Introducing QRator - iPad and Web Based Living Labels for Museums

QRator is a collaborative project between the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities (UCLDH), UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), and UCL Museums and Collections, to develop new kinds of content, co-curated by the public, museum curators, and academic researchers, to enhance museum interpretation, community engagement and establish new connections to museum exhibit content.

The interactive system is designed to be non intrusive while enabling members of the pubic to simply type in their thoughts and interpretation of museum objects and click ‘send’. Their interpretation become part of the objects history and ultimately the display itself via the interactive label system to allow the display of comments and information directly next to the artefacts.

The project is powered by Tales of Things technology which has developed a method for cataloguing physical objects online and capture memories and stories via the Internet of Things. QRator takes the technology a step further bringing the opportunity to move the discussion of objects direct to the museum label and onto a digital collaborative interpretation label, users’ mobile phones, and online allowing the creation of a sustainable, world-leading model for two-way public interaction in museum spaces.


At its heart QRator is an iPad/iPhone and web based system that allows everyone to be a curator and share their views on an exhibition. Visitors can examine an object before leaving their thoughts via an iPad to create a digital, ‘living’ label that subsequent visitors can read and respond to.

By downloading a free application to an iPhone or android phone, visitors are able to see rolling updates to the digital label after they leave the museum, or via twitter. Participants are also able to take part in the conversation online via the QRator site with comments appearing live within the museum.

Content currently covers two museums at UCL; The Grant Museum of Zoology and The Petrie Museum of Egyptology. he Grant Museum of Zoology is one of the oldest natural history collections in England, dating back to 1827. The collection comprises over 68,000 skeletal, taxidermy and wet specimens, covering the whole of the animal kingdom. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine, the quagga and the dodo. The Grant Museum is the only remaining university zoology museum in London.

The Museum will offer a continual programme of ‘Current Questions’ for visitors to engage in. UCL is taking the opportunity to rethink what a university museum can be; a place not simply for a passive experience but for conversation – a cultural laboratory for the meeting of minds. Positioning the Museum as a place of experimentation, dialogue and debate.

You can join the conversation by visiting either the Petrie or Grant Museum or by simply heading over to http://www.qrator.org all comments appear live on the iPad screens in the Museum and on Tales of Things.

Tagging Technologies: Free Book

Back in May 2010, The Edinburgh College of Art ran a workshop to explore the publics apprehension fortagging technologies. It was very successful and provided insights in to the fears and concerns around RFID and the tagging of objects and people.

The day was organised in such a way as to allow participants to take part in semi-structured discussions that were interspersed by presentations and demonstrations to further inform debate. Debate was complex and opinions upon the benefits and threats for tagging became more subtle throughout the workshop, with individuals views swinging dramatically from blind enthusiasm to extreme paranoia.

Since then the workshop was documented and written up to create a 66 page book on the outcomes of the workshop.

You can download a PDF copy here first, whilst ECA head off to blurb.com and start printing.

The book is well worth a download, it covers topics ranging from the Internet of Old Things through to RFID and Privacy. For more on tagging and related technologies take a look at http://www.youtotem.org/.

Tag Architecture - A Call for Images and Stories of Buildings

You may of noticed that we recently launched our project 'TalesofThings', a site that tags any media to any object using QRcodes or rfid tags. We have just pushed an update that introduces 'groups' so all objects of interest can be viewed in one place. As all things urban are close to our heart, one of the first groups is 'Architecture' and we would like you to add your own building with a story.

Its simple to do, just sign up, upload a image of your building of choice (under 2mb) and add a story. Your building will then go live and your be able to add it to the architecture group. If you want you can also print out a QRCode that you can stick to the building allowing anyone to scan the code and add to the story/history of the building via the free iPhone/Android apps.

Your building will also be able to 'Tweet' everytime it is scanned or a new comment/story added, it will also become part of the 'World of Things' map - a place to view all the objects added so far to the site.

We are working on ways to make the objects more location aware and aware of near by objects, it could be interesting over the next few months to see how this develops. We look forward to seeing some of your buildings on the site and will sort out some sort of prize for the best stories...

