I’m heartened to find the Metaverse Roadmap, sponsored by the Accelerating Studies Foundation. While I’ve been moaning about the shortcomings of immersive 3D technologies, they’ve been defining the template for progress. Much of their thoughts align with my own, painting an exciting future of convergence across modalities, devices, and workflows.

The emergence of a robust Metaverse will shape the development of many technological realms that presently appear non-Internet-related. In manufacturing, 3D environments offer ideal design spaces for rapid-prototyping and customized and decentralized production. In logistics and transportation, spatially-aware tags and real-time world modeling will bring new efficiencies, insights, and markets. In artificial intelligence, virtual worlds offer low-risk, transparent platforms for the development and testing of autonomous machine behaviors, many of which may be also used in the physical world. These are just a sampling of coming developments based on early stage Metaverse technologies.

In sum, for the best view of the changes ahead, we suggest thinking of the Metaverse not as virtual space but as the junction or nexus of our physical and virtual worlds.

In a disturbing-but-not-surprising move, the U.S. military is contracting the development of small robotic biomimics for field deployment. Equipped with sensors and networked relays these robocritters will likely end up scurrying through apartment complexes at home and abroad, ala Minority Report. Expect swarming behaviors, social intelligence, and networked biometrics.

Everybody freeze for the spiders…

British defence giant BAE Systems is creating a series of tiny electronic spiders, insects and snakes that could become the eyes and ears of soldiers on the battlefield, helping to save thousands of lives [ed note: the video shows bugs being used to target a building for rocket attack].

Prototypes could be on the front line by the end of the year, scuttling into potential danger areas such as booby-trapped buildings or enemy hideouts to relay images back to troops safely positioned nearby.

Soldiers will carry the robots into combat and use a small tracked vehicle to transport them closer to their targets.

Then they would swarm into the building and relay images back to the soldiers’ hand-held or wrist-mounted computers, warning them of any threats inside.

BAE Systems has just signed a £19million contract to develop the robots for the US Army.

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QR Code is a a UPC-like image code very popular in Japanese cities. Codes are in magazines, on fliers, on storefronts, and on products. When a person takes a picture of the QR Code with their cellphone the code is parsed for an url embed which launches the mobile web browser that takes the user to a website. Now, QR Codes will be tested in San Francisco in the first US pilot program.

“More than 500 restaurants, shops and businesses reviewed by Citysearch are placing printed bar codes in their windows. People who have special software from Scanbuy Inc. loaded on their cell phones can simply take a picture of the code and their phone’s Internet browser will immediately take them to the restaurant’s corresponding Citysearch page.”

This is an interesting step towards smart objects where things begin to have their own websites. I suspect this is just a step along the way towards using an embedded RFID-type chip that will transmit stored information to mobiles while users pass by the tags. I can imagine a time when all consumables and media contain an alter-profile of data and cloud-aware links and can communicate these to each-other, to users/consumers, and to supply-chains…

This was a great conference and the most consistent collection of speakers and topics I’ve ever experienced. Very fun and inspiring. Lots of hip 30-somethings trying to dream up tomorrow and make it real. It was a a very balanced, yet cutting-edge talk aimed at an eager (and surprisingly mixed-gender)crowd. I noticed that most folks were using Mac laptops - this part of the edge seems to prefer Apple - and it was fascinating to watch many who were blogging the talks while pulling up references dropped by the speakers, tweeting out to Twitter, and snapping/downloading/posting photos in real-time. As speakers dropped references I was pulling them up on my laptop and dropping links into my blog notes.

In the lobby a team was showing off a data viz video mapping real-time communications connecting NYC to the rest of the world. Andrea noticed that a surprising number were with an Italian city called Perugia. Maybe next year they could map the live feed of all web traffic from ETech. Imagine the bitstreams rising off such a gathering of digiterati.

Maybe it was just the Sudafed coursing through our virus-ridden veins (thank you Portland) but ETech was a total intellectual turn-on, from ambient objects, Asian mobile media, green policy and sustainability, hardware hacking & drone building, Austrian post-Situationists, neuroengineering, and the digital salvation of Democracy itself.

I hope I can go back next year!

“Insights and Applications from the Behavior of the Aggregate”. Using cell phones as trackable tags, then extrapolating patterns. Learning about the aggregate by sampling the individual.

Nathan is a research scientist at MIT & Santa Fe. Also holds positions across sub-Saharan Africa.

Mobile phones are the fastest tech adoption in human history. People have extraordinary processing power and access to data. A new era of wearable computing.

Data, Science, and Engineering: Social network analysis. Classical social net metrics breakdown quickly as networks grow.

