by Derek Morrison, 17 April 2010
So what’s are those strange objects embedded in this posting? Why are they there?
The Tales of Things web site went live yesterday and so I’m using this posting to try it out. Tales of Things is part of the EPSRC funded TOTeM project which is exploring aspects of how physical objects can become part of the ‘internet of things‘. Tales of Things is being realised through a consortium of UK HEIs, i.e. Brunel University, Edinburgh College of Art, University College London, University of Dundee and the University of Salford.
We are all familiar with the humble bar code but creating and reading these is usually the province of the warehouse and the retail store. We don’t usually walk around with still relatively expensive bar code readers in our pockets. More and more of us, however, do walk around with devices that can be configured to read a two dimensional variant of the bar code (called the QR Code). These devices are smartphones, e.g. the iPhone or its competition. Tales of Things asks you to upload an image of an object, provide some basic information about it, and provide a hyperlink for further information or media about it. The Tales of Things site then generates a PDF file containing a custom QR Code which you can print on a standard printer or even read directly from the screen (see example which links to this posting). You can cut out the printed QR Code image and stick it to the object. I downloaded the requisite free iPhone app, pointed my iPhone at the QR Code image I had generated and stuck to the base of my grandfather’s coal-miners’ lamp, and voila I was automatically connected to my entry in the Tales of Things web site which then offered me the hyperlink to connect to this posting. iPhone or iTouch owners can try this for themselves by either printing this image or reading it directly from their lcd display.
So what are the potential pedagogical possibilities? Many many years ago I visited Wendy Hall in her pre Dame days at the University of Southampton. One of the things Wendy demonstrated was a ring binder full of bar codes which when scanned with the dedicated reader connected to an item on a laser disc player (the then state of the art technology). At the time this was impressive but bar code generation and expensive bar code readers were not part of the standard teachers toolkit (and still aren’t). Tales of Things at least makes it possible for anyone with an object and a story to tell about to connect that physical object to the internet and so grow and enhance the story or its presentation. Interesting stuff but personally I need more thinking time about its potential beyond the museum and the art gallery. There’s certainly something to be said for the point and click access the QR Code makes possible particularly given the length and obscurity of some URLs generated by some institutional content management systems. Taking a lesson from the advertising world it’s now perfectly possible for some poster (or even T-shirt) to catch your eye but you can’t quite work out what it’s all about; but it does offer that rather intriguing QR Code and so you point your smartphone at it and voila there is the informative video and supporting narrative. Or the QR Code on the book or journal article which connects you to enhanced material without the need to type in URLs. Or the course module reading list. Or the …
Although the iPhone app is easy to use the Tales of Things site is acting as an internet intermediary and I kind of feel it’s that hyperlink step-through from their site where the richest stuff will lie. Consequently, that step-through needs to be as snappy as possible. It’s here where the current iteration of the iPhone app may be weakest because the secondary site can only be viewed from within the iPhone app. I found that it took longer than was comfortable to display this posting. But it is only version one of the app and other internet constipators may have been at play. Also iPhone apps are expected to function within their own defined sandbox and this may, therefore, be contributing to this apparent latency. The current iPhone operating system does not support multitasking and so simply spinning out web access to the Safari browser as we would do on a laptop computer isn’t the easy option. Nevertheless, a great idea and respect is due to the TOTeM team for pushing the QR Code boat out in the UK in this way.
QR Code for Auricle.org
But back to Tales of Things. What we have here is an interesting application of the potential of QR Codes (which seem ideally suited to mobile internet connected devices with cameras) merged with the vision of a “thing” database with a variety of narratives attached. It’s now over to the wisdom of the crowds to determine if this is a new Facebook in the making or an interesting and necessary scholarly byway on the road to creating the internet of all things.
Further reading
7 Things You Should Know About QR Codes (PDF, Educause, February 2009)
QR Codes and RF readers (Yale University, November 2009)
Barcodes help objects tell their stories (New Scientist, 13 April 2010)
Barcodes without barriers – is this the web’s next big thing? (Guardian, 15 April 2010)
QR codes at Bath (Andy Ramsden, University of Bath, 2010)
Re ‘Miner’s lamp’
I think it highly unlikely that the lamp was used in ‘mining’. The naked flame would not have been permitted below ground.
Perhaps it was used as a hand lamp for ‘seeing your way’.
My late uncle used two of these lamps (he was a railwayman)on his bicycle during the last war. I recently found several of the burners for these lamps.
Carbide in the ink wells at school was good fun!