mobile payment demo The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news......
      2. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
      3. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
      4. Recent NFC news and links Some recent news and links: The Daily Telegraph reports that the London Oyster card may soon offer NFC at least in a trial form: “Mobile phone companies Orange, O2 and Nokia are in talks......
      5. Universal design with NFC This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/local-applications-and-serviceshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/local-applications-and-servicesTue, 03 Jul 2007 16:04:46 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      

      One of the most important features of NFC is that it only works at a very short range. This ties our interactions to particular places or objects, and forces us to design applications or services that work on a local level. With internet development we have become accustomed to designing applications that service a global, disembodied set of users. The return to the local that is suggested by NFC technology is a very interesting challenge and potentially disruptive to design practice.

      What information, applications and services can be usefully tied to specific places or situations?

      If a service can reliably know that a user has been in a certain place, what does that information enable? What is the value of being physically present for an interaction to take place? What services are specific to the home, to the office, to public or private transport, to a specific public space or to a particular shop?

      This project should consider detailed interactions between the mobile phone, services and local contexts. The project should use field studies and scenario design processes to explore services in the context of everyday objects and places. How might existing signage, advertising and urban interfaces be complemented with local interactions?

      References

      Attention Please!. “To explore the notion of presence, aura, and attention there is a very creative angle to be explored; “how can something attract attention?” As we are also using fixed capability RFID technology”

      NFC presence. “Now I can just touch one of these tags with my phone, and a few seconds later (some delays are involved with starting the Java midlet and connecting to GPRS) the little box on the right changes to show my location. Voila: NFC-powered presence.”

      Location-based service. An area full of interaction design clichés: “One example of a location-based service might be to allow the subscriber to find the nearest business of a certain type, such as an Italian restaurant.”

      NFC completes Smart Posters standard. “Smart Posters are much more important to the NFC than a mechanism for giving away a few tones or setting up networking. Smart Posters have been promoted as the mechanism by which network operators can make money out of NFC.”

      Touchable services, local interactions. “Students looked at how to increase the cohesion of local communities. As a starting point they studied a local record shop and looked at the intricate social and economic relationships around it.”

      Annotate space by Andrea Moed. “A project to develop experiential forms of journalism and nonfiction storytelling for use at specific locations. Stories are presented through text, images and audio files that participants can download from the Web to their handheld computers and take with them to the place of interest.” Link and PDF

      A list of Spatial annotation projects at elasticspace.

      Redström, J., Dahlberg, P., Ljungstrand, P., and Holmquist, L.E. (1999), Designing for Local Interaction, In Proceedings of MANSE ‘99, Springer Verlag. “Much development of information technology has been about reducing the importance of distances and user location. Still, many important activities and events are of local nature, for instance serendipitous face-to-face communication. In order to support such communication, as well as other examples of local interaction, we have developed three prototypes all based on wireless short-range communication.” Link and PDF

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
      2. Touchable services: Underskog In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked......
      3. Developing NFC applications Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications. The main stumbling block at the moment seems to be working out what......
      4. Lightweight, parasitic services Touch and travel is a German pilot scheme (one of many) that is testing NFC for ticketing on public transport. One of the partners in the trial Giesecke and Devrient describe it: “With the......
      5. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/alternative-rfid-infrastructureshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/alternative-rfid-infrastructuresTue, 03 Jul 2007 14:30:50 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      The landscape of RFID technology is focused on surveillance, efficiency and control. The near-future possibility of RFID implants, identity cards and passports is focused on the ability to efficiently and accurately identify people. The rush to replace barcodes with RFID is pushed by a desire to have more control and efficiency in supply chains and to reduce the risk of counterfeiting. Much of which ignores the human perspective and the imposition of this new technology is running into trouble as it begins to cross paths with public opinion, perception and protest.

      But new infrastructures can certainly be designed to support useful, private, secure, bottom-up, ad-hoc and people-to-people interactions, not just transactions controlled by banks, transport systems and governments. There are open identity systems that should allow RFID to be used in a way that gains people’s trust, that allows individual control over its use.

      This project should look at the issue of trust and technological innovation and adoption. It should take RFID or NFC as a case study and look at the various viewpoints that are taking control of the emerging debate. Without going into technical solutions the project could look at people-based or social scenarios around sharing, trust, privacy and perceived security in various defined contexts.

      References

      Rob van Kranenburg at How I learned to love RFID. “It is naive to say that RFID tags do not contain information, and thus cannot be linked to individuals: that disregards the whole history of data mining. Transparency is important, individuals should certainly have access to the information that their tags carry. This view has been fuelled by the Nokia phone that reads and writes tags.”

      Matt Ward, Rob van Kranenburg, Gaynor Backhouse. RFID: Frequency, standards, adoption and innovation. PDF

      Why Technical Breakthroughs Fail: A History of Public Concern with Emerging Technologies. “In the face of various public concerns, some of these technical breakthroughs have been successful while many others have been unsuccessful. This white paper examines five cases of technical launches that have taken place during the last fifteen years.”

      Public Policy: Understanding Public Opinion. “As the Centre prepares to launch its EPC network it is therefore important to anticipate how the public will perceive this new technology, to anticipate any concerns and to explore ways in which the network can be improved, in order to ensure consumer’s confidence.”

      Spychips: how RFID will compromise privacy, security, freedom

      Privacy-Enhancing Radio Frequency Identification Tag: Implementation of the Clipped Tag. “The privacy-protecting tag, called the “Clipped Tag” has been suggested by IBM as an additional consumer privacy mechanism. The clipped tag puts the option of privacy protection in the hands of the consumer. It provides a visible means of enhancing privacy protection by allowing the transformation of a long-range tag into a proximity tag that still may be read, but only at short range – less than a few inches or centimeters. This enables later use of the tag for returns or recalls.” PDF

      Smart and Secure RFID tags “The philosophy of the RFIDsec tag is that all users can read and access the part of the tags information that is authorised for their specific use, and nothing else. Strong encryption, even on passive tags, ensures that the levels of access are not jeopardised. The Access Management software ensures simple and secure user control. Hence it is possible to have data on tag. The RFIDsec tag can even operate in Silent Mode, thus eliminating concerns about leaking information and consumer privacy.” Link

      See also references for RFID and the everyday

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
      2. FoeBud: How we learned to stop RFID FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID. Rena Tangens and Padeluun presented their work at the recent workshop How I......
      3. Recalling RFID Recalling RFID was exceptionally successful at creating a space where diverse viewpoints on RFID were expressed, shared and debated. The level of understanding of the issues from all sides was very high. This resulted......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/touch-as-culturehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/touch-as-cultureTue, 03 Jul 2007 13:51:41 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      Anne Galloway is a social researcher working at the intersections of technology, space and culture. Anne’s research in the Touch project involves looking at touch in different social and cultural contexts, in the first instance working towards Touchpædia, a reference and resource:

      “I’m interested in cultural practices surrounding what can, and cannot, touch. Applied to RFID and Near-Field Communication, this becomes a question of connecting some things and disconnecting others. Put another way: whether we’re concerned with issues of technological privacy or publicity in our everyday lives, I believe we’re well served by a stronger understanding of cross-cultural examples of ritualised contact and avoidance. It’s my hope that the Touchpædia will be a step in that direction, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it might lead.”

      What are the various meanings of touch, and how do they vary according to social and cultural context? How do cultural meanings of touch manifest in contemporary technology, advertising, media and in the design of technology itself?

      This is an exploratory project that would involve field work, and the possibility of collaboration with Anne.

      References

      Introducing touch as culture and The rituals of touching, Anne Galloway on the Touch weblog.

      Classen, Constance. The Book of Touch, Berg Publishers, July 2005. Link

      Ackerman, Diane. A natural history of the senses, Random House, 1990. Link

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. Introducing touch as culture Hello. My name is Anne Galloway and I’m very pleased to introduce myself as the newest member of the Touch research project team. Some of you may know me from my blog purselipsquarejaw, or......
      2. The rituals of touching I had the pleasure of meeting Charlie Gere at the Architecture and Situated Technologies symposium in October, where he gave an intriguing introduction to The Liturgy of Things. You can listen to the whole......
      3. People Touch is an inter-disciplinary project and connected to an array of international industries, projects and practitioners. Timo Arnall Timo leads the Touch project after successfully proposing NFC as a research area to the Norwegian......
      4. A PhD in Touch Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and logistics. This cheap and potentially ubiquitous technology is likely to influence the......
      5. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/fields-and-seamshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/fields-and-seamsMon, 02 Jul 2007 23:30:56 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      “Don’t place your bank cards, hard disks, etc. here”.

      With increasingly ubiquitous wireless networks the physical world is becoming layered with a spectrum of radio waves. These fields range from massive GSM, 3G and DVB cells, through to household sized wifi and bluetooth networks, to tiny RFID and NFC bubbles. Each of these invisible bubbles offers functions or services that can be accessed from various devices. When inside the appropriate field mobile phones may be able to carry a voice call or pay for a subway ticket, laptops can transfer data, while smart cards can authorise access or payments.

      What does the increasingly radio-saturated landscape – and our reliance on wireless infrastructure – mean in our everyday use of applications and services? Can we use fields as a material for creative purposes?

      This is a central issue for ubiquitous computing where wireless functions or services are embedded – invisibly – into the environment. For a user, knowing what kinds of fields are available and knowing what kinds of functions, applications or services they offer may be a critical usability problem in the near future. If certain fields become critical for our use ubiquitous functions or services, how can we cope with the edges, seams and failures? Do we need to increase the usability and awareness of various radio fields?

      Can we introduce certain kinds of visibility back into ‘invisible computing’? How should we visualise the available options? Should we represent them technically, according to applications or services, or should we visualise the kind of information or risk involved in the interaction?

      Visual references

      

      References

      The work of Matthew Chalmers on seamful design is relevant, particularly: Seamful Design and Ubicomp Infrastructure: “In this paper, we discuss taking a ‘seamful’ design approach to ubicomp systems. Some features that we designers usually categorise as infrastructure problems may, to users, be useful interactional features. Examples include the edges and gaps in 802.11 coverage, and the patterns of where one can and cannot get GPS positioning.”

      Mobile Landscape Graz in Real Time. “harnesses the potential of mobile phones as an affordable, ready-made and ubiquitous medium that allows the city to be sensed and displayed in real-time as a complex, pulsating entity. Because it is possible to simultaneously ‘ping’ the cell phones of thousands of users - thereby establishing their precise location in space at a given moment in time - these devices can be used as a highly dynamic tracking tool that describes how the city is used and transformed by its citizens.”

      Photos of wifi space. “Wifi Camera Obscura reveals the electromagnetic space of our devices and the shadows that we create within such spaces, in particular our wifi networks which are increasingly found throughout cities of the developed world.”

      Cell phone disco. “An experimental installation made out of flashing cells. By multiplication of a mobile phone gadget, only slightly altered consumer product, we created a space to experience the invisible body of the mobile phone.”

      Usman Haque. “The domain of architecture has been transformed by developments in interaction research, wearable computing, mobile connectivity, people-centered design, contextual awareness, RFID systems and ubiquitous computing.”

      Dunne & Raby, Hertzian tales. “The subject of these proposals is the role of electronic products in the aesthetic inhabitation of a rapidly dematerialising, ubiquitous and intelligent environment.”

      Gadget allergy. “A university is trying to unravel the truth behind a 21st century “disease” produced by exposure to electrical equipment.”

      EMF Absorption by the body. “The public are concerned about the health effects of electromagnetic radiation. Scientific research is needed to find out exactly how electromagnetic fields interact with the human body. These measurements cannot be done on live people and so calculations must be used.”

      When wireless dreams come true. “Waves, a recent exhibition and conference in Riga curated by RIXC and Armin Medosch, tuned in to artistic engagements with the electro-magnetic spectrum. By exploring the material, if imperceptible, base of the information sphere, this event attempted to escape the conventional fetishisation of message over medium.”

      ætherspace. “With ætherspace I would like to make hertzian space audible, make the invisible sonic. Briefly, wearable transducers/antennae would pick up the various components of hertzian space as the user walked around in the city, home, or workplace.”

      Maxwell city workshop. “A workshop proposing an artistic investigation into electromagnetic substance within the city of Oslo and its surroundings.” Video

      Electroprobes. “The Electroprobe allows you to listen to electronic objects while they are talking and dreaming.”

      Phantom geometry and tissue-simulant liquids. “Investigating the visualisation of electromagnetic fields.”

      EMF meter. “A scientific instrument for measuring Electromagnetic radiation.”

      EMF fabrics & household materials, paints & plastics from Block EMF and Less EMf.

      On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study. “Aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals.”

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. Making radio tangible Next week we’re launching some new work that explores the spatial aspects of RFID. So before we publish that, here is a quick summary of existing work on radio, sensors and space that I’ve......
      2. Phantom geometry and tissue-simulant liquids I’m investigating the visualisation of electromagnetic fields, part of our exploratory process to look at the materiality of RFID. What are we talking about when we say ‘touch-based interaction’ or ‘near field’ for instance?......
      3. The universal controller This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Much research in ubiquitous computing focuses on the idea of a universal controller; a device that can adapt from......
      4. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/interfacing-the-internet-of-thingshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/interfacing-the-internet-of-thingsMon, 02 Jul 2007 21:59:19 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      

      The ‘internet of things’ is a vision of a world full of interconnected things that participate in a wider network of the internet. The idea has been driven by the proliferation of wireless networks and the increasing use of RFID in logistical applications, many see it as the inevitable result of the insatiable drive for efficiency in the globalised marketplace.

      So far applications have been limited to logistics and inventory management; outside of the experience of most people. But if every product is tagged and tracked there are certainly implications for people at the consumer / user / human end of the supply chain. Although many have speculated on how the ‘internet of things’ might be interfaced from this perspective, there has been very little interaction design work towards user-needs, prototypes or testing out ideas.

      With the introduction of the first NFC devices in 2004 some people started thinking of the mobile phone as a human interface for a machine-readable, internet of things world. This was driven by a desire to have more agency over ubiquitous technologies like RFID and to perhaps reverse some of the dominant structures of privacy and control imposed by RFID systems.

      Do NFC devices have a role to play as an interface for the internet of things? If NFC devices become commonplace how might they be used as interfaces for products, services and brands?

      In this project you should look at specific users, contexts or situations and create ideas for the way in which trackable, identifiable objects could engage with them. You could also take existing things as a starting point for new interfaces, keeping use and context in mind.

      The design process here may be in danger of being fragmented, including methodologies from interaction and service design, as well as business, marketing and technology. It will be very important to lay out specific values, goals and contexts at every level in order to keep strong constraints on the project.

      References

      ITU Internet Reports 2005: The Internet of Things. “The report takes a look at the next step in “always on” communications, in which new technologies like RFID and smart computing promise a world of networked and interconnected devices that provide relevant content and information whatever the location of the user.

      Internet of things: working bibliography. Anne Galloway traces the history of the ‘internet of things’, a lot of good sources.

      Siorpaes, S, et al. Mobile Interaction with the Internet of Things. Embedded Interaction Research Group, Media Informatics Group, University of Munich / DoCoMo Eurolabs. PDF

      Roduner, C. The Mobile Phone as a Universal Interaction Device – Are There Limits? Institute for Pervasive Computing, Department of Computer Science ETH Zurich. PDF

      Near field interactions. Workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. PDF

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. The universal controller This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Much research in ubiquitous computing focuses on the idea of a universal controller; a device that can adapt from......
      2. Time, motion and touch The rhetoric of ‘mobile life’ is that technology will make motion more possible, easier, and that having access to information will make our lives easier, transcending time and space. This spectacular notion of global......
      3. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
      4. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
      5. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/rfid-and-the-everydayhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/07/rfid-and-the-everydayMon, 02 Jul 2007 19:36:26 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      

      Many of us have experienced RFID as a way of paying for tickets on public transport or gaining access to places. But are there other ways in which RFID, through things, places and behaviour, may become part of everyday experience?

      RFID chips are cheap and tiny, they can be embedded in just about anything, lasting forever without a battery. But in most situations RFIDs are also extremely limited in range, capacity and susceptible to being broken and hacked. This is the cheap and dirty end of ubiquitous technology.

      What kinds of interfaces or identities could everyday things have? How might identifiable objects affect our social relationships and how might people hack or subvert these affects? What kinds of needs and desires exist around everyday things and how might these change?

      Some possibilities that have been explored in the past include household objects as interfaces, urban screens that display custom media or tokens or gifts that contain personal information (see references).

      Your process may involve field work, observations, material or personal object studies and interviews. You might want to create a series of scenarios around everyday behaviour from these studies that others could build upon.

      References

      Personal, Portable, Pedestrian Mobile Phones in Japanese Life. Edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe and Misa Matsuda.

      Publications by Rich Ling. Lots of research into the use of mobile technology from a sociologists perspective, with a particular focus on Norwegian culture.

      Institute For The Future on RFID Downloadable PDFs on the future of RFID in everyday life.

      Galloway, Anne. 2004. Intimations of Everyday Life: Ubiquitous Computing
      and the City. Cultural Studies, Volume 18, Numbers 2-3, pp. 384-408. Link

      Mobilities in everyday life and On the persistence of the everyday. Anne Galloway.

      33 Ways RFID Has Invaded Your Life Lots of current and near-future uses for RFID.

      Cool, Surprising and just Plain Scary: 51 Futuristic Uses for RFID A good list of current and near-future uses of RFID, read through the list to get beyond the interaction design clichés.

      What is the problem?. Good reasons why many might not want RFID in everyday life.

      Frequently asked questions about NFC Mentions of everyday activities, mainly transactions, in this document from the NFC Forum.

      Greenfield, Adam. Everyware. The dawning age of ubiquitous computing., 2006.

      Feldman, A. Tapia, E.M. Sadi, S. Maes, P. Schmandt, C. ReachMedia: on-the-move interaction with everyday objects. Ambient Intelligence Group, MIT Media Lab., Cambridge, MA, USA. PDF

      Carvey, A., Gouldstone, J., Vedurumudi, P., Whiton, A., and Ishii, H. 2006. Rubber shark as user interface. In CHI ‘06 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Montréal, Québec, Canada, April 22 - 27, 2006). CHI ‘06. ACM Press, New York, NY, 634-639. PDF

      Kindberg, T., Barton, J., Morgan, J., Becker, G., Caswell, D., Debaty, P., Gopal, G., Frid, M., Krishnan, V., Morris, H., Schettino, J., Serra, B., and Spasojevic, M. 2002. People, places, things: web presence for the real world. Mob. Netw. Appl. 7, 5 (Oct. 2002), 365-376. Link

      Read more about these design briefs.

      Related things:

      1. Everyware icons (visualising ubicomp situations) In December 2005 Adam Greenfield asked me to work with him on icon concepts for his book Everyware. Here is Adam’s description of his book: “The age of ubiquitous computing is here: a computing......
      2. The universal controller This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Much research in ubiquitous computing focuses on the idea of a universal controller; a device that can adapt from......
      3. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
      4. RFID in Seoul: High-end smartcards The contactless ticketing and payment system of choice in Seoul is called T-Money. Seoul was the first city to use Mifare standard smartcards in 1996. Although retail payment doesn’t seem to have taken off......
      5. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
      ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/universal-design-with-nfchttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/universal-design-with-nfcFri, 29 Jun 2007 16:06:09 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

      

      NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be summed up as: “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” (Source)

      There are perhaps many reasons that NFC is seen as an enabling technology in this area:

      • Touching an object with a mobile device is seen as a simple and intuitive gesture, and may be easier than interfacing through buttons
      • Moving services and functions out into a physical interface may present opportunities that are not possible when navigating hierarchical menus
      • An NFC device has multiple modes of input and feedback and can present information in a perceptible way across many senses
      • An NFC mobile device can contain user-preferences and identification, which can present information or services relevant to the user’s needs

        So: how might NFC be used to create interfaces that are appropriate for the widest range of users?

        One of the most basic NFC interactions is using a physical object as a call or SMS request: touching an object creates a phonecall or an SMS. A common scenario is using a collection of photo frames to make phonecalls instead of accessing names through the phone menu. This can be easily achieved by attaching NFC tags behind photos or inside photo frames. But there is a distinct lack of research and testing in this area, and so far there is no proof that this is easier or more desirable for any group of users.

        In this project we would like you to create applications that use NFC in ways that makes mobile applications easier to use for a wide range of users. These applications should be designed and tested out in collaboration with a range of potential user-groups.

        References

        Access-ability A great document covering transport, ticketing, financial transactions, public access terminals, telecommunications, smart housing, smart media and biometrics, touchscreens, keypads, typefaces, pictograms, icons and symbols, audio input and output, wireless systems, training, instruction books and help facilities. 

        Universal Design – Clarifying the Concept “The principles of universal design are being applied in a growing number of spheres. In Norway, these principles have already been integrated into several acts of legislation and efforts are underway to incorporate them into even more of the statutory framework. To ensure that the principles remain operational, it is necessary to clarify the scope of the concept of universal design, and to specify more clearly the opportunities and ramifications this implies.”

        Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards Section 508 makes sure that federal employees with disabilities have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access and use by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities. This document covers the basics from software and web to telecommunications and media products.

        Accessibility Guidelines for Public Access Terminals Good information on accessibility for public access terminals like information kiosks, ticket vending machines, information displays, point of sale customer card payment systems and card door entry systems.

        SmartTouch project A pilot project in Oulu is using NFC as a basis for eldercare services: “The City’s elderly care department, its catering service Oulun Ateria and logistics firm Oulun Logistiikka have been engaged in a pilot project involving ordering meals for the elderly based on touch technology.”

        Seeing Eye Phone Mentioned briefly in the ‘Touching the future’ competition winners is the Seeing Eye Phone, an NFC-based service that converts product information into synthesised speech. While this is not strictly a universal design it’s an interesting example of the mobile phone acting as an intermediary between physically located information and other senses.

        Read more about these design briefs.

        Related things:

        1. The universal controller This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Much research in ubiquitous computing focuses on the idea of a universal controller; a device that can adapt from......
        2. NFC access control This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID and NFC can be used to provide access to places in the same way as traditional keys or......
        3. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
        4. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
        5. NFC in action A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/sniff-wins-prize-for-design-for-allhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/sniff-wins-prize-for-design-for-allFri, 29 Jun 2007 13:07:12 +0000Sara Johansson’s project ‘Sniff’ has won the IT Funk prize for best student project in Design for all at this year’s Oslo School of Architecture & Design…Sara Johansson’s project ‘Sniff’ has won the IT Funk prize for best student project in Design for all at this year’s Oslo School of Architecture & Design prize giving.

        “Sniff is a toy dog that gives feedback through sounds and vibrations on tagged objects that comes close to his nose. The use can be in daily situations as well as in play, either alone, together with other kids or together with other Sniffs.”

        

        Her project is written up as a good case study here (in Norwegian), and there is much more details about the project in Sara’s own report (PDF, in English).

        

        Sara was working with the Playful RFID brief this spring. Her project will be documented further here alongside the other results from the course.

        Related things:

        1. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
        2. Sniff After two years of development, many awards and publications, we have finally given Sara Johanssons’s Sniff the proper communication it deserves. Sniff is first and foremost a high-quality physical toy dog, that can withstand......
        3. More press for Sniff Dagens Næringsliv Norway’s daily business newspaper covered two of the Unge Talenter winners last Friday, including Sniff. Some quotes: Vinner Design for alle: Kosehunden og spillet Sniff av Sara Johansson “FOLSOM HUND. -Jeg tenkte......
        4. 50 things, places and people for 2008 On the last day of 2007 Dagbladet rounded up the 50 things, places and people they tip for 2008 (50 ting, steder og mennesker vi tror på i 2008). Sara Johansson is tipped at......
        5. Touch design briefs for this spring All of the Touch design briefs we have been using this spring in the Touch course are now online, have a look. The Touch course has also just finished, there will be case studies......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/recent-nfc-news-and-linkshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/recent-nfc-news-and-linksTue, 19 Jun 2007 15:39:03 +0000Some recent news and links: The Daily Telegraph reports that the London Oyster card may soon offer NFC at least in a trial form:Some recent news and links:

        The Daily Telegraph reports that the London Oyster card may soon offer NFC at least in a trial form:

        “Mobile phone companies Orange, O2 and Nokia are in talks with Transport for London about using phones instead of Oyster Cards to pay for tube tickets [...] O2 is talking to Tube managers about trialling the technology with visitors to the Millennium Dome [...] Transys, the consortium which installed and operates the Oyster card system in London, has already opened its network to Barclaycard. Within a year, new cards issued by the bank will be able to pay for Tube journeys.”

        The suggestion of more trials will be worrisome to some, who have seen many NFC trials take place with no firm commitments to commercialisation.

        Yet the problems implementing mobile payments are becoming clear, and not just from an infrastructure perspective. Critical interaction design problems are also becoming clear: mobile payments don’t yet offer a compelling experience beyond using a credit card:

        “Rules adopted by the payment card organizations allowing U.S. consumers to make low-value purchases without signing receipts, tapping cards or other tokens to pay is not appreciably faster or more convenient than swiping the cards at the point of sale.”

        And in Japan, Mobile Suica has been doing less well than expected, with only 350,000 people signed up:

        “The registration process has been difficult for many prospective users, acknowledges Akio Shiibashi, director of the Suica Systems Department at JR East. “Membership is a little complicated, so we need to make it simpler,” he says. “The digital ticketing function has not materialized.”

        Nonetheless Slashphone reports on the latest NFC developments from Japan including interfaces for ATMs, taxis, restaurants and petrol stations.

        

        “More Near Field Communication (NFC) tests are going on around the world, Japan is advancing to their very own NFC v2.0 and expand into more services. Several companies are presenting their new Felica chip. The new contactless chipset has bigger memory capacity and double the transmission speed (424kbps). Here are some of the demonstration of the possible NFC usage in Tokyo. You can use your NFC enabled mobile phone as a ATM card. Once you place your NFC enabled mobile phone on the ATM machine, the machine will recognize your identity and read the security information from your phone directly. The security information sent to the ATM machine includes your bank account ID, maximum cash out per day and other customize settings depends on different banks [...] The biggest advantage of using the NFC enabled mobile phone is up to 6 card information, which means 6 banks can be stored into the phone at a time [...] Japan taxi might soon implement contactless payment in the taxi, letting you bring less cash while you can pay the taxi fee from the stored value or real time transaction.”

        At his keynote speech at CHI 2007 Bill Moggridge apparently “showed an entertaining video of a Japanese woman trying to purchase a soft drink with her i-Mode (Cmode) cell phone. This was a usability disaster, and illustrates how the design of many mainstream products is still basically broken.”