Demo: dynamic display of individual people walking around Cambridge, Mass, making cell calls. After accumulating data over time, can we make predictions about behaviors? What happens when we extend this to dyads of people? What relationships can be inferred from where and when dyads are? What about aggregate behavior of the whole? Do patterns emerge based on outlying events?

Data being logged in this trial: celltower ID’s, proximate bluetooth device name/activity, phone call/text log. Obviously huge privacy implications. All subjects were informed of logging. Have accumulated over 400,000hrs continuous human behavior data collected over 2004-2005.

Transitional probabilities used to evaluate eg likelihood of being at home versus being at work. Information entropy = ratio of amount of structure to randomness in subject’s routine. Shows variations between highly habitual individs and more random people. Low entropy subject vs. high entropy subject (which one are you?). “The Entropy of Life”. This data can be mapped against demographics to see what lifestyles are more or less entropic.

These models can be extended to map and model infectious patterns of contagions through social nets. Higher entropy individuals make containment much more difficult. (Work in progress).

Eigenbehaviors: A way to reduce highly-dimensional behavior data into a set of vectors that characterize individual behavior, but also behavior of demographics. Can a subject’s affiliation (demographic) be inferred from behavior patterns? Behavior space allows inference of demographic with high accuracy (90%).

Friendship vs. proximity Networks: can friendship be inferred from proximity? Behavioral signatures - friend vs acquiantance. Properties: Prox on Saturday night, phone communication, number of unique locs, prox outside work, prox at work, prox at home.

These models allow inferences about the true topology of social/friend networks. Data from mobile phones allows a much richer picture of social nets.

Organizational Rhythms: how the deadlines of an institution can be seen in the collective behavior of its individual members.

Network data mining: scale to 250 million nodes (phone #’s). Telecomm corps are very interested. 5,000 calls/sec; 12bil calls/month. Anonymized. Highly statistical averages are yielded every day. Furthermore, monthly plots are highly consitent from month to month. Ie human behavior across large numbers is highly organized over time. Why does the symettry exist? Why is the monthly curve of cell use the same every month for millions? What patterns/events coordinate or influence this behavior?

Diversity of your social net seems to correlate with positive socio-economic accomplishment (ie mo’ money & success).

Life inferences: Sleeping, Lunch = easy. Partying? Trickier. Auto diary to track your behaviors. How much sleep did I get? What did I do last Saturday night after midnight? How much time do I spend driving? Can I make predictions about my life?

The importance of triangles and mutual influence. Product adoption can be correlated in friend triangles. Friends have more influence over your purchasing.

Eprom - Educating sub-Saharan students on use of mobile data mining. SMS bootcamp. Mobile programming. Making epidemiology inferences from behavioral patterns, eg malaria susceptibility. Reality mining Africa. SMS Bloodbank, BoonaNet.

Takeaways:
Individual behavior prediction; relationship inference; organizational rhythms & aggregate behaviors; scalability and large-scale network analysis. Africa is fastest growing mobile phone market in the world. Incredibly smart kids in Africa hungry for this knowledge.

Note: this will be used by federal agencies to identify “terror” cells and predict criminal behavior.

Hardware is much easier to copy now. Hardware & software is blurring - ex: firmware updates.
Speed of hardware hacking is remarkable.

Why open source hardware? Contribute to the pool of knowledge; freedom to pursue software/hardware creativity; community development and quality; excitement about building things; education;

Layers:
- Hardware/mechanical diagrams: 2D models, vector, DXF or AI (KiCAD)
- Scematics & circuit diagrams: PDF, BMP, GIF, PNG
- Parts list (Bill of Materials): data sheets (x0xb0x TB303)
- Layout diagrams: physical map of parts
- Core/Firmware: on-board source code
- Software/API
Like most developers, they don’t mention the human interface layer.

Roomba has an open API. Companies that release open platforms find much greater value (and mindshare) from user mods.
Ambient Orb publishes schematics and parts list. Neuros OSD publishes schematics (semi-open but falls short).
Hardware is mostly based on patents, not copyright. Licensing: CC, GPL, BSD, MIT
Chumby: programmable data portal.

Other open source hardware resources (business models): Fab@Home, Daisy MP3 player, Adafruit, Arduino open-source electronics prototyping platform. See also Make magazine & the Maker Fair.

Cool stuff: Twittering plants with Arduino - plants that call you and say they need to be watered (Twitter as SMS bridge); Open prosthetics; Minty Boost open source USB charger;

Ed note: Imagine an online repository of mechanical diagrams for DIY desktop fab/rep…

Fun with robots! Making aerial drones. Eye in the Sky. DIYdrones.com

UAV’s are very expensive. How to democratize the tech?
How cheap and simple can a UAV be?

Two requirements: stabilization & navigation.

