BKPK is a parking community that aims to reduce the woes of parking around the Brooklyn Hights area. Mike Kelberman and I worked on the concept and website, which aims to crowd source parking restrictions. Use this image above to link to the android web app. Thanks to Si Cho for the graphics!
The final presentation of this project can be downloaded by clicking the image above.
This is a user scenario where the 2020 social activist will be able to meet with other fellow activists in a virtual space (this is in between second life on steroids and the matrix). I think this is how we’ll experience the internet in the future where the mind will be connected directly to the cloud.
The VR device will connect the user to a secret virtual space where activist will meet under different aliases.
While watching Dennett’s TED talk on consciousness, Pinker’s on the myth of violence, and Helen Fisher’s love+hate, I discovered that illusions occur due to a lack of perception of reality, but illusions are part of our consciousness. Having said that, the world is a very ambiguous place were the brain tries to reconstruct reality through limited sensory input. if our consciousness is composed of an estimated guess of reality, could reality itself be an illusion?
Understanding and the full picture.
The better understanding of human consciousness through evolution and technology is causing certain human traits to change. I’m defining violence as a part of our reality and with its understanding, real violence is becoming less necessary to people’s consciousness. Over an extended period of time, I believe humans are changing how violence is expressed and experienced through new and interactive media.
I don’t know how long violence has been part of reality, but it has defined human history. We definitely don’t burn witches or feed humans to lions as a spectacle or in order to please a regime any more. Treating people as sub-human has also been diminishing thanks to civil rights. Violence has been detrimental to humankind’s prosperity through time, yet I feel that it is a human need.
Are we less violent than our ancestors? According to Pinker, yes we are less violent, and we are living in the most peaceful time in human history. Can we say we are less violent? Real acts of violence are in decline, and I think this is due because violence is transferring into a digital world were a user satisfies the need vicariously. We now experience acts of violence through broadcast and interactive media on a screen. Through violent movies and video games, violence comes to our reality distorted, an illusion that we think it’s real.
Punishments, gore, and deaths.
Public displays of violence due to punishment and entertainment has declined immensely. Human sacrifices were the first ones to go, for this I am glad. Imagine a football game ending with the losing team is killed. This Mesoamerican Game and Child-sacrifices were popular and part of society when their particular societies thrived. Pinker talks about this bizarre for of 17th century French entertainment as cats were burned alive for laughs.
Real violence is in decline.
Pinker points at how violent we were in the past and how gore in the public eye was something accepted within a society. Today we don’t witness gruesome acts of violence unless they are on television or video games.
I feel that violent video games and movies satisfy a certain thirst for violence. From Street Fighter to Man Haunt violence is present in different degrees as well as it is present in most movies in existence. In the public setting, arcade/restaurant/bar establishments where the majority of arcade games have some sort of weapon attached to it makes me believe that we are still violent. It’s harmless, yet it is present, and I wonder why? Some people like to shot and kill things I suppose.
Has the actual need of violence changed it’s source? Are we fulfilling our need of violence by watching violent movies and playing video games? The emulation of violence on a screen gives us the best resolution of violent acts that we can experience. Is our mind being tricked into believe that this violence is real thus satisfying this need? Will violence disappear from the real world? If the world is becoming a larger community where sustainability has to be achieved, then violence shouldn’t exist.
This can answers Pinker’s question of “what are we doing right to help the decline of violence?” Is violence being transferred into another realm were it is less harmful to society? I believe by experiencing the illusion of violence on a screen, human beings can understand why we are violent without harming other fellow humans.
For the Rest Of You final Mustafa Bagdatli and I will be continuing working on Bed_Data, which is a matrix of DIY-FSRs which detects pressure and location on a surface. This is currently installed on ITP’s “nap station.” The plan is to log users’ bed behavior to tell a story.
I asked myself: What are my bed stories and how is my bed making me happy?
Ideally we want to recognize body gestures to control visualizations for different bed behaviors. From sitting down to sleeping with your significant other, these body gestures need to be recognized before we go any further with this project.
1. Sitting or laying? These are the basic gestures to recognize, and most common interactions with a bed. This is our first gesture recognition goal.
2. How are you sleeping? Sleep can be recognized by detecting different positions. What is a user’s most common sleeping position? How long does a user keep any position through out sleep? How can a user’s sleeping position define the user? Depending on the sleep stage, could the user have different sleeping positions according to that stage?
3. How well are you sleeping with your partner? Is it a better experience? Do users have good sleeping chemistry? Could this be a reflection of the relationship?
4. What about sexytime? As young adults this is obviously the most fun activity you can do on your bed. How much sex? For how long? What comes after sex? Do you cuddle much?
Twitter?
A few friends envisioned and encapsulated a scenario as a conversation around the bed:
Wife: “Hey honey, we haven’t made the bed tweet in a while”
Husband: “Well, I have been so stress at work that…..”
If a bed could talk, what would it say? Giving a bed consciousness through this FSR matrix makes me wonder how a bed sees the user? How can a bed give the user feedback? I think through logging data, bed_data can probably know you better than you know yourself, in bed. Are you on or off your bed? For how long? Are you getting enough sleep? What are you lacking? These are some questions that could be answered.
1. The bed can be a controller (up, down, left, right, and button) for a video game scenario. Using left and right movements, which proved to be the more natural ones, there is enough control to do a simple game.