You can start tagging anything and everything via talesofthings.com

Tales of the City: QRCodes, Architecture and Wired

The London Festival of Architecture is underway and via the project Tales of the City we have been capturing people’s memories of Shoreditch and playing them back them back via small readable and writeable QR codes and RFID tags. Tales of the City extends the TalesofThings project into the urban realm with the architecture of the city able to replay memories and its history and its just made Wired...

As Wired states: The project has been tagging architecture for a few months. In one location in Chalk Farm, a wall that used to feature a piece from Banksy that has a tag that lets scanners see what the work looked like. The BBC's Broadcasting House has also been covered in tags. In one Oxfam shop in Manchester, the project used RFID tags and QR codes to allow objects to be tagged with the memories of those who donated them.

Tales of the City starts off with a pre-placed tag at the historic heart of Shoreditch, St Leonard's Church. From there you will be able to spot tags (QR codes) on Shoreditch High Street which you can add your own stories to, contributing to the growing network of tagged architecture.

This will enable people to form a personalised tour of London’s contemporary history through architecture. If you have an iPhone or an Android handset be sure to download our free app - talesofthings to enable you to leave comments on the QR codes, or create your own codes to put on your favourite buildings.

In order to take part simply download our free “talesofthings” app for your iPhone or Android and when you spot a code on a building scan the code to add your own memory such as what the building used to be, why it is important to you or perhaps it is simply a building you hate.

If you don’t have a smartphone you can still take part by visiting our website www.youtotem/talesofthecity where you can clip on the map and add comments to buildings which have been tagged.

Tales of the City is part of 'TOTeM' - a collaborative research project run by Edinburgh College of Art, Brunel University, University College London, University of Dundee and University of Salford. This project aims to find a new way of preserving social history – through people’s memories. People will be able to preserve their family/community history by “tagging” (labelling) their personal objects via our website www.talesofthings.com. Users will be able to attach memories to their objects in the form of video, text or audio, this will enable future generations to have a greater understanding of the object’s past. TOTeM will carry out its research initially through case studies with different community groups who are not included in a written history of our time but their experiences and memories are just as valuable.

Its simple to tag architecture and objects with memories - you simply upload a photo, give it a story and print a QRCode:


Trailer for Tales of Things from digitalurban on Vimeo.

The project aims to offer a new way for people to place more value on their own objects in an increasingly disposable economy. As more importance is placed on the objects that are already parts of people’s lives it is hoped that family or friends may find new uses for old objects and encourage people to think twice before throwing something away.

If your in Shoreditch be sure to look out for the QRCodes, of course its not limited to Shoreditch, you can tag anything and everything with stories via http://www.talesofthings.com

How to Add Anything to the Internet of Things: Creating the Geography of Everything

Every object in existence can be tagged with any media, linked to tell a story, to recount its memories in a read/write environment and tweet when its interacted with.





Its a concept that takes a bit of time to take in, for example a wall in Camden Town, London, tweeted me last week when someone replayed its memories of having a Banksy painted on it. That wall is part of the Internet of Things via the project TalesofThings.

The best part is, its incredibly easy to add objects. You simply sign up at talesofthings.com and then take click on 'add a thing'. This takes you to a form where you give your object a name, for a example 'Andy's Mug' or 'BBC Broadcasting House' are some of things we have added so far. You then type in a short story, or tale, linked to that object and upload a photograph to the site.

Everything has a location so we are creating a 'Geography of Everything', a brave claim perhaps but one that develops a new a new kind of geography, the geography of things. Simply click on the map to set a location, your object will now become part of the 'World of Things' map.

Thats it, your object will now become part of the Internet of Things and will be able to tweet, have new stories/tales added as its passed on, sold or interacted with. It is all part of a Social Web of Things or SWOT as its known.

Each thing created gets assigned a unique 'qrcode' which can be attached to your object. For example, we have attached a qrcode to our office here in CASA which visitors scan using our free iPhone app. This 'virtual guest book' allows our office to recall the story of CASA and the people that pass through our doors. You can print out your codes via the site and attach them to anything.

