I've fallen in love with QR codes.  You can embed all sorts of things in them (text, weblinks, GPS co-ordinates...) and they can be read by any smartphone. I use a few QR codes in my thesis to allow the reader to connect to digital content (like a google earth file, or an interview I liked) without resorting to a DVD insert.  I like the immediacy of the connection to references or contextual information that these codes offer to a reader of a printed book.

QR Code

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

QR Code for the URL of the English Wikipedia Mobile main page. Note that the white border is part of the encoding.

A QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with a camera, and smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.

Common in Japan, where it was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994, the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. QR is the abbreviation for Quick Response, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.^[1]

QR Code data capacity

Numeric only Max. 7,089 characters

Alphanumeric Max. 4,296 characters

Binary (8 bits) Max. 2,953 bytes

 Kanji/Kana Max. 1,817 characters

this says "bohmnLAB!"

there are lots of online generators:

http://delivr.com/qr-code-generator

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

http://www.qrstuff.com/

http://www.morovia.com/free-online-barcode-generator/qrcode-maker.php

there are also specialized programs that can give you higher-resolution images, should you need that. (i use this one: http://www.softmatic.com/)

there are tons of great QR reader apps out there.  i use quickmark: http://www.quickmark.cn/en/info/Show.asp

Fritzing is a handy piece of software for drawing electronic schematics (like arduino circuits).  I made one showing the circuit for SMA (muscle wires) which I'm testing for my tentacle installation:

http://fritzing.org/welcome/

There are also a bunch of great projects already "fritzed" which are useful when you're learning to use the arduino (most include both circuit diagrams and arduino code):

http://fritzing.org/projects/

thanks to everyone who came our openHouse a couple of weeks back!

if you are interested in designing and fabricating interactive installations or presentations

or if you are interested in collecting live data from a wide array of sensors, and/or using that data in designs

or if you want to try rule-based design using Grasshopper and Rhino

or if you want to make responsive architecture, or a responsive skin, or or or...

come talk to us!  we might be able to help with tools, equipment, tutorials, or at least moral support.

here is the openHouse (at hyperspeed):

A Beautiful digital copy of D'Arcy Thompson's 1917 text On Growth and Form:

http://www.archive.org/stream/ongrowthform00thom#page/n7/mode/2up

bohmLAB would like to announce it's inaugural workshop open house, Friday the 30th of July, from 1pm-6pm in the Grand Studios.

Click here to download:

about_bohmLAB.pdf (558 KB)

(download)

Click here to download:

about_bohmLAB.pdf (558 KB)

Touch Screen

An interface designed to bring the hands and screen into direct and playful contact. The viewer is invited to manipulate an elastic fabric canvas with their hands; the interaction between blank canvas and beams of rear-projected light cultivate creative interaction and the experience of ‘drawing with light’.

Lead – Abe Galway

Aural Fields

Using a network of RFID readers embedded around the space and tags distributed to visitors, occupants will  compose a songscape as they pass through the exhibit. The system will record their movements and use audio and visual feedback to encourage them to explore further. The melody of the ambient music in the gallery will be a reflection of each visitor's path while the collective patterns of use will generate the accompaniment.

Lead – Tim Maly

Mutable/Mutating Place

An interactive field composed of flexible hanging columns 10cm in diameter and .5m apart. To enter the field, you push aside these columns which hold themselves in place for a moment or two, then slowly return to an average resting position. The field will anticipate how you will shape it, based on the patterns of occupation (patterns of force sensor input correlated with column position).

Lead – Sarah Neault

Sensorium Womb

Modeled after the multi-sensory Snoezelen Therapy rooms, the Sensorium Womb is a mediating environment. Its design enables occupants to immerse themselves in a self regulated and self regulating environment, in which they can bath in coloured light or draw digitally on the enclosure.

Lead – Tyler Walker

(download)

Click here to download:

current-research-initiatives-gkvhdHcIvwkGslzeCfkJ.zip (5.99 MB)