Invisible Yet Necessary

I had the opportunity to test the u-texture system that was on demo at Ubicomp 2005 conference in Tokyo.

Basically, u-texture is a home computing / entertainment system developed at Keio University, Japan. It is based on the concept of active furniture where the components are “blocks”. Each block has its own touch screen display and connectivity. Based on its relative and absolute position in regard to the rest of the system. It can perform different tasks, run different applications.

u-texture blocks can be setup in 2 modes: standalone and system. Blocks can be connected together through u-joints to provide interactions. Here is a description of a block:

More info is available at u-texture project page at Keio University

Here is a picture I took of the interaction between a music CD and a music player/ computer (a Sharp Zaurus I believe)
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I will be attending Ubicomp 2005 in Tokyo, Japan from Sept 11 to 14 ( as a student volunteer).

Here are some of the presentations from the paper program I will be attending:

• From Interaction to Participation: Configuring Space Through Embodied Interaction
  Amanda Williams (University of California, Irvine), Eric Kabisch (University of California, Irvine), Paul Dourish (University of California, Irvine) — Sept 14th 10:45 am

• Scanning Objects in the Wild: Assessing an Object Triggered Information System
  A.J. Bernheim Brush (Microsoft Research), Tammara Combs Turner (Microsoft Research), Marc A. Smith (Microsoft Research), Neeti Gupta (Microsoft Research) — Sept 14th 11:10 am
• Control, Deception, and Communication: Evaluating the Deployment of a Location-Enhanced Messaging Service
  Giovanni Iachello (Georgia Institute of Technology), Ian Smith (Intel Research Seattle), Sunny Consolvo (Intel Research Seattle), Gregory D. Abowd (Georgia Institute of Technology), Jeff Hughes (University of Washington), James Howard (University of Washington), Fred Potter (University of Washington), James Scott (Intel Research Cambridge), Timothy Sohn (University of California, San Diego), Jeffrey Hightower (Intel Research Seattle), Anthony LaMarca (Intel Research Seattle) — Sept 13th 16:00
• Self-Mapping in 802.11 Location Systems
  Anthony LaMarca (Intel Research Seattle), Jeffry Hightower (Intel Research Seattle), Ian Smith (Intel Research Seattle), Sunny Consolvo (Intel Research Seattle) — Sept 13th 09:00 am

See also: Ubicomp 2005 demo: u-texture

Wired has 2 stories about RFID this week.
The first one “RFID: To Tag or Not to Tag ” is a good explanation of what RFID is and what it can be used for.

The second one is about e-Plate, a British project to use active RFID tag to track cars.

The British government is preparing to test new high-tech license plates containing microchips capable of transmitting unique vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers more than 300 feet away.

The point of the test is to see whether microchips will make number plates harder to tamper with and clone, said U.K. Department for Transport spokesman Ian Weller-Skitt.

Many commuters use counterfeit plates to avoid the London congestion charge, a fee imposed on passenger vehicles entering central London during busy hours.

This project has similiarities with the ongoing ODOT research project here at OSU, so it will be interesting to compare the results of both experiments. I will need to look at a more detailled description of their system . For example, I didn’t see anything how they plan to manage privacy, like the use of a privacy bit or similar systems