Flexibility Envelope » Uncategorized

Building a World the New Way

Per — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:00:00 +0000

I found this fantastic video about a guy building a world for his sick girlfriend. And I’ve got to say it (and the guy in Australia will have to forgive me) THAT is the is the coolest job in the world! And it might not be that far off in the future.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzFpg271sm8

The only thing I’m missing is the programming, for this world to work a massive amount of behaviours need to be programmed into the objects created with SRCMR. A whole new type of HCI is needed and I belive it will be a mix of how we interact with objects today and how we interact with software.

A small taste of the world to come

Per — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:46:37 +0000

This video shows how convenient it is when one thing can transform itself from one thing to another automatically.

(I would suggest you turn the volume down low, as the sound is quite strong in the beginning and there is no commentary)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrVuJ7WXvQU

http://www.bloomframe.com/

Imagine the same thing one every scale from the bumps in the wallpaper, the furniture , the layout of the rooms to the overall structure of the house! Image a house that is infinitely and automatically adjustable! Need a Guest room for one day a month when grandma comes to town! just add a wall that day and use the space for something else the rest of the time.

Amazing color, patterns and textures coming from your favorite squid to all the objects around you

Per — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:01:36 +0000

In this TED Video you can see how squids use their enormous flexibility in their skin color and texture to do some amazing things.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVvn8dpSAt0

Can you imagine when all the the objects around you can do the same thing?

It feels so amazing to work in an area with such immense potential for beauty.

Cool video that shows interesting steps towards a world where objects are flexible in a new way

Per — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:37:07 +0000

I found this cool video from TEDx Berlin where Fabian Hemmert shows his work with cellphones and handheld devices that change their physical properties, like size and center of gravity, to show different internal states to the user.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCmsvXgxdDY

I also find his work on dynamic knobs really interesting. I think it is necessary to use dynamic hardware to make the communication with the user more intuitive and less intrusive.

This is an interesting sneak peak into a world where shape is not fixed but changes to adapt to a situation and to communicate with the user.

The world of tomorrow will be made up of the objects we are used to, I call them “old school”, and a new type of “virtual objects”. These virtual objects are real in the sense that you can touch them, but they are also not real in the sense that they are not permanently one specific object with one specific function. These objects are what they are because that is what they are told to be by the software controlling them, and that same software can change them into any thing at any time. It will be like living in a mix of our old world and something closer to second life.

Scientific Conferences relevant to SRCMR

Per — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Here I list different conferences that can be interesting to attend if you which to learn more about SRCMR. The conferences are rarely devoted entirely to SRCMR but I only include them if they have some content from that field. When I can find central site for the type of conference I link to that or I link to the one I found preferably an upcoming one.

If you know of a conference, past or upcoming that could be of interest just send me a mail and I will be happy to include it.

I also publish news about who attends, so if you or your team is going to attend and you work with SRCMR or some thing related to that just send me a mail.

Research papers relevant to SRCMR

Per — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Altough I do not think that I can ever come close to the two repositories of papers and links regarding SRCMR on the web one by Sam Slee and one by Neil Desmond, I maintain this list of the papers I have read and my notes on them. I add papers as I read them, and I give them a totally arbitrary number FEnr;XX: just to keep track of them.

FEnr;1:Reusable Electronics and Adaptable Communication as Implemented in the Odin Modular Robot Paper for ICRA2009. here is my post on it.

FEnr;2:Thesis, Elements of Autonomous Self-Reconfigurable Robots by David J Christensen. My post on this.