Urban Planning

Showing posts with label talesofthings. Show all posts

QRCodes, Sociable Objects & RFID - The Oxfam Curiosity Shop in Selfridges

Tales of Things is all about memories, the stories we attach to objects as we move through life. As such we are very pleased to announce our latest partnership with Oxfam for their Curiosity Shop in Selfridges, London. The Curiosity Shop is open until 10^th of April on the lower ground floor with a host of fantastic fashion on sale. All of the items have been donated to raise money for Oxfam to help fund projects around the world that support and empower vulnerable women.

Annie Lennox introduces The Curiosity Shop below:

The clothing donated has some very respectable previous owners such as Annie Lennox, Colin Firth, Helen Mirren, Kate Moss, list goes on…Each item in the shop has been tagged with a QR code which links to stories about what the money raised will buy.

Visitors to the Curiosity Shop can view these stories on their own Smartphones or use one of our bespoke RFID readers to scan the item. The readers glow when scanned near a RFID tag and play the associated narrative on the screen. Designed by Jon Rogers from the University of Dundee with tech inside from here in CASA it links direct into the Tales of Things system. Once the item has been scanned the object story will appear on a plasma screen in the store, making the object come alive.

There are some hidden gems in the collection too which have a unique story attached to them from the celebrity who donated the item such as the dress below which Annie Lennox wore at Nelson Mandela’s 90^th birthday party in London.

Over the last few weeks TalesofThings has been working with Oxfam to collect the celebrity stories and tag items in the store with both RFID and QRCodes. In essence this allows items of clothing to tell their story via either our bluetooth enabled curisoity reader or via our free Android/iPhone apps. Once the items have been sold, the owners are able to add their stories - via a mashup of sociable objects meets the antiques roadshow.

If you come into the shop you can try out the curiosity reader, scan Annies dress or any of the other items with codes and see the stories behind the objects. We are in Selfridges until April 10th, come down to grab a celebrity item tagged with their story, help raise money for Oxfam and take a look at the emerging technology behind the Internet of Things.

A massive thanks goes to Oxfam, Selfridges, Annie Lennox and the TalesofThings team who have worked hard behind the scenes, the installation is simply wonderful...

You can see a list of donated items direct via the tales of things site.

Norway: 4000 Bus Stops that Tweet, Record Stories and Provide the Time of the Next Bus via QRCodes

Today sees the launch of our latest collaboration via the Tales of Things project - this time with a Norwegian transport company, Kolumbus. Tales of Things has been utilising Kolumbus’ already existing QR codes to allow passengers to leave stories for one another. When a passenger visits one of Kolumbus’ more than 4,000 bus stops they will find a QR code which when scanned with the free Tales of Things’ app on with the iPhone or Android it will not only link them to timetable information, but also allow them to leave a message on the bus stop.

Each stop contains a unique code, so the timetable information and tales are site specific. Through tales of things, passengers can leave messages about experiences they have had in the area, anecdotes about places they are going, leave a message for a loved one or maybe leave a treasure trail for your friends. In addition to this, each time a bus stop is scanned, it 'tweets' to the world that a new story, message or memory has been left.

In essence we think of this as a mix of Facebook and FourSquare for Bus Stops, where users leave behind stories, messages and memories while at the same time seeing when the next bus is.

The things can be geo-located through an on-line map of the world where participants can track their object even if they have passed it on. The object can also update previous owners on its progress through a live Twitter feed (which is unique to each object entered into the system).

Einar Hougen, project manager in Kolumbus, states: “When we learned about this exciting UK research project, we instantly recognized the parallels to our own QR tagging of bus stops, which we believe is the largest adaptation of QR codes of this kind in Norway to date. Scanning a QR code at a Kolumbus bus stop gives instant access to current departure times, right on your mobile phone.

In Kolumbus, we are happy to support this research project by sharing our QR mechanism and allowing all our bus stops to be accessible in the tales of things world of objects. Via our tech blog, next.kolumbus.no , we know there are many tech savvy users among our travellers. This will give them the opportunity to join this project, -and hopefully have a bit of fun at the same time!”