        Shin’ichi Konomi responded by posting a video of his own mobile-vending machine experience with Suica rather than Cmode: “Incidentally, Cmode doesn’t seem as popular as SUICA vending machines, at least in my area. Here’s me buying a drink (first selected a drink, and then showed my phone).”

        It’s worth watching the video to see first-hand what NFC interactions should, or could be like.

        Shin’ichi Konomi also reports on a new form of interactive advertising from Suica called SuiPo where subway travellers present their Suica cards to the poster and receive relevant ads on their mobile phones.

        

        And finally two first hand reports, again from Shin’ichi Konomi, about the experience of using RFID enabled services in Japan. The first is a worrying report about the lack of infrastructure to deal with out of the ordinary problems with RFID, such as the ability to cancel a ticket. The second is a description of the process of buying a movie ticket using an RFID-enabled phone, where RFID ends up being abandoned in favour of a paper ticket.

        NFC/RFID and related news and links get published as a regular stream of links here (RSS).

        Related things:

        1. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
        2. NFC in action A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a......
        3. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
        4. Universal design with NFC This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be......
        5. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/the-universal-controllerhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/the-universal-controllerTue, 19 Jun 2007 13:17:34 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

        

        Much research in ubiquitous computing focuses on the idea of a universal controller; a device that can adapt from making phonecalls to controlling the air conditioning. The mobile phone is seen as a good platform for controlling interactions in a range of other devices. It offers an adaptable interface with more diversity than most commonplace consumer appliances: a screen, sound, haptic feedback, internet/data access and the ability to process information. NFC technology offers a cheap technical platform to base these concepts on, and a set of touch-based interaction methods to start building complete interaction process around.

        But if mobile phones start to do a lot more than voice calling and text messaging, how should the mobile interface change? What does a universal controller look like, and how does it function? Should the form factor change along with the function?

        What changes may happen to the physical devices themselves? Should phones still look like phones? Should they look like wallets or keys? In the way that mobile cameras and music players have their own, dedicated buttons, do we need to consider extra physical affordances that specifically control these new functions? Should they offer robust surfaces to ease the effect of being constantly placed against readers? Where should active surfaces be placed, and how will this affect the overall usability?

        This project should consider the design of many devices for different purposes, should physically prototype many of the devices and test them out in everyday situations.

        References

        Christof, R. 2006. The Mobile Phone as a Universal Interaction Device – Are There Limits? Proceedings of the Workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World, 8th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (Espoo, Finland, September 2006) Link

        Koskela, T. and Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, K. 2004. Evolution towards smart home environments: empirical evaluation of three user interfaces. Personal Ubiquitous Computing. 8, 3-4 (Jul. 2004), 234-240. Link

        Hodes, T. D. and Katz, R. H. 1999. Composable ad hoc location-based services for heterogeneous mobile clients. Wirel. Netw. 5, 5 (Oct. 1999), 411-427. Link

        Myers, B.A., Nichols, J., Wobbrock, J.O., Miller, R.C. Taking Handheld Devices to the Next Level. Computer, Volume 37, Issue 12, Dec. 2004 Page(s): 36 - 43 2004. Link

        Nichols, J., Chau, D. H., and Myers, B. A. 2007. Demonstrating the viability of automatically generated user interfaces. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (San Jose, California, USA, April 28 - May 03, 2007). CHI ‘07. ACM Press, New York, NY, 1283-1292. Link

        Nichols, J., Myers, B. A., Higgins, M., Hughes, J., Harris, T. K., Rosenfeld, R., and Pignol, M. 2002. Generating remote control interfaces for complex appliances. In Proceedings of the 15th Annual ACM Symposium on User interface Software and Technology (Paris, France, October 27 - 30, 2002). UIST ‘02. ACM Press, New York, NY, 161-170. Link

        Nichols, J., Myers, B. A., Higgins, M., Hughes, J., Harris, T. K., Rosenfeld, R., and Litwack, K. 2003. Personal universal controllers: controlling complex appliances with GUIs and speech. In CHI ‘03 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA, April 05 - 10, 2003). CHI ‘03. ACM Press, New York, NY, 624-625. Link

        Nichols, J. W. 2001. Using handhelds as controls for everyday appliances: a paper prototype study. In CHI ‘01 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Seattle, Washington, March 31 - April 05, 2001). CHI ‘01. ACM Press, New York, NY, 443-444. Link

        Omojokun, O., Pierce, S., Isbell, L., and Dewan, P. 2006. Comparing end-user and intelligent remote control interface generation. Personal Ubiquitous Comput. 10, 2 (Jan. 2006), 136-143. Link

        Zimmermann, G., Vanderheiden, G., and Gilman, A. 2002. Prototype implementations for a universal remote console specification. In CHI ‘02 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, April 20 - 25, 2002). CHI ‘02. ACM Press, New York, NY, 510-511. Link

        Read more about these design briefs.

        Related things:

        1. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
        2. Universal design with NFC This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be......
        3. RFID and the everyday This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Many of us have experienced RFID as a way of paying for tickets on public transport or gaining access......
        4. Interfacing the ‘internet of things’ This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. The ‘internet of things’ is a vision of a world full of interconnected things that participate in a wider......
        5. Three papers on mobile payments The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments. From meiwaku to tokushita! Lessons for digital money design from Japan. Mainwaring, S., March, W., and Maurer, B.......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/touch-is-the-new-clickhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/touch-is-the-new-clickTue, 19 Jun 2007 09:30:31 +0000Noticed this headline today on the Innovision Research & Technology website:Noticed this headline today on the Innovision Research & Technology website:

        

        Interesting that they are comparing RFID/NFC to a Button.

        Related things:

        1. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/mirw-2007https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/06/mirw-2007Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:32:24 +0000A new workshop on Mobile Interaction with the Real World is taking place at Mobile HCI in Singapore this September.

        A new workshop on Mobile Interaction with the Real World is taking place at Mobile HCI in Singapore this September.

        Following the success of Mobile Interaction with the Real World; at MobileHCI 2006, we would like to continue this workshop as a forum that concentrates on mobile interactions with real world objects. Among the questions that come up in this area of research are:
        • Which kinds of interactions with the real world exist?
        • What technologies can be used to implement mobile interaction with the real world?
        • How can real world objects and services be described?
        • How should systems and services for this kind of mobile interactions be designed?
        • What should these user interfaces look like?
        • What does the interaction design and usability look like for mobile interaction with physical objects?
        • Can these interfaces be generated automatically?
        • Should real world services be defined in a standardized way (e.g. with semantic web services)?
        • How can real world objects be associated with new services?
        • Which issues concerning privacy and security arise from this new kind of mobile interaction?

        Last year’s workshop succeeded in bringing together like-minded researchers in the areas of physical hyperlinks, Near Field Communication and mobile technology.

        The deadline for submissions of workshop papers is 29 June 2007.

        Related things:

        1. MIRW 2006 The workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World (MIRW 2006) at Mobile HCI in Espoo was a timely gathering of practitioners concerned with similar issues: connecting the mobile phone to places and things. The......
        2. Hybrid World Lab I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007: Mediamatic organizes a new workshop in which the participants develop......
        3. Touch at Recalling RFID I will be presenting at Recalling RFID in Amsterdam on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 October 2007. The programme includes ‘presentations and debates on RFID and digital connectivity scenarios with speakers from the industry,......
        4. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/mobile-camp-nychttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/mobile-camp-nycThu, 17 May 2007 23:21:35 +0000I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be presenting at Mobile Camp NYC on Saturday 19th May in New York City.I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be presenting at Mobile Camp NYC on Saturday 19th May in New York City.

        

        I’ll be presenting some history and context around Physical Hyperlinks and Touch-based interactions.

        Update

        Download my presentation here [PDF, 1.8 Mb]

        Related things:

        1. Reboot 8: Mobile presence The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform. In particular, this platform is finally allowing the kinds of 3rd party and community development that......
        2. Hackers Camp @ Picnic 07 Mediamatic is organising a Physical computing hackers camp in September. The workshop is for designers and hackers to put physical computing ideas into practice with lots of users. The workshop takes place just before......
        3. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
        4. Mobile payment demo The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news......
        5. Three papers on mobile payments The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments. From meiwaku to tokushita! Lessons for digital money design from Japan. Mainwaring, S., March, W., and Maurer, B.......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/hybrid-world-lab-slideshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/hybrid-world-lab-slidesFri, 11 May 2007 10:54:30 +0000This week at the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic I have given five presentations related to NFC, physical, tangible, social interactions and design…

        This week at the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic I have given five presentations related to NFC, physical, tangible, social interactions and design methodology.

        Here are the slides for each of those presentations. They are PDF files.

        Designing between things, places and people
        An introduction to some of my work and current work in the Touch project. Looks at the design briefs or research questions around RFID and NFC.

        Introduction to NFC phones
        A quick introduction to NFC phones and their applications.

        Physical hyperlink technology
        An overview of physical hyperlinking technologies and some spatial annotation projects.

        Tangible and social media & Mobile social software
        An overview of some tangible and mobile social software projects.

        Context, scenarios and prototyping
        Some ideas, directions and guidelines for making ‘hybrid world applications’. The importance of choosing context, people, places, things and situations.

        Nicolas Nova’s slides are here.

        Related things:

        1. Hybrid World Lab I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007: Mediamatic organizes a new workshop in which the participants develop......
        2. Physical hyperlinks presentation at XTech Our presentation on Physical Hyperlinks has been accepted to XTech 2007. The presentation will be an overview of some of the concepts around physical hyperlinking, and perhaps some ideas about why it may not......
        3. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
        4. MIRW 2006 The workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World (MIRW 2006) at Mobile HCI in Espoo was a timely gathering of practitioners concerned with similar issues: connecting the mobile phone to places and things. The......
        5. About & contact Touch is a research project that investigates Near Field Communication (NFC), a technology that enables connections between mobile phones and physical things. We are developing applications and services that enable people to interact with......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/touch-as-interaction-mediumhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/touch-as-interaction-mediumFri, 04 May 2007 15:01:47 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

        

        In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying and entering in a wide variety of public situations. In the near future the mobile phone and RFID card may be used extensively for ticketing and payment across the globe.

        If we are using our mobile phones to interact with the physical world via NFC, what kinds of new interaction methods emerge on our mobile devices?

        At the moment NFC phones may give us tactile and audio feedback when we touch an NFC tag. We are then forced to look at the screen to confirm NFC actions. But one of the largest usability opportunities for NFC is reducing our reliance on screen-based interfaces. Are there are more subtle and intuitive ways of giving feedback on actions without having to look at the screen?

        On the input side we need to work out what kinds of interaction methods work between the mobile phone and the physical world. Are we dealing with touching, tapping, swiping, pointing, hitting, bouncing, squeezing? Does RFID-based interaction work with gestures? Do we need dedicated buttons that enable and work alongside RFID interactions?

        Within the interaction, we need to consider whether there are more advanced forms of interactions such as drag and drop, hold, hover, and different states beyond the simple hyperlink. In what contexts might these interactions be used? In what ways might these interactions affect people’s behaviour and activities in public places? What kinds of activities and interactions are suitable in public space?

        On the feedback side, sound, music, vibration, light and tactile feedback can all be used to create efficient, usable and satisfying interactions. Think about the richness of feedback for many senses from a game system like the Nintendo Wii, there is no reason why mobile interactions should be any less rich.

        In this project it would be good to prototype a range of interaction methods, with a range of inputs and outputs, and to test them out on a cross-section of potential users. The project might consider looking at research into tangible and haptic computing, and the human sense of proximity and peripersonal space, particularly if we are to work out how to create interactions between people.

        This brief may also consider some of the instructional and iconography issues around these interactions.

        References

        Mäkelä, K., Belt, S., Greenblatt, D., and Häkkilä, J. 2007. Mobile interaction with visual and RFID tags: a field study on user perceptions. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (San Jose, California, USA, April 28 - May 03, 2007). CHI ‘07. ACM Press, New York, NY, 991-994. Link

        Rukzio, E. Leichtenstern, K., Callaghan, V., Holleis, P., Schmidt, A., Chin, J. An Experimental Comparison of Physical Mobile Interaction Techniques: Touching, Pointing and Scanning. In Proc. Ubicomp 2006, 87-104. PDF

        Rukzio, E., Paolucci, M., Finin, T., Wisner, P., and Payne, T. 2006. Mobile interaction with the real world. In Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Human-Computer interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (Helsinki, Finland, September 12 - 15, 2006). MobileHCI ‘06, vol. 159. ACM Press, New York, NY, 295-296. PDF

        Välkkynen, P., Niemelä, M., and Tuomisto, T. 2006. Evaluating touching and pointing with a mobile terminal for physical browsing. In Proceedings of the 4th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer interaction: Changing Roles (Oslo, Norway, October 14 - 18, 2006). A. Mørch, K. Morgan, T. Bratteteig, G. Ghosh, and D. Svanaes, Eds. NordiCHI ‘06, vol. 189. ACM Press, New York, NY, 28-37. Link

        Swindells, C., Inkpen, K. M., Dill, J. C., and Tory, M. 2002. That one there! Pointing to establish device identity. In Proceedings of the 15th Annual ACM Symposium on User interface Software and Technology (Paris, France, October 27 - 30, 2002). UIST ‘02. ACM Press, New York, NY, 151-160. Link

        Ljungstrand, P. and Holmquist, L. E. 1999. WebStickers: using physical objects as WWW bookmarks. In CHI ‘99 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, May 15 - 20, 1999). CHI ‘99. ACM Press, New York, NY, 332-333. Link

        Read more about these design briefs.

        Related things:

        1. The universal controller This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Much research in ubiquitous computing focuses on the idea of a universal controller; a device that can adapt from......
        2. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
        3. RFID and the everyday This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Many of us have experienced RFID as a way of paying for tickets on public transport or gaining access......
        4. NFC access control This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID and NFC can be used to provide access to places in the same way as traditional keys or......
        5. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/nfc-access-controlhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/nfc-access-controlFri, 04 May 2007 14:36:13 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

        RFID and NFC can be used to provide access to places in the same way as traditional keys or tickets.

        This brief emerged from a frustration with existing access control systems. For interfaces of such potential simplicity they are often frustratingly difficult to use. Observe a queue forming by a train ticket gate or at a gym, and witness first-hand how an interface can cause confusion, frustration and even humiliation. Lack of feedback, delays and awkward timing make these systems some of the worst examples of interaction design practice.

        Considering the issue of access control as a whole, what kinds of interactions are needed to make access easy and humane?

        What are the variables involved in access control? How should access be visualised for users? When does access need to be easy and transparent, and when should it be obscure or even threatening? What kinds of feedback (audio, haptic, visual) can we use to make these interactions easier? In particular, how might an NFC-enabled mobile phone change access interactions? This might link very successfully with other briefs, in particular looking at how icon or graphic treatments might work and the kinds of interaction methods that are evolving for NFC interactions.

        Going further, how should RFID work within existing architectural spaces? How might architectural structure alter once we have more advanced access systems? Does the concept of ‘boundary’ change?

        Read more about these design briefs.

        Related things:

        1. Universal design with NFC This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be......
        2. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
        3. NFC at Wikipedia I revisited the Near Field Communication at Wikipedia page this week. For a long time it was a copy and paste of the About NFC page from the NFC Forum, but now it has......
        4. Interactions of transactions This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It is likely that NFC has a role to play in the future of our interactions with infrastructures like......
        5. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
        ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/a-graphic-language-for-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/a-graphic-language-for-rfidFri, 04 May 2007 12:08:57 +0000This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating.

        

        RFID is being used for an increasing number of interactions with everyday infrastructures. From travelcards, keyless entry, passports and micropayments to content downloads, smart posters and digital wallets on mobile phones. Attempts have been made to represent these interactions graphically from isolated groups in academic, commercial or technical contexts. No clear or definite language has emerged.

        How do we visualise RFID-based interactions?

        There may be two initial ways of approaching this. The first approach is to think about the act or the action of the interaction: how do we invite users to touch, swipe or otherwise interact with RFID? Are there abstractions here that could allow all RFID interactions to come under one ‘brand’?

        The second approach is to think about what the interaction will do, the verb. Here you could think about purchasing, opening, closing, downloading and identifying. How do we represent those in a consistent and useful way? By looking into existing NFC research and documentation you can see the kinds of use-cases that are being designed with NFC.

        The project might also consider the physical form of RFID readers and writers in the environment. How might we redesign a ticketing machine or payment terminal with an NFC interface rather than traditional payment and selection interfaces? What is the optimum location, form and placement of an RFID reader for key access for instance. This might cross over into the other brief: RFID access control.

        Detailed brief

        This is a more detailed brief developed with Schulze & Webb in collaboration with Nokia Research. Its purpose is to create a context for graphic designers to create icon systems for RFID. It has been used at Central St Martins with graphic design students and at AHO with industrial design students.

        

        Purpose of this project

        In this project we want to design and test a range of icons that explain important aspects of RFID-based interactions. How do we visualise the presence of RFID? Are there useful ways of representing the kinds of interactions and functions involved? Is the job of the icon to indicate the active field, the verb, or the technology? At a different level, do we also need approachable graphics to alleviate anxiety, confusion or frustration? Do users know what the limits of the system are and do they care?

        There are three things to consider in each case:

        • Context around the task
        • Content of the interaction
        • Risk of the interaction

          The key question here is what elements of this can we take for granted, and what should be represented in an icon? Ideally the icons should say as little as possible, to retain simplicity and to not get in the way in the case of repeated exposure. So the task is about creating clear signs that consider context, content and risk.

          If we take the example of an NFC purchase interaction (a till or cash register), will users know whether the transaction involves giving or receiving? Will they intuitively know the risk involved? Where does the content (the amount of money) get represented?

          The graphic deliverable

          For testing we need six to ten variations of each theme:

          Generic icons

        • Abstractions and actions for ‘branding’ NFC
        • Characters
        • Metaphors

          Verbs

        • Give, pay, upload, submit share, print
        • Receive, download, sync
        • Identify, open

          Format

          The deliverable includes all the icons laid out in their categories on A3 pages, with equal spacing.

          Each icon also needs to be printed on it’s own card, 10cm across, which is roughly equivalent to the range of an RFID tag.

          The icons need to work at a distance of 2-3 metres. The resolution of lines, fills and in particular cross-hatching or shading needs to take this into account. Black and white plus a few halftones should be the most commonly used shades, the use of colour will need to be very restricted, and if used, it must be in a common palette that can be applied across a wide range of icons.

          Ideally you will have scanned images of all sketches with descriptions of the process used in their creation for future publications.

          Questions to resolve through the design, testing and iteration:

        • Do people understand what the icons mean?
        • Is there a difference between nearness and touch, does it matter?
        • Can people interpret a system of signs as similar yet different? Can people infer from this the right action, but the correct differences in function?
        • Can people identify risk from icons where appropriate?
        • Do people feel confident using the same tools for spending as they do for personal data?
        • Are there more verbs that we should investigate that are not in the standard set of pay, open, download, print and share?
        • Over an array do they identify the RFID icons consistently against other communication icons which are not connected? (against some dummies that we’d produce) measure “enough uniqueness”
        • Do people respond differently to characters, does that help recognition?
        • Can some icons be too generic? Could an icon for share be confused with pay for instance, and does this need to be clarified?
        • More questions will surely emerge during design and testing.

          References

          A graphic language for touch-based interactions. Timo Arnall. In Proceedings of Mobile Interaction with the Real World. PDF

          Mobile Interaction with Visual and RFID Tags – A Field Study on User Perceptions. Sara Belt, Dan Greenblatt, Jonna Häkkilä, Kaj Mäkelä. PDF

          Requesting Services by Touching Objects in the Environment. Jukka Riekki, University of Oulu, Timo Salminen, University of Oulu, Ismo Alakarppa. PDF

          Suggestions for Visualising Physical Hyperlinks. Pasi Välkkynen, Timo Tuomisto and Ilkka Korhonen. PDF

          Interaction Design for Visible Wireless, Noessel, C. et al., in Garfinkel, S. and Rosenberg, B., RFID: Applications, Security, And Privacy, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 2006.

          Open Here, Mijksenaar, P.,Westendorp, P., Thames and Hudson, 1999. Link

          Understanding Comics, McCloud, S., Harper, 1994. Link

          Details of the RFID passport logo. Link.

          The proposed AIM RFID Emblem. Link.

          More details on Suica at Wikipedia. Link.

          The detailed RFID Brief as presented by Schulze & Webb alongside some initial RFID work. PDF

          Read more about these design briefs.

          Related things:

          1. Everyware icons (visualising ubicomp situations) In December 2005 Adam Greenfield asked me to work with him on icon concepts for his book Everyware. Here is Adam’s description of his book: “The age of ubiquitous computing is here: a computing......
          2. RFID icon based on Immaterials Jack Schulze has written up some thoughts and background on the new RFID icon based on our Immaterials’ visualisation work from last week. Download a vector file of this creative commons symbol.......
          3. Local applications and services This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. One of the most important features of NFC is that it only works at a very short range. This......
          4. NFC access control This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID and NFC can be used to provide access to places in the same way as traditional keys or......
          5. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
          ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/touch-design-briefshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/05/touch-design-briefsWed, 02 May 2007 21:19:49 +0000The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005.The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective. We have discovered many opportunities for original explorations, studies and design projects.

          At the beginning of 2007, as we started to run the Touch course, we decided to document some of the stronger patterns and themes that have emerged in the project. The themes are written as briefs in order to share them with with industry, researchers, designers, other practitioners and students. They assume a certain amount of knowledge about the technology and previous ubiquitous or tangible computing practice, and have been written with designers in mind.

          The briefs range from very broad to very specific, and are not designed to cover the entire field of NFC interactions. There is no brief specifically dealing with privacy or trust for instance, which are clearly central issues for RFID. Instead, issues like privacy and trust are implicit in many of the briefs like the Graphic language for RFID and Fields and seams.

          We will be publishing all of the briefs in detail and they will eventually be linked to from this post. New themes may also emerge, and we’ll publish them here. We’d be very happy for feedback and for people to take on the briefs and extend them. We’d be particularly interested in existing projects that deal with any of these areas.

          A graphic language for RFID

          RFID is being used for an increasing number of interactions with everyday infrastructures. How do we visualise these RFID-based interactions?

          Read more…

          NFC and access control

          Considering the issue of access control as a whole, what kinds of interactions are needed to make access transparent and humane?

          Read more…

          Touch as an interaction medium

          If we are using our mobile phones to interact with the physical world via NFC, what kinds of new interaction methods emerge on mobile devices?

          Read more…

          The universal controller

          If mobile devices start to do a lot more than voice calling and text messaging should the form factor change along with the function?

          Read more…

          Design for all with NFC

          How might NFC be used to create new interfaces that are appropriate for the widest range of users?

          Read more…

          RFID and the everyday

          In what ways will RFID be integrated into everyday things, places and behaviour?

          Read more…

          Interfacing the ‘internet of things

          Do NFC devices have a role to play as an interface for the internet of things?

          Read more…

          Touch as culture

          What are the social and cultural meanings of touch, and how do they vary according to context?

          Read more…

          Fields and seams

          How can we use the increasingly radio-saturated landscape for creative or functional purposes?

          Read more…

          Playful RFID

          How can we use the material and interaction features of RFID to make games, toys or playful products?

          Read more

          Connected products

          What are the opportunities for integrating services, infrastructure, community and online brands into cheap, ubiquitous objects?

          Read more…

          Interactions of transactions

          With the nature of transactions changing as NFC phones replace cash, cards and tickets how should transactions be designed to take advantage of these opportunities?

          Read more…

          Local applications and services

          What applications and services can be usefully tied to specific places or situations?

          Read more

          Alternative RFID infrastructures

          How can RFID infrastructures be designed to support private, bottom-up, ad-hoc and people-to-people interactions?

          Read more…

          Related things:

          1. Touch design briefs for this spring All of the Touch design briefs we have been using this spring in the Touch course are now online, have a look. The Touch course has also just finished, there will be case studies......
          2. Universal design with NFC This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be......
          3. NFC access control This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID and NFC can be used to provide access to places in the same way as traditional keys or......
          4. Interactions of transactions This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It is likely that NFC has a role to play in the future of our interactions with infrastructures like......
          5. A PhD in Touch Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and logistics. This cheap and potentially ubiquitous technology is likely to influence the......
          ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/04/teaching-touchhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/04/teaching-touchMon, 30 Apr 2007 12:52:11 +0000This spring we have an MA interaction design course dedicated to the Touch research project at AHO called ‘Tangible interactions’.This spring we have an MA interaction design course dedicated to the Touch research project at AHO called ‘Tangible interactions’. On this course there are 10 students, mainly with an industrial and interaction design background. So far we have had workshops from Tom Igoe on networked objects and Anne Galloway on anthropology and ethnographic method.

          There have been lectures from Lavrans Løvlie from LiveWork, Paal Smith-Meyer from Lego Mindstorms, Anders Hansen from Sony Ericsson, Petter Brandtzæg from Sintef, Michael Link from Opera on the Nintendo Wii, Jørn Hansen from Oslo Sporveier on RFID ticketing and Odd-Wiking Rahlff from UiO on 2D barcodes.

          

          The students are currently working on prototypes of services, toys, applications, visuals and critical design projects related to NFC, RFID and radio. Some of their progress can be seen on the project weblogs: Katarina Kjelland, Knut-Jørgen V Rishaug, Sara Johansson, Markus Utomo, Einar Sneve Martinussen, Øyvind Østmo, André Granly, David Vågenes, Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas and Una Bjerkan Heimstad.

          The course ends in June with an exhibition at AHO, so expect more details then.

          Related things:

          1. Teaching Touch II For the second year we are teaching an MA interaction design course called Tangible Interactions that is driven by the Touch project at AHO. Last year the course was largely successful both for students......
          2. People Touch is an inter-disciplinary project and connected to an array of international industries, projects and practitioners. Timo Arnall Timo leads the Touch project after successfully proposing NFC as a research area to the Norwegian......
          3. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
          4. Touch at Picnic 07 We are at the Picnic 07 conference in Amsterdam, where we are participating in the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. There are six projects using RFID to track, entertain, frighten and socialise the 1500 or......
          5. Touchable services: Underskog In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked......
          ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/04/framtidens-mobil-near-future-of-mobilityhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/04/framtidens-mobil-near-future-of-mobilityMon, 30 Apr 2007 10:50:38 +0000Norsk Form, the centre for design, architecture and urban area planning, hosted an evening seminar on the Near future of mobility on 11 April 2007.

