Today more and more people are images blogging. This is the idea of taking digital picture and posting them to the web. Two such popular system are flickr.com and TextAmerica.com. The former an elaborate online system allowing images to be uploaded in multiple ways, while the later TextAmerica aims primarily at the mobile user. These services give rise for a possible need of a new device. A networked camera. No need for memory cards, a modern day point and shoot, but now point shoot and send.
Puffle is a device children use to take picture which are automatically then uploaded to the internet. The system is also devised as a child monitoring system, which would be with the child in his/her infant stages. As the child grows the use of the Puffle changes slightly from a device which monitors to a device which the child controls. The system creates a subsystem of monitoring for the parents, because as the pictures goto the web the parents could see what the child was up to and where. This allows the parent to open the safety zone. More and or earlier in the child’s life while giving the parents a sense of comfort.

Why?
The design this system has many external influences. One is my love for Winnie the Pooh and the relationship that Christpher Robin and Pooh have. Another is my love for taking photos as a child just as much today. Also the general affinity for children toy, and the enrichment of the life children could have.

Then there is the beautiful imagery in the openning the Winnie-the-Pooh, as:

Boom boom boom Pooh’s head went as Christpher Robins dragged Pooh down the steps.

A stuffed animal as a transitional object can be useful to children. So in designing, I investigated toys and the trend of grown-up toys. Hope that there is a design that while mainly for kids, might appeal to grown ups.

When I was 5 years old, I received an Kodak X-15 Instanmatic. Our family would go on many trips and I would take lots of pictures on these trips. So what is many trips times lots of photos? 20 years later… about a dozen.

with the spark fun Board in hand I have started going through the AT commands....

all is going well until I arrived at the sms at commands:

AT+CMGS="610248xxxx"
> HEY JOHN!
+CMS ERROR: 500

CMS ERROR 500 is return by the phone and it means "Unknown Error"

As a monitor system there is a device which will sit on the parents night table or carried around with them. The device would have the same visual language of the puffle so when the child sees it they make the connection with their parent. The monitor will go off with a call from a sound sensor which tellls the parents the child is crying.

Also the puffle will have a second squeeze aspect which will send a sms to the parent or even a loved one's cellphone.

Between all of these points there is a server which stores and serves the images and comments about these images.

It wa along road but there were some great things I learned... This is short for now because I am collecting info from the various dark corners of my computers.

The idea is to have to minds talking with each other over the net. The idea started with the thought, "hmmmm two serial ports on the wiport means two pics connected at the same time... wireless... lets push it!" so the idea became to build a selfcontained unit. Then when I fould the SpongeBob lunch box everything came together.

On my travels through technologies, I played with the AD5206 a digital Pot. I think it is great and see many uses for it, but because I continually blew the red on my tricolors, it was pointless to use it. hopefully next time.

The other thing to always keep in my when using alterative power is AMPS remember to caculate the AMPs. To do it right double your AMPs when you can.

this is a home made tilt sensor using a metal ball bearing. it was interesting how it did not work the key is to bend a piece of metal out so it protrudes out into the space or it directly connects with the bearing.

I like it is some ways, just more as a data collection system more then a system to track what my child is doing for restrictive reasons. When I was 3 years old, though, I walk out the door of the back yard and just started walking and walking and walking. about two hour later my father who had beeen called home from work to find me was driving back home when he spotted me happily walking down the highway. i was happy and without a worry but my mother was freaked out and so was my father. this would have been a great moment to have a way to locate me.

What comes to mind, though is the worry about privacy...but is that such a reason to bring a halt to everything that may be useful. But be the product is for children, pet, or elderly this has it moments when it is useful and those moments are worth more then all the fears.

WhereNet

When I looked at this I think of PlaceLabs a Intel intiative. This is a great idea it is a wondeful use of an infrastructure which exists to give people more then was expected. what is intersting is to use these system to follow road networks for example and track buses a and routine movement is a cheap and efficient way. Here 802.11 is used but there are many systems which are used to do the same thing today. cell towers, and even radio and tv tower have been know to be used for location based information.

Rape Case Raises Flag About Safety of Private Supervision

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 2 1997; Page A01
The Washington Post

Without planning or public debate, judges across Maryland gradually have
entrusted the supervision of hundreds of convicts and criminal suspects to a
small group of unregulated private businesses that run electronic home
detention programs.

Born in Prince George's and Montgomery counties eight years ago, these
little-noted companies have since expanded into much of the rest of the
state and now supervise a significant share of the people under home
detention in Maryland.

