In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I decided to create an SMS service that would help socially awkward nerds find other socially awkward nerds: ITP NYU Geek Pick Up Line Generator. Using TextMarks, I created an account and keyword that would trigger my PHP script that prints out a randomized funny (or terribly corny) line that nerds (may) relate to one another. I tried for some variety after using this as my source of witticisms. Whether you’re a math geek, gamer geek, or coder geek, I hope you can enjoy this. How does it work? Text 41411 to NYUITP Geek and have fun with the response back! Who knows, maybe you’ll find a good ice breaker at your next social meetup.
Add on: I’m also flexing my n00b MySQL skills and created a table so I can log the frequency of people trying out this service for metric purposes. Privacy will be preserved since I’m only using this as an educational exercise. My original idea, Free Food Notification system @ ITP, didn’t have enough data to populate it as I was searching for free food deals in the NYU area and couldn’t find a consistent, up-to-date source. Looks like, it may be a work in progress for later.
First Assignment: Describe an SMS based application that would be helpful to have at ITP
Grad students are notorious for a few things : a) time-deprived b) being financially iffy and c) starved. So, what better text messaging based service that we, at ITP can cook up then (hear me out without laughing): Free Food SMS Alert System. Think about it. The NYU area offers a slew of free eating options whether its faculty meet-and-greets, study breaks, food marketing stunts, etc. Currently, students only know about these opportunities via word-of-mouth or through their friends network. You might be on Twitter, you might not be, but if you opt to receive the Free Food SMS Alert System, you’ll only be notified when FREE FOOD is present.
Implementation: The person providing the info would need to answer a few brief questions so the SMS service can output the Who, What, Where, How so students can seek out the food source. User interface to provide information is undecided but would optimally be either through the web browser or through SMS interface. Mmm…
Advantages: Timeliness: Faster to receive then a Twitter message, SMS messages can route to students in questionable cell-coverage areas (elevators). Accessibility: SMS is available for non-smartphone owning students. Only students who opt for the service get notified.
Love the Bolts-and-wrench crown. A play off the well-known British “Stay Calm and Carry On” poster, this poster is an homage to tinkerers, digital or analog, everywhere. Spotted a Microsoft Social Computing Symposium attendee wearing one and immediately went to Google to see what I could find out. Find the shirt here or print out the poster for yourself from moleitau’s Flickr page(it’s under Creative Commons!).
Helping people overcome long distances, TweetChime is a melodic chime that communicates people’s sentiments and transmits them into melody. So, no matter where you are, you can let your loved ones know you’re thinking of them and they can hear your sentiment in real-time in sound. By using Twitter, you can send your preferred sentiment, anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
In this case, in the video above, my brother, Pat has sent me this coded message: “@tweetchime [dinnertime] awww yeah!” Why? Because he has an odd sense of humor from living in Mobile, Al. which somehow is lost on me in New York City. Ah, family.
Who Could Use TweetChime?
TweetChime is great for ambient contact technology. In other words, you can keep yourself open to others without them having to actively message you (through phone/IM/email). Vice versa, they can quickly tweet you and have the satisfaction of knowing that you will hear their tweet melody in real time on your side. The TweetChime is unobtrusive and (if prototyped further) can blend into your household.
Long distance friends/family
Parents who want to communicate with their kids (who can’t read time, distinguish technology)
Visually Impaired
Interact with TweetChime:
Would you like to send a sentiment to me? Please tweet to @tweetchime, the TweetChime’s Twitter account.
How to Send: TweetChime recognizes the coded message within the brackets [ ]. The TweetChime website will scan Twitter’s search results looking for messages aimed at @tweetchime.
I have programmed a reply that TweetChime can recognize from a Twitter message. Choose your choice below:
@tweetchime [be happy]
@tweetchime [congratulations]
@tweetchime [missing you]
@tweetchime [holla]
@tweetchime [coming home]
@tweetchime [dinner time]
ex: cwong08 says: “@tweetchime [dinner time] Mom is serving mashed potatoes and turkey! Mmmm!
Where Does My Tweet Go?
TweetChime will be searching for all mentions of itself (@tweetchime) through Twitter’s public search time line. When it finds the coded tweet (1 of the 6 above), it’ll understand it and output into a short melody that the TweetChime owner will understand.
I managed to make it work! Here’s it in action: Five Servomotors using the servo library within Arduino to function within sequence with room for a delay so each servomotor can complete their action before proceeding to the next action.
New things I learned:
1) Servo library can be used on non-PWM slots on the Arduino. You are not limited by slots 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11.
2) Heat shields are a must-have on a voltage regulator where you plan to have your device on for anything above 5 minutes (IMHO)
About a week left before finals are due. Here’s where I stand:
Construction: 90% done. I learned how to use a power drill, the wood shop, and cut saw for all this work! Amazing. Tom Igoe recommended a good way for me to mount my servo motors by using included metal screws with the servo motors to these wood planks. Now, I just need to staple chimes in place, mount a headboard to the front, and plant my arduino and breadboard to the back.
TweetChime Website: Interaction is in place. Can tweak more with JAVAscript, CSS to make it more pretty but the basic interaction is there. Updated the Twitter parsing so friends and family don’t have to use previously formatted message (ex: @tweetchime 65 #tweetchime). Now, they can send a brief message that cues the melodies like this: “@tweetchime [thinking of you]“. So far, I have coded messages such as thinking of you, holla, congratulations, and missing you.
Arduino Coding: Unfortanately, the servo library I was using can only handle up to 3 servomotors. After testing the 4th servo motor, the TweetChime started acting up with servo motors working erratically, out of order, and sometimes randomly without input from my website. Not good. So, I have to redo Arduino coding to use PULSE method (with MILLIS) and not use the servo library.
What happens when you give 5 ITP students a camera to shoot in New York City? A complete mashup involving slasher horror, ninjas, film noir, and a giant Japanese TV mascot. Purely an exercise for our own enjoyment, I don’t expect Hollywood to come knocking anytime soon.
Equipment: with a Panasonic HD camera, edited in Final Cut Pro. Domo-kun costume made by Mindy Tchieu.
For my web development final, I knew I wanted to pursue my interests in social media, interactive design, and multimedia. I’m pretty interested in technology that helps bring people together over the web to communicate/interact. So, how can I make it fun?
FireChat is an interactive video website that serves as a hub for friends to deliver greeting card messages. Rather then have friends sign a paper card, why not have an electronic card where your friends can all personally deliver a video message to your intended recipient on 1 screen? Go to the website. Sign in. Create an e-card page. Upload your video message. Invite your friends and family to your e-card webpage so that they can upload their video messages too! When you’re ready, you can email your video-card recipient and they will get to see everyone’s well-wishes on 1 page in video! You know how some people hate having to sign cards? Sometimes, it’s easier to just say what you want outloud. Don’t worry, unlike handwritten notes, you can just re-record your message till you get it right.