2. While you are having sex you could be inspired with a visualization that is playful and encouraging. Some say love moves the world, and with this in mind. How can love making move the world?
There are multiple activities a user does on a bed that can tell a story. From reading a book to having the time of your life. So we are asking ourselves how can we visualize this for user feedback.
We first aim to detect a user’s bed behavior starting by recognizing patterns of sitting, laying down, sleeping, or having sex. By logging this data there could be a lot of insight on a user’s life, in bed. Our goal is to recognize bed gestures.
The bed as a controller. We are brainstorming of a first person game that simulates racing or traveling. We are still debating weather a bobsledding game or a space adventure. The interaction will be created by applying pressure to different areas of the bed that translate to a game controller.
BKPK (Brooklyn parking)
Materials,References:
Development plan:
I managed to control a canvas object’s color, y-position, and width via blue-tooth. I used Qik to document my results. I used 2 photocells and an FSR to change the square, just to demonstrate how Shawns’ applet works with blue-tooth. I believe i want to expand this and substitute the FSR with electrodes and be able to control the internet with my brain waves.
Here is the link to the website.
Here is the documentation for the JavaScript serial applet. Feel free to use firebug to look at the java script functions that connect arduino to js.
I researched for sleep and ways to improve sleep for a better conscious state. This lead me to research sleep stages, circadian rhythm, and light therapy. SAD (winter blues), Jetlag, delayed sleep phase syndrome, and insomnia are some of the most common physiological disorders that affect our well-being.
So what is sleep? We detach ourselves from our sensors to rest physically and mentally. The why is obvious, we all know what happens when we don’t sleep. It is a vital biological function.
Sleep logging: Here is a link to yawnlog, a beta project that logs your sleep by having the user tweet sleep habits.
Sleep Architecture:
During sleep our brain doesn’t necessarily stop working, in contrast to our body the brain keeps functioning. In adults, sleep is divided into two states REM and NREM sleep (rapid eye movement and none).
NREM sleep consists in four different stages with different EEG activity. Here is a link to the different sleep stages. The architecture of sleep is very delicate, if a person wakes up in stage 4, usually they wake up tired. This is the last stage of NREM sleep, the next stage is REM sleep. This state is where we dream the most.
“Small structures in the brain called suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) coordinate circadian rhythms. The SCN, in turn, is very sensitive to the presence or absence of light. This may explain why daytime sleep has been found to be less restful than nighttime sleep.”
Circadian Rhythm
Blue Light:
“Blue light exposure may be a countermeasure for fatigue, particularly during the night.” This article from the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School reinforces me take on how blue light (blue; 460 nm) may help reduce fatigue.
“The subjects exposed to blue light consistently rated themselves less sleepy, had quicker reaction times, and had fewer lapses of attention during the performance tests compared to those who were exposed to green light. They also had changes in their brain activity patterns that indicated a more alert state.”
Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has done research which indicates that if we don’t get a strong exposure to bright, blue light in the morning, it can delay our circadian rhythm, making it hard to fall asleep that night. Here we have a list of their research:
“Until recently, it was thought that the eye was just used to see. BWH researchers and others have shown that it is also used to detect light for other purposes, such as resetting the body clock to the 24-hour day.”
This other article focuses more on blue light as the mean to treat circadian rhythm disorders. Also, bright light therapy is a common treatment for seasonal affective disorder. White light is applied for a small period of time in the morning to help depression.
Products
Phillips has these products in the market. These products claim to improve your day by having your circadian cycle restored, improving your mood by waking up naturally. All of these claims seem promising to people’s happiness. This is another product that aims to treat sleep disorders the same way.
On waking up naturally i found this for a dawn simulator: “A dawn simulator gradually turns on your bedside lamp in the morning, before you wake up, so that your retina (not you — you’re still asleep!) “sees” the light show up at the time you choose, increasing gradually just as natural sunlight does, over about 30-45 minutes.”
I did research to improve the Bed_data project. Here is an article on sleep movement tracking (the study of sleep and circadian rhythms, provides an acceptably accurate estimate of sleep patterns).
Materials and sensors
I found this instructable on a 2×2 soft fsr matrix. I wonder how scalable this can be, so I emailed Pluesa in hopes to learn more about soft sensors.
Here is a company that has conductive foam and other products for your diy sensor needs. Here is the company Mustafa and I bought the conductive foam for our sensors:
Also here’s Kate Hartman’s soft sensing report.
In conclusion, light therapy can help restore the circadian rhythm if applied correctly. Blue light stops the production of melatonin, which is a hormone that induces sleep. A dawn simulator alarm can help different circadian rhythm disorders according to the amount of light you can get in the morning. Our cognitive functions are weakened by a lack of sleep, thus we can improve our sleep habits by logging them and resetting sleep cycles.
Mike and I gave a presentation for social activism class on October 28, 2009. Here is the link to the pdf:
Our biggest obstacle right now is to get the DOT parking restriction database API. Considering this could time, we are planning on having the actual community to map out restriction zones and parking areas. The Digital Democracy crew came in yesterday to give us their opinion about our midterm projects and presented us with pressing questions about the direction and obstacles of our projects. Mark suggested openstreetmaps to us, in hopes to have bkpk have street mapping parties. The community would be stronger if it is involved from the very start.
The main goal of BKPK is to build a parking community that can sustain, so having the community involved in street mapping parties is a good idea.