Their services became popular with defense attorneys and judges as
government-run home detention programs filled up, and today the firms
supervise at least several hundred detainees statewide.

Like the state and county programs, these private home detention firms use
electronic technology to help supervise detainees. But the companies are not
held to minimum standards by the government, and, as a result, suspects can
shop around for the firm that will impose the least burdensome restrictions
and request that firm from a judge.

Some of the defendants enrolled in these programs are charged with violent
crimes, but no one knows how many. Nor does any government agency keep track
of how often criminals in these privately run programs escape or commit
crimes while in custody.

"I don't want to throw any stones, but I can't understand why somebody isn't
looking over their shoulders," said Maj. Henry Colavita, who heads the
community corrections division in Fairfax County. "It's a real public safety
concern."

In effect, the courts have transferred a segment of the prisoner population
into the custody of private business people. These entrepreneurs acknowledge
a potential conflict of interest: Rejecting a risky applicant or catching a
detainee in violation of the rules and reporting it means losing a client --
and money.

In home detention programs, which began in the area 11 years ago, state
judges have discretion to order people awaiting trial to remain in their
homes rather than in jail. Judges also may sentence convicts to serve their
time that way. Detainees wear ankle bracelets that signal authorities every
time they leave home or tamper with the devices, and they usually are
permitted out of the house to work if they have jobs.

The shift toward private home detention occurred so slowly and so quietly
that elected officials and policymakers were left behind. Now, the arrest of
a Suitland man who police say assaulted six women while under the
supervision of a private detention company has placed the entire system
under scrutiny. Even the companies themselves say adequate safeguards are
not in place to protect the public.

District Court Judge Theresa Nolan, one of the judges involved in releasing
the man now accused of rape into home detention, said the incident has
forced officials to reexamine the use of private detention firms.

"We do need alternatives to jail, and these companies stepped in because
there was a need," she said. "But I think all the judges on my bench are
amazed that there's such a low degree of control."

State and local corrections officials insist they are not responsible for
making sure private home detention businesses adequately supervise their
clients. Leonard Sipes, a spokesman for the state corrections department,
said the department doesn't have the authority to do so under Maryland law.

The home detention firms -- there at least seven of them -- don't even need
a permit to do business. They operate without formal contracts with local
governments, instead taking on clients on a case-by-case basis from
individual judges.

They charge clients $250 or more per month, the government nothing. These
entrepreneurs, and the judges who work with them, say they save taxpayers
money, ease jail crowding and help people eligible for home detention but
facing long waits for spots in government-run programs.

"You've got jails busting at the seams, and people don't want to pay for
more jails. But we don't cost the taxpayers a thing," said Pat Godhard, a
former parole agent and co-owner of Home Tracking in Upper Marlboro. "We're
trying to provide a valuable service and make some money, but we're also
trying to help these people."

Local governments began experimenting with electronic home detention more
than a decade ago. Prince George's County introduced it to the Washington
area in 1986, touting it as a cheaper alternative to jail for nonviolent
offenders.

Today, Prince George's judges place more people into home detention than
judges do in the rest of the Washington area combined, and they routinely
order violent suspects into the programs before trial. The county government
monitors about 70 nonviolent offenders sentenced to home detention and an
additional 35 suspects awaiting trial for violent crimes. But the private
detention companies estimate they monitor at least 100 other convicts and
defendants in Prince George's.

Montgomery County corrections officials said they monitor about 25 people in
home detention, mostly nonviolent offenders, and private firms indicate they
have as many as 50 in their custody.

Statewide, the companies say, judges in Baltimore and at least 17 of the
state's 23 counties have used their services, sometimes because their local
jails don't offer a home detention option.

"In these austere times, we want to save as much money as we can and still
maintain public safety," said William D. Missouri, administrative judge of
the Prince George's Circuit Court. "It's at the judge's discretion whether
to use these companies. If you asked me, I would do it when the individual
can afford it and when the charge isn't a crime of violence."

Critics said the recent case of Brian Lamont Sowell, who is accused of the
rapes in Prince George's, illustrates weaknesses in the system.

Police said Sowell, 24, raped four women and robbed two others while under
the supervision of a private home detention company. Although he had served
five years in prison for stabbing and trying to rape one of his high school
teachers, the courts let him into home detention while awaiting trial on a
charge of armed robbery.

Judge Nolan decided to give county corrections officials the option of
placing him in their home detention program, but Sowell then asked another
judge to put him in a privately run program. Douglas Wood, Sowell's
attorney, assured District Court Judge Gerard Devlin that the program run by
Monitoring Services Inc., a firm that opened in Upper Marlboro in September,
was as safe as the county's tracking program.