Any media can be added to you object, the clip below provides a glimpse of the system running via our recent link up with Oxfam via Future Everything, complete with the iPhone RFID reader:





Anything, anywhere can be tagged with any media, do take a look at the beta version of TalesofThings, we are very proud of the work and as the Ericsson Labs blog noted, this is really part of the social web of things, it will be trillions of tags around in a couple of years...

iPhone RFID and Bluetooth AudioBoos in Oxfam Clip

At the Oxford Road branch of Oxfam in Manchester, TOTeM (Tales of Things and Electronic Memory) Art Project: RememberMe, are attaching stories to the things that people leave behind, and allow new owners to access them.

Using scanners, delegates of Future Everything and the general public will be able to listen to memories and buy objects that come tagged with their very own story.

TOTeM has created a new iPhone RFID reader especially for this piece Using a jailbroken phone and off the shelf circuits, the reader can replay memories by simply ‘swiping’ near the object. The team plan to release a ‘how to make your own’ breakdown of the device in the near future via the talesofthings.com site. The Oxfam store is also home to a Bluetooth ‘wand’ which works with Android phones. These devices bring the Internet of Things to life allowing all the objects catalogued with talesofthings.com to connect to any online media. The Oxfam Shop has been taking donations of all shapes and sizes that have been tagged with memories as part of the in-store exhibition.

The movie below shows some of our 'internet of things' tech running and the memories of past objects:



Thanks go to the whole TOTeM team with notable thanks to Benjamin Blundell, Duncan Shingleton and Martin de Jode for developing the technology and getting everything working.

You can of course tag anything and indeed everything yourself via http://www.talesofthings.com

RememberMe: Future Everything and the Internet of Things

Have you ever wanted to know the story behind the things you buy? Who owned the object from that charity shop and what about its history, the memories associated with it and why is it now for sale?

In association with Oxfam and part of the Manchester Future Everything Festival (12th-15th May) we are putting the history back into objects with the Art Project: RememberMe.

At the Oxford Road branch of Oxfam in Manchester, TOTeM (Tales of Things and Electronic Memory) will be attaching stories to the things that people leave behind, and allow new owners to access them.

The Oxfam Shop is appealing for donations of all shapes and sizes that can be tagged with memories as part of the in-store exhibition. Oxfam manager Emma Cooney has asked people to “Help us be part of this exciting project. Anyone who wants to share their memories of the things they donate to the shop is welcome to take part. It’s entirely voluntary, but maybe a once treasured object you no longer want has a story that can be passed on to its new owner".

The advent of digital tagging technology means that every new object in the future will be tagged and logged in a database accruing logistical information such as temperatures, prices, owners and transportation. The exhibition RememberMe introduces an opportunity to build an Internet of Old Things based upon stories not data. By attaching a barcode loaded with memories about the clothes and artefacts that visitors donate to the Whitworth Park branch of Oxfam, things will gain a social and cultural value.

Using scanners, delegates of Future Everything and the general public will be able to listen to memories and buy objects that come tagged with their very own story. We will have more on the 'scanners' soon - think iPhone RFID reader / Bluetooth Android device and with full details on how to make them yourself....

The RememberMe artwork is a collaborative project between TOTeM and Oxfam in Manchester which will be showcased at the Future Everything Festival (12-15 May 2010). During the time leading up to Future Everything (FE), a research assistant will be based in the shop and will ask people who drop things off to tell a brief story about one of the objects into a microphone: where they acquired it, what memories it brings back and any associated stories.

With their permission, this audio clip will be linked to an RFID tag and QR code. During the event, all items that have been tagged with a story will then join the shop’s stock. Visitors to the shop, including conference delegates will be invited to use our bespoke RFID readers, or their own smart phone to browse artefacts that are displayed amongst the many thousands of other objects.

Labels will highlight the RememberMe objects and once triggered, speakers located in the shop will replay the story, evoking ghosts of the past. Once tagged the objects are in the public domain for purchase by other members of the community, our iPhone apps will allow them to access the story for years to come.

