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The Sociable Pint at Allen Street Hardware - 11/30/09 »
Jul
24
2009

Progress in Photos

breadboard circuit

The very first prototype of the circuit.
CAD design
The original 3D CAD design of the original module casing.
prototypes
In order to test the capabilities of the sensors and wireless network, I experimented with few basic versions of the final circuit.
empty citcuit boards
After I was satisfied with the preliminary testing and circuit design, I sent out the circuit board to be printed.
circuit boards
This is what the circuit looked like after I soldered on all of the components. Because I have to cram so many components underneath a little pint glass, I settled on a 3 tier design.
completed circuit
The completed circuit securely fitted together.
3 glasses
The first three glasses.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 2:19 pm and is filed under circuit design, documentation, lab, package design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  • What is it?

    The Sociable Pint investigates the use of networked objects, not to further an impersonal trajectory of media, but to encourage and augment face-to-face conversation.

    Through the introduction of Pint-to-Pint (P2P) networking, bar glasses become social objects themselves, mapping themselves onto the existing network of people, in turn inserting a new layer of sociability within the space.

    By networking pint glasses capable of sensing, recording, and interpreting gestural data, the glasses can collectively provide direct intervention onto the social fabric within the bar space.

  • Why?

    Sociable media have introduced a shift in how we communicate by providing more intuitive technological interfaces. But as these technologies provide a new salience within existing social frameworks and appropriate the practice of face-to-face conversation toward new media platforms it becomes imperative to not only question sociable media's effect on face-to-face conversation, but to design sociable media which move in the opposite direction: to encourage and augment face-to-face conversation.

  • How?

    Sensors embedded within each glass collect data indicative of how each glass is being used. Among other actions, the glasses can sense if they are being held, if they are being "cheersed," how they are being tilted, if they are being ignored, as well as their relative proximity to other glasses, etc. Through the interpretation of sensor data, each glass has the ability to send information via wireless transceivers to the other glasses in order to gain access to the entire system of networked pint glasses.

    In addition to reciprocating information among the glasses, each glass expresses itself through an RGB LED embedded in each glass. Glasses which are used in similar ways, glasses which are in close proximity of each other, and glasses which are "cheersed" together exhibit behaviors intentionally designed to induce conversation between the bar patrons.

    Data from the entire population of pint glasses is collected by a central computer. Images representing the interpretation of this data are displayed onto the televisions within the bar, providing additional feedback to the bar patrons correlating to the gestural culture of the bar space.

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