Flavonoid
Flavonoid is a little device that's used to capture your physical movement and translate that into digital data. The simple link between physical activity (1st Life) and digital activity (2nd Life) is what Flavonoid provides.
Literally and practically — it is a device. It records physical movement using a three-axis accelerometer, sum-of-squares calculations. These calculations are time-stamped and churned through a simple algorithm to accumulate the readings over time, and record them at set intervals. The settings are easily modified through a terminal interface that allows you to see the data, adjust recording intervals and thresholds, calibrate the device, set the time and date, and a bunch of other diagnostic and configuration sorts of things. These are version 7.
Version 4, looks just like this sitting on The Near Future Laboratory work bench. (It's version 4, but this is the first version of version 4, hence the wires to test it using the JTAG interface)
Flavonoid links 1st Life and 2nd Life worlds so as to provide a mechanism for translating embodied, kinesthetic activity into 2nd Life actions. A homebrew, Internet-enabled kinesthetic sensor, conceptually similar to a traditional pedometer, is being designed as a networked object that bridges the geophysical worlds (1st Life) and online digitally networked worlds (2nd Life). By providing data feeds about the kinesthetic activities of the person wearing Flavonoid, various embodiments representing that data can be created in 2nd Life, such as the appearance of online avatars, or that avatar’s wealth or capabilities.
Flavonoid is designed with health and electronic gaming in mind, as well the ways in which action and activity can be transacted between geospatial, physical worlds and digital online worlds — between 1st Life and 2nd Life.
Both of these worlds — 1st Life and 2nd Life — are conceived of without rigid definition. Suffice it to say that there is an embodied world, and one in which embodiment can only be achieved through digital mechanisms. The translations and linkages between these worlds occurs through a prescribed set of transactions, typically using a computer of some sort, a network connection, and a semantic media ecosystem. One such example of such transactions would be an online social environment such as World of Warcraft. For the purposes of this project, I would categorize World of Warcraft as a 2nd Life world with no direct 1st Life embodiment of the sort that concerns this project
The main interaction idioms here are motion (accelerometer sensing), time (real-time clock), touch (integrated capacitive touch sensor). Each prototype experiments with different ways of integrating these interaction idioms — different accelerometers and real-time clocks. Two different capacitive touch sensors. Working through the prototypes also offered the chance to skill-up with the development tools here. First of all, there was schematic capture using Eagle. CAD skills for making printed-circuit boards. Constructing the boards using surface-mount craft skills. Getting familiar with the tool-chain for coding the Atmel 8-bit RISC microcontrollers.
Prototypes
1st Flavonoid Prototype (Simple, quick-and-dirty breadboard design, 1/2 day design to try the thing out while I was at ISEA 2006 doing the C5 Quest for Success challenge — Basic Stamp II, Memsic two-axis heater-style accelerometer, 9v battery, Bluetooth link to download encoded data, manual "slate" for start/stop.)
Flavonoid 1st Prototype, August 2006
2nd Flavonoid Prototypes (SPI & TWI)
2nd Flavonoid Prototype, Fall 2006
3rd Flavonoid Prototype (I2C, ADXL330, On-board Microcontroller)
3rd Flavonoid Prototype, March 2007
4th Flavonoid Prototype (Some design fixes to v3)
5th Flavonoid Prototype (I2C, ADXL330, Atmega324p, AD7150)
7th Flavonoid Prototype (I2C, ADXL330, Atmega324p, AD7150, Over zealous Battery/Power Management circuit, coin cell battery for RTC to maintain time, power switch!)
More about the 7th Prototype.
The Future of Flavonoid
* Integration of B&W and color LED/OLED display
* Design and construction of a "game expression" of the data
* Optimizing code, particularly for power management
* Integration of small LiPo cells
* Look into designing in ST Microelectronics LIS302DL I2C/TWI accelerometer.
* Design of "designed" enclosure to make it an affective artifact — want it to be wanted and fit right.
* Bluetooth platform for connectivity to mobile phone for data upload (sensor platform)
Prior and Influential Art-Technology / Designs
C5 "Quest for Success" RFQ SubmissionEconomist Article in Technology Quarterly — "Let's get physical" (subscription)Energy Expenditure of Sedentary Screen Time Compared With Active Screen Time for Children -- Lanningham-Foster et al. 118 (6): e1831 -- Pediatrics
Man Dies After Marathon Online Session
Ross O’Shea's G-Link device conceptual kin of Flavonoid.
Piedimonsters via Aram Armstrong
Fizzies device
http://people.interaction-ivrea.it/a.armstrong/wildwatches.htm
Google Search for Piedimonsterz related links, etc
http://del.icio.us/jbleecker/Flavonoid
http://www.i-am-ai.net/erebedragons/intro.htm