You can tag your own objects, or indeed everything and anything via http://www.talesofthings.com complete with its own free iPhone app, Android is coming soon. We do have a tendency to get fired up over such things, but really this one is going to be good - http://www.talesofthings.com

Making 'Objects' Tweet

You may of noticed that we recently launched our project 'TalesofThings', a site that tags any media to any object using qrcodes or rfid tags:



Once tagged each object basically gets its own webpage allowing comments to be placed, new media added such as YouTube clips, Audioboo, Vimeo etc and new tales tagged to the codes.

An interesting take on this is that once these tags are placed in the wild and scanned with the free iPhone app they become read/writable and therefore location aware. As such any object you tag with the site can 'Tweet' each time it is scanned. If you tag a landmark for example, each time that tag is read you can get a tweet that says 'Hey, I've just been scanned'. Once scanned new tales or comments can be added to that tag, creating a social network of 'things' and 'locations'.

We are working on ways to make the objects more location aware and aware of near by objects, it could be interesting over the next few months to see how this develops. You can see all the things added to far on the 'world of things map':

You can start tagging anything and everything via talesofthings.com

Tagging technology – is the future bright?

Tagging technology – is the future bright?

An invitation to think about where this technology might go and about its implications

Public Workshop 10 May 2010, 1-5 pm at ‘Inspace’ on Crichton Street, Edinburgh

More and more technologies are being developed to be ‘tagged’ to a person or object so that information about them can be recorded on a remote data base and read by third parties. This technology has the potential to influence all of our lives. Some applications appear harmless enough – such as the bar codes on products in shops – but others are raising concerns about privacy and surveillance. How do you feel about councils tagging wheelie bins in order to monitor what people are throwing out, for example? Or about the planned national identity cards? Yet other potential uses of tagging technology seem exciting. What if you could tag every object in your house so that you would never lose something ever again? Or if you could attach a memory to objects so that their stories are passed down through family generations? Maybe such developments could provide much needed help to people suffering from memory loss, increase our awareness of our own history or enhance our experiences of museums and galleries.

What’s in it for you?
Are you worried about tagging technologies or excited about future possible applications? Or do you simply want to find out more about the technology and/or possible implications? Whether you are someone who might benefit from tagging technology or want to find effective ways to protect privacy with the technology or are involved in developing new applications or just plain interested – we invite you to participate in a public event on the subject on Monday 10 May in Edinburgh.

The event will take the form of an interactive workshop, and include a technical demonstration of one type of tagging technology, called RFID, plus a film about possible dangers associated with it. This is an opportunity not only to find out more about the technology and consider what wider implications there may be; it is also a rare opportunity to shape the technology in some modest way – by contributing to the debate about possible problems and to opening up ideas about possible future developments.

Who is organising the event?
The event has been organised by TOTeM - the people behind the site http://www.talesofthings.com which you may of noticed mentioned here on digital urban recently. Through this event we want to better understand how diverse groups view technologies like RFID, and to encourage constructive criticism and ideas for future developments. This will help inform our research, and form the basis of a publication on public perceptions of new tagging technology.

We would also like to thank John Welford from NO2ID Edinburgh for his guidance on privacy and surveillance issues. NO2ID Edinburgh is one of many local groups across the UK campaigning against the introduction of compulsory ID cards and a National Identity Register.

Places are free but limited so if you would like to come please contact Jane Macdonald: Tel: 0131 221 6187 or email jane.macdonald@eca.ac.uk

We would love to get conversations going in the lead up to the event and after so if you have any initial feedback on the topic or indeed on the event itself then please do visit our blog http://rfidevent.wordpress.com/

QR Code / RFID / Any Media - The TalesofThings Trailer

With the code being worked on as we type around the desks of CASA and digital urban, and with preparations going on around the partner institutions of Brunel, Dundee, Edinburgh College of Art and Salford University - Tales of Things enters beta in just a few days:



Any object, any media, geolocated with the ability to read/write - what will you tag? Going to FutureEverything? TalesofThings are there as a featured artist.

TalesofThings - its a memory thing, you can follow developments on Twitter...