Danish art collective Illutron, who we mentioned earlier this week, has another video showing a cool project that might be described as mated geocache boxes that direct participants to find the other box. As fun as this project is, even better is the strategy on Sony-Ericsson‘s part to create a buzz by giving hackers toys to play with.
When were asked if we would like to experiment with the phones as a part of a larger promotion, we thought it would be a great opportunity to show how the end user is not a mere consumer, but someone who can use the products in new, unexpected and unintended ways. We truly believe that products should be developed with that idea in mind. The Android platform proved to be a great stepping stone in that direction. During the workshop we managed to use the phones in multiple ways, by taking advantage of the embedded technologies like: GPS, Compass, Wifi, GSM/3, Accelerometers, touch screen and connecting them to the Arduino platform.
As part of the dialogue with Sony Ericsson, we asked that all the video documentation and source code be released under creative commons. We’ve asked this so our process can be a part of a larger contribution to the ongoing investigation into the pairing of mobile phones with Arduino. Further, we’ve forwarded our solutions for connecting phones to Arduino with USB host shields and the new Arduino ADK Mega board via processing to the larger Arduino team. They will publish our small contribution to the enhancement of communication between Arduino and Android to a generic library with multiple solutions (ADK, ADB and bluetooth).
(Incidentally, gadget makers, great publicity to drop a ton of product on a hackerspace and film the result, just sayin’!)
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