Present, context, wrapping

On Oxford Street I bump into Tom Coates and we discuss which Christmas presents a younger brother might enjoy. It's getting quite late in the shopping process - and the potential budget perhaps risks going critical - so off he goes.

Presently I will think: why not hand me something physical that contains a direction-finder for presents wanted and not-wanted. Location-based wishlists. Over here, over here: this - or something like it. But definitely not that over there. Something Selfridges could provide, a shopping treasure hunt of sorts. However, many recipients want a surprise instead of items from a wishlist.

*

At the pub, I was probably fiddling with the BlackBerry's protective holster whilst talking to Matt Webb, which got us talking about it.

BlackBerry's message list is a stack of in- and out-bound emails and text messages, sorted by date. The context menu for an individual message (Open, File, Mark opened, etc) is different to that of a day (Mark prior opened, Delete prior, Compose, etc), which both seems like good design, and seems to map to how life works - the day becomes as meaningful a separator in the list as it is in real life. That BlackBerry also stacks text messages into conversations is also a nice touch.

The BlackBerry is usually left on all the time, and when slipped back into the holster a magnet switches off the screen. The holster is more than just an inert wrap of protective plastic: as well as protecting the screen, it saves battery life and allows the handset to appear instant-on and ready. Matt commented: his mobile should behave like this and switch off its screen when a change in the ambient light levels is consistent for a few seconds.

(Is this a benefit of owning your own hardware and OS, or is this kind of design seen in Symbian/Series 60/etc devices? What's the bill of materials of a BlackBerry handset compared to a SonyEricsson?)

*

How long before some of these elements of a mobile - and of context - can be made small enough and flexible enough that you could put them into fabric?

Imagine a computer/mobile/rfid/bluetooth setup in the weave of a paperback-sized piece of fabric. When I want to send photos from my digital camera somewhere, I'd wrap the phone around the camera, and it'll hoover the images into my 3G pipe.  When I want to get Matt's phone number, I'd wrap it around his business card and the number is dropped into my address book. When I want to buy that book Matt was showing me at the pub, I wrap it to grab the book's ISBN.

Conversely, the wrap as barrier: use it to silence the phone to all callers except your Dad, for whom the wrap will permit the ring tone or turn it into a glowing colour. if Matt wraps his door entry phone in it, it only works (buzzes) if I phone his number - doorsteppers are now barred.

Or is the wrap more like a pocket? Or like an oven mitt? - a tool that enables him to do something that would otherwise be impossible or dangerous. Enable-whilst-protecting. Or just put it into the surface of a glove - then he can make a call by making the phonecall gesture. Or perhaps, a layered fabric wrap to go around the wrap.

Related:
Timo's touch project
wearables passim
Jan Chipchase on acceptable Boundaries of Use (eg "chipped case?")
Anne Galloway on voluptuous technologies, acceptable and expected use (and much more to read):

For me, the case for "soft" computing has most eloquently and elegantly manifested itself in the work of Joey Berzowska, Katherine Moriwaki, Maggie Orth and others working in the area of "seamless computational couture". With no desire to essentialise sex or gender, I do think that the dominance of female researchers in this area is significant.

Comments

[rodcorp]

Related:
http://www.janchipchase.com/blog/archives/2006/01/acceptable_boun.html
"There are two trends that are likely to considerably shift consumer perception of what constitutes acceptable use: miniaturization; and the availability of flexible componentry. Once objects reach a certain size the range of places that they can be comfortably carried and stored increases - making it feasible for it to be carried without significant extra burden for the user, comfortably placed in a pocket or tucked in amongst other objects in a bag. Objects will be carried and stored in locations and used in contexts which did not previously need to be considered in use cases. It is more comfortable to carry a flexible object next your (soft, fleshy, human) body than a hard object. Smart use of flexible components will increase the range of objects can be comfortably carried in pockets or next to the skin - expanding the range of use case scenarios for many products and along with it, user expectations."

[tom]

One of my favourite functions of the Blackberry is the other function of the holster - that "being in the holster" doesn't just turn the screen off, it's a complete state. As well as having "silent" and "loud" profiles, there's an "in holster" profile - where, say, a vibrate is more effective than if it's just loose somewhere.

To extend Matt's analogy, you'd end up with a phone that would *behave* differently if it was in your pocket. For instance: quieter, vibrating ringtone, but also perhaps bluetooth on (for my laptop, rather than for when I'm making calls). It's a nice - and really mechanically simple - piece of design, that magnet.

[alex laurie]

Having checked the Blackberry 7700 series and the 7100 series, it seems that each of the profiles has an 'out of holster' and 'in holster' setting for each of the notifications you can get (call, sms, message, browser, calander etc).

this gives the Blackberry user lots of options for notifications but I guess most of us use the same setting for each, or leave it as it comes.

Not sure what differences will come with the new 8xxx series Blackberry.

looking at modern camera phones perhaps the camera itself could act as the sensor / trigger mechanism, i.e. if there is light available to the lens then it is in profile 'a' and if there is no light (in my pocket), the phone could recognise it ?

(of course phones with covers over the lens would not work this way).

[rodcorp]

Dave Walsh's 'PCs are thge fabric of life', 2001:
http://www.blather.net/articles/it_sterling_furoshiki.htm

Walsh quotes Bruce Sterling's 'Computer as Furoshiki' 1993 and Holy Fire 1997, on computers and fabric:

'"I've never seen on these furoshiki." Maya leaned over the table. "I've certainly heard of them..." The intelligent cloth was woven from a dense matrix of fibre-optic threads, organic circuitry and piezoelastic fibre.The hair-thin optical threads oozed miniscule screen-line pixels of coloured light. A woven display screen. A flexible all-fabric computer.' [Holy Fire]

Related?: Sterling on spimes etc in Shaping Things 2005.