Devlin granted the request over the objections of prosecutors, who routinely
oppose the release of violent offenders. But the judge said in an interview
that he had erroneously assumed the private programs were equivalent to the
county's system.

Trena Wagner, president of Monitoring Services, said she did not conduct a
background check before accepting Sowell but relied instead on the court's
judgment and information provided by Sowell's attorney.

Because it is so hard to make a profit, the firms almost always take
whatever clients they can get: usually, people referred to them by defense
attorneys and, sometimes, suspects the county considers too risky for home
detention.

"They're leaving the private services fighting for the difficult cases
because they don't give us access to the larger pool," said Gary Reiner,
president of Electronic Monitoring Services in Rockville. "It's not in our
interest to be taking on the more dangerous offenders, and we shouldn't be
placed in that position."

Reiner said a case such as Sowell's was bound to occur eventually and force
public officials to address the issue. "I've been saying to the state
agencies for 10 years: Please work more closely with me so I can do things
more appropriately," he said.

Although the firms acknowledge there is an economic incentive to be lenient
with detainees who break the rules, they insist they regularly remove
clients from their programs and return them to jail.

Judges agree that sending suspects back to jail happens often, but it is
impossible to say how often because the firms' records are not public.

"In the private industry, the bottom line is this: If you don't do your job
right, something will happen, and you won't be in business for long," said
Charlene Dunn, a lawyer who runs Alternative Correctional Concepts, a
private detention service in Baltimore.

Detention professionals in both public and private sectors said what
happened in the Sowell case could happen in any monitoring program. They
said all home detention programs carry risks because they release inmates
into the general population. The technology tells officials only whether a
detainee is home, not what he or she is doing when out.

Still, such programs can minimize the risks. They can inspect timecards from
detainees' employers. They can conduct drug tests and home inspections. They
can also call employers every day to make sure detainees are showing up and
leaving work on time.

Neither the county nor the private firms use all those safeguards for all
their detainees. The private firms use their own guidelines, and there is no
way to tell how closely they watch their clients.

John Kent, director of Home Confinement Services in Rockville, one of the
oldest and largest such companies in the state, said he is convinced some of
his competitors are not monitoring their clients as closely as he is. And he
said he has lost clients to other firms because his program was strict.

Kent and many of his competitors said the chief judges in each county need
to set minimum standards for detention companies and establish a mechanism
for ensuring that the firms are in compliance.

"If we were all playing on a level field, then that would be great for us
and great for the public," he said.

Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company

This information is passed along for non-profit research purposes only.

Be PART of the solution -- People Against Racist Terror/Bx 1055/Culver
City CA 90232-1055/310-288-5003/Order our journal: "Turning the Tide.

Well that behind, there is a expo in Italy called SMAU. My last year working with Telecom Italia, they build a cellphone controled house. heating and lighting mainly. There was alarm switches. but still not what we are reaching today.

Looking over smarthome, I feel just like saying "why?" it seems so overkill with the type of technology used versus needed. If you look at the tour it is so much. What is also too bad is that all these tools are so obvious. there should be more hidden and less eyesore hardware.

home heartbeat is nice because you can add it to things which one already has. would like to see more data mining type returns from these devices.

the other two site, both have appliances and were less interesting.

squish and Squash

While the above is a digression, the ideas are important to think about then think about the threads of "MEAT SPACE" and the Virtual World.

The Urban Tapestries system enables users to create a relationships between geographic places via the creation of pockets and threads.
Pockets are the relationship a user makes to a specific geographic place... ...and contain the media the user chooses to associate with that place... ...Threads are the thematic relationships between pockets and geographic places and can vary from the practical, 'Fair Trade Goods Sold Here' to the personal, 'My Favourite Bars & Cafes'.

What happens to a space when it is completely tagged by many? There is an interesting source for datamining. take the multiple inputs for the various visitors and users of the space and slice it across all these plains and view where the in/consistances are.

Zagats of this world maybe able to look to a truly impartial census taking.

EQUATOR project
The idea is great to get little sensors out in the places which are hard to reach. and gather data we have no other way of getting with out building outposts. Remindeds me of the everest climb which was in the IMAX movie where the were able to leave a microcomupter and sensor system at the top.

