“Geocollaboration”

(via), this project seems interesting with regard to our research goals: Geocollaboration using Peer-Peer GIS.

We’re exactly in this geocollaboration topic:

The Penn State researchers define the activity of geocollaboration as a group working together to solve geographic problems facilitated by geospatial information technologies. Others view geocollaboration as any form of collaboration that involves geospatial data.

One level of collaboration in a geospatial context involves sharing of data and/or applications by and among various organizations. This level of geocollaboration is at the less interactive, open community end of the spectrum and illustrates the trend toward increased awareness of the need for better geocollaboration capabilities.

An example of a collaborative GIS tool that has been developed to support multi-agency cooperative work with geospatial data is the Geospatial One-Stop. It uses the approach of providing portals or channels to various web sites that support sharing of geospatial data and applications.

Even though it’s more focused on geo-groupware, there’s a lot to learn from this field.

\"Geocollaboration\"

(via), this project seems interesting with regard to our research goals: Geocollaboration using Peer-Peer GIS.

We’re exactly in this geocollaboration topic:

The Penn State researchers define the activity of geocollaboration as a group working together to solve geographic problems facilitated by geospatial information technologies. Others view geocollaboration as any form of collaboration that involves geospatial data.

One level of collaboration in a geospatial context involves sharing of data and/or applications by and among various organizations. This level of geocollaboration is at the less interactive, open community end of the spectrum and illustrates the trend toward increased awareness of the need for better geocollaboration capabilities.

An example of a collaborative GIS tool that has been developed to support multi-agency cooperative work with geospatial data is the Geospatial One-Stop. It uses the approach of providing portals or channels to various web sites that support sharing of geospatial data and applications.

Even though it’s more focused on geo-groupware, there’s a lot to learn from this field.

An interesting remote control (1957)

I really like this remote control:

The fact that the button are so huge is interesting, people really have something to manipulate here.

A cell phone to shut down tvs (cell phone b-gone)

(via) Some people thought that the tv b-gone (this device that allows you to turn off virtually any remotely-controlled television) was too easy to spot. That’s why geeks disguised this product into a cell phone:

I was at a sports bar having lunch with some co-workers one day, and we were passing around the TVBG, scoring a few kills as we could and I got to thinking…”How can I hide this thing more effectively, but increase the accuraccy?” A few dozen wacky ideas came to mind…Mount the IR transmitter doodad on my glasses, with cleverly concealed wires running down to the device…modify the case and make it look like a wristwatch…and then somebody’s mobile phone rang.

Snail mail versus ADSL

After the pigeon-empowered internet, the same group of israelian geeks moved forward on the battle snail mail/email by showing that snails could be faster than ADSL:

The system called SNAP (SNAil-based data transfer Protocol), uses biological carriers, and, for the first time, taking advantages of the unique merits of the wheel for data transfer. (…) ystem architecture: the system is constructed of a back end – a carriage, Ben-Hur movie style, which is made of a yoke made of light Balsa, and outfitted with two huge wheels – 2 DVD wheels, 4.7 Giga each. The front end, to which the carriage is harnessed consist of a Giant snail (Achatina fulica), known also as Giant African Snail (Africans are the runners ).

What’s next?

Cool workshop: “Abuse: the darker side of human-computer interaction”

This workshop for Interact 2005 sounds great! “Abuse: the darker side of human-computer interaction” (on a personal note, they use this nice picture that I also took in Roma):

Computers are often the subject of our wrath and often, we feel, with good reason. There seems to be something intrinsic to this medium which brings out the darker side of human nature. This may be due to the computer complexity which induces errors and frustrations in the user (bad interface design), to the human tendency to respond socially to computers (media equation), or to a disinhibition effect induced by the interaction with a different form of information processor, perceived as inferior (master/slave relationship).

As software is evolving from the tool metaphor to the agent one, understanding the role of abusive behaviour in HCI and its effect on the task-at-hand becomes increasingly important.

Relevant topics include but are not limited to
* determinants and correlates of end user frustration
* emotional reactions to computing technology
* emotional interfaces – how to deal with negative emotions
* conversational agents and abusive language
* conflict resolution in face-to-face communication and CMC
* flaming and disinhibition in HCI and CMC
* art on the edge
* relationship of the virtual and the real, the literal and metaphor
* outing, passing, hiding, covering — how are agents designed to seem “normal” and what are the assumptions about “being human” that inform design?

Why do I blog this? I find this topic compelling, it seems to be a natural attitude to bullshit to IM agents for instance. Are there any studies about such kind of behavior? Or people trying to “social engineer” virtual agents to get benefits?

