THINGM NEWSLETTER, JANUARY 31, 2011

* ThingM January Newsletter 2011! *

 

CONTENTS

 

– Awesome projects on our blog

 

– We’re on Alibaba!

 

– Jameco’s ThingM Review

 

– Glowpull, a new ThingM technology sketch

 

– Mike on the design of digital objects

 

– Unsubscribe

 

 

 

AWESOME PROJECTS ON OUR BLOG

 

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We have some wonderful BlinkM projects posted to our ThingM blog this month!

 

DrumKit was the result of a semester of design and prototyping as part

of a product design course at Rensselaer. A collaboration between

Anasha Cummings, Joe DiLuzio, and Dan Zollman DrumKit is meant to

encourage the user to explore music, math, programming, electronics,

and acoustics.

 

blog.thingm.com/2011/01/thingm-project-feature-blinkm-in-drumkit/

 

 

 

David Enoch has been making handmade lanterns for years. Switching

from halogen and xenon bulbs to ThingM BlinkMs, he was thrilled to

discover that they added a whole new character to the lanterns, as

well as the space where they were hung.

 

blog.thingm.com/2011/01/thingm-project-feature-blinkm-in-the-lantern/

 

 

 

Jisu Choi and Matt Kizu from Art Center designed “Books with

Personality”. The goal of their project was to create animism in an

object using BlinkM’s. They worked with three books and accentuated

the titles character and were able to develop each personality in

unique way. This experiment came close to becoming a kind of

“psychoanalysis” of an object that explored themes of ego,

vulnerability, intellect, and self-awareness.

 

blog.thingm.com/2011/01/thingm-project-feature-books-with-personality/

 

 

 

All of these projects, plus many more, are on our blog: blog.thingm.com

 

 

 

ALIBABA

 

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We’re also proud to announce that ThingM products are now available on

Alibaba, one of the premier sources of manufactured products in the

world! Please visit our company profile and view our products in a

new way!

 

www.alibaba.com/member/us108809485.html

 

 

 

JAMECO THINGM REVIEW:

 

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Jameco, a new ThingM distributor, wrote a wonderful review of ThingM

products! A snippet and link to the article are below!

 

“It’s called the BlinkM Smart LEDs by ThingM. These LEDs

(Light-Emitting Diodes) are much cooler than your conventional

incandescent light bulbs. These LEDs can be programmed to flash, fade,

flicker, and glow to any color combination your heart desires. No

programming experience required. Just plug it directly into an Arduino

microcontroller, a BASIC Stamp microcontroller, or a LinkM USB

Controller and you are ready to light up the night!”

 

www.jameco.com/Jameco/content/blinkled.html

 

 

 

GLOWPULL

 

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Occasionally, we decide to explore an idea to the point of making

functioning prototypes. Last year we decided to explore the notion of

decorative consumer products for the home to better understand the

design possibilities of ubiquitous computing. After many months of

playing with capacitive sensing and commissioning custom fabrication

in Milan, Italy we now have a page on our site documenting one of our

ideas: Glowpull, a cabinet knob that glows when you touch it. You can

read about it and see pictures here:

 

thingm.com/sketches/glowpull.html

 

 

 

MIKE ON THE DESIGN OF DIGITAL OBJECTS

 

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Mike was invited to present at Microsoft’s Social Computing Symposium

and wrote a presentation on how ubiquitous computing technology will

change the shape of consumer products. You can see and download the

whole thing here:

 

orangecone.com/archives/2011/01/life_in_the_pre.html

Posted in January 2011