Open Source "socially connected machines"

There is certainly something to be said about social technology.

While there are certainly valid concerns about the world we live in and its "technology zombies", at the very least, this behaviour is driven by our deep, human need to be socially relevant.

While many people experience their world with their heads down, working with their technology such as laptops, tablets, and phones, some people are working on technologies that are helping us be more social, without actually suspending our relevant and direct contact with others.

In some sectors, this is called augmented reality.  We'll be discussing a different framework than the visual aspects that many are focused on, in this article.

While many augmented reality technologies try to project information and inanimate objects into our field of view, there are other technologies that are focused on the immersion of our other senses, and even our presence.

Some technologies, like GPS, can tell us exactly where we are physically, on our world.  Or more accurately, in space.  Using this same technology, we can tell where a parcel is, in transit from one location to another.  These technologies are quite narrow in context, though.  That context being, the specific location of a device.

But what if the context of the object was much larger?  What if the object were a human, with all the relevant contexts, unique to that individual?

The thing with people is, we know our unique contexts, and we may know at least some of the unique contexts of other people, such as our family members and good friends, or perhaps a group of people with common interests.  With that information, we can create an environment for those people, that is unique, relevant, and appealing for them.

If you provided this real time information context to a smart machine, it might be labelled a "socially connected machine".

As described in a wired article, one such group of people has done exactly that.  As part of a college project, a system was built that would create a playlist of music that was unique to a group of individuals in a room, and would change the playlist as people left the room and as new people entered the room.  Thereby creating a dynamic, individually relevant music environment.

The group moved on from that project, to form a company called Technical Machine (aka Tessel).  They open sourced some of the hardware that they could, as well as the project, itself.  They now provide hardware and support for those who want to take this type of technology into their own, unique environments, for their own, unique contexts.

In other words, they are helping people create smart environments, filled with smart technologies.  With complete respect to Tessel, this technology is similar to Arduino, or even Raspberry Pi.  Their difference is, Tessel appears to be socially focused, with the technology providing a supporting role.  Whereas Arduino and Raspberry Pi appear to be more hardware focused, without defining the specific role the technology might play, within a context.

The Tessel board is quite nice, as it appears to be built on a very simple, modular framework.  Allowing for the plug in of boards that might hold wifi, bluetooth, climate, accelerometer, GPS, GPRS, or even RFID (and other) capabilities.  And the device is intended to be net connected, so as to be able to access context and relevant software in order to perform its expected duties.

One can imagine what this type of technology could do, not just to prototype, but to provide real time, real world, production solutions.  Of course, and again with complete respect to Tessel, there are potential downsides.

With all this proximity and information context available, it could be very easy to abuse a technology like this.  Certainly, there are many people who do not hold privacy as an important part of their life.  We might not be concerned with others knowing our location or what our preferences and tendencies are.  Yet there are those who hold privacy to a much higher regard.  It will be important to allow the participant in such technologies, the ability to disable features, or the device itself.  Or, they might want their information ONLY to be used in one case, without fear of that information being stored or shared, where others who weren't authorized to know that information, should not be able to obtain it.

Companies and organizations like Technical Machines have a lot to bring to enabling our world and our lives.  As we have been trying to do in the past, it will be increasingly important to be able to restrict what personal information is available to these technologies which might be exploited by sales and marketing companies or identity thieves.