$80 copilot: where is “down”? Use IR to seek horizon - consistent gradient between land & sky. Yields absolute frame of reference.
Could LEGO solve the probelm? Yes (under $1000), mindstorms controller in light model plane. Basic prototype, requires manual takeoff & landing.
Onboard camera takes pics with geotagging. Genereates low-cost aerial photos with very high res using low altitude with a 5Mpix camera.

OK, but can you use a cellphone? GPS, camera, broadband, onboard processing & mem.
Yes! Airplane now has a phone # - send it GPS waypoints (not yet realized in prototype).
In theory, small UAV’s can hop across cell networks for nav & comm.
IR horizon sensor can also be used to stabilize the camera so it always looks down.
Be careful, especially when flying over secured federal facilities!

Can we make it cheaper (under$500)? Yes, using homemade embedded processers. Any open source or cheap chip can support an autopilot routine.
Program & test with flight sim apps. Watch your robotic UAV run the flight sim!

How to make an aerial robotic contest for kids? Use small blimps.
Blimps are intrinsically autonomous; when they fail, they fail very gracefully; nice to have around.
Prototype maintains altitude by pinging off the ground (IR); vertical prop holds elevations; IR beacon acts as waypoint; blimp will seek the waypoint; relative frame of reference it can use compass and IR to make it’s way across waypoints;

Live demo: blimp is following the presenter around the room. ~$100. Entirely autonomous, if not very smart.
Evolution Robotics is a company that produces a bot nav solution. Paired with autopilot, the UAV can use more advanced navigation and movement. Aerial robotics is the cutting edge of robotics: “Soon the sky will be darkened with aerial drones!”

Regulations govern UAV deploy. Amateurs must fly under 400ft, maintain line-of-sight, and pilot can assume full control.
Very limiting. Power source is also a limit.

Ed Notes: could use RFID or other beacons to deploy UAV over your home or for tracking your location; pair with live hi-res camera feed.

Rough notes on ambient devices - objects that express data streams, ala Ambient Orb. Ubiquitous computing, PC-free internet.

Expressors: motion, color, angle, pattern, text.
Devices should be pre-attentive, calm, and glanceable. “Bit-trickling datatcasting”.
Energy Joule device: plugs in to outlet, exposing customers to energy use/price - real-time price of energy & own usage in the house.

“Enchanted Objects”: support continuous, thin, awareness-communication.
Amulets, pentacles, potions - objects of healing.
Pervasive is persuasive - objects that grab attention and communicate data will change behavior towards the content being communicated.
‘Glanceable…makes you…”

Dashboards as feedback devices for personal behavior, health.
Ex: mirror with led icons that reflect blood pressure by analysis; dashboard with pollen count.
Other ex: intelligent pill box that sends dose reminders to a display device; active timed glow caps on prescription bottles.

Using shared information to enlist social dynamics (info begets behavior).
Look to fiction, pop culture for inspiration about expressive devices.

Goal: Enhance quality of life and make things better. Enable data acquisition without personal computers.

Hacking brains & iPhones, building DIY aerial drones, ambient data streaming, data viz and crowd movements, ARGs, Vegas, and the Self awakened to it’s own tech. Oh baby!

With the help of my special lady friend (who got work to sport for the hotel, pass, and air) and the help of my employer (I’m doing some booth shifts on the floor in exchange for a pass - I get to rep Adobe AIR), I’m leaving tomorrow morning for sunny San Diego and a week at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference! I’m psyched. I’ve wanted to go for the last few years but couldn’t afford it. All this time, I should have just told my corporate overlords they needed to send me on the company ticket!

I’ll be sending photos to the urbeingrecorded portal via tumblr, and I’ll likely post some keen bits here. Otherwise I’ll be fast hacking my iPhone to control a robotic crowd-sourcing drone I will use to track the culinary habits of tech luminaries and international political dissidents whose footpaths I’ll be datastreaming to various dynamic art installations and ambient devices.

From their site:

How does technology help you perceive things that you never noticed before? How does it help you be found, or draw attention to issues, objects, ideas, and projects that are important, no matter their size or location?

At the 2008 version of ETech, the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, we’ll take a wide-eyed look at the brand new tech that’s tweaking how we are seen as individuals, how we choose to channel and divert our energy and attention, and what influences our perspective on the world around us:

Body Hacking. Genomics Hacking. Brain Hacking. Sex Hacking. Food Hacking. iPhone Hacking.
DIY Aerial Drones. DIY Talking Things. DIY Spectrum. DIY Apocalypse Survival.
Emerging Tech of India, Cuba, and Africa. International Political Dissidents.
Visualize Data and Crowds. Ambient Data Streaming.
Good Policy. Energy Policy. Defense Policy. Genetic Policy. Corruption.
Alternate Reality Games. Emotions of Games. Sensor Games.

