This blog will focus on ubiquitous computing, and the vessels for communication and information, object tracking (accountability), being constantly connected (possibly physically); though, through my blog I will be gearing myself up to creating something grown from my research, I want to take step back and not create another blackberry ducktaped together with the proverbial gizmo attached. I strive for the new, an angle I love is: the consumer of the inherently pointless plastic, rubber, metallic gizmos now could be moulded (I feel out of necessity) into consumers of information, though freedom can't be disregarded, but this would subsequently lead to a more knowledgeable society in a utopia, therefore it would come out of human choice. How? is a question I am studying, though its an argument that in certain sectors it is happening and has been for a while, like online video games, facebook, myspace, flickr, youtube etc... though in the current structure of home gizmo computers all consumers themselves (of energy) its notsustainable, information must have no detrimental impact on the physical world. To dust of a mild obsession from my youth; Pokemon without the cartridges, and masses of plush toys, cards and gizmo's is an example of the desire for information (data) virtual blogjects. No idea why but i wanted all those virtual creatures, I wasn't going to go in to field and catch real animals, or to the toystore and collect the plush toys, the data is what was important, and the minimal interaction you could have with 8bits, was great.
A perfect piece of technology I have is my old casio solar/battery calculator, does everything i want it too, got me through some sticky exam questions 10 years ago, and I'm still using it now, the sun is still there topping up the battery, and when the light is dim the battery is there, though i know that someday the battery will fail, it hasn't to date, and when it does I can replace it (though lithium isn't something you'd want in your compost). And yes its ABS and full of very dated electronics but it does fulfill its function, though a multi purpose wi-fi, bluetooth, RFID'd, processing, video processing, I can only imagine would need maybe one extra solar cell or battery, though in the future... Ubiquitous computing needs to embed as many casio fx-85WA's into walls and floors and tables everywhere, well not exactly... but the principle of it.
Another angle I want to look into is the sub-cultures that might stem from the ubiquitous computing age, using geocaching as an outline, I feel there is a chance of communities and cultures struggling against their privacy, to give an example a possible outcome is the creator
keeping information for a certain group or him/herself, ubiquitous computing by nature is desiring this information, secrecy of information will form quite diverse and interesting communal structures, it will almost certainly involve its own ubiquitous system of privacy. Still getting my head around it, and what I'm trying to articulate.
For me, the future of a product designer isn't creating a singular thing, but a system of things, emotion, interaction & data that are harmonious with each other and their environment.
