Tattooing

This is the outcome I submitted for the Tattooing project for IDAT107. I have also included the description i wrote to acompany it so enjoy!



Well this my submission to the Tattooing Project. First of all i chose to take a photo of my left hand because I do not really use it for anything at all so thought I would use it for once.
Anyway onto the main description. My palm and thumb hold the most important facts about me. I did this because the palm and thumb, to me, are the most important parts of the hand. This is also where i put the names of the people that are the most important people in my life. This is because the palm is what you use to grip onto stuff you want to hold close.
I used the index finger to list the things I want my future to have. I did this because the index finger is the finger most people use to point at something and indicate direction. The latter being the most important because it relates to my future and the direction I want it to go.
Thirdly I used my middle finger to list things i dislike. This is because the middle finger is the finger I, and probably many others, would use if I wanted to show someone/something distain. So it was logicial to display my dislikes on that finger.
For the ring finger I decided I would list the things I do like. Mainly because you cannot have a list of things you dislike and not have a list of things you do like alongside it. But also because it is where a wedding ring would go and the woman I marry should know by that time what things I like.
Finally I used the pinky finger to list characteristics I think i have and the type of person I believe I am. I mainly did this because I had not already listed them but also because the pinky is a finger I believe, due to its small size, many people do not take notice of until looked at closesly. I think that this relates to peoples personality traits. For example people would not know that I am easy to get along with until they meet me and get to know me better.
I used little colour with my image because I believe that all of the facts are just as big a part of me as eachother. I only changed the colour of my name so that it stands out as being the most important fact about me that people should know. I also changed the colour of the word green, for logical reasons, and Plymouth Argyle because they wear green so nothing special there! I did not really use angles to represent anything. I changed them to meet the brief and so they fit on my hand in an interesting way. Finally I changed the size of some font to represent that I believe them to be slightly more important for people to know than the rest of the facts. I also did this so that, once again, they fit on the image of my hand.

Projection Idea

Well I have now researched Bluetooth and Bluetooth tracking which is the main aim of mine and Jon's project. However I have not yet considered the projection element of the module. Having found out about the technology I think it is definitely possible for us to be able to track people's location along a street and project that onto a space. For example we can project a birds eye view of the street and whenever a Bluetooth signal is detected a dot will appear on that street. The best example of this would be to link you to some work Jon has done using 3D Modelling. This Post shows the type of thing that I think we can project onto our space however maybe more 2D than 3D because I think 3D may be a bit out of our depth. The tricky part is getting it all to work but I am sure we can find this out in time.

Thats all for now folks.

SPOPOS

Well it seems all that time spent on youtube has paid off. From the video that I posted in my last blog post I have found the website of a project called SPOPOS. It was this project that created the Tag-along technology. I have found their website Here. It is well worth checking out because it links back to our project idea of Bluetooth tracking.

Bluetooth Tracking Video

Again another video I found on youtube. This one is a short clip about something called Tag-along. The video description says: Tag-along is a service provided for travelers in Copenhagen Airport. It allows friends to see the position of a person inside the building. The technology is based on bluetooth tracking of mobile units.

In this example the Dad is able to follow his Daughter's signal and see where she is and help guide her to a part of the airport.

Bluetooth Explained in Video Form

Whilst browsing youtube I managed to find this video which explains Bluetooth probably better than I ever could. Enjoy!

Product Found

Belkin Bluetooth USB Adapter * Class 1; v1.2 100m

This is exactly the type of thing we are looking for. It is a class 1 adapter so has the maximum distance possible. This one ranges to 100m which would be ideal when placed along a street with a couple of others. However the 100m range is dependent upon the environment, number of users and other wireless devices within immediate proximity because if there are a lot of obstacles it will limit its abilty to pick up Bluetooth signals.

Its specs are:
* Adds Bluetooth v1.2 wireless technology to your USB PC or notebook
* Improved voice application function over v1.1
* Offers compatibility with any Bluetooth v1.1 and v1.2-compliant device
* Installs easily with Plug-and-Play convenience
* Allows you to work at distances of up to 100 metres
* Backwards compatible with Bluetooth v1.1
* 2-Year Manufacturer's Warranty and Free Technical Support

Source: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Bluetooth-Adapter-Class-v1-2/dp/B0009GV3M4

Bluetooth Adapters

I have since found out the official name of the gadget that picks up Bluetooth signals and they are called adapters. They can be built into an electronic product such as a mobile phone or purchased separately. A stand-alone Bluetooth adapter is a USB key that has the hardware and software necessary to communicate with other Bluetooth devices.
Many USB Bluetooth adapters are available however you are warned that older, pre-2003, Bluetooth adapters have limited services. Such devices can link computers with Bluetooth, but they do not offer much in the way of services that modern adapters do. These adapters are broken down into 3 classes, class 1, class 2 and believe it or not class 3. The different classes relate to the distance that the adapter's signal goes. Class 1 is the best and can range up to 100m whilst class 3 only offer a short distance.

Below is an image of one of these adapters.

Combined Stonehouse Maps

As you may have noticed below I have mapped several things on a map of Stonehouse and we were asked to make a combined group map so here is mine and Jon's.



