Someone will be first to put artificial pets in space; why not NASA and the US of A? The watchdog, canary in a coal mine, and stress reducing potential of an artificial pet is potentially significant for astronaut health and productivity. Artificial pets have proven to give some of the positive aspects of a living pet. The time is coming when more and more people will live long-term in places like the space station and planetary bases where real pets can not survive.

I’ve been passionate about supporting space exploration as long as I can remember. This idea grabbed hold of me when I was in graduate school in 2006. I was inspired by the way the Tribbles on the original Star Trek TV show were so attractive to the crew of the Enterprise – and to the viewers, that that episode became the most popular of the series. At the same time I’ve always been struck by how the necessarily-cold aesthetic of the International Space Station is in need of humanizing.

If you think it is a good idea to cover a sphere with fur and test the idea of artificial pets on the International Space Station, contact Mark Micire, SPHERES Engineering Manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center, at http://www.deusexmachina.org, or any of the SPHERES team contacts at : http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/311.html

NASA/MIT S.P.H.E.R.E.S.

Three SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites) are up on the International Space Station right now waiting to be covered in green fur!

• Main site: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/311.html
• Darpa site: http://sphereswg.arc.nasa.gov
• MIT site: http://ssl.mit.edu/spheres/
• Smartphone usage recently: http://ti.arc.nasa.gov/news/iss-spheres-demo/and
• Android Cellbots software: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cellbots

PET RESEARCH

• Steve Yohanan’s PhD thesis, “The Haptic Creature: Social Human-Robot Interaction through Affective Touch.” http://yohanan.org/steve/projects/haptic-creature/
• Science Explains Wilson the Volleyball. Story on emotions related to Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway. New York Times, January 22, 2008, By John Tierney.
• “Simple behaviors elicit complex attachments.” Judith Donath, The Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior. http://smg.media.mit.edu/people/judith/jsd.writing.html
• Emotional Robot article in Space Daily. http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Emotional_Robot_Pets_999.html
• Article on the wonderful Nao robot’s emotional capabilities. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/09/nao-robot-develop-display-emotions
• Polson Enterprises Virtual Pets Research bibliography. http://www.virtualpet.com/vp/research/research.htm
• The Center For Disease Control (CDC) pet health benefits brief. http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/health_benefits.htm
• Pet Therapy article at the Mayo Clinic. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pet-therapy/MY02122

PROTOTYPE DESIGN IDEAS

I built a few prototypes in 2006 through 2008 while in graduate school at NYU. During that research I learned that MIT and NASA had built the SPHERES and my project went cold as I researched I how much time and energy that SPHERES took, and how well it was already being done. Every year though, I’d do a bit more research of ways to build a prototype because I love imagineering the idea of an artificial pet. I spent a lot of time imagineering a prototype that could be tested on a “vomit comet” plane http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_gravity_aircraft during bouts of reduced gravity, specifically the Zero Gravity Corporation’s research flights costing about $7000.00 http://www.gozerog.com/.

I spec’ed out everything from ducted fan jets in RC planes embedded in styrofoam spheres to Arduino-powered hexacopter platforms put onto a sphere http://www.diydrones.com and http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/ to repurposing DIY blimp kits http://www.instructables.com/id/Sub-Micro-Blimp/. But fans spin, and in zero gravity, that will also spin the machine holding the fan.

I also thought of using Piezo fans as tiny thrusters, because they don’t spin. http://www.piezo.com/prodfan0nav.html, http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/12/ge-dual-piezo-jets/

My favorite wacky idea was using three gyroscopes to stabilize a sphere and control its orientation, and then have a few thrusters to move it. I was inspired by a Stanford University project that is exploring what they call Exploration Hedgehogs that use three internal gyros http://www.stanford.edu/~pavone/niac.html. There exists a three-gyro experiment on the ISS using three CD players http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdAmEEAiJWo.

VIDEO CREDITS

Cat test in space: National Archives and Records Administration Record #68700, BIOASTRONAUTICS RESEARCH. 09/26/1947. http://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.68700

SPHERE Videos. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/spheres_smartphone.html

Woman on space station. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=155875341

To make this video I bought a Mega Ice Cream ball from LLBean and covered it with some green fur called Green Eyed Monster from Etsy. I suspended the ball on a bungy cord and fishing line, and then masked out the fishing lines in Final Cut X. The rest, I hope, is some kind of small blip in history.

Our hot water baseboard is still from a Peerless oil boiler that’s about 10 years old. It’s a good boiler, pretty efficient for its time. But it was also heating our residential hot water, and with not storage tank or electric hot water heater. All summer the boiler would fire when we took a shower or did the dishes. I thought about on-demand, but we only have propane, no natural gas, and our basement is warm and while dry, it could always be dryer. Our basement is completely foam insulated, air tight.

