Energy consumption at DIS

Interesting work from Goldsmitths group.

Apparently switching off doesn't necessary mean less carbon is consumed as less electricity is generated. They suggested on Earth day when people switched things off that the grid just had a surplus.

To get energy reduced you need to balance energy consumption against generation.  Global co-ordination issue.

They came up with device which shows your energy consumption against mix of generation (wind,nuclear,coal,gas).

Also showed video of Jon/Yvonne/OU's Tidy street project.

Urban Informatics

Urban Informatics

Urban computing and urban informatics seems to be the buzzword at DIS2012. And I came across this link.

Urban computing seems to be about people who put digital stuff ( like big displays) into the urban environment.

If I was doing a GPS for dementia system

I would develop a thing which had the form factor of a walking stick not a walkman.

 This way the person with dementia would not have to remember it, they would need it to leave the building.


A walking stick is not a large badge saying 'I'm useless or mug me I'm frail'


The recharger would be the umbrella stand - so you don't have to remember to recharge and you get a signal when someone is at home.


It would have a 'I'm lost' button and it would vibrate when pointing the way home.


It would have a 'HELP'/Alarm button to set off in case to call panic


It would use GPS ring fence to warn careers if the person was outside a 'known' area.


You could give it to someone pre-demientia so you could get used to it as 'familiar' before they lost time.


It might have a 'twist' switch which would switch off GPS tracking for privacy.


The display would show a fuzzy boundary showing the certainty of the fix.