Sunday, July 27, 2003

Self-Aware Cyber Mug Continuing our look into connecting ceramics (pottery) into the realm of the Internet.... A digital artefact is an everyday artefact with computing and communication capabilities, enabling it to establish and exchange information about itself with other digital artefacts and/or computer applications. Michael Beigl The Mediacup project incorporates sensors and communication devices into the base of a standard commercial coffee mug. The mugs give their identities and report on the different states they are in. This information is picked up by several base stations and sent to a central server. Telemetry allows the mug's location to be determined. Thus, we have a mug (or object of art) that has a sort of awareness. It knows whether it is stationary, being drunk from, or moving about, and what its temperature is. This information is contained in the mug and changes as its state changes without help from the outside. We also have a mug that lives in the realm of the Internet. This a different sort of life than being solely a piece of virtual ceramics. The Mediacup mug resides in both space and cyberspace realms. For this project, the cyberspace component heavily depends on the state changes in the physical world. However, there may be other aspects in which the cyberspace component could be more involved. Perhaps a receiver and sound could be included in the mug, allowing it to chirp when there is an urgent email. What if there was a dynamic map of mug locations, and one could choose a graphic to represent your mug. In cyberspace your mug could be pictures of a dragon, flying or resting, breathing fire or not. Depending on its state and other factors (thus allowing for additional cyber states to determine the outcome), your mug would send out email, "Hey! I'm filling up at the coffee station" or "Break time!" or "Dave, remember you owe me 50 cents for the vending machine." 10:17:41 PM