The month of January at MIT is a celebration of “Whatever you could Ever wish for”. This month is also known as IAP: Independent Activities Period , and basically, it welcomes almost any subject, lecture or activity to be chosen by the students, open, creative, free and loved. Whether it is Theology of Sustainability, Chocolate Making or Middle Eastern Drumming, it is taken seriously and being taught passionately.

Michael Bernstein organised a lovely little course called “Interactive Technology Design”, which introduces student to the world of Interaction design through a hands-on approach. For his course, I gave a short talk, “Interaction Design Process”, and then an introduction to basics electronics and Arduino, with JB. In a short time of two weeks, these guys achieved pretty interesting results, in their exclusive geeky MIT style. Check out these photos and this video that shows the IAP 6.964’s final projects.

A little research project that I stated about dynamic development, body modification and identity. This is an exploration of Aibo’s next steps of growing up.
Being a sophisticated AI persona, the Aibo starts its life as a puppy, with baby-like behaviour and neediness. Later with interactions and playful tasks it develops, it starts to walk, it learns about its space, new words etc.

But it seems like it was designed to stop its dynamic changing. At a certain moment you would expect a child to rebel, to rise up and show the world its own individual grown-up identity. What would that be in the world of Aibos?Aibos are attracted to the colour pink, could they enjoy a new hair do? Or maybe a trendy tattoo? So, yes, Aibo is growing up, and is seeking for new toys and for his own leisure pursuit. This Aibo seriously considers redefining his identity through his look.

The German design magazine PAGE, a monthly magazine about communication design, just published on their latest issue an article about wearables. It seems like an interesting article, a bit more profound than what we usually see in the trendy periodicals.

Two of my projects are shown there, the charming “Undercover” blanket (for the Droog design collection), and the fresh “Social Vibration” hoody. So, I also have my moment of pride :]

Thanks Ilona! for sending me this issue.

During the Sonar festival in BCN, I participated in a workshop, which had the longest name ever: ‘Creating Space, exploring the spatial properties of electromagnetic fields as a carrier for sound’. The workshop was held by Edwin van de Heide, at the lovely Hangar centre. I created there a device that would not only express the electromagnetic zones with sound, but also with light. As we explore the space, the LED turns brighter according to the presence of electromagnetic fields.

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I am very excited about next week workshop in Berlin. It’s called Wilderness in the City, and also has the French name “Cité Sauvage”, stay tuned for more. Find notes and new tools at our workshop initial blog.

Once again I had the great pleasure of visiting IDHO (Interaction Design Hands On) course of Holon Institute of Technology. I caught a glimpse of the last year exhibition; the leftovers of their prototypes look pretty slick. Check out their projects and exhibition video. Anyway, the IDHO team of 2008 seems to be very promising. The talk was about design process and wearables, since that is their next topic. They already hold some fancy looking prototypes and even wearables! It all took place at the charming space of the GarageGeek (the dorkbot-like community of Israel) in the casual ambiance of flip-flops and Goldstar beer. Bon courage IDHO students! Looking forward to seeing your results.

I encourage you to check out the interesting results we had at the Hybrid Wearable Workshop last week at Mediamatic . Although it was only a three days workshop, I believe we can proudly say, we managed the time very well and eventually, presented functioning prototypes demonstrating the interesting concepts that were developed. We had the pleasure to introduce the participants to the beautiful and very friendly to use Lilypad Arduino, designed especially to be sawed on fabric. You’re invited to view the photos of all the projects and the whole workshop process.

Check out these playful result of our hybrid toys workshop which took place at Mediamatic, Amsterdam. All designed and prototyped in only three days, using arduino, many of the Mediamatic RFID tags and readers, and one hacked Wiimote.
Also, there’s this cute video of the musical flowers, and here are some photos revealing the backstage process

Sawed the circuit with conductive threads and conductive fabrics. When the ear (or tail) meets certain surfaces of the plush, it triggers a sound, changing according to it’s location.
I must admit, this prototype has a rather strange behaviour, I cannot always predict the sounds it produces and the timing, but that’s kind of lovely. Grrr…
Anyway, here are more photos and one beeping video.

In the process of making a rather traditional LED Chanukah lamp, we created a revolutionary non-music instrument. In order to use this lamp as a “music practice” tool, use the LEDs as guitar’s strings and play your favourite music. Using the wire, every LED you touch closes its circuit, and instead of sound (which might be unpleasant in some cases), it produces beautiful blinking light.
So, there you go, the most friendly air guitar ever!
This blinking object is dedicated to Vanessa (aka Zergh), wishing her good luck in her guitar classes.