          Norsk Form, the centre for design, architecture and urban area planning, hosted an evening seminar on the Near future of mobility on 11 April 2007. The seminar intended to look at trends and patterns in the design of mobile devices and services. The Touch project was invited to present alongside Anne Galloway and Tapani Jokinen, Senior Designer at Nokia.

          “Framtidens mobil. Enklere og mer interaktiv. Minst 2,5 milliarder mennesker eier og bruker mobilen til flere og flere aktiviteter hver dag. I løpet av få år har mobiltelefonen blitt den personlige gjenstanden som alltid er innen rekkevidde og med et stadig bredere utvalg av funksjoner. Hva gjør utviklingen med vår måte å være sosiale må? Hvilke utfordringer står designere ovenfor når de skal lage kompliserte mobiltelefoner som simpelthen skal virke?.”

          Anne presented a view on layered places, accumulation and excess, wrapped in a history of her experience as an anthropologist and archaeologist. In particular she discussed how archaeologists and designers are involved in very similar processes, but working in opposite directions. Some notes on her presentation are here.

          Tapani presented Nokia’s ‘brand vision’ of connected devices and ‘objects that people fall in love with’. Many of the ideas can be seen in the Nokia A View of the Future videos where seamless connectivity and endless customisation is possible.

          My presentation was a range of ideas about the recent history of interaction, the move towards tangible and social ‘computing’, and the problems with designing for mobility and context. I presented some work in progress from the Touch project.

          

          Download my presentation [pdf 1.2MB] including notes.

          The auditorium was packed and many good questions were asked, a refreshing change for a quintessentially quiet Scandinavian audience. Some questions pointed at me were:

          • What about breaking RFIDs, have you designed for unreliability and hacking? I really like the fact that RFID can break so easily, and that information will disappear and need physical maintenance. It also negates some of the problems with RFID privacy, knowing that we can break them with our fingers. But we haven’t designed anything specific around this yet.
          • Will the web go to mobile in its current form? Can we have one universal medium? No. The structure and content of the internet is so different from the ways in which we’d like to use information on a mobile device that we cannot have one huge medium that works for all. Data may be re-used, but there are huge challenges around designing interfaces for many different situations and context, that will need to be included in mobile design practice.
          • What about feedback? How will we get more feedback from phones without looking at the screen? We are looking right now at all sorts of tactile, haptic and sound design issues that will let us use mobile devices in a less screen-based manner.
          • Are you not designing lots of new things that will just add to our information overload? The NFC/touch based interaction issue is attempting to reduce our reliance on visual information overload. We are currently in the middle of a bleeping, distracting, attention seeking device-era, and I’m quite hopeful that in the near future our devices will become less noisy and more respectful of our time and peace.

            The evening was organised with Grafill and the Finsk-norsk kulturinstitutt, thanks to them and to the great audience.

            Related things:

            1. Future (NFC) phone is talk of festival! The Green Touch installation at DOTT07 in Newcastle that we created with Helsinki-based Thinglink was a great success. There are a few photos of the event from Ulla-Maaria Mutanen. The local newspaper Evening Chronicle......
            2. Green Touch at Dott07 In collaboration with Helsinki-based development project Social Objects we have developed an installation called Green Touch. The exhibition encourage visitors to touch the design objects on display with mobile devices, in order to explore......
            3. Reboot 8: Mobile presence The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform. In particular, this platform is finally allowing the kinds of 3rd party and community development that......
            4. Physical hyperlinks presentation at XTech Our presentation on Physical Hyperlinks has been accepted to XTech 2007. The presentation will be an overview of some of the concepts around physical hyperlinking, and perhaps some ideas about why it may not......
            5. Norwegian Design Council awards Sniff Sniff has won the prize for Design for All at Unge Talenter 2008 (Young Talent 2008) from the Norwegian Design Council. The project is acclaimed for its inclusive design that encourages playful activity, particularly......
            ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/04/rfid-form-factorshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/04/rfid-form-factorsMon, 30 Apr 2007 00:06:32 +0000As our interaction design students get deeper into prototyping with RFID, we needed to start looking at the range of possibilities around the materials…As our interaction design students get deeper into prototyping with RFID, we needed to start looking at the range of possibilities around the materials and forms of RFID tags. Last week we created a demonstration board of all the RFID tags that we have collected over the last year. Most of these tags are available from places like Mannings in the UK and Trossen robotics in the US.

            

            The range includes ‘ampoule’ tags for embedding in animals, or under human skin, wristbands, tough plastic ‘pills’, CD labels, palette labels, outdoor labels, sticker-backed tags, various key fobs, playing cards, credit cards and pedagogic clear tags.

            One of our students, Einar, has started making standard RFID reading modules using mini Arduino’s and the tiny ID12 reader, which is becoming the standard way for students to explore low-frequency RFID systems alongside the Phidget USB reader.

            

            

            This gave the possibility of measuring the read-ranges of the 30 or so tags that we have. So now we have a good idea of the relative ranges of each size and kind of tag, which is very useful as we start to design all sorts of interactions around them. We are looking forward to seeing what opportunities emerge as the students explore the intricate details of RFID interactions, and the material possibilities for RFID form factors.

            

            Related things:

            1. Phidget RFID Ten Phidget RFID boards arrived today. The Phidgets are an extremely cheap prototyping platform for simple RFID. They are low power, with a maximum read range of about 8 centimetres, so perfect for quick......
            2. RFID and unique physical form Lisa Smith is a Masters of Design student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago / Designed objects. I first encountered her work through pictures of her project ‘Cuteness generator’ on Flickr.......
            3. RFID in Seoul: High-end smartcards The contactless ticketing and payment system of choice in Seoul is called T-Money. Seoul was the first city to use Mifare standard smartcards in 1996. Although retail payment doesn’t seem to have taken off......
            4. RFID peripherals Plug and play RFID-reading USB peripherals are all the rage, as indicated by a stream of recent product announcements. These readers plug into a PC and make various things happen when they are touched......
            5. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
            ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/04/characters-for-mobile-etiquettehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/04/characters-for-mobile-etiquetteThu, 12 Apr 2007 10:45:26 +0000Seen last year on France’s TGV trains, two icons that indicate areas where mobile phone use is allowed:Seen last year on France’s TGV trains, two icons that indicate areas where mobile phone use is allowed:

            Awake

            

            Asleep

            

            Some evidence that characters work well beyond the archetypical Suica Penguin...

            Related things:

            1. Reboot 8: Mobile presence The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform. In particular, this platform is finally allowing the kinds of 3rd party and community development that......
            2. Mobile payment demo The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news......
            3. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
            4. Retro-fitting mobile phones with RFID The promise of NFC is about easily using mobile phones as a part of daily life: ticketing, paying with a credit card, opening doors, sharing, printing and downloading in the physical world. But until......
            5. Mobile Camp NYC I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be presenting at Mobile Camp NYC on Saturday 19th May in New York City. I’ll be presenting some history and context around Physical Hyperlinks and Touch-based interactions. Update......
            ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/03/bluetooth-21-incorporating-nfchttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/03/bluetooth-21-incorporating-nfcThu, 22 Mar 2007 20:56:54 +0000The Bluetooth people are now getting on the NFC bandwaggon, the following video shows Mike Foley of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group demonstrating…The Bluetooth people are now getting on the NFC bandwaggon, the following video shows Mike Foley of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group demonstrating features that are NFC-based:

            Bluetooth has historically lacked a compelling ‘user-experience’, with passcodes and security getting in the way of adept interactions. It’s interesting here to see how NFC is being introduced as the ‘user-experience’ component of Bluetooth, and how compelling it seems for these relatively mundane interactions.

            Related things:

            1. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
            2. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
            3. NFC in action A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a......
            4. Developing NFC applications Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications. The main stumbling block at the moment seems to be working out what......
            5. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
            ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/03/hybrid-world-labhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/03/hybrid-world-labThu, 15 Mar 2007 12:54:22 +0000I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007:

            I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007:

            Mediamatic organizes a new workshop in which the participants develop prototypes for hybrid world media applications. Where the virtual world and the physical world used to be quite separated realms of reality, they are quickly becoming two faces of the same hybrid coin. This workshop investigates the increasingly intimate fusion of digital and physical space from the perspective of a media maker.

            The workshop is an intense process in which the participants explore the possibilities of the physical world as interface to online media: location based media, everyday objects as media interfaces, urban screens, and cultural application of RFID technology.

            Every morning lectures and lessons bring in new perspectives, project presentations and introductions to the hands-on workshop tools. Every afternoon the participants work on their own workshop projects. In 5 workshop days every participant will develop a prototype of a hybrid world media project, assisted by outstanding international trainers and lectures and technical assistants. The workshop closes with a public presentation in which the issues are discussed and the results are shown.

            Sign up here.

            Related things:

            1. Hybrid World Lab slides This week at the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic I have given five presentations related to NFC, physical, tangible, social interactions and design methodology. Here are the slides for each of those presentations. They......
            2. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
            3. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
            4. More upcoming RFID events On Monday 8th May the RFID Innovasjonssenter is having it’s opening event in Oslo (See here for more details in Norwegian). The project is centred around logistics and the supply chain, but they mention......
            5. Upcoming conferences There are two ‘Internet of Things’ workshops in the next couple of months, the first is called From RFID to the Internet of Things from 6-7 March 2006 at the EU in Brussels: A......
            ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/03/physical-hyperlinks-presentation-at-xtechhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/03/physical-hyperlinks-presentation-at-xtechThu, 08 Mar 2007 14:14:15 +0000Our presentation on Physical Hyperlinks has been accepted to XTech 2007.Our presentation on Physical Hyperlinks has been accepted to XTech 2007. The presentation will be an overview of some of the concepts around physical hyperlinking, and perhaps some ideas about why it may not be a good interaction model for all situations. Here is the description:

            From Cooltown to CueCat, the physical hyperlink has been a recurring theme in ubiquitous computing. As the name suggests, this is about the interactions involved in getting information from the physical world into a mobile device. There are a number of recent projects including Yellow Arrow , Semapedia , Thinglink and Microsoft Aura that offer some form of linking or tagging of physical things with web-like content.

            Why is there such interest in these applications? Mobile devices are getting more complex and capable, but significantly they are aslo getting smaller. Everyday web-applications are generally difficult to use using small screens and limited text input, so we need ways of easily grabbing information, downloading applications and participating in these services. If we are to get out of the ‘walled gardens’ of operators menus, and towards a more open mobile internet, there must be simple ‘service discovery’ that will allow us to easily discover and use new things.

            Outside of Japan - where QR Codes are widely used and RFID-enabled phones are mass market - most trials have failed. Does this technology hold the key to integrating web applications with mobile phones and the physical world, or is it a fundamentally flawed interaction?

            We give an overview of the history of these interaction types and the different technologies involved. We have experimented with a number of prototypes in this area that we can demonstrate using RFID and Near Field Communication (NFC) to connect web-applications and services to mobile phones. By moving beyond the ‘hyperlink’ metaphor we are able to see new sets of applications that allow new ways of using mobile devices.

            Related things:

            1. RFID and physical social networks Poken is offering a physical networking platform, with physical, RFID-based objects that plug into a PC via USB (where have we heard that before?) A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet......
            2. Hybrid World Lab slides This week at the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic I have given five presentations related to NFC, physical, tangible, social interactions and design methodology. Here are the slides for each of those presentations. They......
            3. RFID and unique physical form Lisa Smith is a Masters of Design student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago / Designed objects. I first encountered her work through pictures of her project ‘Cuteness generator’ on Flickr.......
            4. Framtidens mobil / near future of mobility Norsk Form, the centre for design, architecture and urban area planning, hosted an evening seminar on the Near future of mobility on 11 April 2007. The seminar intended to look at trends and patterns......
            5. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
            ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/talsmannhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/talsmannWed, 24 Jan 2007 19:45:28 +0000In the diploma project Talsmann: Using products to introduce cross-country skiing as a spare time activity in China, Birger Løype looked at…In the diploma project Talsmann: Using products to introduce cross-country skiing as a spare time activity in China, Birger Løype looked at cross-cultural translations of products and activities. After a wide-ranging study of cross-country skiing in China, Birger used mobile phones and near field communication to propose a service that integrates information, products and physical places.

            The project had two overall intentions:

            • To explore how the design process can be used to integrate activities and products based on one cultural value system into a society with a different cultural value system.
            • To create a case study to visualise how the process impacts a product. Cross country skiing and its associated products were chosen as the activity.

              Process

              In Norway there is a long tradition of cross country skiing. Skiing was a necessary skill to survive in everyday life hundreds of years ago. During the 19th century skiing became part of the Norwegian national identity. It has since become a popular spare time activity. Based on this tradition some of the best ski equipment brands are located in Norway such as Swix, Madshus and Rottefella.

              Cross-country skiing is not a well known activity in China. A month of field work was conducted in ski resorts around Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdo, China to uncover more about skiing activities. The output of this research informed the resulting product development, and can be summarised like this:

            • Collectivism is one of the most important cultural values in China. For cross country skiing there’s a desire to belong to a group and to get information from people they can identify with.
            • A Chinese skier’s primary motivation is the feeling of adventure and as a way of expressing identity. These differences in motivation create different demands for associated products.
            • Ski wax is the biggest difficulty for a beginner: basic information about all aspects connected to ski wax is needed.

              ‘Talsmann’ concept

              The result of this project is a conceptual Swix service where all Swix products are the first touch points to the service. Through an RFID tag embedded within products the user get access to instructions and user-driven forums where people have described their experiences with videos, images and words.

              

              

              One of the biggest barriers to taking up cross country skiing is ski-waxing: which can make the difference between enjoyment and frustration. The conventional wax thermometer was redesigned to include an RFID tag as well as the usual temperature and wax recommendations. These would be placed at ski resorts where users can share recomendations for wax according to different temperatures, conditions and routes.

              

              Track markings would also act as touch points to the service.

              

              Through these touch points the user get access to a geographically dependent forum. By using the multimedia features of modern phones, the user will also find information about wax through a service where Swix gives advices about what wax to use and how to wax the skis. This could be triggered by the first touch points of the products.

              

              Birger’s project shows some strong near-future trends. The first is the increasing levels of brand involvement through the integration of service, infrastructure and community into physical products. This will become more important as the cost of simple technologies like RFID reduces; allowing cheap – even disposable – products to have identities and connections to a network. Distributing physical products may become more like distributing service touchpoints.

              The project also shows the longer-term potential of integrating service infrastructures into physical spaces. Although it was driven by a desire to create physical ‘products’, the project covered many of the steps towards creating situated software that affect people’s behaviour and activities in public places. It seems sporting activities could be a good starting point for the design of place-based services, and this is an area that needs more attention from an interaction design perspective.

              See more student projects.

              Related things:

              1. Connected products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID may begin to enable cheap – even disposable – products that have identities and connections to a network.......
              2. Touchable services: Underskog In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked......
              3. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
              4. Bowl: Token-based media for children In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
              5. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/touchable-services-art-serverhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/touchable-services-art-serverMon, 22 Jan 2007 14:15:46 +0000In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called…

              In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects.

              Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik and Christopher Svendsen looked at new commercial models for artists and galleries, and the social sharing or artwork.

              Stig Skjelvik explains:

              ‘For most people art is expensive. You have only the possibility to look at it in a gallery, buy a poster, or find a picture on the internet. But what if we can make a system that makes it possible to se the art, and then send it home, or even more interesting, to send it to a friend, loved ones or family.’

              

              In their prototype, the students placed RFIDs alongside artefacts at a gallery. When touched with an NFC phone, an image of the artwork was sent to a digital picture frame in another place.

              

              The prototype was very simple and loaded URLs from the phone that prompted changes on a standard web-page. This was just enough to test out the interactions between users at the gallery and in the home context, which proved to be interesting and engaging. The system reinforced a strong connection between the two users, and the appearance of new images created the sense of a ‘gift’.

              

              This project is particularly interesting in its realisation: all the elements of the service were prototyped, from the gallery interface through the web server application through to the industrial design of a digital LCD frame. Quickly prototyping all elements of the system in this way allowed them to test the service in context: in a gallery and in the home. This allowed the students to really get a handle on the experiential side of the prototypes.

              

              Artwork by Anna Daniell. More detail at Stig’s weblog.

              Related things:

              1. Touchable services: Underskog In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked......
              2. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
              3. Lightweight, parasitic services Touch and travel is a German pilot scheme (one of many) that is testing NFC for ticketing on public transport. One of the partners in the trial Giesecke and Devrient describe it: “With the......
              4. Local applications and services This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. One of the most important features of NFC is that it only works at a very short range. This......
              5. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/touchable-services-underskoghttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/touchable-services-underskogMon, 22 Jan 2007 13:43:55 +0000In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called…

              In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects.

              Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked with the web service Underskog (the undergrowth). Underskog is infamous in Norway as one of the first social networking services, it offers event calendaring, collaborative weblogs, discussions and is invite only. It is shining example of situated software.

              In their analysis, the students listed the strengths and weaknesses of the online service. Underskog is really good at handling the time before an event. It answers many of the questions that arise: Is anyone I know planning going? What does it cost? What do other people think of the place? Where do I get tickets? Where exactly is it? What kind of people are coming? I want to let other people know I’m going.

              What Underskog currently is not good at is the time during an event: Are any of my friends here? Where are all my friends? He should be here by now? I’m bored, what else is going on? I want to let my friends know I’m here.

              They designed a simple system that would log users into venues by touching a tag in the venue. Users would then rate events by touching a happy or sad face. The use of RFID-tags placed around arenas and events would allow for very quick ‘swipes’ or ‘touches’ to indicate presence and ratings, this is particularly important in a context where interacting with a screen may be socially inappropriate.

              

              Through the use of scenarios the students demonstrated the usage of such a system. The mobile interface told you how many of your contacts were there, and also if your contacts were somewhere else. It also sent information back to Underskog.no where information would appear on a map.

              

              Being a one week project, they did not look into detail what the advantages of this system may be over other forms of communication like SMS or simple mobile internet. But what is particularly interesting about this service is that the RFID tags can be placed by anybody on any venue, becoming a parasite of existing infrastructures much like Underskog itself. The service is potentially totally user-driven, and doesn’t require venues to sign up to the service in order for it to be useful.

              See more at Jørn’s weblog.

              

              Related things:

              1. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
              2. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
              3. Lightweight, parasitic services Touch and travel is a German pilot scheme (one of many) that is testing NFC for ticketing on public transport. One of the partners in the trial Giesecke and Devrient describe it: “With the......
              4. Local applications and services This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. One of the most important features of NFC is that it only works at a very short range. This......
              5. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/video-of-6131-nfc-phone-in-usehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/video-of-6131-nfc-phone-in-useSat, 20 Jan 2007 02:00:50 +0000A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES.A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a phone call, uploading pictures to a picture frame, printing out from the gallery and paying at a contactless Visa till.

              It is instantly clear that the interaction with the device has been much improved since Nokia’s previous NFC attempts. As the NFC interactions are now a core part of the operating system the response is very quick, and the range of functions is becoming appealing. The comments on both YouTube and Gizmodo are unusually positive.

              Using a ‘flip’ form for an NFC device is very clever, as it allows the RFID reader to be at the top of the device when opened: the most natural placement for people to use the phone as a physical ‘pointer’. In previous NFC ‘candybar’ phones, the RFID reader has been placed underneath, to separate it from the multiple other antennae at the top of the phone, and this has been confusing for users.

              Meanwhile in Japan KDDI unveils ten new devices almost all of which include FeliCa. Lets hope there is some compatibility between NFC and FeliCa in the near future.

              Related things:

              1. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
              2. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
              3. Developing NFC applications Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications. The main stumbling block at the moment seems to be working out what......
              4. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
              5. Universal design with NFC This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/nokia-releases-first-mass-market-nfc-handsethttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2007/01/nokia-releases-first-mass-market-nfc-handsetMon, 08 Jan 2007 19:49:33 +0000Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public.

              Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220 via add-on covers, both of which did not support the latest NFC standards and had limited capabilities. The new handset will be available in select markets in the 1st quarter of 2007.

              Nokia’s press release:

              “Unlike a simple card or keytag, which only allows for one-way communication, an NFC-enabled mobile phone allows users to realize the benefits of a fully interactive experience. For example, touching an NFC-enabled advertising poster or informational kiosk can automatically link the user to interactive Internet based information, open an audio file, or download new content directly to the handset. Additionally, an extra layer of security is enabled when making contactless payments since the handset can be set to allow payment information only when the user expressly authorizes the transaction via a password, unlike a card or tag, which can be used by whoever has it in their possession.”

              “Along with its NFC features, the Nokia 6131 NFC phone includes an extensive set of today’s most wanted wireless features. A built-in digital music player with microSD card support and FM stereo radio allow customers to enjoy their favorite music on the go. A 1.3 megapixel camera, featuring a dedicated camera button and 8x digital zoom makes it easy to capture and share images. Bluetooth wireless technology enables easy connection to a wide selection of Nokia enhancements and PC’s or even the ability to go handsfree in compatible automobiles.”

              It’s a simple Series 40 phone, not a high-end smartphone, but these features add up to a respectable and hopefully cheap device. It supports Java MIDP 2.0, Bluetooth and EDGE, all of which should make application development with NFC that much easier.

              Now the big question is the rollout of NFC services. NFC technology offers very little without a supporting infrastructure of regionally specific ticketing, payment and custom services. Will we see London Transport selling Oyster phones, or Tesco selling loyalty phones? Without services/applications like these, the handsets themselves are likely to be hard to sell.

              Related things:

              1. NFC in action A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a......
              2. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
              3. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
              4. Developing NFC applications Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications. The main stumbling block at the moment seems to be working out what......
              5. Lightweight, parasitic services Touch and travel is a German pilot scheme (one of many) that is testing NFC for ticketing on public transport. One of the partners in the trial Giesecke and Devrient describe it: “With the......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/12/the-rituals-of-touchinghttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/12/the-rituals-of-touchingWed, 20 Dec 2006 15:40:21 +0000I had the pleasure of meeting Charlie Gere at the Architecture and Situated Technologies symposium in October, where he gave an intriguing introduction…I had the pleasure of meeting Charlie Gere at the Architecture and Situated Technologies symposium in October, where he gave an intriguing introduction to The Liturgy of Things. You can listen to the whole talk by following that last link, but the main points revolve around cultural rituals that bind communities. As Charlie explained, in the early 60s Marshall McLuhan was writing about the relationship between the liturgy, mass media and new technologies like the microphone, emphasising that new media technologies affect social organisation. McLuhan called on Thomas Merton’s observation that the liturgy is a fundamentally public and participatory activity, and Charlie connected these ideas to Bruno Latour’s parliament of things, emerging technologies (like RFID) implicated in the internet of things, and related discussions on participatory culture. What I took away from all this was a renewed appreciation for ritual, and a desire to further explore touch and touching in terms of cultural rituals of participation, inclusion and exclusion.

              Understanding ritual has long been the domain of anthropology, but one of my professors in graduate school was fond of reminding students that ritual is not just the domain of other, more exotic cultures, or of the intellectually-suspect religious amongst us. If nothing else, ritual is as mundane and crucial as everyday life. In New York, Charlie, Richard Coyne and I also spent some time discussing the religiosity of famous philosophers and theorists, and how embodied ritual is a way for different people with different orientations and directives to come together. Although these activities can involve the magical, they share more in common with Matt Jones’ recent descriptions of play, and Blast Theory or Jane McGonigal’s sense of games. Charlie also alluded to this in his talk when he connected the liturgy to the spectacular (one good reason not to abandon the Situationists in discussions of locative technologies!) and I think there are some interesting, and underexplored, connections between bricolage, hacking, syncretism and ritual.
              In Touch in art and elsewhere, a small online exhibition he’s just curated for low-fi.org.uk, Charlie recalls bits of our conversations and continues to inspire me:
              

              “Recently, for various reasons, I have become interested in the question of touch, in art and elsewhere. We live in a world in which the ways in which we can communicate with each other become more and more immaterial, incorporeal and virtual, particularly through the increased use and greater ubiquity of digital technologies. In this context touch is often occluded and, at the same time, overly fetishised. In the last half century or so, there has been an increasing interest in touch in art, especially in relation to performance and telematic works, that may be a response to the increasing virtualisation of culture, though the question of touch can be traced in far older works, particularly some of those dealing with the life of Christ, which is, whether we are religious or otherwise, the founding myth of Western culture, and which has determined much of our understanding of questions of presence and absence, corporeality and spirituality, and our relation to the senses and thus to touch.”

              
              From Titian’s Noli me Tangere to examples of museum “look but don’t touch” policies, he draws attention to many of the themes central to our current Touchpædia project. Touchpædia v1.0 is planned for a late January release, and here are just some of the topics it, um, touches on: bodies, commodities, contamination, control, femininity, healing, labour, pleasure, sports…

              Like Charlie, I’m interested in cultural practices surrounding what can, and cannot, touch. Applied to RFID and Near-Field Communication, this becomes a question of connecting some things and disconnecting others. Put another way: whether we’re concerned with issues of technological privacy or publicity in our everyday lives, I believe we’re well served by a stronger understanding of cross-cultural examples of ritualised contact and avoidance. It’s my hope that the Touchpædia will be a step in that direction, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it might lead.

              Related things:

              1. Introducing touch as culture Hello. My name is Anne Galloway and I’m very pleased to introduce myself as the newest member of the Touch research project team. Some of you may know me from my blog purselipsquarejaw, or......
              2. Touch as culture This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Anne Galloway is a social researcher working at the intersections of technology, space and culture. Anne’s research in the......
              3. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/11/from-workshopping-to-designinghttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/11/from-workshopping-to-designingFri, 24 Nov 2006 11:08:19 +0000This autumn we have run the Near field interactions workshop at Nordichi, the RFID hacking workshop at AHO both of which resulted in many product ideas…This autumn we have run the Near field interactions workshop at Nordichi, the RFID hacking workshop at AHO both of which resulted in many product ideas and early prototypes. The project has also been part of workshops such as MIRW at Mobile HCI.

              Many people have been passing through Oslo including Adam Greenfield and Bruce Sterling both giving great lectures and running a student workshop at AHO. The project has also started to work with Bengler, Schulze & Webb and Anne Galloway on various research strands.

              There is a lot to write up and summarise, so I’m travelling to London for the next ten days to immerse myself in writing and design work, and to set up further workshops in specific areas.

              We finally managed to fit in some design work this week, on a range of NFC products that we will prototype over the next few months.

              

              More on this soon.

