“Urban Tapestries”, part of the ongoing research programme “Social Tapestries”, is a software platform for knowledge mapping and sharing – public authoring. People can associate information, pictures, sound scapes, videos, stories with places and share with each other. It is calles an authoring system because it wants to enable people to become authors of their environment and to develop new social and creative practices based around place, identity and community.

This software could be well used for urban bitLife’s visualisation part. The first interface screenshots let us assume, that the our little urban bitLife avatars can well be placed on the virtual maps of “Urban Tapestries”, easily available and viewable for other users. Also a network link to google Earth is already taken into account.

It only remains to be seen when the software is made accessible for public use. On the website it is promised, however, that a new public interface is coming soon: “In early 2006 Proboscis hopes to release a series of interfaces to the new Urban Tapestries system (v2.0) beginning with a web client, followed by a WAP text-only interface for older mobile phones and a downloadable Java mobile client for more recent and advanced devices.” [1]

For further information check
[1] Urban/Social Tapestries
Urban/Social Tapestries Weblog

Tying in with Jeremijenkos robotics project Feral Robotic Dogs, “Robotic Feral Public Authoring” combines the two aspects hobbyist robotics and public authoring (mapping and sharing of knowledge), which “both enable people to use emerging technologies in dynamic and exciting new ways. Brought together they open up whole vistas of possibilities for exploring our local environments with electronic sensors to detect all kinds of phenomena and map them using online tools.” [1]

Sensors are used to measure environmental influences (carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, solvent vapours, electro-magnetic emissions (mobile phone masts, electricity generators etc), light and noise pollution) and are combined with a robotic vehicle, in this case a remote-controlled toy-car. The data gained by the sensors are visualised online by the “Urban Tapestries” tool and thus enables people to perceive their environment and shows them that they can interfere with it.

“Our aim is to design and create practical applications of such ‘creative misuse’ of commercially available technologies for social and cultural public benefit.” [2]

For more information check
[1],[2] Robotic Feral Public Authoring at Urban Tapestries
Documentation booklet (Pdf, 821kb)
Public Authoring and Feral Robotics (Detailed Project Description, Pdf, 454kb)
Project Film (3min Qt Movie 8.1mb March 2006)

“Feral Robotic Dogs” or “Feral Robotics ” is an experimental robotics project by Natalie Jeremijenko in which low cost robots are hacked and turned into driving vehicles to inspect their surroundings. Released in a pack, they take notice of each other and together explore visible and invisble parts of their surroundings: Webcams on their behinds document visual information about the environment, sensors measure chemical pollution and radiation. “Participants can watch and try to make sense of this data without the technical or scientific training required to be comfortable interpreting a EPA document on the same material” (comment: EPA is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

Feral Robotic Dogs

With the CX70 Emoty feelings, emotions and moods can be expressed in a quite new way. Laura, Joey and Wobble are chracters who “live” on your mobile phone and who can express ten different kinds of feelings. By pressing keys on your mobile or through special sensors on the phones case you can control their feelings and let your friends know in which mood you currently are.
This project also reminds me a little bit of Tamagotchi in respect of a little creature “living” in a portable device and expressing feelings. However, the crucial difference is that the Siemens Emoty can’t develop feelings of its own, but only reflects what the user tells him to feel. Laura, Joey and Wobble won’t change their mood an their own, won’t get sad because of not being cared for, won’t die.

Siemens Emoty

Spore is a real life simulation reaching from early history up to the present and into the future. By using procedural generation, content and thus life can be “produced on the fly” which offers a tremendous variety in possible developments and scenarios.

Official Spore Website
Spore at Wikipedia
GDC presentation at googleVideo

Plazes is a free webapplication and the “first global location-aware interaction and geo-information system, connecting you with the people and Plazes in your area and all over the world” [quote:We-make-money-not-art]. It detects your location and makes you see people in your area, discover other Plazes nearby and keep an eye on the whereabouts of your friends.

Plazes

A collection of musical audio pieces, accompanied by various animated graphics, which are based on “sonified weather patterns”

Sonified Weather at Infosthetics

A collection of bags reacting to sensors.

Smart bags at we-make-money-not-art

An interesting project on pollution detection and monitoring: mobile devices are used to measure pollution in a city. The data is later on visualised in serveral ways, all visible for people passing by. The other option is realised by fix stations, which send bluetooth messages to passers-by and inform them about the current pollution level on their current location.

The Urban Pollution Monitoring Project

bitLife ist eine Software zur Simulation künstlichen Lebens.

In einer künstlichen Welt mit verschiedenen Lebensräumen werden Pflanzen und Kreaturen mit unterschiedlichen Eigenschaften (Größe, Geschwindigkeit, Lebenserwartung, Sichtweite, Lebensraum, usw.) ausgesetzt. Die Kreaturen leben danach selbstgesteuert, d.h. sie suchen Nahrung und Sexualpartner und vermehren sich. Ziel ist es nun, ein ausgewogenes System zu schaffen, in dem Fleisch- und Pflanzenfresser gleichermaßen überleben können. Um die Simulation möglichst wirklichkeitsnahe zu gestalten, wurde auf das Prinzip der Evolution viel Wert gelegt. Die Kreaturen mutieren immer wieder und ermöglichen Artenvielfalt und höhere Überlebenschancen durch Anpassung. Der Spieler kann selbst entscheiden, ob er in diesen Ablauf eingreifen oder “seine” Lebewesen nur beobachten will.

bitLife wurde 2003 von sechs Studenten des Studiengangs Medientechnik und -design der Fachhochschule Hagenberg realisiert. Nähere Informationen über bitLife und das Projektteam entnehmen Sie bitte der bitLife Homepage bitlife.pl-visions.com.