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Rob Faludi recently spoke at Microsoft’s Social Computing Symposium. He discussed Sociable Objects, to show all the great work around socially active physical computing at ITP. ITP is a two-year graduate program located in the Tisch School of the Arts whose mission is to explore the imaginative use of communications technologies — how they might augment, improve, and bring delight and art into people’s lives. Perhaps the best way to describe us is as a Center for the Recently Possible.

At ITP, Rob specialized in physical computing, dense social networks and networked objects. Projects of his include Social Genius, a multimedia name-learning game; WildLight, a networked device that brings organic light to dark or windowless spaces; BlueWay, a networked location and wayfinding system; and Botanicalls, a system that allows thirsty plants to place phone calls for human help. Rob currently teaches several classes as an Adjunct Professor at NYU and Brooklyn College, and is a resident researcher at NYU.

Sociable objects are devices that share. They can talk to each other, gain information about their context and react accordingly. Recent advances in wireless mesh networks have created the potential for a massively interconnected world of easy information sharing. Cheap communications, high reliability, unique addressing, small size, standardization, and routing features combine to enable exciting new interactions. Developers of toys, wearables, performance devices, portables, network objects and sensor arrays can take advantage of radio mesh networking to design more interesting, better informed and more complex behaviors for their projects. This course explores devices that connect with and respond to each other. The technical focus will be on 802.15.4/ZigBee wireless mesh networks. Interconnections with other platforms and devices will be examined as appropriate. Students will gain an expertise in all functions of the ZigBee system to facilitate smart and novel behaviors in their projects. Through a series of weekly exercises, students will build skills and explore the challenges and delights of mutual connectivity. As a final project, the class will construct dynamic device networks. Prior experience with basic electronics and physical computing is helpful, but not required. Most labs and projects involve group work, so students should be ready to collaborate extensively as they experiment on the cutting edge of device interaction.

You can read Rob’s slideshow for this presentation for more information.

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