              Related things:

              1. Teaching Touch This spring we have an MA interaction design course dedicated to the Touch research project at AHO called ‘Tangible interactions’. On this course there are 10 students, mainly with an industrial and interaction design......
              2. Post-nearfield interactions workshop More photos at Flickr Last weekend’s workshop was intense and productive, everybody brought a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm which made the two days extremely exciting. Both Nicolas and Julian have already posted......
              3. Hybrid World Lab I’m pleased to announce that we will be involved in the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic in Amsterdam from 7 – 11 May 2007: Mediamatic organizes a new workshop in which the participants develop......
              4. Touch network building The Touch project is receiving considerable interest and over the next few months it will be represented at many events and workshops. The idea of using RFID beyond the supply chain is gaining significant......
              5. Touch at Nordes’09 Touch has an exhibition at Nordes’09 Engaging Artifacts that is taking place at AHO from Sunday 30th August until Wednesday 2 September 2009. Nordes is the Nordic Design Research Conference and this event brings......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/10/rfid-hacking-workshophttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/10/rfid-hacking-workshopThu, 19 Oct 2006 15:37:04 +0000So this week Touch is running an informal workshop where we are looking at the materiality of RFID, potentials in Radio Frequency and EMF, and building…

              So this week Touch is running an informal workshop where we are looking at the materiality of RFID, potentials in Radio Frequency and EMF, and building simple interactions and services using the technology.

              With us this week are Matt and Jack of Schulze & Webb, Even, Simen and Alex from Bengler, and Matt Karau (formerly Media Lab Europe).

              So far we have uncovered two very interesting directions for quick prototyping and hardware hacking. More updates soon.

              Related things:

              1. From workshopping to designing This autumn we have run the Near field interactions workshop at Nordichi, the RFID hacking workshop at AHO both of which resulted in many product ideas and early prototypes. The project has also been......
              2. Hybrid World Lab slides This week at the Hybrid World Lab at Mediamatic I have given five presentations related to NFC, physical, tangible, social interactions and design methodology. Here are the slides for each of those presentations. They......
              3. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
              4. Nordichi workshop papers Update The papers are available to download as PDF. A selection of images from submitted papers, click for larger image. The diverse range of topics and the varied backgrounds of the applicants for our......
              5. Playful augmented products workshop Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a three-day Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/10/post-nearfield-interactions-workshophttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/10/post-nearfield-interactions-workshopThu, 19 Oct 2006 15:32:43 +0000Last weekend’s workshop was intense and productive, everybody brought a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm which made the two days extremely exciting.

              More photos at Flickr

              Last weekend’s workshop was intense and productive, everybody brought a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm which made the two days extremely exciting. Both Nicolas and Julian have already posted some notes and thoughts about the two days, and we shall write up a report of the event soon.

              So far there are three talks online:

              Ulla-Maaria Mutanen
              Chris Heathcote
              Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino

              And the submitted papers are now available to download as a pdf.

              This is the place to leave a link to your presentation if it’s online, please send it to us otherwise. Many thanks to everyone!

              Related things:

              1. Nordichi workshop papers Update The papers are available to download as PDF. A selection of images from submitted papers, click for larger image. The diverse range of topics and the varied backgrounds of the applicants for our......
              2. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
              3. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
              4. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
              5. RFID hacking workshop So this week Touch is running an informal workshop where we are looking at the materiality of RFID, potentials in Radio Frequency and EMF, and building simple interactions and services using the technology. With......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/10/introducing-touch-as-culturehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/10/introducing-touch-as-cultureThu, 12 Oct 2006 14:53:26 +0000Hello. My name is Anne Galloway and I’m very pleased to introduce myself as the newest member of the Touch research project team.Hello. My name is Anne Galloway and I’m very pleased to introduce myself as the newest member of the Touch research project team. Some of you may know me from my blog purselipsquarejaw, or my involvement in the spaceandculture journal weblog, but for those who don’t - I’m a social researcher working at the intersections of technology, space and culture.
              

              Where I’m coming from

              
              When Timo and I first started talking about the project, I was working through some ideas about the relationship between design and social science, and more specifically, about how social and cultural research could serve as materials for design. When I was offered the opportunity to put some of this thinking into practice, I simply couldn’t refuse!

              As it so happened, I had also recently finished reading Constance Classen’s wonderful edited volume, The Book of Touch. Unique in its approach, it begins a cultural history of touch, and starts to draw out our cross-cultural experiences of touch. Of special interest to me was her claim that a cultural understanding of touch was probably best served not by detached or objective intellectual analysis, but rather by a “rough and ready approach that acknowledges and grapples with the tangled, bumpy and sticky nature of the topic.”

              I was taught, and I now teach students, that it’s always a good idea to start any research project with a literature review. Not only does this help the researcher better understand the field in which they seek to intervene, and locate them within that field, but it helps identify strengths and weaknesses, or gaps in the existing research that can provide points of entry to further understanding.

              But how could I turn the rather stodgy academic lit review into something “rough and ready” for other researchers and designers to work with? Well, one possibility was compiling a cultural encyclopædia of touch, and so my first contribution to the project will be the Touchpædia.
              

              What’s the Touchpædia?

              
              First of all, it’s being created as a rich and fundamental design resource for the project team. And since we’re all committed to open research, the Touchpædia will ultimately take the form of a wiki-based, publically accessible and modifiable resource. (After all, when is an encyclopaedia ever done?)

              The content of the Touchpædia will be organised thematically - along the lines of “touch as contamination” and “touch as pleasure” or “touch as magic” and “touch as pain” etc. - and each entry will include the following:
              

              1) a summary of current social and cultural research;

              2) suggestions for further reading;

              2) possible research questions, focussed on design and material culture;

              3) possible ethnographic research methodologies, focussing on participatory, performative and playful engagement;

              4) simple design briefs.

              
              We plan to have Touchpædia Version 1.0 online first thing in the new year - but that’s not all of it. Timo and I are currently working out the details on some exploratory cross-cultural probes, interviews and observations in Norway and Canada, and a variety of international and collaborative workshops.

              In other words, there’s lots more good stuff to come before summer 2007 and we’re excited!

              And last, but certainly not least, we’re really looking forward to hearing people’s thoughts and sharing our experiences along the way. Cheers.

              Related things:

              1. Touch as culture This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. Anne Galloway is a social researcher working at the intersections of technology, space and culture. Anne’s research in the......
              2. The rituals of touching I had the pleasure of meeting Charlie Gere at the Architecture and Situated Technologies symposium in October, where he gave an intriguing introduction to The Liturgy of Things. You can listen to the whole......
              3. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
              4. Touch project Touch is a research project at the Interaction Design department at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Touch takes a user-centred approach to Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a technology that enables......
              5. A PhD in Touch Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and logistics. This cheap and potentially ubiquitous technology is likely to influence the......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/the-dashed-line-in-usehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/the-dashed-line-in-useThu, 28 Sep 2006 17:16:04 +0000In previous work I have advocated for the use of dashed lines, my paper for Mobile HCI 2006 [pdf] represents Touch-based interactions with dashed lines…In previous work I have advocated for the use of dashed lines, my paper for Mobile HCI 2006 [pdf] represents Touch-based interactions with dashed lines, and work on ubicomp iconography uses the dashed line to represent borders, or seams.

              I’ve had trouble justifying my excitement about this intricate visual detail, so I thought it would be good to collect a bunch of examples from over fifty years of information design history, to show it as a powerful visual element in ubicomp situations.

              Even though the dashed line has emerged from a designer’s shorthand and from the limitations of monotone printing techniques, it has a clear and simple visual magic, the ability to express something three- or four-dimensional in two dimensions.

              The dashed line as hidden geometry

              

              

              Examples from Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design, Paul Mijksenaar, Piet Westendorp, 1999.

              The dashed line as movement

              The line is used to indicate temporal positions:

              

              

              Examples from Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design, Paul Mijksenaar, Piet Westendorp, 1999.

              The dashed line as paths

              Very similar to the representations of movement, but the line is used as the path itself:

              

              

              Examples from Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design, Paul Mijksenaar, Piet Westendorp, 1999.

              A more modern image showing an overview of Auto ID RFID supply chain management, by Xplane:

              

              Colin Ware defines dashed, dotted or wavy lines as linking lines:

              “A linking line between entities represents some kind of relationship between them. A line linking closed contours can have different colours or other graphical qualities such as waviness, and this effectively represents an attribute or type of relationship.”

              

              From the perceptual syntax of diagrams in Information Visualisation: Perception for Design, Colin Ware, 1999.

              The dashed line as expectation

              

              I’ve spoken to some people that have made an association between the dashed line and an ellipsis. This example is taken from the Mac OS X interface, conventionally used to indicate that the action will be followed by another action.

              The dashed line as ephemeral material

              

              

              Examples from Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design, Paul Mijksenaar, Piet Westendorp, 1999.

              The dashed line as border or seams

              

              

              

              

              

              A table of commonly used conventions from Information Graphics, Robert Harris, 1996.

              Other examples

              

              This is an example of dashed lines in information design from The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte, 1983. I get the sense that Tufte prefers a simple, solid line, considering the overuse of patterns a form of chart-junk:

              

              And lastly, an interesting thought from a conversation with Dave Gray, of Xplane and Communication nation:

              “I think of lines: double-line, solid, dashed, dotted Similar to typeface conventions such as black, bold, regular, light. It’s a matter of emphasis. The thicker and more solid the line, the stronger the emphasis. A dotted line usually does not indicate “cut here” unless it is combined with a scissors icon. I think that trying to make a direct connection between the dashed line and what it represents may be a red herring. Think of a map, for example: Whether type is bold, all caps, or light relates directly to the designer’s decisions about emphasis, but I am not sure it relates so directly to the subject matter. There are a few direct correlations of this type: for example, type representing water is usually set in italic. I like your use of the dashed line – it is clear that they serve as a guide and invitation to “place things there”.”

              Related things:

              1. The dashed line I can trace my enthusiasm for the dashed line back to this poster in Norway. The poster advertises the multiple ways of submitting your tax return: via SMS, internet or post. Something resonated here,......
              2. From ubicomp to service design Mike Kuniavsky presented at ETech 2009 on the Dotted-Line World on the links between ubiquitous computing and service design, where subscription-based services are based on everyday objects. (I’m a big fan of dotted or......
              3. Wireless in the world An ongoing Touch theme is about making invisible wireless technologies visible, in order to better understand and communicate with and about them (see a Graphic Language for RFID, Dashed lines and Fictional radio spaces).......
              4. Images of touch interfaces I’m happy to say that with great contributions from Nicolas Nova, Matt Jones and many others, the pool of images of ‘touch interfaces’ on Flickr is growing nicely. I originally asked for contributions in......
              5. A graphic language for RFID This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID is being used for an increasing number of interactions with everyday infrastructures. From travelcards, keyless entry, passports and......
              ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/everyware-icons-visualising-ubicomp-situationshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/everyware-icons-visualising-ubicomp-situationsThu, 28 Sep 2006 15:07:24 +0000In December 2005 Adam Greenfield asked me to work with him on icon concepts for his book Everyware.In December 2005 Adam Greenfield asked me to work with him on icon concepts for his book Everyware. Here is Adam’s description of his book:

              “The age of ubiquitous computing is here: a computing without computers, where information processing has diffused into everyday life, and virtually disappeared from view. What does this mean to those of us who will be encountering it? How will it transform our lives? And how will we learn to make wise decisions about something so hard to see?”

              The icons were for the section headers of the book, covering the ideas that Adam felt were important around making aspects of ubiquitous computing visible. These were the suggested themes:

              • Augmented-reality information is available in this location
              • This object has invisible qualities (could be almost identical with the last of these four)
              • Warning: sensor field
              • Information processing dissolving in behavior (i see this as bits flowing through a handshake)
              • Media surface
              • Network dead zone

                I made a quick sketch that has some icons that are consistent with my earlier work on a graphic language for touch-based interactions. I’ve used the dashed line again to show borders and invisible geometry. Not all of these are successful, but I think they show some interesting directions for the future.

                

                Click for a larger size image. Download as pdf.

                I think in particular the Network dead zone, Warning: sensor field and this object has invisible qualities are particularly successful. The book used a set of icons inspired by these, you can see a selection on Flickr.

                Related things:

                1. From ubicomp to service design Mike Kuniavsky presented at ETech 2009 on the Dotted-Line World on the links between ubiquitous computing and service design, where subscription-based services are based on everyday objects. (I’m a big fan of dotted or......
                2. Making radio tangible Next week we’re launching some new work that explores the spatial aspects of RFID. So before we publish that, here is a quick summary of existing work on radio, sensors and space that I’ve......
                3. The EU on the visibility of RFID The EU is conducting a new online consultancy on privacy, data protection and information security principles in RFID applications. I am happy to see that in Article 5 they begin to address the invisible......
                4. Internet of Things booklet Rob van Kranenburg is creating what looks like an interesting critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID: “The Internet of Things is the second issue in the series of Network Notebooks.......
                5. Making things talk Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples. Tom’s previous book Physical computing has been the definitive reference for all hardware hacking that goes on at......
                ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/mirw-2006https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/mirw-2006Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:18:55 +0000The workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World (MIRW 2006) at Mobile HCI in Espoo was a timely gathering of practitioners concerned with similar…

                The workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World (MIRW 2006) at Mobile HCI in Espoo was a timely gathering of practitioners concerned with similar issues: connecting the mobile phone to places and things.

                The proceedings [pdf] are now online, and well worth looking at.

                Some interesting excerpts from the papers:

                Telling a Story on a Tag: The Importance of Markers’ Visual Design for Real World Applications

                This project designed, implemented and tested a kind of visual tag that can be designed to look like ordinary text or pictograms, but contains a unique code in its topology.

                “When designing the physical tag for the Electronic Lens project, the aim was to tell a story by transforming the markers into sets of icons. Supplemental text, illustration and logotypes that had no technical functionality were also used to complete the design from an informational and aesthetic point of view. The design includes icons for expressing one’s opinion, for leaving one’s view of things through pictures, for a networked city with information accessible through mobile devices, and for the pleasure that comes up with exploring what potentially lies quiet behind this physical marker.”

                
                A marker “hidden” in type, and the corresponding region adjacency tree.

                User Perceptions on Mobile Interaction with Visual and RFID Tags

                This project explored user-reactions to two different kinds of physical world interactions: barcodes and RFIDs. It tested what they thought of each technology, and how they might interact with them.

                “The study results reveal that there are potential usability risks with the mobile interaction with RFID and visual tags. Currently, the mental model that people have on the technologies is still very vague, and although different concepts of using tags for mobile interaction have been considered in research communities for years and are currently gaining popularity in an enterprise context, the idea has not yet been adopted by large audiences because of the lack of existing commercial consumer applications. The study showed that there are no existing practices and mental models for the usage of visual and non-visual tags in the studied domain.”

                
                A study participants reading RFID tag with a phone.

                Hovering: Visualising RFID Hyperlinks in a Mobile Phone

                This project developed an application called Hovering that let users visualise the tags that are present in local objects or the environment before activating them.

                “As links in desktop web, the physical hyperlinks should be visualised to let the user know that 1) there is a link, 2) where it is located, 3) how it can be selected and 4) what will happen after the link is selected. The visualisation can happen in many levels: in the physical object itself the tag may have some icons representing its action and selection method, or the link can be visualised in various ways in the graphical user interface of the mobile terminal.”

                
                On the left is shown the single link display mode. Only one link is displayed but with more information than in the list mode on the right.

                The Mobile Phone as a Universal Interaction Device – Are There Limits?

                This project prototyped two interactions with consumer products where the mobile phone replaced some of the physical interfaces that otherwise would have been part of the product themselves. They tested out the suitability of the mobile phone for these kinds of interactions.

                “We believe that this hybrid approach of a traditional, haptic user interface, combined with an extended user interface on a mobile device, offers many benefits. Users can continue to directly interact with appliances, which is desirable in most everyday situations. However, in special situations where users would have to remember complex and clumsy sequences of pushing buttons or manipulating the appliance, it is much more intuitive to use a mobile device with its powerful and versatile user interface for interaction. For user interface designers, this is an interesting approach, as it allows them to make use of the full range of possibilities offered by modern GUI toolkits, without the physical and monetary constraints of adding such complex functions as a separate physical control.”

                
                Change of water filter prototype.

                Thanks to the organisers Enrico Rukzio, Massimo Paolucci, Tim Finin, Paul Wisner and Terry Payne for organising this focused and timely workshop.

                [tags] Mobile HCI, MIRW 2006, NFC, RFID, barcodes, mobile, mobile technology, ubicomp [/tags]

                Related things:

                1. MIRW 2007 A new workshop on Mobile Interaction with the Real World is taking place at Mobile HCI in Singapore this September. Following the success of Mobile Interaction with the Real World; at MobileHCI 2006, we......
                2. Forskningstorget 2006 Touch is demonstrating some initial experiments with RFID, table based interfaces and rapid prototyped toys at Forskningstorget 2006. This is taking place on the 22 and 23 September in Universitetsplassen, at the end of......
                3. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
                4. Universal design with NFC This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. NFC has been suggested as an enabling platform for universal design or design for all. Universal design can be......
                5. A graphic language for RFID This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID is being used for an increasing number of interactions with everyday infrastructures. From travelcards, keyless entry, passports and......
                ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/rfid-in-parkour-urban-orienteeringhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/rfid-in-parkour-urban-orienteeringMon, 25 Sep 2006 13:47:14 +0000First year industrial design students at AHO recently looked at training and fitness equipment.First year industrial design students at AHO recently looked at training and fitness equipment. The course encouraged students to look at the interaction design aspects of training, and to include innovative interfaces in their physical designs.

                Theo Tveteras based his project around around the experience of Parkour in a project called urban orienteering.

                

                He designed a system that would allow users to set up tracks in urban space, in parks, in the forest or in any freeform space. His system contained of 3 parts: a base station, some roaming discs, and a wearable clip. The base station acts as the focal hub of the system, where users can set up timers, see the best lap-times, and store the rest of the equipment. A number of small discs are placed around the area, each of which contains an RFID reader/writer. The traceur wears a small RFID that clips onto their wrist, shoe or other part of their body.

                

                Mockup of the base-station in place

                The experience would involve finding the best route through the discs, and setting up timed competitions around the same route. Different routes could be set up with different difficulty levels. The idea here is to have a base-line: a track through which all participants have to complete, but beyond that each participant can add their own style, techniques and such. Apart from some scenarios and bodystorming, the project didn’t explore the experience in great depth. The project would benefit from looking at the shared experience in this kind of activity, and how it may be made more accessible, enjoyable or extreme.

                

                Display of timing information

                

                Simple scenarios show that the basic interaction works

                Although this project focused on physical design issues and largely overlooked technological aspects, the technology seems realistic and feasible. RFIDs strapped to buildings, or re-writeable RFIDs strapped to parts of the body are ideal locations for storing little bits of timing data, all of which can be put to good use in this kind of activity. The traditional downsides of RFID such as limited range, small capacity, and lack of visibility can be used to great effect in urban space. Perhaps a “cheap and dirty” technology like RFID more closely matches the ‘grain’ of urban space than other, high-end technologies.

                See more student projects.

                Related things:

                1. More RFID-based products A Dutch company, Swinxs is developing a physical RFID-based console with RFID wristbands for children. They claim to be encouraging physical activities and ‘stimulating imagination’. The console includes versions of Tag, multiple Quiz games,......
                2. Playful RFID This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. RFID has the potential to enable new kinds of playful interactions in toys and consumer electronics. There are three......
                3. RFID and physical social networks Poken is offering a physical networking platform, with physical, RFID-based objects that plug into a PC via USB (where have we heard that before?) A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet......
                4. Talsmann In the diploma project Talsmann: Using products to introduce cross-country skiing as a spare time activity in China, Birger Løype looked at cross-cultural translations of products and activities. After a wide-ranging study of cross-country......
                ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/orooni-tablehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/orooni-tableFri, 22 Sep 2006 21:32:04 +0000Although the Touch project is primarily about NFC and mobile phones, we recently created a table-based interface.

                Although the Touch project is primarily about NFC and mobile phones, we recently created a table-based interface. Why have we done this? Because it’s a quick demonstrator of near-field interactions in a setup that is instantly accessible.

                Our intentions are:

                1. To probe the perceived relationships between physical characters and their digital counterparts. It isn’t yet clear to us what kinds of interactions people will want between physical things and digital content. This is an important question for user-centred interactions with the Internet of Things.
                2. To investigate the embedding of RFID in physical objects, from an industrial design and material technology perspective.
                1. To uncover opportunities for new interactions that are possible with limited-range RFID such as that found in NFC phones and contactless ticketing.

                   Our demonstrator is similar in functionality to the Symbolic table by Mediamatic, but very different in content and behaviour. It also draws on long history of research and projects in table-based interfaces.

                   

                   The set-up involves a table with multiple RFID readers under a glass surface, physical characters (animals, birds, figures, robots and dinosaurs) and a large screen. Each character has a unique digital identity through an embedded RFID. When a character is brought into contact with a certain point, it triggers specific animated behaviours on a large screen. These behaviours are from Orooni and are typical Instant Message (IM) status like hug, angry, happy, sick, sad, etc.

                   The characters have been designed by PhD student Kjetil Nordby and rapid prototyped using the selective laser sintering machines at AHO. Programming and the screen-based interface were created by Orooni.

                   It has been remarkably quick to prototype; we have spent three weeks from concept to delivery and a week building the demonstrator. It is rapid prototyping in a broad sense: materials from IKEA, computation from Apple, off the shelf Phidgets and connectivity through USB. The software is also relatively simple, triggering events based on combinations of IDs and readers.

                   We are rolling out the demonstrator this weekend at Forskningstorget where it will be used by hundreds (if not thousands) of people. We’ll post more about our experience soon.

                   Related things:

                   1. iPhone RFID: object-based media This is a video prototype of an iPhone media player that uses physical objects to control media playback. It is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that triggers various iPhone interactions when in the......
                   2. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
                   3. Skål: playing with media Skål (Norwegian for bowl) is a product that has emerged from the Bowl project. It is a media player designed for the home that acts as the interface between physical objects and related digital......
                   4. RFID peripherals Plug and play RFID-reading USB peripherals are all the rage, as indicated by a stream of recent product announcements. These readers plug into a PC and make various things happen when they are touched......
                   5. Forskningstorget 2006 Touch is demonstrating some initial experiments with RFID, table based interfaces and rapid prototyped toys at Forskningstorget 2006. This is taking place on the 22 and 23 September in Universitetsplassen, at the end of......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/forskningstorget-2006https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/forskningstorget-2006Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:23:15 +0000Touch is demonstrating some initial experiments with RFID, table based interfaces and rapid prototyped toys at Forskningstorget 2006.

                   Touch is demonstrating some initial experiments with RFID, table based interfaces and rapid prototyped toys at Forskningstorget 2006. This is taking place on the 22 and 23 September in Universitetsplassen, at the end of Karl Johan’s Gate in Oslo. Come and see us!

                   

                   Related things:

                   1. MIRW 2006 The workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World (MIRW 2006) at Mobile HCI in Espoo was a timely gathering of practitioners concerned with similar issues: connecting the mobile phone to places and things. The......
                   2. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
                   3. Touch at Kreative Oslo We recently had the chance to present Touch at the event Kreative Oslo 09 at DogA, the Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture. Kreative Oslo is a broad seminar that gathers the creative fields......
                   4. Orooni table Although the Touch project is primarily about NFC and mobile phones, we recently created a table-based interface. Why have we done this? Because it’s a quick demonstrator of near-field interactions in a setup that......
                   5. Touch at Nordes’09 Touch has an exhibition at Nordes’09 Engaging Artifacts that is taking place at AHO from Sunday 30th August until Wednesday 2 September 2009. Nordes is the Nordic Design Research Conference and this event brings......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/ambient-findability-in-practicehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/ambient-findability-in-practiceThu, 07 Sep 2006 13:43:43 +0000Every time we run physical computing at AHO, some students want to make a system for finding lost things.Every time we run physical computing at AHO, some students want to make a system for finding lost things. So it makes me very happy that there is now a commercial product that does exactly that, so that we can move beyond technicalities to issues such as ambient findability in practice.

                   

                   The product is called Loc8tor, designed in the UK, built in China, it uses active RFID tags (frequency and standards unknown) and a directional RFID reader in a system that detects things up to 180 metres away.

                   “Loc8tor is an innovative product using award winning patent pending technology that helps find important possessions and can even stop them from getting lost in the first place. By blending the best of old and new technology Loc8tor provides the first affordable personal homing device of its kind. For young and old, pet lovers to parents and gadget lovers to grandparents, Loc8tor is designed to be exceptionally easy to use and helps avoid that feeling of frustration when you mislay your valuables. From finding keys, handbags or mobile phones to ensuring the safety of your children, pets and personal possessions, Loc8tor’s versatility means it can be used in almost any situation by simply attaching the tag to any item you want to protect.”

                   In practice one attaches the tags to important objects by way of key fobs, adhesive backing or containment, and then name the tags one by one through the interface on the handheld finder. When you lose something, you press a button, select the thing you want to find and the unit starts bleeping: the intensity of the sound, and the bars on the screen are proportional to your proximity to the lost item. Because it’s directional, you can turn around slowly in a circle, and find an initial direction, then repeat this a few times and you normally find the thing you are looking for. This part of the product experience works very well. This is a remarkable technical achievement, given the small size of the handheld, the longevity of the tags, and the intricacies of RF communication.

                   

                   Where this product fails miserably is in the interface. The arrangement of buttons and screen menus shows a lack of thought or design process: they are inconsistent, badly labelled, overly hierarchical, highly modal and very prone to simple errors.

                   The designers thought it would be good to have two main modes: a ‘locate’ mode for finding things, and an ‘alert’ mode for warning when things go out of a specific range. The usability of this second mode is questionable, this kind of asset tracking I think calls for another kind of device. Trying to squeeze so much into the handheld interface makes the main menu long, adds extra buttons to the interface, and makes the product more obscure.

                   When in ‘locate’ mode, a ‘signal strength’ indicators appears on screen in a formation that makes it look like directional feedback. But actually it’s just a fancy bar chart with a single axis. Quite confusing.

                   

                   Given that the act of losing something – or remembering to take things with you – usually happens in moments of stress: walking out the door, gathering things from around you, getting off the train, this interface is overly complicated for its intended use.

                   Earlier this year one of my students Giulia Schneider worked on a concept that integrated tags and readers much more seamlessly into everyday objects and activities. She used inspiration from Nokia’s Mobile Essentials, studies of brand identity, and her own ethnographic studies to find important things and ways of augmenting them with findability. More on this soon.