Some of the other work seems like work done at MediaLab Asia in India

Using Digital but Physical Surrogates to Mediate Awareness, Communication and Privacy in Media Spaces
It is a wonderful insight into the directions people can go to hide technology and give it a faceplate. It reminds me work done at the MIT Media Lab. It also reminds me of a proposal I made to D-Link for a AP design. The idea is you a picture frame as the antenna and the base a the processor area. The picture would be a digital image. and would change based on users desire. hourly, daily communication based. If I want a slide show of my last trip. or want to see who wrote the last email to me...

mooth the bumps with java - J2ME

links page to files Dano talks MIDP

serial to Bluetooth adapter:

client and servers

at+btscan

psd

processing type code

demo 1 blocks and pen trick!

use old phone to control... blank SIMs???

services? a way to pass objects back and forth.

send and return... build in call backs.

connection in really made, not link the internet it is one to one.

connection is slower need time to make the hand.

antenna design can help to build a strenth of signal and focus to a certain area.

socket connection via phone chat...

picture sending:

servlet

png... is the standard.

track color and track bright

all code at the link.

The elements which are shown in the examples are great to get physcomp and interactive idea running and going. Mix and match these pieces and get greater ideas made.

dano's wiki

http://java.sun.com/products/satsa/

i var byte
' ds var byte
' ns var byte
' Serial out to PC is on pin RC6
' serial in from PC is on pin RC7
' serial out to Lantronix device is on RD1
' serial in from Lantronix device is on RD0
' Lantronix device DTR pin is on RD2
' note: Lantronix device must have DisconnectMode set to 0x80
' in order to disconnect using DTR pin.

' an analog sensor is on pin RA0
' pins RB0 through RB7 have LEDs on them.

' Define ADCIN parameters
DEFINE ADC_BITS 10 ' Set number of bits in result
DEFINE ADC_CLOCK 3 ' Set clock source (3=rc)
DEFINE ADC_SAMPLEUS 50 ' Set sampling time in uS

' variables and constants for the serial port:
dataByte var word
'dataWord var word
'xVarbyte var byte
'tx var portc.6
'rx var portc.7
xportTx var portd.1
xportRx var portd.0
xportDTR var portd.2
inv9600 con 16468 ' baudmode for serin2 and serout2: 9600 8-N-1 inverted
non9600 con 84 ' baudmode for serin2 and serout2: 9600 8-N-1 non-inverted

' general-purpose counter:i var byte

'vars for accelerometer
xVar var word

'txpin var portc.6

'variables for ADC:
ADCvar var word ' Create variable to store result
TRISA = %11111111 ' Set PORTA to all input
ADCON1 = %10000010 ' Set PORTA analog and right justify result
TRISB = %00000000 ' set all the pins of PORTB to output

' blink an LED on startup:
high portb.0
pause 1000
low portb.0

' take DTR high so Xport doesn't disconnect when we first connect:
HIGH xportDTR

Pause 1000 ' Wait a second at startup

main:

'adcin 0, xVar

serin2 xportRx, inv9600,10, keepgoing, [DEC4 dataByte]

high portb.3
low portb.4

if dataByte > 500 then
high portb.0
high portb.1
high portb.2
low portb.5
low portb.6
low portb.7
endif
high portb.4
low portb.3
if dataByte > 500 then
high portb.5
high portb.6
high portb.7
low portb.0
low portb.1
low portb.2
endif

'serout2 xportTx, non9600, [DEC4 dataByte]

' if(databyte = N) then

' high portb.0
' else
' low portb.0

' endif

' if (dataByte > xVar) then

' serout2 xportTx, non9600, ["D"]

' endif

' if (dataByte < xVar) then

' serout2 xportTx, non9600, ["N"]

' endif


goto main

keepgoing:

goto main

blinkenlights
This is great, it remindeds me of buildings in Milan, Italy that were used to display messages at night by lighting certain office light.

The Philips HeartStart Home Defibrillator. It's the latest in essential safety equipment. Fire extinguishers. Seat belts. Airbags. Home security systems. All essential safety equipment to protect yourself and your loved ones. You know they are there, silently standing by, just in case. They give you peace of mind so that you can focus on life's good things.

Features:

* The first and only defibrillator available over-the-counter that can be used by virtually anyone with the materials included
* Easy to use with guided interactive voice instructions
* Safely delivers a shock only if needed
* Reliably runs daily self-tests for readiness
* Philips is the worldwide leader in portable defibrillators on airplanes, and in airports, workplaces, communities, and homes

I have been looking around for my thesis project and since i want to work of a wireless platform I have ordered the WiPORT dev kit.

Looks like some of the prelim. work can be done from a Mac. then I guess PC time.

any PIC Basic programmers out there for MAC yet?