Thanks go to Martin de Jode of the TOTeM team – via the TOTeM Blog.

Head over to TalesofThings.com to add your own object.

The post Things Talking to Things: The Internet of Things appeared first on Digital Urban.

Its simple to do, just sign up, upload a image of your building of choice (under 2mb) and add a story. Your building will then go live and your be able to add it to the architecture group. If you want you can also print out a QRCode that you can stick to the building allowing anyone to scan the code and add to the story/history of the building via the free iPhone/Android apps.

Your building will also be able to ‘Tweet’ everytime it is scanned or a new comment/story added, it will also become part of the ‘World of Things’ map – a place to view all the objects added so far to the site.

We are working on ways to make the objects more location aware and aware of near by objects, it could be interesting over the next few months to see how this develops. We look forward to seeing some of your buildings on the site and will sort out some sort of prize for the best stories…

You can start tagging anything and everything via talesofthings.com

The post Tag Architecture – A Call for Images and Stories of Buildings appeared first on Digital Urban.

As Wired states: The project has been tagging architecture for a few months. In one location in Chalk Farm, a wall that used to feature a piece from Banksy that has a tag that lets scanners see what the work looked like. The BBC’s Broadcasting House has also been covered in tags. In one Oxfam shop in Manchester, the project used RFID tags and QR codes to allow objects to be tagged with the memories of those who donated them.

Tales of the City starts off with a pre-placed tag at the historic heart of Shoreditch, St Leonard’s Church. From there you will be able to spot tags (QR codes) on Shoreditch High Street which you can add your own stories to, contributing to the growing network of tagged architecture.

This will enable people to form a personalised tour of London’s contemporary history through architecture. If you have an iPhone or an Android handset be sure to download our free app – talesofthings to enable you to leave comments on the QR codes, or create your own codes to put on your favourite buildings.

In order to take part simply download our free “talesofthings” app for your iPhone or Android and when you spot a code on a building scan the code to add your own memory such as what the building used to be, why it is important to you or perhaps it is simply a building you hate.

If you don’t have a smartphone you can still take part by visiting our website www.youtotem/talesofthecity where you can clip on the map and add comments to buildings which have been tagged.

Tales of the City is part of ‘TOTeM’ – a collaborative research project run by Edinburgh College of Art, Brunel University, University College London, University of Dundee and University of Salford. This project aims to find a new way of preserving social history – through people’s memories. People will be able to preserve their family/community history by “tagging” (labelling) their personal objects via our website www.talesofthings.com. Users will be able to attach memories to their objects in the form of video, text or audio, this will enable future generations to have a greater understanding of the object’s past. TOTeM will carry out its research initially through case studies with different community groups who are not included in a written history of our time but their experiences and memories are just as valuable.

Its simple to tag architecture and objects with memories – you simply upload a photo, give it a story and print a QRCode:

The project aims to offer a new way for people to place more value on their own objects in an increasingly disposable economy. As more importance is placed on the objects that are already parts of people’s lives it is hoped that family or friends may find new uses for old objects and encourage people to think twice before throwing something away.

If your in Shoreditch be sure to look out for the QRCodes, of course its not limited to Shoreditch, you can tag anything and everything with stories via http://www.talesofthings.com

The post Tales of the City: QRCodes, Architecture and Wired appeared first on Digital Urban.

As Wired states: The project has been tagging architecture for a few months. In one location in Chalk Farm, a wall that used to feature a piece from Banksy that has a tag that lets scanners see what the work looked like. The BBC’s Broadcasting House has also been covered in tags. In one Oxfam shop in Manchester, the project used RFID tags and QR codes to allow objects to be tagged with the memories of those who donated them.

Tales of the City starts off with a pre-placed tag at the historic heart of Shoreditch, St Leonard’s Church. From there you will be able to spot tags (QR codes) on Shoreditch High Street which you can add your own stories to, contributing to the growing network of tagged architecture.

