Adaptive Path Blog

Say goodbye to the computer mouse
The BBC reports a leading research company is predicting the days of the computer mouse are numbered.

Google vs. Wikipedia: It’s War!
Wired magazine reports that the big G has launched a service called Knol - short for ‘knowledge’ - which is basically a different flavored Wikipedia. Watch out Wiki, Google wants your crown!

Android and Symbian, sitting in a tree…
“…Google’s Android OS and Nokia’s Symbian will “combine to provide a single open source OS,” sometime in the very near future…” Seems like a marriage between Linux and Fortran.

It’s cool, and green(er)
The iPhone’s unsoldered battery makes the new phone easier and more economical to dissemble and recycle.

E-ink coming to magazines
“The owner of Esquire said Tuesday that it plans to publish the magazine’s October issue using so-called electronic ink to mark the publication’s 75th anniversary.”

Samsung Haiku
Have you submitted and “ode to a mobile” yet?

We’re following the highs and lows of 2008 International Development Design Summit. Good stuff is happening there.

Desire Paths?
Here’s a whole collection of the phenomenon that inspired the AP name. Maybe we should change our name to “Desire Paths!”

The Long Tail and the Dip
Seth asks if you’re at the head, the long tail, or (probably) that really unfortunate dip in between.

Wordle
Impress your friends with pretty text-frequency analysis.

Stop sign innovations

Welcome to our new CEO, Michael Meyer
There’s a new sheriff in town… and he’s got killer sideburns.

Arduino Light Box

Originally uploaded by odannyboy

Considering that at the start of the week, I knew next to nothing about electronics, I’m pretty pleased with how the week ended up.

After getting stuck on the basic electronics at the end of Chapter 1 of Making Things Talk, I worked my way though most of some Arduino tutorials while reading up on electronics in Physical Computing. I feel like I can at least navigate my way around a breadboard now and make some simple stuff. There is obviously still a ton to learn, but I feel like I’m moving forward in a positive way–especially since several days ago I despaired about ever picking this up.

Next up is adding some sensors and switches. Now that I can make art (of a crude sort), I want to make something more interactive. Stay tuned.

Over the last several years, Adaptive Path’s business has expanded from mostly web work to a mix of web, mobile, medical devices, and consumer electronics. As our business has changed, our skills have needed to change along with it. Part of that change is gaining a comfort, understanding, and hands-on knowledge of subjects that didn’t used to be part of our vocabulary: electronics, programming, and industrial design, just to name a few.

Adaptive Path’s Interaction Design Lab
Originally uploaded by odannyboy

So as part of expanding our skills, I went and set up the beginning of an interaction design lab so that our designers had a place to work and tools to play with. I bought some basic tools like a soldering gun, some screwdrivers, wire cutters, etc. I also bought an Arduino Starter Pack and a bunch of sensors, some buttons, resistors. Other contributions made their way to the lab: our One Laptop Per Child XO machine, an old Chumby, and a touchscreen kit from Synaptics. It’s not much, but it is a start.

The most important contributions were from books though. I donated my copy of Brendan Dawes’ Analog In, Digital Out and purchased the two definitive books: Physical Computing and Making Things Talk.

Then I started playing.

I started working my way through Chapter 1 of Making Things Talk: downloading the software necessary to tinker with with the Arduino microprocessor. Since I learned Processing in grad school (under the patient tutelage of Golan Levin), the programming part wasn’t hard to pick up. I was able to pretty quickly make an LED light up and blink. (”If it lights up, it’s art. If it blinks, it’s interaction design.”)

But then I hit a roadblock. Near the end of Chapter 1 of Making Things Talk, which up until then had done a great job of handholding through the initial code and set up, suddenly stopped the handholding when it came to electronics and working with the physical components. So I had to put that book down and pick up Physical Computing to brush up on that, as well as start working my way through some online tutorials like the set of Arduino Tutorials.

I’ll let you know how it goes.