                   Related things:

                   1. RFID peripherals Plug and play RFID-reading USB peripherals are all the rage, as indicated by a stream of recent product announcements. These readers plug into a PC and make various things happen when they are touched......
                   2. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
                   3. RFID and physical social networks Poken is offering a physical networking platform, with physical, RFID-based objects that plug into a PC via USB (where have we heard that before?) A Poken is a connected business card, when you meet......
                   4. Playful augmented products This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. It extends an older brief Playful RFID with an emphasis on exploring material and experience prototyping. Last week Interaction......
                   5. Bowl: Token-based media for children In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/place-and-product-based-collaborative-filteringhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/place-and-product-based-collaborative-filteringThu, 07 Sep 2006 09:42:53 +0000In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called…In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects.

                   Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn Erik Haugen and Marie Wennesland created a high-level concept that proposed the idea that once we start to use our phones to pay for things, couldn’t we also start to use collaborative filtering of places and purchases?

                   

                   As ‘wallet phones’ become commonplace across Asia, we need to think about how these applications will be created and marketed here in Europe. What ‘added value’ will these phones offer over cash or credit cards? In this scenario, the ‘wallet phone’ not only let the user know how much they have paid, but it will recommend and offer social commentary on their choice of both products and places.

                   

                   Building an ‘Amazon’ for places and products is interesting because it builds upon everyday transactions and behaviour. The data that users and communities could pull out of these transactions is potentially very rich and useful. It also raises privacy concerns, but with the focus on users or communities owning and managing their own data on their personal devices, this project advocates for user-agency in such a system.

                   More details and images at Jon Olav’s & Giulia’s weblogs.

                   Related things:

                   1. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
                   2. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
                   3. Bowl: Token-based media for children In spring 2007 interaction design students at AHO participated in a research-driven course called Tangible interactions that investigated themes around RFID, NFC and the Touch project. This is one of the projects that emerged......
                   4. iPhone RFID: object-based media This is a video prototype of an iPhone media player that uses physical objects to control media playback. It is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that triggers various iPhone interactions when in the......
                   5. Touchable services: Underskog In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/touchable-services-local-interactionshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/touchable-services-local-interactionsMon, 04 Sep 2006 15:44:06 +0000In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called…

                   In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects.

                   Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo Dell’elce and Henrik Marstrander looked at how to increase the cohesion of local communities. As a starting point they studied a local record shop and looked at the intricate social and economic relationships around it.

                   

                   They discovered an existing layer of printed, handwritten, and scrawled information in and around the record shop itself. This was a mixture of content, relying very much on local knowledge and social connections including recent arrivals, staff picks, recommendations and playlists, all of which offered rich opportunities for interaction design. They also discovered intruiging patterns and behaviours, including eccentric opening times that inspired them to look at what happened around the shop during closed periods.

                   

                   They prototyped a simple application that offered the ability to hear and download music, playlists, new releases, etc. by touching the phone to the shop window, and conceptualised how this might be applied in other areas of the shop.

                   

                   See more at Henrik’s weblog with their presentation of technologies, wider ideas and research.

                   This project was very interesting in the amount of ideas that emerged from a single context. It seems that when you begin to research a specific situation, the applications and services that emerge from it are numerous. The students here conducted a kind of situation-based brainstorming that was very rich. Situation and context provide very useful limits for for idea-generation. It also showed that NFC has numerous opportunities in niche communities, in contrast to typical location based services that offer generalised applications to tourists, etc.

                   Related things:

                   1. Local applications and services This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. One of the most important features of NFC is that it only works at a very short range. This......
                   2. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
                   3. Touchable services: Underskog In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anette Andersen and Jørn Knutsen worked......
                   4. Place and product-based collaborative filtering In March 2006 fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Jon Olav Eikenes, Guilia Schneider, Bjørn......
                   5. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/rfid-hello-worldhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/09/rfid-hello-worldFri, 01 Sep 2006 15:24:23 +0000In what must be one of the quickest ‘Hello world’ experiences, the Phidgets RFID reader was up and running on OS X in about 2 minutes after unpackaging.

                   In what must be one of the quickest ‘Hello world’ experiences, the Phidgets RFID reader was up and running on OS X in about 2 minutes after unpackaging. Phidgets must be congratulated for making such accessible and immediate physical computing hardware and software.

                   

                   A simple Cocoa application reading RFID serial numbers, and playing with RFID tags obscured by metal objects. Having multiple, numerous readers around gives us the ability to quickly play around with objects, spaces and tags: understanding the range, directionality and responsiveness of RFID.

                   Related things:

                   1. Phidget RFID Ten Phidget RFID boards arrived today. The Phidgets are an extremely cheap prototyping platform for simple RFID. They are low power, with a maximum read range of about 8 centimetres, so perfect for quick......
                   2. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
                   3. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/phidget-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/phidget-rfidThu, 31 Aug 2006 13:40:15 +0000Ten Phidget RFID boards arrived today. The Phidgets are an extremely cheap prototyping platform for simple RFID.

                   Ten Phidget RFID boards arrived today. The Phidgets are an extremely cheap prototyping platform for simple RFID. They are low power, with a maximum read range of about 8 centimetres, so perfect for quick interaction prototyping of near-field applications. We’re planning to build some table based applications, and to use them in student projects. The only downside is the lack of anticollision: multiple tags can’t be in the vicinity of the reader at once.

                   

                   The boards plug in via USB to a host computer (can be used with USB hubs to create massive arrays of readers). They have drivers for Windows, Linux and OS X, plus libraries and sample applications for Visual Basic, C, C++, Flash, .Net, Java etc.

                   With the readers came a huge variety of low-frequency tags, many of which are interesting from a design perspective. The CD/DVD tag, the tough polycarbonate buttons, and the very pedagogic clear plastic tags.

                   

                   [tags]RFID, Phidgets, prototyping, electronics, physical computing [/tags]

                   Related things:

                   1. RFID hello world In what must be one of the quickest ‘Hello world’ experiences, the Phidgets RFID reader was up and running on OS X in about 2 minutes after unpackaging. Phidgets must be congratulated for making......
                   2. RFID form factors As our interaction design students get deeper into prototyping with RFID, we needed to start looking at the range of possibilities around the materials and forms of RFID tags. Last week we created a......
                   3. RFID peripherals Plug and play RFID-reading USB peripherals are all the rage, as indicated by a stream of recent product announcements. These readers plug into a PC and make various things happen when they are touched......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/phantom-geometry-and-tissue-simulant-liquidshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/phantom-geometry-and-tissue-simulant-liquidsWed, 30 Aug 2006 16:20:14 +0000I’m investigating the visualisation of electromagnetic fields, part of our exploratory process to look at the materiality of RFID.

                   I’m investigating the visualisation of electromagnetic fields, part of our exploratory process to look at the materiality of RFID. What are we talking about when we say ‘touch-based interaction’ or ‘near field’ for instance? This investigation threw up an interesting company: Indexsar specialises in:

                   “Turnkey test systems for the measurement of SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) and the Over The Air (OTE) testing of wireless devices. Our product range includes E-field probes for use in both air and in tissue-simulant liquids, equipment for accurate testing of the dielectric properties of phantom liquids and a system to give a 3-Dimensional presentation of mobile handset radiation and sensitivity. We can supply suitable RF amplifiers and directional couplers for wireless product testing and can offer suitable phantoms (heads, hands and liquids) for testing radiated emissions.”

                   Their test setup includes 6-axis industrial robots to move sensors around models of human anatomy (or “phantom geometry” in official testing language). Their setups include geometry for the head, and the right hand (no left hands yet). In the test rig below a liquid model moves while the sensors are stationary. It looks like it has been hacked together from meccano and a Wacom pad.

                   

                   These are some visualisations of bodily electromagnetic fields from Flomerics MicroStripes and Hugo:

                   

                   Microstripes software is a 3D electromagnetic simulation & synthesis tool:

                   “MicroStripes is widely used to design antenna and microwave structures and assess their installed performance, to optimize RFID systems, to analyze radar cross-section (RCS), EMI/EMP and lightning effects on vehicles, ships and aircraft, and to predict absorption of EM fields in human tissue.”

                   Another visualisation:

                   

                   Leafing through the manual for my Nokia E60 I noticed that it includes guidelines on holding the phone, in order not to degrade the performance, and thus battery life of the antennae.

                   

                   As we move towards multiradio devices, this analysis is going to become more important. I wonder what the fields look like around the RFID/NFC phones like the 3220...

                   Related things:

                   1. Fields and seams This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. “Don’t place your bank cards, hard disks, etc. here”. With increasingly ubiquitous wireless networks the physical world is becoming......
                   2. Making radio tangible Next week we’re launching some new work that explores the spatial aspects of RFID. So before we publish that, here is a quick summary of existing work on radio, sensors and space that I’ve......
                   3. Touchable services: Art Server In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Anna Daniell, Castilnano Simoons, Stig Skjelvik......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/rfid-in-seoul-high-end-smartcardshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/rfid-in-seoul-high-end-smartcardsTue, 29 Aug 2006 11:20:11 +0000The contactless ticketing and payment system of choice in Seoul is called T-Money.The contactless ticketing and payment system of choice in Seoul is called T-Money. Seoul was the first city to use Mifare standard smartcards in 1996. Although retail payment doesn’t seem to have taken off as much as in Japan or Hong Kong, T-Money is fairly ubiquitous and can be used on all public transport, a few vending machines and selected retailers.

                   There are two elements to this system in Seoul that are interesting. The first is the availability of customised cards and accessories from market stalls and groceries (the subject of a future article). The second is the availability of high-end products containing the T-Money smartcards. These are designed to compete with other products in categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, toys, music and computing.

                   Here are three examples of this type of product.

                   RFID Hippo

                   

                   This ‘Fancy T-Money’ hippo costs 24,800 Won (about €20) available from the online shop. It is a smartcard with a USB interface, which means that you can plug it into your PC and fill it up with money from an online bank account (after installing the right drivers). Inside the hippo you can feel a standard 56×28 mm RFID card that is connected to the mouth via a cable.

                   The USB plug in this case is thoughtfully placed in the hippo’s mouth, which means it looks like the hippo is chomping away at the computer when plugged in (not as grotesque as the USB bear or as weird as the USB twig).

                   

                   Given the Korean love of characters, I’m wondering if the hippo is becoming a symbol or mascot for T-Money, in the same way as the Suica Penguin has become synonymous with mobile payment in Japan. Or will this be the start of a collectible range of characters? Some T-Money is bought with discounts built in (for kids or elderly for instance), it would make sense that this is for children, but I’m not certain that this is the case. Let me know if you know more. More photos at Flickr.

                   T-Pop

                   

                   This is a tiny RFID reader/writer that is bought alongside a standard T-Money card for 9,900 Won (about €8). Plugging the T-Pop into the USB port and placing the card on top allows it to be topped up. The T-Pop is designed with a clip so that it can be carried around, but the clip also acts as a holder when the card is being charged. This might have been a nice compromise on the drawing board, but in practice it seems clunky: the action of charging a card could be embodied in the physical form, rather than as an afterthought. This is interesting as the first consumer RFID reader/writer that I have found.

                   

                   What does putting the RFID reader/writer in the hands of users do to the service in terms of hackability? One would think that both the near-field and USB transfer of cash could be analysed in detail and reverse engineered in the comfort of one’s own home (it’s very different from trying to analyse transactions in the wild).

                   +Plus

                   

                   This last example is a simple memory stick that also acts as a T-Money card, a 256 Mb version is available for 39,800 Won (about €32). As the designers began to explore the recharging of cards via USB it must have seemed obvious to integrate other USB devices. Thoughtful convergence means that topping up money on this kind of T-Money can be done at the same time as transferring or using files.

                   

                   There are other convergent examples, some of which I will cover in the future. The T-Money mp3 player, also available from the online shop, was beyond my budget.

                   New service touchpoints

                   Overall the re-packaging of contactless cards is an interesting mix of service, interaction and product design. The way in which the service touchpoints of the Seoul transport system are fanning out to include the home PC is interesting. By providing software and hardware for charging smart cards at home, T-Money have invested a lot in technical and service development. What kind of studies went into making these products: who said that they needed to top up their cards at home? Would the same service work in other places, with the Oyster card for instance?

                   Convergence

                   It’s difficult to know the relative success of these convergent devices (MP3 players, memory sticks, even mobile phones). My contention is that the usability benefits of these converged things do not outweigh the drawbacks of using a compromised device, or having options in style, interface, or any of the other things that people like to have choice in. When T-Money cards can be attached to phones, cameras or any other device as straps, embedded within wallets or handbags, or worn in sleeve pockets, the arguments for convergence seem quite weak. Products like the hippo show us that many functions will remain discrete.

                   Materials & product design

                   Products like the hippo are just scratching the surface of possibility, particularly around the use of materials and the kinds of emotional attachments we have to everyday objects. The underlying technology (RFID) allows easy re-packaging in almost unlimited forms and materials (as long as it’s not metal or liquid). I’d like to see explorations of high-end materials like leather, glass, stone and ceramics, to look at reliability, trust and to think more about the ways in which these functional things could be inflected by fashion, design and everyday behaviour.

                   What would the ‘ideal’ payment device look like? Does the fact that these things are designed for public transport place them within a certain category of objects that are mundane and everyday, or even within a certain social status?

                   Related things:

                   1. RFID in Seoul: first impressions I’m in Seoul, South Korea looking at the use of mobile technology and RFID. The first encounter with RFID came only an hour or so off the plane by the Metro ticketing machines, a......
                   2. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
                   3. Lightweight, parasitic services Touch and travel is a German pilot scheme (one of many) that is testing NFC for ticketing on public transport. One of the partners in the trial Giesecke and Devrient describe it: “With the......
                   4. RFID peripherals Plug and play RFID-reading USB peripherals are all the rage, as indicated by a stream of recent product announcements. These readers plug into a PC and make various things happen when they are touched......
                   5. Retro-fitting mobile phones with RFID The promise of NFC is about easily using mobile phones as a part of daily life: ticketing, paying with a credit card, opening doors, sharing, printing and downloading in the physical world. But until......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/nordichi-workshop-papershttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/nordichi-workshop-papersMon, 28 Aug 2006 13:45:34 +0000Update The papers are available to download as PDF.Update The papers are available to download as PDF.

                   

                   A selection of images from submitted papers, click for larger image.

                   The diverse range of topics and the varied backgrounds of the applicants for our Nordichi workshop in October is promising for a topic that spans architecture, hci, computer science, interaction and industrial design. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone in Oslo.

                   These are the 15 accepted papers:

                   Bootstrapping the Internet of Things
                   Claus Dahl, Imity

                   CybStickers - Simple Shared Ubiquitous Annotations for All
                   Odd-Wiking Rahlff, Sintef. (See also Cybstickers)

                   Designing Expressive Near Field Interactions
                   Johan Sandsjö, Hidden Interaction

                   Designing social affordances for material objects
                   Ulla-Maaria Mutanen & Matt Biddulph, University of Helsinki (See also Thinglink)

                   Everyday Intelligence
                   Gill Wildman, Plot (See the Everyday Intelligence film)

                   *The Kinetic User Interface *
                   Vincenzo Pallotta, Béat Hirsbrunner, Pervasive and Artificial Intelligence Research Group, University of Fribourg, Switzerland

                   Mobile Prosumer
                   Florian Resatsch, Stephan Karpischek & Daniel Michelis, IEB, University of Arts Berlin

                   PERvasive serviCe Interaction
                   John Hamard, DoCoMo Euro-Labs

                   RFID work
                   Morten Borup Harning RFIDsec

                   Responsible design of connected objects
                   Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino

                   Security Aspects in Design of Touch-based Applications
                   Janne Jalkanen, Nokia

                   Social Construction Kits for Kids, Digital Infrastructures for Pervasive Play
                   Martin Brynskov, Interactive Spaces, University of Aarhus

                   Unconscious Kitchen, Everyday domestic behaviors & Blackbox, Public Energy Awareness
                   Joseph Yang

                   Use of Near Field Communication in emergency Rescue situations
                   Gunnar Kramp, Aarhus School of Architecture

                   Waschsalon mobile service
                   Chris Woebken

                   You can only touch what is there
                   Chris Heathcote, Nokia

                   We also had expressions of interest from Willem Velthoven with the Symbolic Table and Rob van Kranenburg. We’ll keep in touch and hope you can attend.

                   Related things:

                   1. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
                   2. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
                   3. Three papers on mobile payments The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments. From meiwaku to tokushita! Lessons for digital money design from Japan. Mainwaring, S., March, W., and Maurer, B.......
                   4. Post-nearfield interactions workshop More photos at Flickr Last weekend’s workshop was intense and productive, everybody brought a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm which made the two days extremely exciting. Both Nicolas and Julian have already posted......
                   5. Playful augmented products workshop Interaction Design students at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design participated in a three-day Touch workshop where the brief was to design a playful, exploratory or characterful RFID interface. The emphasis of this......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/developing-nfc-applicationshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/developing-nfc-applicationsMon, 21 Aug 2006 19:18:46 +0000Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications.

                   Judging by the number of emails we have received, there is great interest in software and hardware development of NFC applications. The main stumbling block at the moment seems to be working out what development platform to use, and knowing where to get hold of development kits for the various handsets and servers needed to run an NFC application.

                   Bearing in mind that we haven’t used any of these things extensively yet, we are putting everything we know about getting hold of development resources here. Perhaps we can collectively use this post as a way of pooling information on the topic. Thanks to Peter Ljungstrand for initial conversations and valuable information on these things.

                   NFC phones

                   At the moment, the phones we can use for NFC development are the 5140 Field Force Solution and the 3220 NFC Shell. Both of these are rather quirky, the the 5140 is slow, and the NFC shell is somewhat unreliable. Nokia has admitted that these are trial releases for developers, and will never be widely released to the public.

                   

                   Both of these kits are available from Top Tunniste, and we’ve seen them pop up at other online stores too, so search around.

                   Various rumours have been circulating about upcoming Nokia handsets: perhaps a flip phone with a fully integrated NFC chip, not just an interchangeable cover. We’ll have to wait and see but lets hope they have a robust and consistent approach to the next release, coupled with simultaneous rollouts of useful public services.

                   Samsung has apparently developed an NFC enabled SGH-X700. There is some discussion about it over at the Sun developer network.

                   In Asia, particularly Japan, many handsets are using the Felica standard that is supposedly compatible with NFC. It would be very interesting to hear any Asian experience with these phones or the Felica SDK.

                   NFC tags

                   The Nokia 3220 only comes with four tags, so any developer will need to get hold of more. Getting hold of tags is easy. Toptunniste for instance sells a few kinds of tags for about a euro each. But there are many other options: NFC is based upon high frequency ISO 14443 Mifare standard, so re-writeable Mifare Standard 1K/4K or Mifare Ultralight tags from any supplier should work. And these are available in many form factors, from cards, key fobs, stickers, to laundry tags and ‘mount on metal’ tags. Some other suppliers are Mannings, Promobox, Cardxx, SAG and Korea RFID.

                   NFC standards and protocols

                   The NFC forum is slowly releasing the specifications for NFC devices, and this is the first place to look if you want to find out if the NFC standard is right for your application. There is enough detail there to work on high-level descriptions of NFC applications and services.

                   ‘Official’ development kits

                   At the moment, because the Near Field Communication specifications haven’t been normalised, writing an application for NFC requires writing for one brand of phone, using proprietary development kits.

                   
                   The Nokia Field Force Solution Architecture, available here.

                   The Nokia development kit for NFC is currently available from a number of suppliers. Top Tunniste in Finland sells a 5 user license for €2000, they also sell phones and compatible tags if you can’t find them locally. I’ve heard that the kit is available for around €800 in Germany and £500 in the UK so it may be worth phoning around to ask local suppliers.

                   In the license agreement for the Nokia SDK you agree to use their proprietary server for networked interactions. For this you need to buy, or subscribe to the Nokia Local Interactions Server (LI Server). The LI server is described as such:

                   Nokia Local Interactions Server (LI Server) is a cost-efficient, real-time Web service that simplifies data capture, reporting, management, and communication with mobile workforce. Quickly integrated into your company’s back-end systems, your field force personnel can use it to provide up-to-date information to the back-end office and receive instant feedback in their mobile phones. It is also an easy, but secure method to distribute and update company-specific phone Local Interactions (LI) Client software to end-users’ mobile phones.

                   This is €400 from Top Tunniste. Getting around the LI server is supposed to be a little clumsy, but it’s possible (if not legal) to use your own server applications. At the simplest end of the spectrum, my students have used URI stored on tags as simple pointers to web applications that are invoked when a page is loaded, for instance.

                   If you want to discover how other people are getting on with this stuff, then try searching at Forum Nokia for RFID or NFC, which reveals threads like this one.

                   Other development kits

                   There are other hardware and software NFC development kits available from places like Sirit, Inside contactless, Skyetek, Innovision and Wireless Dynamics. Given that the NFC forum specifications are still nascent, we don’t yet trust the interoperability between different manufacturer’s devices. So we haven’t used any of these so far, and would be very interested in your experiences.

                   Contactless communication API

                   JSR 257 the “Contactless Communication API” has been proposed by Nokia and is currently being defined by the Java Mobile community. It is supported by the Nokia 5140i FFS (Source) but we’re not sure about the Samsung phones. When rolled out and standardised, it should be a good common development space for all kinds of applications that require physical links or applications. One of the great possibilities is that we can prototype and launch using 2D barcode tags, and easily transition to NFC interactions as the handsets become widely available. We can also design more specialist applications that use Bluetooth or even IR in the same environment.

                   Simon Woodside, the developer of Semacode, writes about it here:

                   JSR 257: Contactless Communication API is defining both RF and visual tag interface for Java ME. This will be THE way to interact with visual tags and RFIDs, smart cards, etc. And since our SDK implements the public draft interface, you can future proof yourself.

                   There is an overview of this and JSR 256, the “Mobile Sensor API” here, and an in-depth look at the standard here. It’s currently in the “Proposed Final Draft” stage so it looks like it’s pretty solidified.

                   More information

                   We are really interested in hearing about your experiences with development, it would be great to use this post as a place to collect information.

                   Related things:

                   1. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
                   2. Local applications and services This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. One of the most important features of NFC is that it only works at a very short range. This......
                   3. iPhone RFID and NFC peripherals We are beginning to see RFID and NFC peripherals beginning to be released for the iPhone. Since our conceptual video prototype of the iPhone object-based media came out in April, we’ve had thousands of......
                   4. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
                   5. NFC in action A video has surfaced from the recent launch of the Nokia 6131 NFC phone at CES. The demo shows some basic functions of touch-based interactions such as using a ‘smart poster’ to make a......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/the-dashed-linehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/the-dashed-lineMon, 21 Aug 2006 12:35:12 +0000I can trace my enthusiasm for the dashed line back to this poster in Norway.

                   I can trace my enthusiasm for the dashed line back to this poster in Norway. The poster advertises the multiple ways of submitting your tax return: via SMS, internet or post. Something resonated here, and I’m thinking more and more that the dashed line is the right way to visually expose the seams of ubiquitous computing.

                   Related things:

                   1. The dashed line in use In previous work I have advocated for the use of dashed lines, my paper for Mobile HCI 2006 [pdf] represents Touch-based interactions with dashed lines, and work on ubicomp iconography uses the dashed line......
                   2. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/rfid-books-weblogs-and-resourceshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/rfid-books-weblogs-and-resourcesThu, 17 Aug 2006 12:58:23 +0000There are a growing number of resources for RFID and related technologies, so I thought it would be useful to compile a list of the resources and reading…There are a growing number of resources for RFID and related technologies, so I thought it would be useful to compile a list of the resources and reading material that I am finding valuable.

                   It may be updated as new things become available.

                   

                   Books

                   Some recommended books on RFID theory and practice.

                   RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy

                   This is probably the best book on RFID to date, covering a wide range of issues including economics, technologies and applications. Comes highly recommended by Bruce Sterling too. It was catalysed by a workshop at MIT in 2003:

                   “Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is rapidly becoming ubiquitous as businesses seek to streamline supply chains and respond to mandates from key customers. But RFID and other new wireless ID technologies raise unprecedented privacy issues. RFID: Applications, Security, and Privacy covers these issues from every angle and viewpoint.”

                   RFID Handbook

                   This book covers the fundamentals and applications in contactless smart cards and identification, and gets quite deep into technology issues in RFID. Although it is primarily a technical book, full of equations and diagrams, it offers a lot of insight into the fundamentals of making this technology, as well as covering basic applications and services.

                   RFID Essentials

                   Good basic grounding for application, business and technical issues. Focused on EPC applications and logistics and includes sample pseudo code for managing RFID tasks. Read this for the groundwork before exploring the equations in the RFID Handbook above.

                   RFID Toys

                   A hands on book for hacking RFID readers, writers and transponders. Covers lots of ‘home automation’ and security applications as examples with instructions for making complete systems. Includes a good list of simple RFID hardware for prototyping. It’s available as part of a kit with the Phidgets USB reader/writer.

                   Smart card manufacturing

                   For industrial designers and manufacturing engineers, covers in great detail how to embed microprocessors into little pieces of plastic. Great diagrams.

                   Internet of Things ITU report

                   This ITU report looks at the economics, theories and applications that are driving the development of RFID.

                   “Takes a look at the next step in “always on” communications, in which new technologies like RFID and smart computing promise a world of networked and interconnected devices that provide relevant content and information whatever the location of the user.”

                   Shaping Things

                   Bruce Sterling’s book is a manifesto for a more sustainable approach to design, manufacture and everyday life. It’s a fairly quick read, enjoyable and contains many ‘aha’ moments.

                   “Spimes are designed on screens, fabricated by digital means, and precisely tracked through space and time. They are made of substances that can be folded back into the production stream of future spimes, challenging all of us to become involved in their production.”

                   Spychips

                   Katherine Albrecht & Liz McIntyre write about privacy issues in RFID, offering a stark vision of a future where everything is tracked and connected. Their tone is dramatic and their research examples are often taken out of context, but this is a useful counterpoint to RFID hype.

                   Everyware

                   Adam Greenfield’s writes about the likely emergence of ubiquitous computing and the social, cultural and ethical problems that may emerge in it’s design and use. Particularly relevant here are thoughts on seamfulness, on mechanisms of payment ‘dissolving in behaviour’ and some great musings on the embodied significance of the Octopus card in Hong Kong.

                   “The age of ubiquitous computing is here: a computing without computers, where information processing has diffused into everyday life, and virtually disappeared from view. What does this mean to those of us who will be encountering it? How will it transform our lives? And how will we learn to make wise decisions about something so hard to see?”