This will enable people to form a personalised tour of London’s contemporary history through architecture. If you have an iPhone or an Android handset be sure to download our free app – talesofthings to enable you to leave comments on the QR codes, or create your own codes to put on your favourite buildings.

In order to take part simply download our free “talesofthings” app for your iPhone or Android and when you spot a code on a building scan the code to add your own memory such as what the building used to be, why it is important to you or perhaps it is simply a building you hate.

If you don’t have a smartphone you can still take part by visiting our website www.youtotem/talesofthecity where you can clip on the map and add comments to buildings which have been tagged.

Tales of the City is part of ‘TOTeM’ – a collaborative research project run by Edinburgh College of Art, Brunel University, University College London, University of Dundee and University of Salford. This project aims to find a new way of preserving social history – through people’s memories. People will be able to preserve their family/community history by “tagging” (labelling) their personal objects via our website www.talesofthings.com. Users will be able to attach memories to their objects in the form of video, text or audio, this will enable future generations to have a greater understanding of the object’s past. TOTeM will carry out its research initially through case studies with different community groups who are not included in a written history of our time but their experiences and memories are just as valuable.

Its simple to tag architecture and objects with memories – you simply upload a photo, give it a story and print a QRCode:

The project aims to offer a new way for people to place more value on their own objects in an increasingly disposable economy. As more importance is placed on the objects that are already parts of people’s lives it is hoped that family or friends may find new uses for old objects and encourage people to think twice before throwing something away.

If your in Shoreditch be sure to look out for the QRCodes, of course its not limited to Shoreditch, you can tag anything and everything with stories via http://www.talesofthings.com

The post Tales of the City: QRCodes, Architecture and Wired appeared first on Digital Urban.

Its a concept that takes a bit of time to take in, for example a wall in Camden Town, London, tweeted me last week when someone replayed its memories of having a Banksy painted on it. That wall is part of the Internet of Things via the project TalesofThings.

The best part is, its incredibly easy to add objects. You simply sign up at talesofthings.com and then take click on ‘add a thing’. This takes you to a form where you give your object a name, for a example ‘Andy’s Mug’ or ‘BBC Broadcasting House’ are some of things we have added so far. You then type in a short story, or tale, linked to that object and upload a photograph to the site.

Everything has a location so we are creating a ‘Geography of Everything’, a brave claim perhaps but one that develops a new a new kind of geography, the geography of things. Simply click on the map to set a location, your object will now become part of the ‘World of Things‘ map.

Thats it, your object will now become part of the Internet of Things and will be able to tweet, have new stories/tales added as its passed on, sold or interacted with. It is all part of a Social Web of Things or SWOT as its known.

Each thing created gets assigned a unique ‘qrcode’ which can be attached to your object. For example, we have attached a qrcode to our office here in CASA which visitors scan using our free iPhone app. This ‘virtual guest book’ allows our office to recall the story of CASA and the people that pass through our doors. You can print out your codes via the site and attach them to anything.

Any media can be added to you object, the clip below provides a glimpse of the system running via our recent link up with Oxfam via Future Everything, complete with the iPhone RFID reader:

Anything, anywhere can be tagged with any media, do take a look at the beta version of TalesofThings, we are very proud of the work and as the Ericsson Labs blog noted, this is really part of the social web of things, it will be trillions of tags around in a couple of years…

The post How to Add Anything to the Internet of Things: Creating the Geography of Everything appeared first on Digital Urban.

Its a concept that takes a bit of time to take in, for example a wall in Camden Town, London, tweeted me last week when someone replayed its memories of having a Banksy painted on it. That wall is part of the Internet of Things via the project TalesofThings.

The best part is, its incredibly easy to add objects. You simply sign up at talesofthings.com and then take click on ‘add a thing’. This takes you to a form where you give your object a name, for a example ‘Andy’s Mug’ or ‘BBC Broadcasting House’ are some of things we have added so far. You then type in a short story, or tale, linked to that object and upload a photograph to the site.