Removing the writings or the objects?

(via), by Matt Siber, Floating Logos is about cities and writings:

The floating writings reminds me the work by geneva friends collectif fact: Datatown in which they removed everything apart from the writings…

Mobile phones data mining

(via), the reality mining project:

The Reality Mining experiment is one of the largest academic mobile phone projects in the US. Our research agenda takes advantage of the increasingly widespread use of mobile phones to provide insight into the dynamics of both individual and group behavior. By leveraging recent advances in machine learning we are building generative models that can be used to predict what a single user will do next, as well as model behavior of large organizations.

We are currently capturing communication, proximity, location, and activity information from 100 subjects at MIT over the course of this academic year. To date, we have collected approximately 350,000 hours (~40 years) of continious data on human behavior. Such rich data on complex social systems have implications for a variety of fields. It is our hope that this research will help us explore research questions including:

• How do incoming students’ social networks evolve over time?
• How entropic (predictable) are most people’s lives?
• Can the topology of a social network be inferred from only proximity data?

How can we change a group’s interactions to promote better functioning?
If you have a Symbian Series 60 Phone (such as the Nokia 6600) with a data plan, you can participate.

Close to this SmartFriend project 8a tool that compute statistics on your mobile phone about social things like with whom are you spending the largest amount of time on the phone? bet on your next call or gender stats).

They wrote more about their methodology in this paper (Personal and Ubiquitous Computing). Nathan Eagle, one of the researcher in charge of this reality ming project is interviewed in the Feature. Here are relevant excerpts:

Eagle: I primarily look at mobile phone data that can be broken down into three types: location, communication and proximity patterns. We use cell tower IDs to get approximate locations within a few blocks. Communication logs reveal who is calling and texting whom and how often. And Bluetooth scans every five minutes show who is proximate to you.

Eagle: We can do behavior prediction. Depending on the life you lead, I can predict what you’re going to do next based on very limited information. Whether it’s your morning Starbucks fix or your Saturday afternoon softball game, everyone lives life in routines. One of our algorithms extracts these routine patterns from everyone’s daily lives.

Eagle: There has been a lot of work on building more user-centric interfaces. So the kind of data we gather could automatically change the phone functionality according to a certain demographic. For example, Nokia, one of the sponsors of this research, is selling the same phone to soccer moms, power executives and texting teenagers. With just a few days worth of data, we can characterize the user and their usage. Once we do that, we can customize how the phone looks and operates for specific groups of people.

France Telecom is also working on that topic, using neural network to discriminate social patterns. And their “social serendipity” tool is close to Jamie Lawrence‘s research project.

Animal deliberately producing an IR signal

According to Nature, Aaron Rundus “is testing the mechanisms squirrels use to ward off rattlesnakes using a stuffed squirrel simulacrum that swings its motorized tail aggressively to generate heat that snakes are sensitive to”
More about it in popsci

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have discovered that the squirrel’s tail actually heats up during battle, radiating an infrared signal that can send rattlers slithering. “This is the first instance of an animal deliberately producing an IR signal—and one that seems to be selected for a communicative function,” says UC Davis animal behaviorist Aaron Rundus. All warm bodies emit IR radiation, which animals sense as heat. But the ground squirrel’s tail normally stays the same temperature as its body, even when flailed at other predators, such as gopher snakes. The hot IR signal is brandished exclusively for rattlers—smart, since the rattler hunts its prey with highly sensitive IR-sensing thermoreceptors. Next, Rundus will use his custom built “Robo Squirrel” with a remote-control IR-emitting tail to test how rattlers react to cool-tailed squirrels.

A ground squirrel gets hot-blooded—from head to tail—in this infrared camera shot.

Pigeon-Empowered Wireless Internet

Nice story: some folks conducted a test to compares ADSL and Pigeon Enabled Internet, the pigeon enabled internet seemed to be faster.

A group of several dozen Internet addicts from Israel and abroad, gathered in the large grass field of the OHALO Center near the Sea of Galilee. The purpose of the gathering was to try and improve Wi-Fly – pigeon-empowered wireless internet and to confront this technology against ADSL. The participants sent 3 homing pigeons to 100 km distance, each carrying 20-22 tiny memory cards containing 1.3 GB, amounting in total of 4 GB of data. (…) “Improving the method was achieved by changing the medium on which the message is stored and carried by the pigeons, from paper (as required by the original protocol) to Memory Flash Cards” , said Ben Bassat. Replacing the old analog content transfer by digital one, enables the pigeons to transfer data faster than ADSL, and to achieve what apparently looks as pigeons’ record in data transfer to a given distance.