                   Ambient Findability

                   Peter Morville’s book on the ‘design of findable objects’ takes ideas from wayfinding, the web and information architecture, particularly around search, and puts forward ideas on how these might be applied in ubiquitous computing environments.

                   “Discusses the Internet, GIS, and other network technologies that are coming together to make unlimited findability possible. He explores how the melding of these innovations impacts society, since Web access is now a standard requirement for successful people and businesses.”

                   Weblogs

                   There are many weblogs on RFID being built upon the recent hype around RFID in the supply chain, and they mostly offer industry focused information. Below I’ve listed most of the weblogs I have found, including some that are not about RFID, but cover overlapping ground. The weblogs I find valuable have comments.

                   The Pondering Primate

                   High volume and interesting weblog by Scott Shaffer that looks at all of the emerging technologies and services that attempt to connect digital information into physical space.

                   “As the Internet becomes mobile through the cell phone, I realized the physical world would merge with the electronic one and a tsunami of opportunities would be created. I constantly search for companies and news associated with mobile search, mobile marketing and mobile commerce.”

                   Bar Code Nerds

                   People obsessed with barcodes and the things you can do with them, and they really are nerds:

                   “You know what pisses me off? I’m in the store. I buy 5 different flavors of fruit leather. They are different colors in different packages. Different SKUs with different GTINs, hence each has a different UPC barcode. So what does the cashier do? Scan one and hit the ‘repeat X5’ key. I realize all she’s doing is harvesting the price. To hell with real time inventory tracking.”

                   Barcode Blog

                   Less commentary and more links to other news sources, but it’s good to see a balanced view between technologies like barcodes and RFID i.e. not so much hype about RFID.

                   Semapedia weblog

                   A weblog about developments in the Semapedia community:

                   “We invite you to create Semapedia-Tags which are in fact cellphone-readable physical hyperlinks. You can create such Tags easily yourself by choosing and pasting a Wikipedia URL into the form above. Once created, you put the Tags up at their according physical location.”

                   Semablog

                   Simon Woodside writes about the development of semacode: a 2D barcode system that is an open platform, and plugs into many of the important building blocks of the internet and mobile platforms.

                   “Semacode’s software provides the tools necessary to build applications that combine aspects of the virtual world into the real world. It works by combining existing standardized elements — camera phones, optical barcodes, URLs — into an integrated system.”

                   Contactless News

                   Lots of news and articles on developments in contactless payment including smart cards and NFC. The articles go behind a subscription service after 60 days, so make sure you get relevant quotes while they are still there…

                   Spychips blog

                   Albrecht and McIntyre, authors of Spychips rampage against RFID and forefront privacy issues with auto ID and tracking technologies.

                   RFID Innovationlab

                   A Danish RFID weblog from people at the Innovation Lab in Katrinebjerg that covers a lot of ground.

                   RFID in Japan

                   Shin’ichi Konomi writes about developments in RFID in Japan. This blog has uncovered numerouse interesting user-centred developments in RFID and barcode technology as well as unusual and quirky uses.

                   RFID Law Blog

                   This weblog could be really good (and it gets it kind of right in the legislation category) but it tends to re-publish other news stories when it could be providing useful insight and commentary on important legal issues.

                   RFID Buzz

                   A low volume but very smart and focused weblog, looking at privacy issues in passports, credit cards, gaming and other alternative uses.

                   RFID in libraries

                   I trust the librarians to get it right.

                   RFID Journal

                   The RFID industry authority, with events, news, features and case studies. Very industry focused.

                   RFID Gazette

                   High volume weblog with lots of industry news.

                   Other weblogs: Payments news, RFID Lowdown, RFID Times, RFID Today, RFID Detail, The RFID Weblog, Using RFID news, RFID Update.

                   Online resources

                   Mediamatic Reader on RFID

                   This reader compiles a number of resources on the technical and philosophical aspects of RFID.

                   Security & Privacy in RFID Systems

                   A large resource of technical papers on security and privacy. You can subscribe to a mailing list to be notified when new papers are added (Could we have an RSS feed too please)!

                   “The goal of this page is to reference works related to security and privacy in RFID systems. The bibliography contains references toward refereed papers published in journals and conference proceedings, as well as technical reports and thesis. It is updated on an irregular basis depending on the flow of papers published in the domain.”

                   RFID Primer

                   There are numerous guides and primers on RFID around the web, but this is perhaps the best, from AIM the global association of everything Identifiable.

                   Internet of things: Working bibliography

                   This Internet of things bibliography compiled by Anne Galloway is a good place to start looking at the wider implications of RFID as seen by industry and (primarily ubiquitous computing) academia.

                   Related things:

                   1. Internet of Things booklet Rob van Kranenburg is creating what looks like an interesting critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID: “The Internet of Things is the second issue in the series of Network Notebooks.......
                   2. Touch project interview In December 2005 I was interviewed for Printed and Disposable Electronics News about the Touch project, the future of RFID and on the social implications of NFC. Here is the plain interview, since an......
                   3. Making things talk Tom Igoe’s new book Making things talk arrived today, full of lovely projects and code examples. Tom’s previous book Physical computing has been the definitive reference for all hardware hacking that goes on at......
                   4. Rob van Kranenburg at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered......
                   5. The EU on the visibility of RFID The EU is conducting a new online consultancy on privacy, data protection and information security principles in RFID applications. I am happy to see that in Article 5 they begin to address the invisible......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/upcoming-eventshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/upcoming-eventsWed, 09 Aug 2006 17:49:48 +0000Two upcoming events in New York: This is a free symposium open to all on the 29-30 September 2006 organised by graduates at the NYU School of Law.Two upcoming events in New York:

                   Identity and Identification in a Networked World

                   This is a free symposium open to all on the 29-30 September 2006 organised by graduates at the NYU School of Law.

                   Increasingly, who we are is represented by key bits of information scattered throughout the data-intensive, networked world. Online and off, these core identifiers mediate our sense of self, social interactions, movements through space, and access to goods and services. There is much at stake in designing systems of identification and identity management, deciding who or what will be in control of them, and building in adequate protection for our bits of identity permeating the network. This symposium will examine critical and controversial issues surrounding socio-technical systems of identity, identifiability and identification. It will showcase emerging scholarship of graduate students at the cutting edge of humanities, social sciences, artists, systems design & engineering, philosophy, law, and policy to work towards a clearer understanding of these complex problems, and build foundations for future collaborative work.

                   Registration and preliminary program

                   Architecture and Situated Technologies

                   First found via Anne, this October 2006 event is being organised by the The Institute for Distributed Creativity, Center for Virtual Architecture and the Architectural League of New York. There doesn’t seem to be a website or a confirmed date yet, but lots of distributed discussion going on the iDC mailing list

                   “This symposium, organized around the notion of an ‘encounter,’ will attempt to articulate new research vectors, sites of practice, and working methods for the confluence of architecture and situated technologies. What opportunities and dilemmas does a world of networked objects and spaces pose for architecture, art, and computing? How might this evolving relation between people and ‘things’ alter the way we occupy, navigate, and inhabit the built environment? What post-optimal design strategies and tactics might we propose for an age of responsive environments, smart materials, embodied interaction, and participatory networks? What is the status of the material object in a world privileging networked relations between ‘things’? How do distinctions between space and place change within these networked media ecologies? Given the explosive market proliferation of mobile communications and wireless networks, what distinguishes the emerging urban sociality they enable? How do the social uses of these technologies, including (non-) affective giving, destabilize rationalized ‘use-case scenarios’ designed around the generic consumer? These are just a few of the questions we want to address. Through a combination of workshops, presentations, and panel discussions, the symposium will attempt to stage a set of encounters between invited participants, an audience encouraged to participate, and the City of New York. This event will be podcast and a publication will follow.”

                   Read more

                   Related things:

                   1. More upcoming RFID events On Monday 8th May the RFID Innovasjonssenter is having it’s opening event in Oslo (See here for more details in Norwegian). The project is centred around logistics and the supply chain, but they mention......
                   2. Upcoming conferences There are two ‘Internet of Things’ workshops in the next couple of months, the first is called From RFID to the Internet of Things from 6-7 March 2006 at the EU in Brussels: A......
                   3. Touch network building The Touch project is receiving considerable interest and over the next few months it will be represented at many events and workshops. The idea of using RFID beyond the supply chain is gaining significant......
                   4. Touch at Kreative Oslo We recently had the chance to present Touch at the event Kreative Oslo 09 at DogA, the Norwegian Center for Design and Architecture. Kreative Oslo is a broad seminar that gathers the creative fields......
                   5. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/rfid-the-internet-of-things-2https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/08/rfid-the-internet-of-things-2Tue, 08 Aug 2006 10:25:20 +0000Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam.Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam.

                   If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can tag, share, and contribute content to the digital existence of their own places and objects, we can truly speak of an Internet of Things. This opens perpectives for new sustainability scenario’s, for new relations between people and the stuff they have, and for other locative applications. The participants of this workshop will develop critical, utopian or nightmarish concepts for an Internet of Things in a hands-on way. Ideas can range from scripts for small new rituals to outlines of societal changes of epic scale. Prototypes can be tested with the workshop tools The Symbolic Table or the Nokia3220 phone with RFID reader.

                   The previous Mediamatic workshops on RFID have been extremely productive and interesting, see their RFID Reader for the previous workshops and an overview of alternative practice in RFID.

                   Radio frequency identification is a technology that is now rapidly developing. A growing number of logistical companies sees the advantages and possibilities of RFID for managing large bodies of objects. But to what uses can this technology be applied that are not in the logistical realm? How can it serve and/or change society and human interaction? How does it change the concept of information and information networks as we know them today? This reader compiles a number of resources on the technical and philosophical aspects of RFID.

                   Related things:

                   1. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
                   2. More upcoming RFID events On Monday 8th May the RFID Innovasjonssenter is having it’s opening event in Oslo (See here for more details in Norwegian). The project is centred around logistics and the supply chain, but they mention......
                   3. Upcoming conferences There are two ‘Internet of Things’ workshops in the next couple of months, the first is called From RFID to the Internet of Things from 6-7 March 2006 at the EU in Brussels: A......
                   4. Interfacing the ‘internet of things’ This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. The ‘internet of things’ is a vision of a world full of interconnected things that participate in a wider......
                   5. Internet of Things booklet Rob van Kranenburg is creating what looks like an interesting critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID: “The Internet of Things is the second issue in the series of Network Notebooks.......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/07/mobile-interaction-with-the-real-worldhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/07/mobile-interaction-with-the-real-worldWed, 26 Jul 2006 16:21:22 +0000My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the…My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to

                   “develop an understanding of how mobile devices (particularly mobile phones, smartphones and PDAs) can be used as interaction devices. [...] we aim to develop new ideas on how mobile phones can be exploited for new forms of interaction with the environment.”

                   The other papers at the workshop look interesting:

                   • Telling a Story on a Tag: The Importance of Markers’ Visual Design for Real World Applications, Enrico Costanza (MIT Media Lab, USA), Mirja Leinss (Harvard GSD, USA)
                   • Mobile Pointing & Input System for Eye Glass Display, Youngjin Hong, Sanggoog Lee, Yongbeom Lee, Sangryong Kim (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, South Korea)
                   • User Perceptions on Mobile Interaction with Visual and RFID Tags, Sara Belt (University of Oulu, Finland), Dan Greenblatt, Jonna Häkkilä (Nokia Multimedia, Finland), Kaj Mäkelä (Nokia Research Center, Finland)
                   • Hovering: Visualising RFID Hyperlinks in a Mobile Phone, Pasi Välkkynen (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland)
                   • The Mobile Phone as a Universal Interaction Device - Are There Limits?, Christof Roduner (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
                   • Alternative RFID based Architectures for Mobile HCI with Physical Objects, Stefano Puglia (WLAB Ltd., Italy), Andrea Vitaletti (University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy)
                   • Automatic Composition in Service Browsing Environments, Paul Wisner (Nokia Research Center, USA)
                   • Constructing assemblies for purposeful interactions, Pollini Alessandro, Grönvall Erik (University of Siena, Italy)
                   • Finding the Path from Here to There: Some Questions about Physical-Mobile Design Processes, Amnon Dekel (The Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel)
                   • Understanding Real World Practices: a Place-Centred Study of Mobile Workers, Darragh Murphy, Iride Bartolucci, Luigina Ciolfi (University of Limerick, Ireland)
                   • Public Display Advertising Based on Bluetooth Device Presence, Matthew Sharifi, Terry Payne, Esther David (University of Southampton, UK)
                   • Exploiting incidental interactions between mobile devices, Jamie Lawrence, Terry Payne, Raul V. Kripalani (University of Southampton, UK)

                   Related things:

                   1. Reboot 8: Mobile presence The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform. In particular, this platform is finally allowing the kinds of 3rd party and community development that......
                   2. Nordichi workshop papers Update The papers are available to download as PDF. A selection of images from submitted papers, click for larger image. The diverse range of topics and the varied backgrounds of the applicants for our......
                   3. MIRW 2007 A new workshop on Mobile Interaction with the Real World is taking place at Mobile HCI in Singapore this September. Following the success of Mobile Interaction with the Real World; at MobileHCI 2006, we......
                   4. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
                   5. Three papers on mobile payments The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments. From meiwaku to tokushita! Lessons for digital money design from Japan. Mainwaring, S., March, W., and Maurer, B.......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/07/rfid-in-seoul-first-impressionshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/07/rfid-in-seoul-first-impressionsSun, 16 Jul 2006 16:37:23 +0000I’m in Seoul, South Korea looking at the use of mobile technology and RFID.I’m in Seoul, South Korea looking at the use of mobile technology and RFID.

                   The first encounter with RFID came only an hour or so off the plane by the Metro ticketing machines, a kind lady showed a mobile phone strap that contained a T Money card:

                   Within a few minutes I had a charged up T Money card and figured out the over-designed ticket gates. Quite good for a totally new system with new languages and currency.

                   Later, at a ‘Family Mart’, there was a hastily placed payment terminal that offered payment for mobile phones.

                   The touch indicator is very HAL-like, I imagine it glows softly red when a payment is made. More to investigate…

                   Related things:

                   1. RFID in Seoul: High-end smartcards The contactless ticketing and payment system of choice in Seoul is called T-Money. Seoul was the first city to use Mifare standard smartcards in 1996. Although retail payment doesn’t seem to have taken off......
                   2. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
                   3. Three papers on mobile payments The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments. From meiwaku to tokushita! Lessons for digital money design from Japan. Mainwaring, S., March, W., and Maurer, B.......
                   4. RFID gestures While thinking about radio-field-based interactions and the gestures that they entail I’m reminded of this quote by Adam in Everyware: “If you really want to know what information processing dissolving in behaviour really looks......
                   5. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/07/reboot-8-mobile-presencehttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/07/reboot-8-mobile-presenceMon, 03 Jul 2006 17:25:12 +0000The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform.The thing that struck me most at Reboot 8 was the emergence of the mobile as a platform. In particular, this platform is finally allowing the kinds of 3rd party and community development that we have been lacking for the last few years. The first signs of this are simple modifications to existing applications and in particular the addition of presence.

                   Jyri Engeström showed simple but effective interfaces for what he terms ‘social peripheral vision’, the ability to glance at information about a social circle and to gain an awareness of other’s plans in both space and time. Simple additions to the current phone interface (like the address book and calendar) can show a lot of contextual information. Jyri is working on Jaiku that is still under wraps, but talking with Mika Raento gave some clues as to what this might be. Mika has worked on interesting applications like ContextContacts at the University of Helsinki.

                   Marko Ahtisaari talked about the Seven Challenges to our Shared Mobile Future, and in particular the overall goal of reaching the next 2 billion mobile phone users. It’s clear that this future is not just about Nokia’s multimedia computers, but will also be about making simple voice and text experiences more beautiful and engaging.

                   Chris Heathcote presented a ‘manifesto’ for the mobile internet; design patterns and approaches for the internet on mobile devices. He demonstrated the new Mobile web server as a universal tool for things like presence. This brings with it interesting issues like serving data with a device that may be out of coverage or batteries.

                   Finally there was a quick demo of Plazes, and the new Plazes mobile client beta that looks very impressive. It uses cell ID to share user context, only when instructed to. Given that Plazes already has an active user-community its possible that this will be the first widely used mobile presence application.

                   Related things:

                   1. Mobile Interaction with the Real World My short position paper “A graphic language for touch-based interactions” has been accepted to the Mobile HCI 2006 workshop Mobile Interaction with the Real World. The workshop aims to “develop an understanding of how......
                   2. Retro-fitting mobile phones with RFID The promise of NFC is about easily using mobile phones as a part of daily life: ticketing, paying with a credit card, opening doors, sharing, printing and downloading in the physical world. But until......
                   3. Three papers on mobile payments The weblog ‘Putting people first’ links to three interesting papers from CHI 2008 on mobile payments. From meiwaku to tokushita! Lessons for digital money design from Japan. Mainwaring, S., March, W., and Maurer, B.......
                   4. Mobile payment demo The near-future success of NFC depends on the usability of mobile payments and ticketing. As interaction designers we of course argue that the success hinges on good design of this experience and recent news......
                   5. Mobile Camp NYC I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be presenting at Mobile Camp NYC on Saturday 19th May in New York City. I’ll be presenting some history and context around Physical Hyperlinks and Touch-based interactions. Update......
                   ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/workshop-near-field-interactionshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/workshop-near-field-interactionsTue, 20 Jun 2006 09:46:57 +0000This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo…This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway.

                   The user-centred Internet of Things

                   The so-called ‘Internet of Things’ is a vision of the future of networked things that share a record of their interactions with context, people and other objects. The evolution of networking to include objects occupying space and moving within the physical world presents an urgent design challenge for new kinds of networked social practice. The challenge for design is to overcome the current overarching emphasis on business and technology that has largely ignored practices that fall outside of operational efficiency scenarios.

                   What is imminently needed is a user-centred approach to understand the physical, contextual and social relationships between people and the networked things they interact with.

                   The mobile device as early enabler

                   The mobile phone is likely to play a key role in the early adoption of the internet of things. Mobile devices offer ubiquitous networks and interfaces, enabling otherwise offline objects at the edges of the network. Near Field Communication (NFC) is a mobile technology that has been designed to integrate networked services into physical space and objects. NFC introduces a sense of ‘touch’, where interactions between devices are initiated by physical proximity.

                   In use, the mobile phone brings with it a history of personal and social activities and contexts. It is in this evolution that we see user-agency and social motivation emerging as an interesting area within the internet of things.

                   Workshop goals

                   In this workshop we intend to build knowledge around the hands-on problems and opportunities of designing user-centred interactions with networked objects. Through a process of ‘making things’ we will look closely at the kinds of interactions we may want to design with networked objects, and what roles the mobile phone may play in this.

                   We will focus on the design of simple, effective and innovative interactions between mobile phones and physical objects, rather than focusing on technical or network issues.

                   The primary questions for the workshop are:

                   • What kinds of common interactions will emerge as networked objects become everyday?
                   • What role will the mobile phone have to play in these interactions?
                   • How do we encourage playful, experimental and exploratory use of networked things?

                     Some secondary questions are:

                   • What interaction models can we bring to the internet of things? Do the fields of embodied interaction, tangible, social, ubiquitous or pervasive computing cover the required ground for designers?
                   • What new kinds of social practices could emerge out of the possibilities presented by networked things? 
                   • How will the physical form of everyday objects and spaces be transformed by networks and near field interactions? How this would be reflected in users’ behavior?
                   • How can the design of physical objects help in overcoming potential information or interaction overload, and how does search or findability change when in a physical context?
                   • How can we move beyond commonsensical features such as object activation or findability?
                   • What kind of user-communities will co-opt the technology and how will they hack, adjust and re-form it for their needs?

                     Workshop structure

                     Each workshop day will begin with a keynote presentation from invited experts. On the first day, participants will each give a short presentation of their position paper, no longer than 5 minutes.

                     Then groups of 3-4 people, each with different skills and backgrounds will then work on concepts, scenarios and prototypes. Prototypes may take the form of physical models, scenarios or enactments. We encourage the use of our wood, plastic and rapid prototyping workshops to create physical prototypes of selected concepts. We will provide workshop assistants for the creation of physical models.

                     Outcomes

                     The outcomes should be in a range of implementation styles allowing for a variety of outputs that speaks to a wide audience. A report will be written on the workshop, and published on the Touch project website and in other relevant channels.

                     Call for participation

                     The workshop is open to participants from human factors, mobile technology, social science, interaction and industrial design. Practitioners and those with industrial experience are strongly encouraged. Prior research work on embodied interaction, social and tangible computing would be particularly relevant. Participants will be selected based on their relevance to the workshop, and the overall balance of the group. Space is limited to 25 participants.

                     Call for short position papers

                     Application is by position paper no longer than two pages. The position paper can be visual or experimental in design and content. The themes should cover an issue that is relevant to the design of interactions with everyday objects.

                     Deadline for papers is 1 August, selected participants will be notified on the 9 August. The workshop itself is October 14 and 15, 2006.

                     Papers and any questions should be submitted to timo (at) elasticspace (dot) com before 1 August.

                     Organisers

                     Timo Arnall is a designer and researcher at the Oslo School of Architecture & Design (AHO). Timo’s research looks at practices around ubiquitous computing in urban space. At the moment his work focuses on the personal and social use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies, looking for potential interactions with objects and city spaces through mobile devices. Previously his research looked at flyposting and stickering in public space, suggesting possible design strategies for combining physical marking and digital spatial annotation. Timo leads the research project Touch at AHO, looking at the use of mobile technology and Near Field Communication.

                     Julian Bleecker is a Research Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Center for Communication and an Assistant Professor in the Interactive Media Division, part of the USC School of Cinema-Television. Bleecker’s work focuses on emerging technology design, research and development, implementation, concept innovation, particularly in the areas of pervasive media, mobile media, social networks and entertainment. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in computer-human interaction. His doctoral dissertation from the University of California, Santa Cruz is on technology, entertainment and culture.

                     Nicolas Nova is a Ph.D. student at the CRAFT (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne) working on the CatchBob! project. His current research is directed towards the understanding of how people use location-awareness information when collaborating in mobile settings, with a peculiar focus on pervasive games. After an undergraduate degree in cognitive sciences, he completed a master in human-computer interaction and educational technologies at TECFA (University of Geneva, Switzerland). His work is at the crossroads of cognitive psychology/ergonomics and human-computer interaction; relying on those disciplines to gain better understanding of how people use technology such as mobile and ubiquitous computing.

                     Related things:

                     1. Post-nearfield interactions workshop More photos at Flickr Last weekend’s workshop was intense and productive, everybody brought a great deal of knowledge and enthusiasm which made the two days extremely exciting. Both Nicolas and Julian have already posted......
                     2. Nordichi workshop papers Update The papers are available to download as PDF. A selection of images from submitted papers, click for larger image. The diverse range of topics and the varied backgrounds of the applicants for our......
                     3. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
                     4. Tangible Interactions - summer exhibition This week the the MA interaction design course Tangible Interactions is having its summer exhibition at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The students have been focusing on designing interactions with RFID technology.......
                     5. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/rfid-logistics-and-material-flowhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/rfid-logistics-and-material-flowMon, 12 Jun 2006 09:09:41 +0000On the final day of How I learned to love RFID we visited the Fraunhofer institute for material flow and logistics.On the final day of How I learned to love RFID we visited the Fraunhofer institute for material flow and logistics. The institute concentrates on supply chain, logistic and robotic applications. They also foster the Open ID Center, that intends to create open platforms for the use of RFID in the supply chain.

                     Logistics and supply chain applications are mostly out of the scope of investigation for Touch. However, the discussion covered interesting areas such as the potential of RFID to offer a more transparent supply chain, that may have an impact on the ways in which we interact with things in the future. For this, it was very useful to get a deep insight into the ‘other side of RFID’.

                     

                     The form of the discussion was an informal talk with Ralf Neuhaus while observing the various testbeds for containers, palettes, conveyors and robots. Then a question and answer session with Hunika Nemeth, a software engineeer working with Enterprise Resource Planning systems.

                     Background

                     The Fraunhofer people were very honest that they are still conducting basic research in RFID technology. Their focus is on the integration of standard components that form useful supply chain applications. They are creating prototypes and products around these integrations for their clients. They aim for lean processes that are decentralised, distributed and transparent. This is inspired by MIT ideas about ‘lean production’ and Japanese thinking around management process.

                     

                     In their view, logistics shouldn’‘t be seen as a discrete, closed, compartmentalised system: Everybody is part of logistics, we start to interact with these systems the minute we order something, or interact with daily life: the systems that order the food we eat, that manage the ways that cities run, that keep higher level systems such as transport running.

                     Are there new business models around this?

                     They have the intention of making an ‘internet of objects’ but they foresee huge problems when they move outside of closed systems. They predict that the true internet of things will not happen for a while.

                     When an RFID supply chain is being designed, negotiation between partners is a critical problem area. Clearly trust is really important between partners, but this needs to be encoded in software and hardware. What if my competitors can see what is on the shelves in my warehouse? How do we balance co-operation and competition?

                     They are trying to develop ‘high end and low tech’ systems, meaning that there is the use of off-the-shelf components (that do not require basic research) that used together offer new ways of solving problems.

                     How is an RFID system organised?

                     There are three levels to an RFID system:

                     An Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP)

                     An ERP is a database that can be leveraged and queried at a management level. It is typically asked questions like ‘how many goods do I have in storage?’. It can be queried about motion and velocity: how much goes in and out over certain time periods. It also links into other personnel, financial and material management systems, where staff, machines and economics can be planned. 30% of the ERP system is about relationships to suppliers and customers.

                     A Warehouse Management System (WMS)

                     This system has all of the information about the status of a warehouse, such as the movement/guidance of the vehicles, locations of palettes and items. All things (relationships, movements, contents, etc.) are historically recorded: a kind of ‘archaeological development’: so that jobs or tasks are not done twice.

                     

                     The interfaces are on control panels and wireless handheld terminals as well as visualisations on large screens that include 2D plans and images, so that people can see with a glance what is going on. The WMS is usually tailored to customer needs, and this is what Fraunhofer have developed most themselves. It’s connected to the ERP, but in some cases might be better off as a single system.

                     Middleware

                     Nobody really knows what RFID middleware is yet. It is it something that everyone needs to use, and is developed in situated contexts according to very different needs. There is a huge challenge in that all customers try to integrate their existing software landscapes into an RFID system.