Our 1907, 1300 square foot home in southern Vermont has been totally re-insulated with cellulose in the walls and 18″ in the attic. This brought us down from about 750 gallons of oil a year for heat and hot water, to 350 gallons a year.

The cost for the heater was $999.00 plus tax, on sale in MA at Lowes. The installation was about $500 since we had to run a new 220 line to a new breaker, and we needed a $170 mixer valve Vermont requires. So, about $1500.00. With this hot water heater keeping the furnace off all summer, and keeping it from firing extra in the winter, we forecast somewhere around $400/year savings. The heater does use electricity to power the compressor and fan, so we’re estimating that it will be $200/year in electricity at the most, so that’s $200/year savings. Not a bad ROI.

A Brief on What Worked and what didn’t on a Technical Help Desk for Distance Learners at SDSU’s Department of Educational Technology.by Caleb John Clark and Chris Haddock, Spring 1998.

Dates and Goals | Timeline | Results | Software

Dates and Goals:

January, 1998. Educational Technology Department, San Diego State University. The faculty hires graduate students Caleb John Clark and Chris Haddock to design, build, and staff a technical help desk for 25 online graduate students, enrolled in EDTEC 540 — Introduction to Educational Technology, and EDTEC 541 — Introduction to Multimedia Production. These two courses are the prerequisites for getting into the Masters program in Educational Technology.

The first goal of the Help Desk was to help online students with technical problems; such as, opening attachments, FTPing files, using the class materials sent on disk, accessing chat rooms, or completing their Director projects. For traditional students, these questions would be answered by the Instructional Media Lab Staff, but online students directed these questions to the professors who did not have the time or resources to help them.

The second goal of the Help Desk was to design and build a prototype Help Desk that could be expanded for use by all graduate students in the Department of Educational Technology.

The third goal of the Help Desk was to create an online learning community using discussion forums, listservs, Web pages and chat rooms.

Timeline

Results

Email provided the bulk of the technical support. Online students sent 120 technical questions between February. 4th and May 18th. We believe that our informal tone was largely responsible for success of the email (and listserv). Each letter started with a person’s first name, followed by a greeting. We deliberately attempted to make a personal connection with each student.

The student listserv was very successful in building an online learning community. 22, online students sent 172 messages to the listserv between March 2nd and May 18th. Again the Help Desk staff set the tone of the listserv with messages such as, “How’s everyone doing?” Posts included stories, poems, descriptions of the students physical surroundings, cries for help, venting of stress and family issues. Caleb and I were able to measure the “pulse” of the class by monitoring the listserv relating that information to the professors. The online students “officially” took ownership of the listserv when they coordinated their own study group and chats. As with most listservs, a core of about 10% of the users were responsible for 90% of the posts, with the remaining students lurking.

The Web site was the third most useful area of the help desk, with JobAids being the most useful part of the site.

The chat area was used for a few weeks during a mid-semester crisis, but was otherwise empty. The treaded forums were not used at all despite postings by the staff. This could be due to the fact that both classes had threaded forums and chat rooms that the students were required to use.

Telephone contact was made with three students after email and chat failed to solve their problems.

Software:

Web Site: GoLive Cyber Studios 2.03, Fetch 3, Photoshop 4.

Forums and chat: WebCrossing 2.0.

Listserv, Macjordomo 1.0, Eudora Mail Server.

Today was bitter cold, about 5 degrees all day, not counting wind. But it was sunny. With Laura and baby Shaw gone, I turned down the thermostat to 55 and went to work at 7:15am for an early meeting. I came home at 6:30pm figuring the house would be at 55 degrees. To my surprise the downstairs was 56 and the upstairs was 59! I could feel the warmth on the south side rooms especially. We don’t have big windows, but we keep them clean and unobstructed for solar gain. Amazing!

We did do about 7K worth of insulating over two years, lots ourselves to save money. We got about $2500 back in rebates.

Now we use about 350 gallons (Roughly $1200/yr at 3.50 a gallon), for heat and hot water. We have a boiler that does our hot water for sinks and showers even in summer, with no storage tank, and heat. It’s not efficient, but it is at least a good model from early 2000. We’re working on getting a hybrid heat pump water heater next month.

When we bought the house, they used 750 gallons a year! So far, so good.

Thoughts

• The movie went by fast, and I thought it was good. I had expected it to be worse, from hearing the mediocre reviews.
• It lacked some of the heart of the Lord of The Rings movies, seemingly to skim over some times when I wanted some real emotional connections, vs stereotypical chunks of humor or meaning.
• The 3D was very good, not over the top and set up for certain special “Spear throwing” scenes or the like. If you looked at the very edges of the screen the image did seem to be a hole into a new world.
• The brights looked too bright, almost like reality, when the sun blinds you on snow, etc. But it felt almost video like, not “film”
• I REALLY want to see the difference between 48 frames per second and 24, while NOT in 3D. The glasses are hard to handle with the cheap lenses.