Everything has a location so we are creating a ‘Geography of Everything’, a brave claim perhaps but one that develops a new a new kind of geography, the geography of things. Simply click on the map to set a location, your object will now become part of the ‘World of Things‘ map.

Thats it, your object will now become part of the Internet of Things and will be able to tweet, have new stories/tales added as its passed on, sold or interacted with. It is all part of a Social Web of Things or SWOT as its known.

Each thing created gets assigned a unique ‘qrcode’ which can be attached to your object. For example, we have attached a qrcode to our office here in CASA which visitors scan using our free iPhone app. This ‘virtual guest book’ allows our office to recall the story of CASA and the people that pass through our doors. You can print out your codes via the site and attach them to anything.

Any media can be added to you object, the clip below provides a glimpse of the system running via our recent link up with Oxfam via Future Everything, complete with the iPhone RFID reader:

Anything, anywhere can be tagged with any media, do take a look at the beta version of TalesofThings, we are very proud of the work and as the Ericsson Labs blog noted, this is really part of the social web of things, it will be trillions of tags around in a couple of years…

The post How to Add Anything to the Internet of Things: Creating the Geography of Everything appeared first on Digital Urban.

In association with Oxfam and part of the Manchester Future Everything Festival (12th-15th May) we are putting the history back into objects with the Art Project: RememberMe.

At the Oxford Road branch of Oxfam in Manchester, TOTeM (Tales of Things and Electronic Memory) will be attaching stories to the things that people leave behind, and allow new owners to access them.

The Oxfam Shop is appealing for donations of all shapes and sizes that can be tagged with memories as part of the in-store exhibition. Oxfam manager Emma Cooney has asked people to “Help us be part of this exciting project. Anyone who wants to share their memories of the things they donate to the shop is welcome to take part. It’s entirely voluntary, but maybe a once treasured object you no longer want has a story that can be passed on to its new owner”.

The advent of digital tagging technology means that every new object in the future will be tagged and logged in a database accruing logistical information such as temperatures, prices, owners and transportation. The exhibition RememberMe introduces an opportunity to build an Internet of Old Things based upon stories not data. By attaching a barcode loaded with memories about the clothes and artefacts that visitors donate to the Whitworth Park branch of Oxfam, things will gain a social and cultural value.

Using scanners, delegates of Future Everything and the general public will be able to listen to memories and buy objects that come tagged with their very own story. We will have more on the ‘scanners’ soon – think iPhone RFID reader / Bluetooth Android device and with full details on how to make them yourself….

The RememberMe artwork is a collaborative project between TOTeM and Oxfam in Manchester which will be showcased at the Future Everything Festival (12-15 May 2010). During the time leading up to Future Everything (FE), a research assistant will be based in the shop and will ask people who drop things off to tell a brief story about one of the objects into a microphone: where they acquired it, what memories it brings back and any associated stories.

With their permission, this audio clip will be linked to an RFID tag and QR code. During the event, all items that have been tagged with a story will then join the shop’s stock. Visitors to the shop, including conference delegates will be invited to use our bespoke RFID readers, or their own smart phone to browse artefacts that are displayed amongst the many thousands of other objects.

Labels will highlight the RememberMe objects and once triggered, speakers located in the shop will replay the story, evoking ghosts of the past. Once tagged the objects are in the public domain for purchase by other members of the community, our iPhone apps will allow them to access the story for years to come.

You can tag your own objects, or indeed everything and anything via http://www.talesofthings.com complete with its own free iPhone app, Android is coming soon. We do have a tendency to get fired up over such things, but really this one is going to be good – http://www.talesofthings.com

The post RememberMe: Future Everything and the Internet of Things appeared first on Digital Urban.

In association with Oxfam and part of the Manchester Future Everything Festival (12th-15th May) we are putting the history back into objects with the Art Project: RememberMe.