                     

                     RFID technologies are fundamentally different to previous barcode or signature based systems, in that they contain more detailed information as to history, ownership, value, time constraints, etc. plus the fact that we can read and write to RFID. This means that they are representational different in software. The basic affordances of the RFID needs to be represented in the two systems above.

                     ERP system providers are working with Fraunhofer, and designing their own middleware. At the moment these providers are integrating their middleware into their customers systems. They are unifying many different chaotic things in the middleware. Each customer is different, they all have historically grown systems.

                     Fraunhofer tries to make lean middleware, to accept different data streams and to get them into unifying languages. Middleware shouldn’t know what will happen with this data, it just routes data between systems. The leaner the software, the easier it is for the customer to integrate it into their legacy systems.

                     What is interesting about this is how layered the systems are at all levels. Objects know where they need to go, and don’t need warehouses to tell them. Systems are layered into local levels. Things get pushed to higher levels when needs arise: not central authority, but local reporting. Like blogging! Yet in all cases there seem to be exceptions, and apparently in some special cases, the transponder can go directly into the WMS or ERP and change the direction of the conveyor.

                     What about hardware?

                     At a basic level there is only the use of RFID readers and RFID transponders (tags) of many different types.

                     

                     RFID readers are organised into ‘gates’. There is not yet a technology capable of scanning an entire warehouse and working out what is there.

                     As the ERP needs to know whether to put the objects on the plus or the minus side of the inventory, these gates cannot just read the IDs, they also need to know whether the items are going in or going out.

                     RFID transponders are passive and active. Again we see interesting layering of responsibility. Packages or items contain passive tags that communicate to a gate, and the gate then writes an active tag on the palette so that it knows what it contains. This overcomes some of the problems with reading passive tags over long ranges.

                     

                     Within logistics there is an economic factor: if the product is high-value then it makes sense to have sensors and active tags to track things like temperature limits or shock damage. Active tags used for these purposes can be switched into passive and back again to save battery power.

                     

                     In typical environments they last for about seven years, and do not have replaceable batteries! On the tag we can store 256 bits of data such as time labelling alongside sensor data. As soon as we have temperature and other measurements then it gets more complicated, particularly integrating the data into the database.

                     There are also interesting investigations into material handling, such as parcel sorting using distributed intelligence, and grabber technologies that can handle just about any shape of object through the use of rotating rubber bands.

                     How are you thinking about security?

                     Security has mainly been a question of whether the objects are online or offline. Fraunhofer have been developing intranets where certain permissions are given and shared between suppliers and customers, this is perhaps a more traditional question of access priveleges.

                     

                     But when it comes to RFID transponders and readers, the security question is more open. There is no established rules yet about the permissions structure for transponders: who is allowed to read the transponder data? Who is allowed to write over the data? For each customer the question is different. In pharmaceuticals for instance they need very strict documentation of processes, there must be no permissions for manipulation, what is written on the contracts must be fulfilled, and transponders and readers must obey this.

                     Then there are material security questions, such as the kind of ‘logistics of goods that you use more than once’. There is always loss, even in closed systems. In one year a typical logistics firm will lose about 30% of their containers: they are re-appropriated for other purposes. This is experience from everyday life and must be encoded into the software systems.

                     What about the internet of things?

                     There is pressure from industry to put everything on the internet, which is difficult from both a security and management perspective. If we put a transponder on every product then we will have data-overload problems, even if we are running local servers. Future intra and internets will need to be powerful, scaleable and high-bandwidth.

                     

                     Fraunhofer runs a project that asks what will happen if everything has a transponder? If we take yoghurt pots for example. We have 1000 yoghurts on one two metre high palette. Where do we put all of the transponders? The gates typically break down after 150 IDs, and it breaks down at the level of physics, not software. But should we solve this problem? Is it important? If we solve this then perhaps the middleware becomes too overweight. This is then not sellable, because the software will be too complex to integrate into legacy systems. The ERP could then be overloaded, and would require a huge management task.

                     At this point many of us in the room shouted out that of course it will be solved! If we look at Moore’s law, the history of technology, mobiles, laptops, wifi, etc. it all seems to work on desire.

                     The Fraunhofer people partially agreed, but re-iterated that there is a problem with physics, not software. At a certain point hundreds of tags pulsing is indistinguishable from background radiation.

                     What about printed electronics?

                     At the moment it’s not even possible to get a prototype of printed RFIDs from the research labs, so it hasn’t yet been possible for them to test out the technology. Maybe in 2 or 3 years printed tags will reach the power levels that the silicon/metal/soldered labels currently in use.

                     

                     There is still the need to develop the right polymers for use in the printing, at the moment the base-material in many of the polymers is not activated by UHF radiation, making it useless in current reader systems. And then even if we have the polymer transponder: there are still huge infrastructural developments to make it work. Until the right material technology is found we can use the experience that we gain with non-printed tags.

                     In order to reach the internet of things Fraunhofer wants to try to integrate tags in packaging. When people talk about RFID they often refer to the 3 cent goal for the tag, but if we look at the whole picture there are also other printing, moving and ‘sticking’ costs which all cost time money. This is why printed polymer technologies are promising. This is interesting both for putting on ‘yoghurt’ items and for integrating into packaging.

                     Is RFID designed to remove people from the process?

                     At this point there was discussion around real industry intentions, are they just removing checkout and warehouse workers. Is it about efficiency or removing people?

                     The response from Fraunhofer was that perhaps we are removing some ‘slave jobs’: the jobs are being transferred into IT and integration work. Fraunhofer stated that they probably cannot be addressed at the institute, that the problems were too complex.

                     What about embedding privacy at the hardware level?

                     Rob Van Kranenburg is adamant that privacy can also be a unique selling point: look at the IBM clipped tag, customers and users are less critical once they have control over it. If privacy had been considered and integrated from the very beginning, then it would be now much easier to sell RFID. Very many people are critiquing RFID now, from science fiction to art, politics, activism.

                     

                     In the next three years privacy will be in the centre of international attention, and even technical RFID research should engage with this.

                     The response from Fraunhofer was non-committal about this, it seems as if they had not fully considered the privacy issue at a hardware or software level. Overall they are not yet considering the technology at the level of culture or society, instead focusing on fundamental hardware and software problems. This seemed like somewhat of an oversight, and it could be something that they factor into their research, at least at a high level.

                     Thanks to Susanne Ackers and Francis Hunger for the excellent realtime translation.

                     Related things:

                     1. RFID as material in design Here I am presenting at Recalling RFID (photo by Anne Helmond). I talked about the ways in which Touch is exploring RFID interactions from a design perspective. In particular I looked at the physicality......
                     2. Bruce Sterling at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Bruce Sterling talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. He covers a lot of ground, including approaches to sustainability, artist use of RFID and......
                     3. FoeBud: How we learned to stop RFID FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID. Rena Tangens and Padeluun presented their work at the recent workshop How I......
                     4. Rob van Kranenburg at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered......
                     5. Recalling RFID Recalling RFID was exceptionally successful at creating a space where diverse viewpoints on RFID were expressed, shared and debated. The level of understanding of the issues from all sides was very high. This resulted......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/rob-van-kranenburg-at-how-i-learned-to-love-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/rob-van-kranenburg-at-how-i-learned-to-love-rfidSun, 11 Jun 2006 19:34:02 +0000On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany.On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany.

                     This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered many valuable topics including local activism, EU policy on ubiquitous computing, participatory culture and distributed computing. Rob seems to be someone that thinks many times faster than he talks, and has so many valuable things to say, that it’s very difficult to succinctly summarise his presentation.

                     
                     Rob van Kranenburg lecture at HMKV, Dortmund.

                     Background

                     Few people talk about genetically modified foods anymore, genetic modification is now something that is talked about in fashion circles as a creative technology. The field has taken about 10 years to get to the point where the discussion is no longer about ethics but about fashion.

                     In the case of RFID, we are perhaps at the beginning of this process: RFID has become Smart Cards, Near Field Communication, M2M, etc. There is a huge re-branding effort going on, and there is little debate about using Smart Cards for public transport for instance.

                     We are dealing not just with technology, protocols or standards: but a context: a deadlock between technology and the environment. From the technology of the pen onwards there has been tension about externalising what should be internal. Distributing information to the environment implies that we trust the environment. But people have a deep, deep mistrust of the environment. It is also very hard to come to terms with something that has a 100% memory, we are all highly analogue.

                     In an experiment to probe this mistrust The Watch out team was welcomed to a small town in Netherlands: to watch out for everyday things. The enthusiasm with which they were welcomed was scary, see this quote from the above link:

                     “The idea of this performance like intervention was to draw feedback of the kind that would get the joke, that would be aimed at the experienced top down disciplining process going on. What happened instead was far more interesting but also far more disturbing. Whenever they were approached with a question like what kind of organization are you from, they’d reply: the government. We are the Watch Out Team, a new government sponsored initiative. At the market where they dished out watch out umbrella stickers to grateful umbrella holders I overheard a daughter telling her mother: “They should have done this much sooner!””

                     RFID and the EU

                     “I will not see the liberty of citizens and their fundamental rights being compromised”
                     – Viviane Reding

                     The EU sees RFID as a key technology that will shape the age of the Ubiquitous Network Society. RFID tags will be nodes in most future ubiquitous IT systems, and the glue that binds ubiquitous computing together.

                     Behind this vision, they claim a strong social concern. Can this intention be upheld when we are in the midst of a ‘war on terror’ and RFID is a perfect candidate for tracking and control?

                     But overall the EU seems to be doing a pretty good job of scoping out the issues of RFID, and aiming towards world governance of RFID issues.

                     How should we deal with privacy?

                     It is naive to say that RFID tags do not contain information, and thus cannot be linked to individuals: that disregards the whole history of data mining. Transparency is important, individuals should certainly have access to the information that their tags carry. This view has been fuelled by the Nokia phone that reads and writes tags.

                     EMF leakage will also be a huge problem. One approach would be to specify zones for different kinds of sensors, how do we solve this visually? Digital territory, digital bubbles, various mediascapes, seamless technology, networked objects, etc.

                     We need to design for emergence: the behaviour of an agent cannot be entirely pre-programmed: we need to launch and learn. We also need better interactions and relationships, opening up space for more consumer control. Interestingly, and perhaps problematically, there is currently no competitor/predator for the ubiquitous computing model.

                     Changing dynamics of society

                     A digital network turns civilians into professional amateurs. We see a growth of informal networks operating between a formal policy level, and a idiosyncratic everyday life. As an example, the browser has drastically disrupted the dynamics of society, from house buying to local politics to personal relationships. We are seeing a revolution from below. We cannot hand over ubiquitous connectivity and expect people to stay the same.

                     To probe this, a scenario was created, depicting the death of the EU in 12 steps which shows that Europe is a dying dynamic. People are being more pro-active in local planning, new business models disrupting existing businesses (real estate for instance), and the localised tax system becoming increasingly irrelevant. It was particularly interesting to start to make this link between bottom-up, participatory culture and the distributed technologies like RFID.

                     More

                     Rob has just completed a report on RFID with co-authors Matt Ward and Gaynor Backhouse. It’s a great overview of RFID technology and use:

                     “This TechWatch report provides a brief discussion of these issues as well as a detailed examination of RFID technology, including some of the current uses within research, administration and teaching and learning. The report also includes an overview of the significance of RFID as an enabling technology towards achieving the ‘seamless’ and ‘calm’ vision of ubiquitous computing, the role of the Internet of Things, and plots a future trajectory for RFID development within the wider context of wireless, networked environments.”

                     Download the report here.

                     Related things:

                     1. Bruce Sterling at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Bruce Sterling talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. He covers a lot of ground, including approaches to sustainability, artist use of RFID and......
                     2. FoeBud: How we learned to stop RFID FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID. Rena Tangens and Padeluun presented their work at the recent workshop How I......
                     3. Internet of Things booklet Rob van Kranenburg is creating what looks like an interesting critique of ambient technology and the all-seeing network of RFID: “The Internet of Things is the second issue in the series of Network Notebooks.......
                     4. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
                     5. RFID, logistics and material flow On the final day of How I learned to love RFID we visited the Fraunhofer institute for material flow and logistics. The institute concentrates on supply chain, logistic and robotic applications. They also foster......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/foebud-how-we-learned-to-stop-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/foebud-how-we-learned-to-stop-rfidMon, 05 Jun 2006 22:15:57 +0000FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID.FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID. Rena Tangens and Padeluun presented their work at the recent workshop How I learned to love RFID at HMKV in Dortmund. This is a brief writeup of their talk and the issues raised during a day of practical explorations with RFID electronics.

                     

                     In the past they have organised the Big brother awards, and Stop RFID campaigns at high profile industry events. They have gathered momentum in public opinion, to the extent that many German retailers and manufacturers have had to change their policy on RFID usage.

                     
                     The FoeBud data privatizer can read, write and copy RFID tags.

                     They have probed the issue of privacy with such actions as printing personal information on personalised t-shirts to understand why there is a general lack of knowledge about the valuable data that people willingly give up. How do people feel about walking around with their marital status, passport numbers, age, address etc. in full public view. This is somewhat related to the experimental project called Loome by Livework about personal information and value.

                     They have also created a set of scenarios (in German) that probe the potential misuses and problems with RFID and tagging of things. As a design exercise these are really creative and interesting. They have also apparently had a large effect on public opinion of RFID.

                     
                     Detecting radiation from the Nokia 3220 NFC phone with FoeBud’s bracelet.

                     In one large intervention they invited Katherine Albrecht to visit the Metro future store. The Metro group is exploring advanced uses of RFID on the customer side of the supply chain. They are using RFID enabled DVD covers that act as physical tokens for movie trailers on an in-store screen. On the surface this seems like an intuitive example of interaction design, but customers must also use their RFID enabled customer card to verify that they are 16 years or older in order to view the movie. This leads to concerns that the store is tracking the viewing habits of their customers. This is not the most pressing privacy concern, but what is problematic is the way in which the tracking process was invisible, the Metro group tried to hide the fact that they had RFID in the customer cards and were secretive about the technology involved in the process. Clearly this is not the way to roll out a new user-centred technology.

                     They have also explored the upcoming use of RFID in the World Cup. In this case the organisers are using customers passport numbers to verify them: and embedding RFID into the paper tickets. What is interesting here is that it is very difficult to find out why they are using RFID, it seems that it’s a large scale technology trial that is overly invasive, without any user-benefits.

                     
                     The FoeBud tagfinder.

                     During the workshop we created two electronic prototypes: an RFID reader detector and a tag detector. Both products are sold by FoeBud on their website. These are extremely interesting products: well made and useful. In the same way as NFC in mobile phones starts to offer end-users some control over RFID, their products start to give us an awareness of the emerging readers, writers and tags embedded in the environment and in objects.

                     
                     Bruce Sterling solders surface mount components for an RFID ‘Tagfinder’

                     These products seem like the first signs of an emerging market for tools that allow greater user-awareness of RFID. It would be useful to explore how we might embed such technology in other everyday products, or make more commonplace objects for detecting, reading, writing, copying and perhaps jamming.

                     
                     An RFID reader detecting badge, soon to be available.

                     Overall it’s great to meet people that have a lot of fun doing the work that they do, they seem to get an enormous sense of satisfaction out of the triumphs they have over large industry. Although I disagreed with their presentation of RFID as being uniformly invasive, it was great to see a group being so pro-active in offering ways for people to visualise and protect their own privacy.

                     You can buy some of their ‘privacy enhancing’ products at their online shop, look particularly for their RFID products.

                     Related things:

                     1. Rob van Kranenburg at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered......
                     2. Bruce Sterling at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Bruce Sterling talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. He covers a lot of ground, including approaches to sustainability, artist use of RFID and......
                     3. RFID, logistics and material flow On the final day of How I learned to love RFID we visited the Fraunhofer institute for material flow and logistics. The institute concentrates on supply chain, logistic and robotic applications. They also foster......
                     4. Touch at Recalling RFID I will be presenting at Recalling RFID in Amsterdam on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 October 2007. The programme includes ‘presentations and debates on RFID and digital connectivity scenarios with speakers from the industry,......
                     5. The RFID photo booth At last year’s Picnic conference we created a networked Photo Booth as part of the Mediamatic RFID hackers camp. Picnic is a conference with about two thousand attendees and multiple venues in the Westergasfabriek......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/bruce-sterling-at-how-i-learned-to-love-rfidhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/06/bruce-sterling-at-how-i-learned-to-love-rfidMon, 05 Jun 2006 21:06:23 +0000On the 20th May, Bruce Sterling talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany.On the 20th May, Bruce Sterling talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany.

                     He covers a lot of ground, including approaches to sustainability, artist use of RFID and proposed interventions, many of the themes from Shaping Things. When he lays out the potential for misuse, the use of RFID for tracking cocaine supply chains for instance, he manages to reverse our pre-conceptions in a very useful way. Some of these statements are deliberately provocative, and they usefully challenge many of the commonly circulated ‘black and white’ opinions about RFID.

                     This is an outline of the talk that is edited from a rough transcript. It’s impossible to properly capture Bruce’s words that pour out in a stream of tangible utterances, so any errors are probably mine.

                     

                     Four ideas of sustainability

                     The talk started with perhaps an incomplete list of designers approaches to sustainability:

                     1. Collapse
                     In this scenario we end up in the wreckage of the unsustainable. This is the grim meat hook future that many think we’ll end up in.

                     2. Make less stuff
                     In this scenario we have people that want ‘a good design solution to every problem’: permanent tyres, housing, etc. and no more planned obsolescence. A utopia that never changes. In this case the Amish may have done it, but no child ever agrees to their parents version of reality.

                     3. Biological or biomemetic materials
                     In this scenario we use only biological or biomemetic materials: only materials that can be recycled or grown. But many believe that we can’t survive without our current heavy industries. This is an interesting approach but may be many decades away.

                     4. A sustainable internet of things
                     In this scenario (that Bruce is proposing) we use RFID and green technologies to enhance our current material world. We have a chance to make a whole bunch of really fresh mistakes!

                     About RFID

                     RFID is currently being imposed from on high by DOD and Walmart. The ‘RFID industry’ rarely alludes to the larger picture: rfidjournal for instance sees RFID as a glorified barcode in the supply chain. But what about the Colombian use of RFID to track cocaine: there’s your supply chain!

                     Books and references

                     Ambient findability Morville. Searching the physical world: looking for a library application to go out and catalogue the planet
                     Everyware Greenfield. Ubicomp is about the middleware: what is the browser of the ubicomp world? What should you do with ubicomp: what enhances peoples lives, what enhances dignity?
                     RFID Applications and Security Garfinkel & Rosenberg
                     Manifesto for Networked objects Bleecker
                     Shaping things Sterling
                     Calm, peripheral technology Weiser

                     What are the important elements of the internet of things?

                     Primary attributes

                     The lowest common denominator of the internet of things is a chip with a unique identity. Basically a file with a tag that is findable.

                     Local positioning systems: located, and histories of location.

                     Search engines: we’ve got to be able to find objects

                     Recyclability: have to do something about the end of the supply chain: a bit of economic value in junk. Some have negative economic value.

                     Secondary attributes

                     Virtual models of objects: the computer model is the first description of the physical thing. Immaterial instantiations of a material thing: 3D computer models at the start of the supply chain. At the end of the supply chain the practice of the object is still available: the history of the object is still available beyond it’s physical form.

                     Rapid prototyping of objects: fabjects. Solid plastic and metal objects from virtual models are now possible.

                     The future of RFID?

                     We could have an RFID boom and bust. Once we have printable RFID ink, sprayable tags made from organic semiconductors without silicon, this thing is going to be huge, and we cannot police ink!

                     Ubicomp will not actually be about ‘smart’ objects: not about ubiquitous, intelligent computing but about ubiqitous tagging: the dumbest, cheapest, walmart fodder: it’s about the everyday. Not about getting your fridge to talk to your cooker. There more of it there is in the landfill the more it needs tags. This is the war of the landfill!

                     What is the job at hand?

                     There is some overlap between the ‘web 2.0’ social phenomenon and internet of things (IOT), this is the most exciting time on the net since the invention of the browser. IOT is perhaps web 5.0…

                     The Web 2.0 meme map from Tim O’reilly helped the idea of web 2.0 to pass into general parlance, it became a web nexus of social practices. Overall it was very ambiguous, not disambiguating, and described more of an attitude than a technology.

                     We need an Internet of Things meme map: The IOT theory object, we need great THEORY ENGINEERING: What are the champions, heroes, ideas, corporate strategic bullshit in this space. We need to include ideas of small objects loosely joined: geolocation, storage, bandwidth, information architecture, interaction design, participation, reality augmentation, standardisation, customer self service, user positioning, etc.

                     The Internet of Things cannot grow from anything other than the internet itself: created with linked ideas: linked objects will form and thrive on the internet: the objects will come from the exact technical substructure that created web 2.0. RFID has reached the level of popular mechanics, and people looking at the map should feel like they could take it all home and whip some together.

                     RFID for artists

                     Artists have a seven year window of opportunity. RFID at the moment is basically magic: the classic force of technology art. This might be a more interesting immediate use of RFID than the classic bohemian kick-back of protest: I’ve got RFIDs too. Until people get used to it.

                     Artists should use the term ‘Arphid’: to distinguish practice from the haze of millions of blogs and RFID as barcodes in searches. This would help to define and establish an alternative community or practice.

                     Interesting arphid artists / people

                     Meghan Trainor: With Hidden Numbers
                     Mary Hodder: itags
                     Ulla-Maaria Mutanen
                     Semacode
                     Yellow Arrow
                     xbox Blogjects
                     Urban Eyes
                     Arphield recordings: tracking oyster cards
                     Katherine Albrecht

                     The issue of privacy

                     Of course corporations are tracking and tagging: Google is tracking and tagging everything you search and mail. Amazon tracks and tags: look at the ‘page you made’! Every argument made against RFID now was made more eloquently against computers in the ‘60s.

                     Verichip is trying to push the contradicions: releasing implantable chips for immigrants. These are ‘Warholian’ stunts, ‘Yes Men’ style interventions.

                     Ubicomp is extremely potent. There is a lot of interest in geo-locative stuff at the same time: lots of journalists working in the same space. ‘Sometime it’s steam-engine time’.

                     Questions

                     Is it possible to tell that something is authentic just through an RFID tag?

                     There will be intense effort to break RFID. It is the ideal hacker technology. With such limited physical means it’s very hard to stop hacking and vandalism. The IOT has every internet problem, plus a million more. Because they are THINGS! Crashing will be a whole lot worse. A large surreptitious tracking community may emerge with the intention to take down and crash the system: it’s possible. There are a million ways to hack an arphid, plenty of opportunities to wreck the technology.

                     Is the Achilles heel of this technology the hackability?

                     The Achilles heel is not the technology, but the ‘spook aspect’ in public opinion: moral panic. But the more people that understand RFIDs the less it will be possible for Walmart and Darpa to use it for nefarious purposes.

                     Are we not heading for a world full of mental junk: managing hundreds of bleeping objects?

                     It’s a question of ‘cognitive loading’ how much do I have to think about this? One of the reasons that environmentalism has failed is it has too much cognitive load: the notion was that we would be mindful of our objects, and pay attention to using them thoughtfully or where they went once we had finished with them. The correct approach is to remove mindfulness from the system. Perhaps spimes could allow us to do something once and never think about it again. Want to move away from a potential obsessive compulsive thing disorder.

                     From a 20th Century design perspective Spimes would be really problematic: too much upfront configuration, categorisation and control. But on the web we are moving away from a ‘sort then publish’ model to a ‘publish then sort’ model. The cure then for ‘mental junk’ is twofold: a machine that gets rid of the spam, then a community that filters stuff for me. We want to do/make less with more, do more with data.

                     What would an effective intervention with this technology look like?

                     RFID is not going away, there’s very little possibility of popular resistance, because it’s being mandated by the Pentagon! A successful intervention might look more like Wikipedia: not sucking encyclopaedia Britannica dry, just a different approach.

                     Related things:

                     1. Rob van Kranenburg at ‘How I learned to love RFID’ On the 20th May, Rob van Kranenburg talked at How I learned to love RFID in HMKV in Dortmund, Germany. This is a short summary of a huge presentation on RFID issues, that covered......
                     2. FoeBud: How we learned to stop RFID FoeBud are a German group of privacy activists that has has a long history of public interventions in privacy and RFID. Rena Tangens and Padeluun presented their work at the recent workshop How I......
                     3. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
                     4. More upcoming RFID events On Monday 8th May the RFID Innovasjonssenter is having it’s opening event in Oslo (See here for more details in Norwegian). The project is centred around logistics and the supply chain, but they mention......
                     5. RFID, logistics and material flow On the final day of How I learned to love RFID we visited the Fraunhofer institute for material flow and logistics. The institute concentrates on supply chain, logistic and robotic applications. They also foster......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/05/touch-network-buildinghttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/05/touch-network-buildingTue, 23 May 2006 13:18:18 +0000The Touch project is receiving considerable interest and over the next few months it will be represented at many events and workshops.The Touch project is receiving considerable interest and over the next few months it will be represented at many events and workshops. The idea of using RFID beyond the supply chain is gaining significant attention in many different communities. The project is building a strong network and international relationships to help refine it’s detailed research directions.

                     

                     February

                     The project was kindly invited to Interaction Design Institute Ivrea by Fabio Sergio who is also doing great work in this area [pdf presentation]. Also in February the first Blogject workshop at LIFT06 was a broad exploration of networked objects, and created many interesting use-cases for early networked objects, many of which can be seen in the report.

                     March

                     In March the project was presented to students in the Adaptive Architecture & Computation course at The Bartlett in London. The students there are exploring tracking of bluetooth devices as a way of generating new architectural forms and concepts, and were interested in the use of mobile technology in urban space.

                     May

                     At the recent workshop How I learned to love RFID at Hartware in Germany, there were great discussions around RFID and it’s implications, with diverse viewpoints from media art, to industrial logistics to anti-rfid activism. For now there are photos, and there will be a write-up here soon.

                     At the end of May the second Blogject workshop at EPFL is taking place. This workshop will get hands-on to design prototypes of ‘networked artifacts of the future’, using existing objects as a starting point.

                     June

                     At the beginning of June there will be a showcase of our early experiments with touch-based interactions at Reboot in Copenhagen. Reboot promises to be a fascinating event, a convergence of design, technology and social practitioners and researchers.

                     In the middle of June Aula will be holding an event called Movement in Helsinki. The theme refers to the ‘overlapping of the physical and the virtual, and the social movement-like nature of new technologies’. The speakers are from a diverse background but most interestingly from design and social software.

