Ben At Work

In case you missed today’s broadcast from the Institute of Play…

ben — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:31:25 +0000

Here’s the link to the archived version of the panel discussion I participated in this morning (along with awesome people like Don Miller, Kylie Peppler, Syed Salahuddin, and Toni Pizza), covering how to engage kids in learning through DIY and physical computing activities.

Creatively Computing: How To Help Students Understand Everyday Technologies Through DIY Tinkering | Institute of Play.

I’ll be live on the interwebs this Wednesday!

ben — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 16:36:06 +0000

I’ve been invited by the Institute of Play in NYC to be on a live-over-the-internet panel discussion of why DIY tinkering and physical computing is important for children:

“Join Playtime Online Wednesday, March 6 from 12–1PM EST to learn about physical computing and why it’s important for young people to think creatively, critically, and iteratively.”

I’ll be joined on the panel some great folks, including ITP alums (and buddies of mine) Don Miller and Syed Salahuddin, as well as Kylie Peppler, who’s heading up the Make2Learn initiative out of the University of Indiana.

More on the webinar here: http://www.instituteofplay.org/awsm/playtime-online/creatively-computing-how-diy-tinkering-helps-students-understand-everyday-technologies/

Hope you can tune in!

Video from Invited Talk at Georgia Tech

ben — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 02:12:36 +0000

If, for some reason, you want to watch me talk for an hour, here’s a link to the lecture I gave at Georgia Tech as part of the Nokia Invited Lecture Series on Mobile and Future Technologies.

And while I’m at it, I’d like to again thank Tom Jenkins and Sarah Grey for being such excellent hosts during my stay in Atlanta. The Digital Media and HCI programs are filled with an extremely high caliber of individuals making amazing work. And the food in Atlanta is delicious!

UCube at the Denver Art Museum

ben — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:57:04 +0000

A while back (July 2012), the Craft Technology Lab, including myself, presented work at the Denver Art Museum as part of Untitled #49: Ideate, one in a series of events hosted by the museum. It was a blast getting to see the newest version of the UCube out in public, and in front of an ‘art’ crowd. It was especially satisfying to stand back and watch people explore and interact with it on their own. The reason for the post now is that (thanks to a friend), I found the link to the flickr set which has a few pics of me and the UCube that I’ve decided to share. Enjoy.

Evaluating Accessibility in Fabrication Tools for Children | DIYAbility

ben — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:45:24 +0000

My colleagues John Schimmel (of DIYAbility and NYU’s ITP), Jaymes Dec (of Marymount School, formerly of GreenFab), and I are putting on a workshop as part of the ACM SIGCHI Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC), which will be in New York City this year.

We are currently accepting position papers for the workshop, so if accessibility, maker culture, or children’s fabrication are among your interests, please take a look at the page below. Thanks!

Evaluating Accessibility in Fabrication Tools for Children | DIYAbility.

Inventory · GitHub

ben — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:02:23 +0000

After several years and many requests, I have finally put up the code for the Equipment Inventory System I wrote for Eyebeam back in 2007 or so. I cleaned it up a *little* – mostly to remove all identifying info from the files. You use at your own risk (released under GPL v3).

Check it out at:

leducmills/Inventory · GitHub.

And if you try it out, I’d love to hear about it. If you find a bug, please post it to the GitHub issues page.

Thanks!

iPad/Arduino Pong

ben — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:43:27 +0000

Hardware Setup

This is a Pong application for the iPad that allows has the capability of switching between a normal, touch-based interaction and an Arduino, sensor based interaction. The Arduino mode requires an Arduino (obviously), as well as the RedPark Serial Cable, and the proper circuitry for whatever sensor you would like to control the paddle with. The app has two views: the Pong view, where the game is played, and a settings view, where the user can adjust the score needed to win, the AI difficulty, and the x and y speed of the ball. The user can also toggle whether sound effects are on, and toggle between normal and sensor-based gameplay.

The code is available on GitHub at: https://github.com/leducmills/iOS/tree/master/iPadPong%203

Autoponics mentioned in PopSci!

ben — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:43:33 +0000

Recently found this little article in PopSci mentioning the Autoponics project I worked on last semester at CU, as part of an Advanced Robotics Seminar. Neat!

NASA Habitat Competition Looks For Bioregenerative Space Greenhouses | Popular Science.

Eyebeam Art + Technology Center on Kickstarter

ben — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:40:24 +0000

My former colleagues at Eyebeam Art and Technology center in NYC have a Kickstarter campaign going, aimed at ‘Expanding Eyebeams Public Presence in Chelsea’ through the construction a new public bookstore / entrance / coffeeshop / presentation space. Eyebeam has been home to some amazing artists over the years, and helped foster and incubate some great ideas: the Free Art and Technology Lab guys got their footing at Eyebeam, as did Ayah Bdeir’s LittleBits, Dustyn Roberts wrote her book, Making Things Move, while in residence there, they helped supprt Steve Lambert and the Yes Men with the New York Times special edition project, Tahir Hemphill’s Hip-Hop Word Count, etc., etc.

Point is, if you can, you should help them out!

Expanding Eyebeams Public Presence in Chelsea by Eyebeam Art + Technology Center — Kickstarter.

3d-printed Business Card Holder

ben — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:01:12 +0000

After my new fancy business cards were done, I soon realized that I needed a business card holder to put them in. I’ve been using a rubber band and it just hasn’t been doing the trick well enough. I thought about modeling one and printing it out on the 3d printer, but then I realized that someone must have surely done this already. Lo and behold – ‘phooky’ had uploaded a design for a business card holder to Thingiverse (an online repository for 3d printable objects), and so I decided to test it out:

Pretty sweet I’d say – they fit together like a glove. Now I’m equipped for the back-to-back conventions I’m headed to this month (Eyeo and IDC).