As stated by Roy Want and colleagues in 1993 in their paper that describes "The Active Badge Location System" "there will always be some days when for whatever reason somebody does not wish to be located. The location system tracks badges and NOT people. Anybody wearing a badge can remove it and le...
Spectrum range and human activities
This colorful diagram depicts the allocations of frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum in the US. It's stunning to see how revealing the comparison between different media/communication system and the spectrum range they "inhabit". For instance, blue is “tv broadcasting". Navigation is very ...
The sociality of the play setting
In People, places, and play: player experience in a socio-spatial context, De Kort and Ijsselsteijn (Computers in Entertainment (CIE), 6(2), April/June 2008) discuss the "situatedness" of digital gaming. That is to say, the socio-spatial contingencies of the player experience. Of interest here is t...
A matter of surface
When you can't use a surface, bring another one that fit your needs. Seen in Geneva this morning. ...
User experience of potentiometer in gaming
An interesting add-on for the Nintendo DS is this lovely potentiometer by Taito, somewhat reminiscent from paddle controller. Using a geared potentiometer actuation mechanism, the user experience is quite basic with brick-games such as Arkanoid. Rotating that sole button is intriguing and quite sm...
From speculative meals to design
A one-day trip to Paris in the TGV gave me plenty of time to skim through Speculative visions and imaginary meals: Food and the environment in (post-apocalyptic) science fiction films by Jean P. Retzinger (Cultural Studies Vol. 22, Nos. 3-4, May-July 2008, pp. 369-390). The paper interestingly addr...
Spontaneous kid play activities with cell-phones
Yet another interesting reference for a project about children and mobile gaming devices (ranging from the Nintendo DS to cell phones): In the hands of children: exploring the use of mobile phone functionality in casual play settings by a swedish team of researchers: Petra Jarkievich, My Frankhamma...
Urban jigsaw
Mismatch poetry in Geneva. ...
WASD, ESDF, IJKL et al
WASD according to the Wikipedia: "WASD is a set of four keys on a QWERTY or QWERTZ computer keyboard which mimics the inverted-T configuration of the arrow keys. These keys are often used to control the player character's movement in computer games. W/S control forward and backward and A/D control...
"Designed by an engineer"
The city of Lausanne is very proud to have the first swiss subway system (opening very soon). After two years of constructions, some new urban elements are appearing and it's funny to see the pride of the persons who took care of that. See for example this stunning sticker that is pervasive around ...