ETech 2008 will cover all of these topics and more. We put on stage the speakers and the ideas that help our attendees prepare for and create the future, whatever it might be. Great speakers are going to pull us forward with them to see what technology can do… and sometimes shouldn’t do. From robotics and gaming to defense and geolocation, we’ll explore promising technologies that are just that–still promises–and renew our sense of wonder at the way technology is influencing and altering our everyday lives.

w00t!

Ford is leveraging RFID tech to help workers track their tools.

Developed with DEWALT and ThingMagic, Tool Link offers owners the capability to mark and scan high-value tools, safety equipment, material inventories and other important assets using RFID tags. When the vehicle is running, a pair of RFID antennas, mounted in corrosion- and impact-resistant housings on the inside of the pickup box, scan the box for the items on a pre-programmed inventory list.

The data is transmitted to a reader mounted inside the cab and displayed on the in-dash computer screen, alerting the driver if any inventoried tools are not loaded on the truck.

And PC World opines on the near-future of smart objects.

We’re entering the era of “ambient intelligence,” when everyday objects will contain technology that broadcasts data about themselves and their environment, says Liebhold.

As you approach a dangerous intersection, sensors in your car will detect it and reduce speed. GPS coordinates of places unsafe to walk at night will be broadcast to mobile devices.

In Japan, location-based services from GeoVector let the Mapions Pointing Application deliver information on businesses inside a building at the point of a GPS-enabled camera phone. U.S. handsets with the technology should appear by year’s end.

In homes, floor sensors will detect empty rooms and automatically lower the thermostat and turn off lights. Agilewaves, a firm started by ex-NASA scientists, is working with builders to install sensors on electrical switches, pipes, and gas valves. Eventually they hope to offer neighborhoods, subdivisions, or municipalities a big-picture view of their carbon footprint.

Deeper into the Googleplex:

One plan, which has already tentatively started, entails making literally everything in the world accessible at the click of a button. For now, this means every book, piece of music, film, TV and radio broadcast, official document and photograph.

But eventually… Google boffins believe it can be extended to people and their personal belongings.

The idea is that we, and our treasured possessions, will be fitted with minute microchips which could be linked to the internet, via computers, by a digital radio frequency.

In this way, you would only have to type “Where is my watch” or “Find Joe Bloggs” into your PC or handheld computer, and Google could assist you.

…More immediately, Google is switching its main focus from PCs and laptops to mobile phones.

Smashing Magazine has a brief but nice round-up of items under the title User Experience of the Future. They list several technologies under development - some of which I’ve blogged about on a few occasions, like multi-touch and the Reactable - all of which taken together certainly paint an intriguing near-future. Off the radar are the skunk works, undiscovered breakthroughs, and emergent interactions between devices and their interface with user communities that will push the ever extruding scifi narrative further into weirdness and fancifulness. Crowley considered the new age as being represented by the spiritization of matter, and I think we’re seeing that on greater and greater scales as the lines between human and machine, imagination and reality, continue to blur into strange new forms. As Clarke wrote, that which is sufficiently technologically advanced is indistinguishable from magic.

From an interview with William Gibson in the latest Rolling Stone:

Is there a downside to that blended reality? Or could it represent a change for the better?

People worry about the loss of individual privacy, but that comes with a new kind of unavoidable transparency. Eventually we’re going to know everything that every twenty-first-century politician has ever done. It will be very hard for politicians and governments to keep secrets. The whole thing is porous. We just haven’t really figured out quite how porous it is.

More and more, objects are becoming intelligent. The realm of the senses will extend to encompass networks and interface layers within the world around us. Scifi author and guru Bruce Sterling devised the acronym SPIME to describe the path of a prototypical smart object from birth to death and beyond.

SPIME is a neologism for a currently-theoretical object that can be tracked through space and time throughout the lifetime of the object…The six facets of spimes are:

1. Small, inexpensive means of remotely and uniquely identifying objects over short ranges; in other words, radio-frequency identification.
2. A mechanism to precisely locate something on Earth, such as a global-positioning system.
3. A way to mine large amounts of data for things that match some given criteria, like internet search engines.
4. Tools to virtually construct nearly any kind of object; computer-aided design.
5. Ways to rapidly prototype virtual objects into real ones. Sophisticated, automated fabrication of a specification for an object, through “three-dimensional printers.”
6. “Cradle-to-cradle” life-spans for objects. Cheap, effective recycling.

With all six of these, one could track the entire existence of an object, from before it was made (its virtual representation), through its manufacture, its ownership history, its physical location, until its eventual obsolescence and breaking-down back into raw material to be used for new instantiations of objects. If recorded, the lifetime of the object can be archived, and searched for.

Spimes are not, defined merely by these six technologies; it is, rather, that if these technologies converge within the manufacturing process… then spimes could indeed arise.