On the image you can see a small key. Just to go over that. My yellow star-type shapes map the activity going on in certain areas in Stonehouse. The more lines there are in the star the more activity is going on there. Jon's circles that you can see indicate attractiveness of an area. The colours of the circles range from green which is good to red which is bad. Also the thicker the circle is, the larger its impact.

Bluetooth Tracking

In an earlier post I mentioned that mine and Jon's project will be using Bluetooth so decided I would look into things that are possible with using bluetooth. One option is Bluetooth tracking.
Locating several Bluetooth signals is easy with a typical mobile phone because you can just turn your phone on and it will pick up a Bluetooth signals from phones within a certain radius. But it is this radius which limits this because to track a certain device we would have to follow the person whose signal it is and that would look very odd indeed! So we would have to use something with a far bigger radius if we were to achieve a better result.
Of course we are not looking to track someone wherever they go we simply want to monitor a small area of Stonehouse, most likely to be a street. We would then be able to tell what direction people are walking down the street because we could tell how far away the signal is getting and whether it is getting closer to our tracking device or further away.

Bluetooth

Seeing as me and Jon decided our project would be based on Bluetooth and picking Bluetooth signals from mobile phones I decided it would be wise to do some research on it.
Wikipedia defines Bluetooth like this:

Bluetooth is an open wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances (using short length radio waves) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs). It was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect several devices, overcoming problems of synchronization.

The idea we had was for something to pick up bluetooth signals from along a street or similar area and then have them displayed somewhere. I had the idea that incorporated the website part that Shaun wants us to include in our projects. Once these bluetooth signals were picked up, and the names of the devices were on a sort of database, they could be displayed on a website and someone can then mess about with how that name is displayed on the projector. For example change the font and font size before it is projected out. The idea is sort of something like this:


(From the about page of This Website)

Thats all for now. I will update once more research is done or if I find something useful that is worth posting about.

Rhetoric - The Art of Argument and Persuasion

The rhetoric is a powerful literacy form to argue and persuade people towards your way of thinking.
The three modes of rhetoric are:
Ethos
Ethos is an appeal to the authority of a person. If someone important or better qualified says something it will be far more powerful than if someone less important and less qualified said it.

Pathos
Pathos is an appeal to the emotions of the audience reading/listening to something.

Logos
Logos is where someone uses logic to backup what they are saying.

There are also the 5 cannons (aka the process) to make an argument. These are:
Invention
Coming up with ways to get across information that has been found out.

Arrangement
Getting together your presentation that you will use to persuade your audience.

Style & Presentation
The way in which your presentation is layed out and written. For example using the correct and most effective vocabulary.

Memory
Using mnemonics to help the delivery of information.

Delivery
Getting accross your information in a clear and understandable way.

Of course you can also use literacy tools such as Alliteration, Methaphor, Irony and many many others to help get your argument accross.

Media

So we've mentioned the Social Media in this post. But what exactly is The Media? Well I define the media as a two part operation. It is both a form of information but also a form of communicating this information. Forms of Media that are communication would be television, radio, books, radio and of course the internet and forms of media that are conveyed using these methods would be the news, music & film, novals and adverts amongst many others.

However once again, like the social, it is still very difficult to explain but this is what I believe the media to be so hopefully this will give people an insight into what the media is.

The Social

What is the social? Wikipedia defines social as:

"A characteristic of living organisms (humans in particular, though biologists also apply the term to populations of other animals). It always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary."

Which is probably the closest I could ever get to defining it myself. I do know however that the world revolves very much around the social. I mean even today we have the Social Media that involves networking websites such as facebook and twitter and other examples such as this very blog.
Wikpedia says that Social media can be said to have three components
1. Concept (art, information, or meme).
2. Media (physical, electronic, or verbal).
3. Social interface (intimate direct, community engagement, social viral, electronic broadcast or syndication, or other physical media such as print).
and that common forms of social media include:
* Concepts, slogans, and statements with a high memory retention quotient, that excite others to repeat.
* Grass-Roots direct action information dissemination such as public speaking, installations, performance, and demonstrations.
* Electronic media with 'sharing', syndication, or search algorithm technologies (includes internet and mobile devices).
* Print media, designed to be re-distributed.

I must be honest and say I am not sure what to write about the Social as it is a very complex thing to talk about. It is seen as a very fuzzy concept where there are several definitions and directions people can go to talk about it. Hopefully this blog post will give others an insight into the social and social media.

A bio about myself containing links to other things

Hello I am Tom. My full name is Thomas Lee Saunders and I was born in Redhill Hospital in Surrey on the 22nd February. My family and me moved to Plymouth when I was 10 and I now consider Plymouth my "proper" home. Before we moved to Plymouth I attended two schools called Langshott and Yattendon. In Plymouth I attended Dunstone Primary and Plymstock Secondary. I am now a student at Plymouth University studying Multimedia Production & Technology. My hobbies include Football and other sports. However Football is my favourite and I am a Plymouth Argyle fan. I also enjoy watching films and my favourite is Pulp Fiction, which was directed by Quentin Tarantino coincidently my favourite director.