At the Oxford Road branch of Oxfam in Manchester, TOTeM (Tales of Things and Electronic Memory) will be attaching stories to the things that people leave behind, and allow new owners to access them.

The Oxfam Shop is appealing for donations of all shapes and sizes that can be tagged with memories as part of the in-store exhibition. Oxfam manager Emma Cooney has asked people to “Help us be part of this exciting project. Anyone who wants to share their memories of the things they donate to the shop is welcome to take part. It’s entirely voluntary, but maybe a once treasured object you no longer want has a story that can be passed on to its new owner”.

The advent of digital tagging technology means that every new object in the future will be tagged and logged in a database accruing logistical information such as temperatures, prices, owners and transportation. The exhibition RememberMe introduces an opportunity to build an Internet of Old Things based upon stories not data. By attaching a barcode loaded with memories about the clothes and artefacts that visitors donate to the Whitworth Park branch of Oxfam, things will gain a social and cultural value.

Using scanners, delegates of Future Everything and the general public will be able to listen to memories and buy objects that come tagged with their very own story. We will have more on the ‘scanners’ soon – think iPhone RFID reader / Bluetooth Android device and with full details on how to make them yourself….

The RememberMe artwork is a collaborative project between TOTeM and Oxfam in Manchester which will be showcased at the Future Everything Festival (12-15 May 2010). During the time leading up to Future Everything (FE), a research assistant will be based in the shop and will ask people who drop things off to tell a brief story about one of the objects into a microphone: where they acquired it, what memories it brings back and any associated stories.

With their permission, this audio clip will be linked to an RFID tag and QR code. During the event, all items that have been tagged with a story will then join the shop’s stock. Visitors to the shop, including conference delegates will be invited to use our bespoke RFID readers, or their own smart phone to browse artefacts that are displayed amongst the many thousands of other objects.

Labels will highlight the RememberMe objects and once triggered, speakers located in the shop will replay the story, evoking ghosts of the past. Once tagged the objects are in the public domain for purchase by other members of the community, our iPhone apps will allow them to access the story for years to come.

You can tag your own objects, or indeed everything and anything via http://www.talesofthings.com complete with its own free iPhone app, Android is coming soon. We do have a tendency to get fired up over such things, but really this one is going to be good – http://www.talesofthings.com

The post RememberMe: Future Everything and the Internet of Things appeared first on Digital Urban.

Tales of Things is part of a research project called TOTeM that will explore social memory in the emerging culture of the Internet of Things. Researchers from across the UK have provided this site as a platform for users to add stories to their own treasured objects and to connect to other people who share similar experiences. This will enable future generations to have a greater understanding of the object’s past and offers a new way of preserving social history.

Content will depend on real people’s stories which can be geo-located through an on-line map of the world where participants can track their object even if they have passed it on. The object will also be able to update previous owners on its progress through a live Twitter feed which will be unique to each object entered into the system.

The project will offer a new way for people to place more value on their own objects in an increasingly disposable economy. As more importance is placed on the objects that are already parts of people’s lives it is hoped that family or friends may find new uses for old objects and encourage people to think twice before throwing something away.

The Tales of Things site is located within the emerging technical and cultural phenomenon known as ‘The Internet of Things’. The term is attributed to the Auto-ID research group at MIT in 1999, and was explored in depth by the International Telecommunication Union who published a report bearing the same name at the United Nations net summit in 2005. The term, ‘Internet of things’, refers to the technical and cultural shift that is anticipated as society moves towards a ubiquitous form of computing in which every device is ‘on’, and every device is connected in some way to the Internet. The specific reference to ‘things’ refers to the concept that every new object manufactured will also be able to part of this extended Internet, because they will have been tagged and indexed by the manufacturer during production. It is also envisaged that consumers will have the ability to ‘read’ the tags through the use of mobile ‘readers’ and use the information connected to the object, to inform their purchase, use and disposal of an object.
 