                     September

                     There are interesting workshops at both Mobile HCI and Ubicomp in September. The first discusses approaches that use a mobile device for interactions with objects in the real world. The second looks at ‘applications and scenarios for early adoption of augmented objects’, specifically looking at interaction design for augmented objects. We are submitting papers to both.

                     October

                     We are planning a workshop at Nordichi 2006 in October, where we will explore concepts and physical forms for touchable networked objects in collaboration with Nicolas Nova and Julian Bleecker. More on this soon.

                     For those interested in the intentions of the project, have a look at this recent interview about Touch.

                     Related things:

                     1. More upcoming RFID events On Monday 8th May the RFID Innovasjonssenter is having it’s opening event in Oslo (See here for more details in Norwegian). The project is centred around logistics and the supply chain, but they mention......
                     2. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
                     3. Touch project interview In December 2005 I was interviewed for Printed and Disposable Electronics News about the Touch project, the future of RFID and on the social implications of NFC. Here is the plain interview, since an......
                     4. A PhD in Touch Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and logistics. This cheap and potentially ubiquitous technology is likely to influence the......
                     5. Touch at Nordes’09 Touch has an exhibition at Nordes’09 Engaging Artifacts that is taking place at AHO from Sunday 30th August until Wednesday 2 September 2009. Nordes is the Nordic Design Research Conference and this event brings......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/05/touch-project-interviewhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/05/touch-project-interviewWed, 10 May 2006 07:46:03 +0000In December 2005 I was interviewed for Printed and Disposable Electronics News about the Touch project, the future of RFID and on the social implications…In December 2005 I was interviewed for Printed and Disposable Electronics News about the Touch project, the future of RFID and on the social implications of NFC. Here is the plain interview, since an online version of the magazine is not available.

                     1. Explain what the ‘The Touch Project’ is and what it hopes to achieve?

                     The Touch project looks at the personal and social use of RFID, driven by the growing availability of NFC enabled mobile phones. We see that there is significant potential for user-driven applications of RFID beyond logistics and supply chain management. We envision RFID not just as a replacement for barcodes, but as a technology that could affect our interactions with everyday objects. Simplistic examples of this might be personally marking the physical environment with information or enabling social contact through physical things. Touch intends to look closely at behaviour and activities in everyday life, and to build RFID applications that support, enhance or change those activities in useful, interesting or playful ways.

                     2. What technology will the project make use of and what advances do you hope to make in the uses of these technologies?

                     At the moment the project makes use of standard mobile phones from Nokia (the 3220 and 5140) and re-writeable MiFare RFID tags.

                     

                     The project doesn’t intend to advance the state of the art in technology, it hopes to develop applications and knowledge around the use of RFID. However, it is likely that the project will uncover latent needs for certain kinds of tags and technologies, for example printable tags in mass-produced stickers or washable tags in clothes. It is also clear that the project will have a voice on user-centred privacy, and this may turn into technological recommendations for the privacy and security of tags.

                     3. Explain how the project will make use of RFID tags?

                     The project looks at the ways in which tags can be embedded in everyday objects, spaces and environments. At the moment we are particularly looking at the personal space of the home, as a place to augment things with information.

                     

                     In the near future we will be looking at the ways in which RFID tags can be used as social objects: gifts, business cards, stickers or flyposting in public space.

                     4. What has been the reponse of industry and the retail markets to the project? Will the new concepts developed aid advertising and marketing in the future?

                     At the moment there is a lot of interest in NFC in general, we are looking at ways of presenting our research to industry: to encourage it to shift it’s focus from traditional markets (the back-end logistics side) to making useful products for users. We are not interested in aiding the marketing of RFID as a technology, but we are interested in new activities and behaviours around it, that may in turn, make it more visible, useful and acceptable to people.

                     5. How will the use of NFC help drive innovation in retail, marketing and public services?

                     In retail the innovations are mainly around usability improvements. The ability to connect the real world to the virtual world: the billing and banking abilities of the telecoms directly to ‘touchable’ physical objects may change the retail experience drastically. This change may uncover new markets around craft objects and short-run items outside of the mass market. In marketing there are clear applications for service discovery: touching a poster or magazine to download a URL or ringtone. In public services it should become easier to report local issues, by easily notifying services about problems in specific locations.

                     6. What new markets and uses for technology have you uncovered so far during the course of the project?

                     Games are an interesting area of development, we are thinking about prior examples such as “Pokemon”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pokémon and NeoPets, that are based on real and virtual trading.

                     

                     We think that RFID based functions will have a large part to play in these socially driven gaming worlds, where physical objects can be swapped and combined in different ways to affect virtual games worlds. We think there are also markets in furniture, industrial and service design, where RFID can provide object history, re-cycling information, located instruction manuals, etc.

                     7. How has ‘The Touch Project’ changed peoples attitude to technology? Do you think the use of RFID, NFC and interaction with digital services and objects will become as easy for Europeans as it is starting to be in the Far East, particularly Japan?

                     This has yet to be seen. This is the first time in the popular-history of RFID that it is actually useful for the user or consumer; until now it has been an invasive, corporate technology. NFC tests by Philips in Caen, France have been very positive, and generally the people that are using the phones here have said that it feels very natural to touch tags with the phone, and to interact with information in a more tangible way.

                     

                     So far we have encountered some physiological and social problems with the technology: for instance it is difficult for people to walk up to posters or stickers on the street and touch them with their phone. This is not ‘normal behaviour’ in public space, at least in Scandinavia. However, given that the technology is being pushed heavily as ‘Wallet phones’ and for ticketing, we expect these kinds of interactions to become more natural and habitual over time.

                     8. Are people just inherently suspicious of technology or are you finding an open mind set on these things?

                     Amongst technology-literate users there is a very suspicious attitude towards the technology. The governmental (In Norway, US, etc.) use of RFID in passports and other sensitive places (like Goodyear’s tyres) is quite rightly furthering this negative attitude. We are working with a technology that has huge potential for creative mis-use and we need to be very sensitive to that.

                     

                     Amongst non-technology-literate users there is a very valuable process of discovery, as the phones open up new possibilities of interactions that were previously hidden. This opens up the controversial technology to discussion in places where it wouldn’t have arisen before.

                     9. In the design of ‘The Touch Project’ have you looked at the way the Japanese use mobiles,digital and NFC technology?

                     We are following Japanese developments closely, particularly through Shin’ichi Konomi’s great weblog. Our exploratory research begins in Tokyo and Seoul in 2006. The use of NFC compatible phones is reaching critical mass, with DoCoMo predicting “ten million “wallet phones by March 2006. The use of 2D barcodes or QR codes in magazines, advertising and signage is also great inspiration, it is ‘prior art’ for things that RFID may be applied to.

                     9. What do you see as the future in these areas of technology? How will our lives change over the next 20 years in terms of interaction with technology?

                     The big shift that we are seeing right now is a move towards tangible interaction: a move away from the screen and into physical objects and spaces. At the mass-market forefront of this is gaming with Sony’s EyeToy and Nintendo Revolution with gestural control.

                     

                     RFID and NFC should be the enablers of the move towards tangible interaction within everyday objects. There are enormous cognitive, physiological and social problems with using small screens in our rich, messy world (for example browsing a web page on a busy bus with shopping, text messaging while walking, or browsing in a restaurant). If we can move any of these functions out into the real world: answering the phone by touching a tag, or setting the profile of the phone to silent by putting it in a certain spot, then we have reduced the reliance on the already overloaded screen.

                     10. Do you think that this type of technology could actually become invasive and be used as a tool to track peoples movements or spy on them?

                     This depends if we are talking about NFC phones or RFID tags.

                     The phones will usher in a more secure use of RFID: they can be turned on and off at will, and have more processing power for security and encryption, unlike most contactless ticket/credit cards that feature relatively weak security. One of the interesting potentials in NFC is the ability to read and write your own tags via the mobile phone, which effectively reverses some of the usual notions of RFID as a tracking and surveillance medium.

                     However, once written, most tags are insecure and we can’t control the leakage of data from them. If the use of NFC leads to us adorning our friends, clothes, objects and artefacts with tags, then there are of course implications for tracking and surveillance. This needs to be taken into account as we design applications and services around it.

                     

                     Compared with other pervasive technologies however the implications for RFID are quite low. Of course there are already cases of Skimming of cards in wallets, hacking of Speedpass payment systems and it’s possible to ‘Relay’ a contactless credit card from someone’s pocket to a reader. But in terms of tracking people and surveillance, RFID has physical limitations on reading distance, in that beyond a few metres the signal is reduced to noise. If we compare this with an ordinary mobile phone, which most of the time knows where you are to within about 100 metres, knows what you say both in voice and text messages (with no guarantee of privacy), the privacy issues are somewhat out of proportion.

                     This is also generating fascinating new counter-markets for things like RFID-proof paper and fabrics. Contactless credit cards for instance need to be sent in the post, and RFID ‘smart cards’ might be held safely within a faraday cage wallet.

                     11. Obviously these types of technology are to aid in the accumulation of information or dissemination of information but could there be a potential for misuse of such information or fraud?

                     On a broad level there is a clear danger of that. The thoughtless use of biometric RFID data in passports and other documents will inevitably lead to cases of digital fraud and misuse.

                     On a narrower level though, I am more concerned about how RFID, GPS and other ‘tracking’ technologies may effect our close social relationships. Much is made of the typical scenario for location based services: the ability to ‘see that my friends are just around the corner’. But the management, reciprocity and deniability of this information needs to be taken into account.

                     12. What social and communicative uses for this type of technology has ‘The Touch Project’ uncovered so far?

                     So far we have been looking at augmenting personal objects in the home: the desk, the fridge, the doorframe, the kitchen table, etc. It has so far been possible to test out the use of everyday objects as triggers for phonecalls, SMSes and URLs. We haven’t started looking at the more social and communicative aspects of the technology yet, we are waiting for more phones to reach the market, and the general awareness of the technology to be higher before we conduct larger scale studies.

                     Related things:

                     1. Touch project Touch is a research project at the Interaction Design department at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Touch takes a user-centred approach to Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a technology that enables......
                     2. A PhD in Touch Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and logistics. This cheap and potentially ubiquitous technology is likely to influence the......
                     3. Nokia releases first mass-market NFC handset Nokia today announced the 6131 NFC phone, the first integrated NFC handset that will (operators willing) be available to the public. Previously NFC had been confined to ageing handsets like the 5140 and 3220......
                     4. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
                     5. Thoughts on Nokia’s NFC developments On April 15th Nokia announced the 6212 ‘classic’ phone that incorporates Near Field Communication technology. This phone is the fourth NFC-capable phone from Nokia in as many years and it is the first NFC......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/05/more-upcoming-rfid-eventshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/05/more-upcoming-rfid-eventsThu, 04 May 2006 16:47:28 +0000On Monday 8th May the RFID Innovasjonssenter is having it’s opening event in Oslo (See here for more details in Norwegian).On Monday 8th May the RFID Innovasjonssenter is having it’s opening event in Oslo (See here for more details in Norwegian). The project is centred around logistics and the supply chain, but they mention NFC, so there might be relevant things for Touch.

                     Then there is the Internet of Things workshop from 9-11 May at Mediamatic in Amsterdam:

                     “In our RFID workshops we explore the social implications and artistic possibilities of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. This technology uniquely identifies physically tagged objects, and is expected to prompt an all-round ‘Internet of Things’. Through a fruitful mixture of theory and hands-on experimentation, participants get to turn their ideas into creative RFID prototypes.”

                     I will be participating in the How I learned to love RFID workshop in Dordmund from the 19-22 May.

                     Here are some details of the public event (which includes Bruce Sterling):

                     “A series of lectures brings together approaches and projects that artistically and critically deal with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Technology – a technology that is significantly being developed and advanced by companies and research institutes in Dortmund. This technology which at first glance seems to be a simple further development of the bar code (well known from the supermarket) is much more powerful that the good old bar code technology. RFID tags are passive radio transmitters, which upon receiving a minor wireless energy impulse are sending back the information stored on their memory. Today, this information can be read already at a distance of six meters – without the process getting noticed. In addition, with its unique identification numbering system, this technology will allow for a precise identification of every object worldwide. What will it be like to live in a world where all the objects constantly will be talking to each other?”

                     10:00-18:00 CEST, 20 May
                     HMKV, PHOENIX Halle, Hochofenstraße / Ecke Rombergstraße, Dortmund-Hörde, Germany
                     

                     Then on 29 - 30 May is the followup to the first Blogject workshop organised by Nicolas Nova and Julian Bleecker at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland.

                     “The present workshop is therefore a more “hands-on” follow-up. In the form of a two days retreat, its aim is now to design the networked artifact of the future (be it a blogject, a pervasive device, a slogging place, a locative thing, a pre-spime or an everyware). The idea is to have 3-4 groups made up of people with different skills and background to go through usage scenario, prototype implementation and socio-cultural implementation discussion.”

                     Reboot is from from 1 - 2 June, not directly related to RFID or ubicomp but if it’s anything like last year, will offer an interesting mix of technology, web and social perspectives, much like LIFT06.

                     “Reboot is a community event for the practical visionaries who are at the intersection of digital technology and change all around us… 2 days. 400 people. A journey into the interconnectedness of creation, participation, values, openness, decentralization, collaboration, complexity, technology, p2p, humanities, connectedness and many more areas.”

                     Related things:

                     1. Upcoming events Two upcoming events in New York: Identity and Identification in a Networked World This is a free symposium open to all on the 29-30 September 2006 organised by graduates at the NYU School of......
                     2. Upcoming conferences There are two ‘Internet of Things’ workshops in the next couple of months, the first is called From RFID to the Internet of Things from 6-7 March 2006 at the EU in Brussels: A......
                     3. Touch network building The Touch project is receiving considerable interest and over the next few months it will be represented at many events and workshops. The idea of using RFID beyond the supply chain is gaining significant......
                     4. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
                     5. RFID books, weblogs and resources There are a growing number of resources for RFID and related technologies, so I thought it would be useful to compile a list of the resources and reading material that I am finding valuable.......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/03/rfid-practical-explorationshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/03/rfid-practical-explorationsThu, 09 Mar 2006 19:53:22 +0000Interesting meeting with Dori, Maz and others at KHiO today, discussing overlap of themes between Touch and KHiO disciplines like furniture, fashion…Interesting meeting with Dori, Maz and others at KHiO today, discussing overlap of themes between Touch and KHiO disciplines like furniture, fashion, communication and space-design.

                     

                     This is a brief mapping of the things we discussed linked to ideas in the project. Very interesting to explore future directions like this.

                     Related things:

                     1. Touch project interview In December 2005 I was interviewed for Printed and Disposable Electronics News about the Touch project, the future of RFID and on the social implications of NFC. Here is the plain interview, since an......
                     2. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
                     3. Nearness One of the essential properties of Near Field Communication is nearness, but this is set against one of the paradoxes of touch-based interaction where, in fact, nothing needs to touch. In a very short......
                     4. iPhone RFID: object-based media This is a video prototype of an iPhone media player that uses physical objects to control media playback. It is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) that triggers various iPhone interactions when in the......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/03/project-phdhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/03/project-phdSat, 04 Mar 2006 18:15:08 +0000Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and…Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and logistics. This cheap and potentially ubiquitous technology is likely to influence the interactions we have with many products and services. The Touch project therefore looks at user-centred applications of the technology. A PhD is now available as part of the project.

                     Touch is interested in developing user-centred applications and services: assessing ways in which the technology might be used in everyday life in useful, fun and non-invasive ways. The growing integration of RFID readers in mobile phones enables simple interactions between phones and physical objects with a ‘swipe’ or ‘touch’. In Japan there are around 10 million people paying for tickets and other services with ‘wallet phones’ and near field communication. These applications in ticketing and retail are the first areas to emerge as mass-market uses.

                     An initial exploratory period will develop specific research questions and application areas. Touch will look closely at social practices around mobile use and RFID. How does the increasing digitalisation of physical objects affect identity, culture, play, and issues of social transformation. Are there areas of everyday physical activity that would benefit from network intervention? Are there networked, online activities that could be supported by interactions with the physical?

                     The project will develop a number of practical investigations of the relationship between the digital and the physical. In particular looking at shifts in advertising or marketing, retail activity, public and civic services, gaming or play, and issues around personal, social and communicative uses. Through the design of digital and physical artefacts, applications and prototypes, the project will build a body of knowledge around near field interactions.

                     The PhD will work on specific themes within the project. This will require self-initiated research, as well as collaborative development with other designers, an anthropologist, software developers, the mobile industry and user groups. Applicants should have a design background and be able to demonstrate knowledge of social, tangible or mobile interaction design. Applicants are encouraged to submit a diversity of themes and approaches within these areas.

                     The fellowship is provided by Institute of Design, AHO, Oslo, Norway, and has a duration of 3 years, starting date early to mid 2006. The yearly salary amounts to NOK 292.000.

                     Applications are now closed.

                     Related things:

                     1. Touch project Touch is a research project at the Interaction Design department at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Touch takes a user-centred approach to Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a technology that enables......
                     2. Touch design briefs The Touch project has been investigating applications and services for RFID and NFC since 2005. Although RFID and NFC have been much hyped, the technologies have been relatively little explored from a design perspective.......
                     3. Touch project interview In December 2005 I was interviewed for Printed and Disposable Electronics News about the Touch project, the future of RFID and on the social implications of NFC. Here is the plain interview, since an......
                     4. MIRW 2007 A new workshop on Mobile Interaction with the Real World is taking place at Mobile HCI in Singapore this September. Following the success of Mobile Interaction with the Real World; at MobileHCI 2006, we......
                     5. Touch as interaction medium This is a design brief, one of many themes that the Touch project is investigating. In London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere the ‘swipe’ or ‘tap’ is already a common interaction for paying......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/03/proximityhttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/03/proximityFri, 03 Mar 2006 17:53:34 +0000Look at the logo on the left, a great icon for proximity interaction.

                     Look at the logo on the left, a great icon for proximity interaction. A shame it’s a logo for an advertising company.

                     No related posts.

                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/02/upcoming-conferenceshttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/02/upcoming-conferencesSun, 19 Feb 2006 19:47:07 +0000There are two ‘Internet of Things’ workshops in the next couple of months, the first is called From RFID to the Internet of Things from 6-7 March 2006 at…There are two ‘Internet of Things’ workshops in the next couple of months, the first is called From RFID to the Internet of Things from 6-7 March 2006 at the EU in Brussels:

                     A two day conference in relation to Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based systems and their evolution towards ever smarter networked objects. Issues addressed cover wireless networking and Internet evolution, security, tags, sensors devices and their various applications. This workshop aims at defining future requirements for collaborative research at EU level, notably in the context of the preparation of the next IST research Programme of the Union, and to analyse with experts the likely social, policy and economic impact of these technologies.

                     This seems to be part of wider European initiatives to look at the potential for RFID, and is strongly influenced by the recent ITU report. The workshop is technical and will likely focus on technology and network issues, perhaps lacking social and cultural perspectives.

                     The second is called RFID Workshop “Internet of Things” from 9-11 May 2006 at Mediamatic in Amsterdam:

                     In our RFID workshops we explore the social implications and artistic possibilities of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. This technology uniquely identifies physically tagged objects, and is expected to prompt an all-round ‘Internet of Things’. Through a fruitful mixture of theory and hands-on experimentation, participants get to turn their ideas into creative RFID prototypes.

                     My past experiences with the Mediamatic RFID workshops have been really good, and I would highly recommend getting involved.

                     Also on the horizon, various ubiquitous, pervasive, mobile, hci and design conferences:

                     Pervasive 2006 in Dublin
                     DIS 2006 in Penn State
                     Ubicomp 2006 in Orange County
                     ISEA 2006 in San Jose
                     MobileHCI in Espoo (Helsinki)
                     NordiCHI in Oslo

                     Related things:

                     1. More upcoming RFID events On Monday 8th May the RFID Innovasjonssenter is having it’s opening event in Oslo (See here for more details in Norwegian). The project is centred around logistics and the supply chain, but they mention......
                     2. Upcoming events Two upcoming events in New York: Identity and Identification in a Networked World This is a free symposium open to all on the 29-30 September 2006 organised by graduates at the NYU School of......
                     3. RFID & the internet of things Julian Bleecker, Arie Altena and I will be participating at the Mediamatic workshop on RFID & The Internet of Things, 11-13 September in Amsterdam. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can......
                     4. Workshop: Near field interactions This is a call for proposals for a workshop on user-centred interactions with the internet of things at Nordichi 2006, October 14 and 15, 2006 in Oslo, Norway. The user-centred Internet of Things The......
                     5. ikTag and RFID at ETech conferences Conferences make great places for relatively large scale testing grounds of new technologies, with their self-contained setting, physical venues, registered participants and impetus for social networking. Two years ago we built our RFID photo......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/01/readinghttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2006/01/readingFri, 27 Jan 2006 06:04:22 +0000A snapshot of future directions: RFID Applications, security and privacy Fitting the task to the man Shaping things Thoughtless acts Objects of Desire…A snapshot of future directions:

                     RFID Applications, security and privacy
                     Fitting the task to the man
                     Shaping things
                     Thoughtless acts
                     Objects of Desire
                     The meaning of things
                     Spychips

                     Related things:

                     1. RFID books, weblogs and resources There are a growing number of resources for RFID and related technologies, so I thought it would be useful to compile a list of the resources and reading material that I am finding valuable.......
                     ]]> https://nearfieldarchive.org/2005/06/touch-projecthttps://nearfieldarchive.org/2005/06/touch-projectThu, 16 Jun 2005 14:39:44 +0000Touch is a research project at the Interaction Design department at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.Touch is a research project at the Interaction Design department at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Touch takes a user-centred approach to Near Field Communication (NFC). NFC is a technology that enables connections between mobile phones and real-world objects: bridging the gap between the real and the virtual.

                     
                     

                     Nokia 3220 NFC Shell

                     NFC is interesting for us because it enables connections between mobile phones and real-world objects: bridging the gap between the real and the virtual. The project offers the possibility of radically simplifying existing applications and providing a new spectrum of local services through the mobile phone. At AHO we have multiple disciplines, including interaction design, industrial design, urbanism and architecture; a group with significant interest in the areas possibilities of NFC technology.

                     About Touch

                     The Touch project aims to strengthen research and industry in Norway into user-centred applications of emerging NFC technology. It aims to understand the way people will use tangible, digital objects as part of their daily lives, and to discover the information systems underlying those interactions.

                     Touch is not a pure technology project; NFC platforms and specifications are already well developed and documented. Instead we are taking a user-centred approach, and focusing on the social motivations behind the use of technology. With this process it will hopefully uncover unexpected uses, and significant untapped markets for the technology.

                     NFC offers the possibility to radically simplify existing applications and providing entirely new services. This has significant potential to drive innovation in areas such as retail, marketing, and public services, and offers strong potential for emergent social and communicative uses.

                     The project covers three distinct areas

                     1. Social and communication. This is a promising area for significant, emergent, potentially unexpected uses, particularly in areas of personal information management, location-based services and social networking.
                     2. Public services. This area looks at the ways that new touch-based interactions could access public data or services in safe, democratic, appropriate and efficient ways.
                     3. Retail, services and marketing. Exploring changes to the way we interact with retail services, looking at (but not limited to) payment for both products and services, automated check-out, product information, extended services and relationships, recycling, and tracking products through their cradle to cradle life-cycle.

                     Touch has a number of formal and informal partnerships within industry and academia. Among these partnerships are Telenor, Opera, Sintef, University of Oslo and the Interactive Institute Göteborg.

                     Simple scenarios

                     As part of the advocacy and initial research process we have developed some very simple scenarios to explain the potential of NFC interactions. (Drawings by Lars Haaland).

                     Transfer and exchange
                     

                     Tags as gifts
                     

                     Simple wayfinding
                     

                     About Timo Arnall

                     Timo Arnall is a lecturer at AHO, an interaction designer and researcher currently researching in the fields of NFC and RFID. Timo’s research areas include tangible and social interaction, marking in public space, spatial annotation and locative media.

                     In May 2004 Timo ran a workshop on locative media and public space at the AHO conference Spark: Design and Locality. He has since presented his research at ISEA 2004 in Helsinki, Art+Communication in Riga, at the Interactive institute in Göteborg, and at CHI2005 in Portland, Oregon. In December 2004 he was involved in a seminar on Social Software at Intermedia in Oslo.

                     Timo Arnall’s paper ’Marking in public space’ was accepted to the Engaging the City workshop at CHI 2005, organised by Intel (US), University of Surrey (UK), Portland State University (US) and Carnegie Mellon University (US). At this workshop Timo looked at ideas for encouraging civic engagement in public space, and gave other researchers an insight into ongoing research into the marking of public space.

                     About Interaction Design at AHO

                     The Interaction Design department at AHO has a goal of building up a group comprising lecturers, researchers and PHD students, in which we excel at creative, relevant interactive work that communicates to end users. To do this, we are creating an atmosphere of creativity and collaboration where we collaborate across disciplines and encourage working in multi-disciplinary teams. The department has a focus on (amongst other subjects) physical computing, social computing, experience- and strategic-design.

                     The department works closely with Norwegian Industry. A recent success story in collaboration involved ASONO incorporating student work in the final design. In addition, students have been working on the Snøhetta modular house, and some of their ideas are likely to be put into production. The ERA World Congress for Design has commissioned two pieces of work from AHO students. One is an installation and one is a monument to mark the event.

                     Interaction Design is an area showing explosive growth. All of our students have successfully managed to find jobs, and several students have experienced strong competition to get hold of them.

                     Related things:

                     1. Touch project interview In December 2005 I was interviewed for Printed and Disposable Electronics News about the Touch project, the future of RFID and on the social implications of NFC. Here is the plain interview, since an......
                     2. A PhD in Touch Radio Frequency IDentification is a wireless technology that is is currently finding applications in the replacement of barcodes in supply chains and logistics. This cheap and potentially ubiquitous technology is likely to influence the......
                     3. Teaching Touch This spring we have an MA interaction design course dedicated to the Touch research project at AHO called ‘Tangible interactions’. On this course there are 10 students, mainly with an industrial and interaction design......
                     4. Touchable services: local interactions In March 2006 Fourth year interaction design students at AHO conducted intense one-week investigations into Near Field Communication in a project called Touchable services. See more student projects. Einar Sneve Martinussen, André Borgen, Paolo......
                     5. Re/Touch: Inspiring touch-related interaction design One of the things that social and cultural research on touch attempts to grapple with is everything people are supposed to touch and not supposed to touch—and what we actually end up touching or......
                     ]]>