Making Things Interactive - Demo Poster

Personal Public Computing Solomon Bisker...Master of Tangible Interaction Design...Carnegie Mellon University What happens when light poles are covered with cheap, reusable computers instead of flyers? What if individual city blocks could design and produce their own infrastructure to match their own personalities? What if cities could crowd-source questions like “how clean is my water” and “why does my street feel unsafe”? Soon, local governments will support citizen-run computing in public spaces the way they currently support Oktoberfests, recycling bins and soup kitchens. Our technically literate youth will grow up to serve the public interest, enabled by an open, DIY spirit, open government and online local coordination.

+ Access to government resources

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DIY hardware and software

Local coordination among citizens

A future of community exploration of computing in public places

Personal public computing is deployed by individuals into public spaces for their own purposes. Citizen-led efforts will ultimately drive how computing improves the places we all share.

For Fun... Classwork for Making Things Interactive

The Floating Throwie is a small, glowing circuit that can be tossed up onto a magnetic surface - and then, via a timer, detach and float back down at a chosen time. It explores asynchronous benefits of leaving a “light-show” in a public space for others to enjoy later. (Prototype in development.)

The Motown Throwie is a small circuit hacked from a music greeting card that is attached or tossed onto a magnetic surface - and after a set time, start playing “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by the Temptations. It is designed to question our acceptance and desire for direct versus indirect public performance.

For Society (Citizen Volunteerism)...

With Prof. Don Carter (Remaking Cities Institute) The Stop-motion Keychain Camera experiments with how people can leave cheap cameras in public spaces. Hacked keychain cameras can be deployed quickly and affordably (~$20 each) into public spaces for any reason a community chooses, from distributed observation of public plazas to verifying bus schedules.

The Ventriloquist Throwie is a similar circuit to the Motown Throwie, except that instead of playing music it will play back a phrase recorded by the owner (such as “Hey, you!” or “Look at this!”). It is designed to explore the usefulness of indirect audio communication with passerby in public space.

Classwork for Tangible Interaction Design Studio

With Stacey Kuznetsov and Prof. Eric Paulos (HCII) The Wallbot Keychain Camera attaches the stop-motion keychain camera to an easily constructed robot which climbs up and down public magnetic surfaces such as street lamps. It is an exercise in DIY robotics and autonomous agents that aims to explore personal technologies with increased mobility in public environments. (Prototype still in development.)