So I’ve been working on a new project and have run into a bit of an issue. I plan to send a serial message over to Processing, however it very important that I don’t send multiple values stating the same button press. Since Arduino is in a constant loop state, when i press a button using something like:
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So i finally had time to tinker around with this Simon Sez project again. Turns out there wasn’t an issue after all with my circuits, it was an issue in my code. I also did some house keeping on the code, and created a nice little diagram using Fritzing, an awesome app that was recommend to our class Read more

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This past week I was trying to figure out what i could work on for my Physical Computing class. My professor mentioned, Simon, so why not take on the challenge. Simon was one of my favorite game, I even have it on my iPhone. For those that may not remember the Simon game check out this commercial.

Anyhow, armed with some basic knowledge of electronics, and some programming knowledge, why not! Bellow is my stab at Simon Read more

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At any given moment we are all surrounded by interactivity. From using the toaster, to setting up your DVR to record your favorite show, interaction with physical objects is part of our everyday life. Coming from a web centric outlook, I typically associate words such as interactivity to the multimedia and computer software, however interaction far exceeds the spatial confines of our monitors.

Breaking free of the monitor, and starting my voyage into the physical realms of physical computing, I decided to step-back and analyze some of the physical objects that I regularly interact with. It wasn’t long before I noticed the perfect subject.

The Metro Card Vending Machine is a common place for many New Yorkers. As a matter of fact, I thought it had a rather intuitive design, until this morning. They have incorporated a sexy touch screen design, with large buttons so clumsy fingers don’t press the wrong thing. In my opinion the interface is quite intuitive and rather pleasant experience, or as pleasant as refilling your Metro Card could possibly be. Read more

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Today i was able to attend Augmented Reality: is it for real and why should you care?, which was hosted by Sobel Media.

According to the Sobel Media website:

Augmented Reality may be new to your lexicon, but if you watch televised football, it’s already part of your weekend routine: the “1st and 10” line is a leading example of this emerging technology. From Esquire magazine to James Cameron’s blockbuster “Avatar,” technologists are redefining photo realism by integrating graphics from the screen with our real-world environments. Augmented reality blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated to enhance what we see, hear, feel and smell.
At our next event, we’ll explore and predict the business potential for Augmented Reality…from advertising to marketing, to entertainment and education…and beyond.

Augmented Reality is nothing new, however the barrier of implantation are what have kept the technology from flourishing, much like rise and fall of Virtual Reality, which i predict will be making a comeback soon. Through the use of opensource software such as the Flash based implementation of ARToolKit by the name of FLARToolKit, it has enable the experience to be accessible to Read more

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The more I’ve delved into education, the more I’ve become interested in the ideologies of people such as Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert, and other constructivist/constructionist thinkers. So in the spirit of constructionism, i have decided to temporarily deviate from NYU’s Educational Communication and Technology graduate program, and enroll in their Interactive Telecommunications Program program, where I will be learning my way around circuit boards.

I have always been fascinated with electronics, and I finally have the opportunity take advantage of all the affordances that both computing and physical objects contain. I am really looking forward to examining how I could leverage this sort of blended medium to enhance student engagement, and overall learning experience. Along with the technical skills I plan on learning, I am also extremely interested in the learning theory based around a constructionist courses such as the this.

I am hoping to absorb as much as I possibly can, and take what i have learned into early childhood classrooms. By no means am i a teacher, but I do understand that children need to not only understand how to use technology, but also how to design and create in order to support the amount of innovation that is necessary in the future. This sort of philosophy falls inline with what Seymour Papert speaks about, so no time like the present to learn by doing it myself. Wish me luck!

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co-authored by: Adrienne Schafer

Background

Young children learn how to recognize and identify things such as numbers and letters at school. What they don’t learn from their teachers is how to recognize and properly express emotions. This is something they are expected to learn at home, but if a young child has been abused or lives in a household where the only emotions they’re exposed to are negative, they don’t have the opportunity to gain emotional intelligence and build emotional literacy. Young children need to be taught how to properly recognize and express their emotions to fully realize their potential and to avoid unnecessary conflict in school and social settings.

EEMIO, which stands for Enabling Emotional Instruction & Observation, is a physical toy coupled with a web site that provides children with activities and lessons that help them build their emotional intelligence or EQ by developing emotional vocabulary, also known as “feeling words” as well as coping mechanisms for emotional situations. A child’s inability to express or recognize emotions can lead to behavioral problems which extend to the classroom and ultimately affect their learning experience. By understanding and learning to identify different types of emotions, children can apply methods of self-regulation.

It can be difficult for adults such as social workers to get children to discuss their feelings if they try to sit down and talk about it. Allowing young children to interact with a toy and web site provides a level of safety and familiarity that encourages them to open up more. This approach allows adults to expand on topics the child might have touched upon during their interactions with the toy.

According to the Emotional Literacy Campaign at www.feel.org “ ‘Emotional Literacy’ is the ability to recognize, understand and appropriately express our emotions.”
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Note: XUI is developed for WebKit (hence it’s light weight) since that is the mobile browser of choice for most devices. If something doesn’t seem to work, try using Chrome or Safari since they too use Webkit.

Here is some code for a JavaScript, CSS, Twitter style status text area that i plan on using on a PhoneGap project i am working on. It makes use of the XUI Javascript framework, which i use throughout the project. XUI, compared to other Javascript frameworks is super light, and is developed by the the people behind PhoneGap
You could find the XUI framework at http://xuijs.com/

The code supports:

• 140 character count down
• Visual styling cue when you go over 140 characters
• prompting text when textarea is empty

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I decided to finally take a test drive of XtraNormal. I saw this site a while back, but never got around to using it. Bellow is a quick video that took less then 5 minutes to produce. This includes writing the script, setting up camera angles, and adding some background music.

I figured I would share since it is a pretty impressive demonstration of development, interaction and most of all I could see it being very useful for teachers to use in their classrooms. Let me know what you think.

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Today i decided to take trip to my wife’s school in Newark, NJ to see how Pre-K children liked the How Tall Prototype. Overall i got some pretty positive responses.  Bellow is a video of one of the children interacting with the game.  Unfortunately, i think most of the kids where distracted with the webcam video. When i do a more formal test I may use a handheld camera instead.  I think they where also a little shy with me in the room, so next time i may just have my wife run the test since they know her and may be more comfortable being expressive without a stranger in the room.

The video reveals something that should be noted. There was the success in using the response queues through the audio. If you look at the students mouth you could see her counting along, which assists in giving the child a more active role in learning.  It is hard to gauge the success of the the use of Wiimote, but I may looking into doing an engagement analysis another day.

How Tall Test from Alex Britez on Vimeo.

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