More on the subject from those WAY more into than I in the Gizmodo article on HFR Failings and see the link to Vulture critic round up and the NYT long Review.

My wife (above) was the first tester!

My wife carrying our 7-month old son on the treadmill.  I’m at my sit down desk which I also use.

I got the treadmill off Craigslist locally for $150. All you really need is one that will go 1/2 mile an hour and has sturdy handles. I use:

• Two boards
• A 2′x8′ sheet of pink board insulation foam
• Screws
• Shock cord
• Tube of glue.

The Good: I’ve used it four times for 30 to 60 minutes at about 3/4 of a mile an hour. I set it at a very slow walk, flat. Basically just shifting your weight from foot to foot. Because it’s slow, and walking uses skills we’ve had for a few million years, I find I can type and mouse with ease. And I find that the time passes very quickly, and I think better. There’s research out there supporting walking desks positive effects, see bottom of Wikipedia Page on Treadmill Desks, or search “Treadmill Desk” on Google. I believe an hour or two a day is something I can achieve, and along with my short walk to work, something that will help me feel better than sitting. Also, I hope to lose some weight that I’ve put on with a new baby in the house.

The Bad: The treadmill is loud, being a cheap one, and 5 or 6 years old. But the hummm is actually kind of like a white noise canceller, and I have headphones if I need them. You can find very quiet walking treadmills for desks though, if you have the money. You can buy used treadmills that have straight handles, which might be easier to work with. Newer used treadmills might be quieter. I wish I had money for a new treadmill like the Signature S100 walking handle-less treadmill.  A colleague uses one and likes it, but it’s way too expensive for me. And I’d have the treadmill under a desk that is separate so there’s no shake.

Here’s some how-to photos.

8 pieces of cut foam pink board in a slope, for leg room.

Center board screwed down with cheap Sheetrock screws (short enough not to poke through top). On one side I angled the screws to pull the two pieces of wood together.

Foam glue (Liquid Nails ok too) on the layers of foam and on the wood, then weighted down with rocks for 24hrs+ to dry.

Angled pieces of foam to level the desk because the treadmill handles were angled. I didn’t glue it in, the weight and elastic cord holds it.

Elastic shock cord to hold it down on the treadmill.

Cord pulls on front edge to counter rear weight.

Notched the corners to hold the cord better.

Works well with a laptops, but the screen is low for long usage.

Holds an older iMac, and the screen his higher, for better neck posture.

Walk on!

This is a video I made during a week long HDSLR workshop. It was fantastic, despite having a savage cold. The class was very small with 4 folks, vs the normal 10-15, so we got a lot of individual attention. I re-learned how to shoot with SLRs (Canon 5D Mark II) with lots of different lenses and mics. We had endless equipment. I found it hard to re-learn how to focus and zoom on the fly to frame shots with the fixed viewscreen, and use different lenses and mics. It was especially hard to focus on the story and the new equipment at the same time. One more reason that supports the saying that “the best camera is the one you have,” and I’d add that the best camera is also the one you know to use.

For my story, I found a local couple who are professional pirates and interviewed them at their house and on their boat. I was very hard for me to focus on learning when I knew everybody’s work from all the workshops (RED camera usage, fall foliage photography) would be shown publicly right after the Friday lobster party. I just tried to focus on learning and making mistakes and experimenting, and not focus my energy on the quality of the product. I failed, but tried.

The course was taught by Brian Kaufman. He focuses on using timeless storytelling editing techniques and the use of creative B-Roll shots. He went to Brooks Institute of Photography and started using HDSLRs for video when they came out. He’s won some Emmy’s recently. Some samples of his style are below.

• Belle Isle
• Belle Isle Aquarium Re-Opens
• Christ Child House
• The Truth About Asian Karp

• Our future strength depends on mastering change. Keep what has worked well, add what works better. Ground our values in freedom, work, community, respect, learning and leading. We face a fast and intense future, our minds must be open to new things, however strange they may be, as long they are positive additions to our society.
• Training, education, and R&D are the foundation of a strong workforce, military and economy.
• Security and foreign policy need to focus on modernizing, cyberizing, and social engineering.
• The free market should be supported and also referred on a level playing field by clear and simple regulation.
• Basic health care and education belong in the same area as police and fire. Basic service doctors need stable pay so they are tempted by pay by service. Elective surgery and procedures should be in the free market, and for cash.
• Public schools need our help to focus on teaching and learning. Discipline needs to be elsewhere, and funded by society as a separate line item. But you can always come to your local public school if you do not keep others from teaching and learning.
• Low interest school loans and IBR rock.

Bar Codes for Babies: A DIY Mobile for infants

Baby Shaw likes ‘em.