Interesting Article

I recently came across an article that gave many of the exact reasons why the Lightbulb team believes that computers should be made simpler.

I Hate Computers: Confessions of a SysAdmin by Scott Merrill

So far...

Unfortunately, we haven't made as much progress on Lightbulb as we would have liked, due to the absence of one of our team members, Peter Hajas, and his hardware. There were some postal issues, so we were without our Arduino and RFID scanner until mid-March. When the hardware arrived, there were difficulties getting it to work as it had last semester, so we have decided to continue the project with a USB-based RFID scanner.

However, this has meant new drivers and reading software, so we are still currently in the transition phase that will get us back to where we were last semester with a working RFID scanner and daemon code.

We have also decided that it would be in the project's best interest to take a survey at several nearby retirement homes, so that we can talk to the target audience and get an idea of what they really want, since we as RPI students are very biased when it comes to technology. We have contacted several retirement communities and are working out details to meet with them either late this semester or early next semester.

We'll update again in a couple of weeks with our progress.

~ Aileen and Priti

Spring Semester

Hey everybody!
The spring semester is underway, and we are continuing our work on Lightbulb.
The fall semester was really good for this project, and we want to keep the momentum up.
We are building on what's already done and hoping to add a lot of new things.

In the post before this, we laid out some of our goals for this semester.
In addition to those, we are trying to plan out a simple keyboard. The idea is that it should be easy to use, have the basic keys necessary and reduce the need to use a combination of keys (ex: shift + 5 to get a % sign).
We are currently working on the alpha versions of those projects, and we hope to have that done by March 3rd, a week from today.
Not much else to say right now, but we'll post again once we have those running.

Plans for Next Semester

Hi everyone!

Lightbulb made some tremendous progress over the last semester, and we have set some larger goals for ourselves for the next semester that will truly allow Lightbulb to mature as an open source project.

Lightbulb OS
We're currently in the final stages of preparation for Lightbulb OS, an operating system that has all the essential Lightbulb applications and resources to make transitioning as simple as possible. Currently, we're testing drivers and making sure the serial link between the daemon and the Lightbulb Device can stay active for long periods of time (over 48 hours). We expect this release early next semester.

Lightbulb "Wizard"
While not the final name, Lightbulb Wizard is a simple and easy-to-use way to configure Lightbulb. We're designing it such that both technically proficient and non-technically inclined users can set up a Lightbulb installation. Lightbulb Wizard will run at the beginning of any instance of Lightbulb OS, and will take care of the entire setup process.

Lightbulb Sentencing Engine (LSE)
One of the most intense undertakings we have planned for next semester is work on the Lightbulb Sentencing Engine. Instead of Bulbs acting as singular actions, this will allow some Bulbs to act as verbs, nouns and adjectives to create complex actions. As with all other facets of the Lightbulb project, this will be entirely open source and expandable so that developers can tie into LSE with their own nouns or actions.

Thanks for following us throughout this past semester. We'll post soon once the team for next semester has been finalized. Until then, don't forget to check us out at GitHub.

New Collaborator

Hey all, Michael O'Keefe here, the newest addition to the (admittedly small) Lightbulb team! I'm a sophomore here at RPI, and this is my second RCOS project, after RPI Planner. This semester, I will be working on Skype interaction with Lightbulb, as well as a setup program for the RFID/action database. If that gets done, then I'll find some other tasks to do. Either way, I'm looking forward to being part of the team!

Git repository created

Hi everyone!

We've just created a git repository so you can clone the code. This code is beta, and so far only includes the firmware. Our daemon test is working and runs, but we're waiting on some licensing-okay before committing it to the repository. You can clone the repository like this:

git clone git://github.com/peterhajas/Lightbulb.git

Enjoy!

Hi everyone!

Hi there!

Welcome to the home of Lightbulb, the open-source RFID-based computing environment designed to make computers accessible to everyone.

Computers have too many expectations. As a result of this, many people are unable to use computers because they’re too intimidating, too difficult to learn, or they have a disability that affects their sight, hearing or mobility. This stinks. Why? Our society practically demands computer knowledge. Sending pictures, communicating with people far away, buying airline tickets, reading the news, getting weather reports. All of these things, which used to be very analog, are now becoming more and more digital. So why lock out all these people that can’t use modern-day computers?

Lightbulb is designed to illuminate the powers of computing to the masses. It employs an easy to learn, easy to teach and easy to configure system for RFID-based computing. How does all of this work?

From the outside level, it’s simple. Say my grandmother wants to call me on Skype. She waves an RFID-tagged photograph of me in front of the computer, and it starts the call. Video is already enabled, all her audio hardware is already set up, it just happens. My face appears on the screen. To her, it’s like magic. This is the goal of Lightbulb.

We will be hosting our code on a Git repository so you can clone it and build it yourself. Expect some exciting news soon about Lightbulb!