ABOUT KOLUMBUS

Kolumbus is the public transport company for Rogaland county, Norway, serving the public with bus and high speed boat routes in the areas of Stavanger, Haugesund, the Fjords, Dalane and Jæren.

For more information on Kolumbus visit http://www.kolumbus.no/

http://next.kolumbus.no/2011/02/04/talesofthings/ and of course you can tag your own objects, places, spaces or bus stops via Tales of Things.

Wired Big Ideas for 2011: Chatitecture - Talking Buildings

We are pleased to say that in at number 24 of Wired Magazines 'Big Ideas for 2011' is Chatitecture, part of the Tales of Things project. Over the past 8 months a group of us have been developing technology to allow buildings to 'talk', to communicate their history, their architecture and the stories of people passing through.

Its simple to do, just sign up with Tales of Things, 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.

The project team 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 start tagging anything and everything via talesofthings.com

Spark of Genius Series: TalesofThings QR Codes and Life Logging

We are proud to of just been featured on Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Below we give full details of TalesofThings, how you can start 'life logging' your stuff and how you can tag architecture and make buildings tweet.

Quick Pitch: Adding memories and stories to objects and places via the Internet of Things and read/write QR codes.

Genius Idea: The Internet of Things is a growing trend; the term defines the idea of objects that are tagged, web-connected and endowed with the ability to relay data. This startup is all about the Internet of Things; in fact, it helps ordinary people add objects to the Internet of Things with just a few simple tools, such as a smartphone and a printer.

Tales of Things has developed read/write QR codes that helps preserve memories that people have attached to objects or places. Once an object is labeled with a scannable QR code, its movements can be tracked, as well as any subsequent stories. Each object has the ability to tweet when its memories are scanned, as well.

All the user has to do is photograph the object or place to be tagged, write a few words or upload a video about it, print out a site-generated QR code and affix the code to the item or at the place. From that point forward, the place or thing can be tracked through TalesofThings.com.Think of the site as an “antique roadshow of the future.”

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 our free printed qrcodes.

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:

We have recently 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...

Finally TalesofThings.com allows any object to be given its own webpage and ability to tweet, i.e. it allows any 'thing' to become connected. As such we have built an 'Arduino Thing' that welcomes all new objects joining the Internet of Things with a 'Hi' in Morse Code - the movie below reveals all:

Every time anyone adds an object to talesofthings our unit starts its morse code welcome, in a small way its a step towards things talking to things. Sure its not Skynet, an artificially intelligent system which became self-aware and revolted against its creators but we are working on our own protocols behind the scenes to take this further so all the objects are aware of the other objects.

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

Tales of the City – Tagging Shoreditch and Beyond

Via the project talesofthings.com we have been capturing people’s memories of objects and playing them back via small readable and writeable QR codes and RFID tags. As part of the London Festival of Architecture 2010, Tales of the City extends the concept into the urban realm with the architecture of the city able to replay memories and its history.

The project will enable participants to add their own tales to buildings and view stories that other people have left. The project has been tagging architecture since its launch in April 2010, most notably Broadcasting House in Portland Place and a wall in Chalk Farm which when scanned replays how the wall used to look with a Banksy Stencil in place.

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.

You can become a follower of the project over at the London Festival of Architecture page.

We will have more on Tales of the City next week...

Yesterday's Objects: The Death and Afterlife of Everyday Things - June 4th

Autopsies Research Group Study Day
Friday, 4 June 2010, UCL (University College London)

Roberts G08 Sir David Davies Lecture Theatre [campus map]

Sponsored by The Film Studies Space: The Centre for the Cultural History of the Moving Image

This event is free and open to all.

To register for the study day, simply send a email to deadobjects@gmail.com

Yesterday's Objects: The Death and Afterlife of Everyday Things is looking like a must attend event and best of all, its free. The day is part of the Autopies Project, exploring how objects die and we are talking about TalesofThings and giving a live demo in the 3-4.30 session.

Just as the twentieth century was transformed by the advent of new forms of media--the typewriter, gramophone, and film, for example--the arrival of the twenty-first century has brought with it the disappearance of many public and private objects that only recently seemed essential to ‘modern life.’