The implications for the Internet of Things upon production and consumption are tremendous, and will transform the way in which people shop, store and share products. The analogue bar code that has for so long been a dumb encrypted reference to a shop’s inventory system, will be superseded by an open platform in which every object manufactured will be able to be tracked from cradle to grave, through manufacturer to distributor, to potentially every single person who comes into contact with it following its purchase. Further still, every object that comes close to another object, and is within range of a reader, could also be logged on a database and used to find correlations between owners and applications. In a world that has relied upon a linear chain of supply and demand between manufacturer and consumer via high street shop, the Internet of Things has the potential to transform how we will treat objects, care about their origin and use them to find other objects.

If every new object is within reach of a reader, everything is searchable and findable, subsequently the shopping experience may never be the same, and the concept of throwing away objects may become a thing of the past as other people find new uses for old things.

TOTeM is funded through a £1.39 million research grant from the Digital Economy Research Councils UK. The project is a collaboration between Brunel University, Edinburgh College of Art, University College London, University of Dundee and the University of Salford.

You can download the press release from here

The post Tales of Things Goes Live – Its a Memory Thing appeared first on Digital Urban.

Tales of Things is part of a research project called TOTeM that will explore social memory in the emerging culture of the Internet of Things. Researchers from across the UK have provided this site as a platform for users to add stories to their own treasured objects and to connect to other people who share similar experiences. This will enable future generations to have a greater understanding of the object’s past and offers a new way of preserving social history.

Content will depend on real people’s stories which can be geo-located through an on-line map of the world where participants can track their object even if they have passed it on. The object will also be able to update previous owners on its progress through a live Twitter feed which will be unique to each object entered into the system.

The project will offer a new way for people to place more value on their own objects in an increasingly disposable economy. As more importance is placed on the objects that are already parts of people’s lives it is hoped that family or friends may find new uses for old objects and encourage people to think twice before throwing something away.

The Tales of Things site is located within the emerging technical and cultural phenomenon known as ‘The Internet of Things’. The term is attributed to the Auto-ID research group at MIT in 1999, and was explored in depth by the International Telecommunication Union who published a report bearing the same name at the United Nations net summit in 2005. The term, ‘Internet of things’, refers to the technical and cultural shift that is anticipated as society moves towards a ubiquitous form of computing in which every device is ‘on’, and every device is connected in some way to the Internet. The specific reference to ‘things’ refers to the concept that every new object manufactured will also be able to part of this extended Internet, because they will have been tagged and indexed by the manufacturer during production. It is also envisaged that consumers will have the ability to ‘read’ the tags through the use of mobile ‘readers’ and use the information connected to the object, to inform their purchase, use and disposal of an object.
 

The implications for the Internet of Things upon production and consumption are tremendous, and will transform the way in which people shop, store and share products. The analogue bar code that has for so long been a dumb encrypted reference to a shop’s inventory system, will be superseded by an open platform in which every object manufactured will be able to be tracked from cradle to grave, through manufacturer to distributor, to potentially every single person who comes into contact with it following its purchase. Further still, every object that comes close to another object, and is within range of a reader, could also be logged on a database and used to find correlations between owners and applications. In a world that has relied upon a linear chain of supply and demand between manufacturer and consumer via high street shop, the Internet of Things has the potential to transform how we will treat objects, care about their origin and use them to find other objects.

If every new object is within reach of a reader, everything is searchable and findable, subsequently the shopping experience may never be the same, and the concept of throwing away objects may become a thing of the past as other people find new uses for old things.

TOTeM is funded through a £1.39 million research grant from the Digital Economy Research Councils UK. The project is a collaboration between Brunel University, Edinburgh College of Art, University College London, University of Dundee and the University of Salford.

You can download the press release from here

The post Tales of Things Goes Live – Its a Memory Thing appeared first on Digital Urban.