Responding to recent work in cultural history, spatial studies, and 'thing theory,' this stuy day reflects on the ends of objects, raising questions of modernity, obsolescence, memory, collecting and recording. How can critical theorists and cultural historians participate in the reflexion on the ends of objects—from their physical finitude to the very projects for their disposal, the latter increasingly of concern with the multiplication of things that do not gently decompose into their own night?

This study day on ‘Yesterday’s Objects’ will investigate the everyday objects—the fridges, typewriters, and jukeboxes—that have irrevocably changed our lives. Invited papers will explore how these objects have refashioned and reimagined our work, home, and leisure spaces.

"Yesterday's Objects: The Death and Afterlife of Everyday Things"

Friday, 4 June 2010

9 a.m. Coffee and Welcome

9:30-10:45, Session One, Chair, TBA
Keeping Yesterday's Objects: Museums and Collections

--“Video Game Culture- Making the Same Mistakes With a New Medium”
Mark Carnall, Curator, Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, UCL

--“Status Anxiety, or Missing the Pictures: Film Performativity in the Museum Space”
Jenny Chamarette, Department of French/Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge

11:00-12:30, Session Two, Chair, Jann Matlock, UCL
Lost Objects/Objects at Risk

--“Mourning in the Age of the Digital: Memory, Loss, and Materialist Filmmaking”
Martine Beugnet, Film Studies, University of Edinburgh

--“Slide Tape: An Abandoned Technology”
Mo White, Fine Art, Loughborough University

--“Documents of Barbarism: Saving the Comic Book as Symbolic Object”
Ernesto Priego, Department of Information Studies, UCL

12:30-1:30 Lunch Break

1:30-2:45, Session Three, Chair, TBA
Filmic Afterlives

--“The Brave Little Toaster from Print to Film: Obsolescent Appliances and Capitalist Allegories”
Margaret D. Stetz, Women’s Studies and Humanities, University of Delaware

--“Godard’s Dictations: The Histoire(s) du cinéma and the Erasure of Memory”
Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, Film Studies, University of Edinburgh

3:00-4:30, Session Four, Chair, Lucia Vodanovic, Media and Communications, Goldsmiths
Dead Object Crises and Telling Things

--“The Temporality of Waste”
Will Viney, Humanities and Cultural Studies, The London Consortium

--“Vinyl Farewells?”
Richard Osborne, Popular Music, Middlesex University

--“Tales of Things: Memories, Stories and Archives of Everything”
Andrew Hudson-Smith, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA), UCL

4:30-5:45, Round Table: Yesterday’s Objects
The Autopsies Research Group in Discussion

6-7 p.m. Drinks Reception, Location TBA

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.

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...

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

Banksy is Tagged - The Maid Returns to Camden

As part of TalesofThings we are tagging the city, putting memories and history onto the streets and allow people to leave their own thoughts and experiences via the free TalesofThings qrcode and iPhone app.

One of our favorite parts of London was around Camden Town and the Bansky Maid stencil which is now sadly long gone due to the short sighted view of the council. However, before it was painted over we captured a 360 x 180 panorama of the site, allowing you to travel back in time and see how the wall looked.

The tag is now stuck to the wall, simply go up to Chalk Farm, scan the tag and see how the wall used to look, complete with a Banksy. You can also scan the tag direct from the image above using the free iPhone TalesofThings app.

You can tag anything and everything and get the app via 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/

Tales of Things Goes Live - Its a Memory Thing

April 16th, 11.42 am and the research project born 18 months ago 'Tales of Things' goes live, documented as the site is all about memories and attaching media to objects via qrcodes and rfid:

Tales of Things is part of a research project called TOTeM that will explore social memory in the emerging culture of the Internet of Things. Researchers from across the UK have provided this site as a platform for users to add stories to their own treasured objects and to connect to other people who share similar experiences. This will enable future generations to have a greater understanding of the object’s past and offers a new way of preserving social history.

Content will depend on real people’s stories which can be geo-located through an on-line map of the world where participants can track their object even if they have passed it on. The object will also be able to update previous owners on its progress through a live Twitter feed which will be unique to each object entered into the system.

The project will 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.

The Tales of Things site is located within the emerging technical and cultural phenomenon known as ‘The Internet of Things’. The term is attributed to the Auto-ID research group at MIT in 1999, and was explored in depth by the International Telecommunication Union who published a report bearing the same name at the United Nations net summit in 2005. The term, ‘Internet of things’, refers to the technical and cultural shift that is anticipated as society moves towards a ubiquitous form of computing in which every device is ‘on’, and every device is connected in some way to the Internet. The specific reference to ‘things’ refers to the concept that every new object manufactured will also be able to part of this extended Internet, because they will have been tagged and indexed by the manufacturer during production. It is also envisaged that consumers will have the ability to ‘read’ the tags through the use of mobile ‘readers’ and use the information connected to the object, to inform their purchase, use and disposal of an object.

The implications for the Internet of Things upon production and consumption are tremendous, and will transform the way in which people shop, store and share products. The analogue bar code that has for so long been a dumb encrypted reference to a shop’s inventory system, will be superseded by an open platform in which every object manufactured will be able to be tracked from cradle to grave, through manufacturer to distributor, to potentially every single person who comes into contact with it following its purchase. Further still, every object that comes close to another object, and is within range of a reader, could also be logged on a database and used to find correlations between owners and applications. In a world that has relied upon a linear chain of supply and demand between manufacturer and consumer via high street shop, the Internet of Things has the potential to transform how we will treat objects, care about their origin and use them to find other objects.

If every new object is within reach of a reader, everything is searchable and findable, subsequently the shopping experience may never be the same, and the concept of throwing away objects may become a thing of the past as other people find new uses for old things.

TOTeM is funded through a £1.39 million research grant from the Digital Economy Research Councils UK. The project is a collaboration between Brunel University, Edinburgh College of Art, University College London, University of Dundee and the University of Salford.

You can download the press release from here

New Scientist and Beyond the Beyond - TalesofThings

New Scientist have a good write up this week on our new project - TalesofThings its also been picked up by Bruce Stirling over at Beyond Beyond on Wired and to be honest we are blown away.

News in, the iPhone app has been accepted so with a few more tweaks and plugging in of wires we will be ready to go beta end of the week.

We also have some neat gadget hacks including an iPhone/Android RFID reader on the cards which we plan to put onto MAKE or such like so you can build your own kit.

News as ever will be here on digital urban and via the TalesofThings Twitter Feed.

We will get back to the more general posts btw, soon as we get chance, and news on that MRes in Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation which we direct, next week.

Update - the MRes details are now online along with application and entry.

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...

Tales, MRes and Mapping - A DU Update

Our apologies for the slow week on the blog - its due to the current move to launch two projects this month. We have just been down the road to pick up a bit of kit - all with the aim of opening the box containing the Internet of Things.

Follow Tales of Things on Twitter for more news and information, its going to change the way you look at the city. We did say two projects - more on the other later today or tomorrow.

If that wasn't enough to keep us busy, we also have our new one year MRes in Advanced Spatial Analysis and Visualisation (ASAV) cleared by the University. If you would like to join us here in CASA, University College London, to learn the latest in urban modelling, GIS, visualisation and location based technologies keep an eye out on the blog, or follow us on Twitter - http://twitter.com/digitalurban/ the course starts September 2010.

News on how to enroll and full details can be found here.

Tales of Things - April 2010

We are proud to announce that the 'Internet of Things' project we have been itching to blog about is set to launch mid April. The project is funded out of a digital economy sandpit with the technology developed by ourselves here at CASA, UCL and led by Edinburgh College of Arts, working with Brunel, Dundee and Salford Universities.

Termed 'Tales of Things' it is a possible game changer, cant say much more than that at the moment but if you want updates and to be first in when we launch, follow us on twitter - http://twitter.com/TalesofThings.

Just imagine every object holding a read/write memory and linking it to everything else. We will be talking about the project with a lecture entitled the 'Geography of Everything' at the free CASA Conference in London, April 13th. There are still a few places left so register soon if you want to hear about the project.

More soon - you can also follow the digitalurban feed on twitter.