• Meme Tag.
    • Meme Tags are part of a body of research on GroupWear: a wearable technology that supports people in the formative stages of cooperative work. Conference participants wear Meme Tags that allow them to electronically share memes—succinct ideas or opinions—with each other. Alongside of the person-toperson transactions, a server system collects information about the memetic exchanges and reflects it back to the conference-goers in Community Mirrors—large, public video displays that present real-time visualizations of the unfolding community dynamics. This paper presents results from a proof-of-concept trial of the Meme Tag technology undertaken at a MIT Media Laboratory conference.
    • Meme Tag was first publicly known in 1997. It was made as a wearable device that helps people co - operate with each others. Meme Tag usually used in conference where the homogeneity among its participant is high. Then, Meme Tag tries to group people even further by another topics that independent to the conference topic. Thus, make people with same interest other than what it is in conference meet each others. The usage of Meme Tag is similar to nowadays Twitter, but instead of use tweet online, the wearer of Meme Tag need to meet other people in person to share their message.
    • At the point when Meme Tag was used, the process to set one is straight forward. After user register at the conference in - site, they will be guided into a computer booth where they can set their first meme (message). Then, they can share their meme by touching other Meme Tag face to face. The connection between Meme Tag to the computer booth is unknown but the peer - to - peer communication between Meme Tag to share meme is done using infrared. I would suggest that the connection between Meme Tag to the booth computer is done using infrared communication as well, since at that point USB is not yet popular and there is no cable socket found in Meme Tag part list. Moreover, there was a web server as well to hold the captured memes.
    • Meme Tag formed as bare as it was. There was no case used to cover, wearer could see the LCD display directly, as well as other electronics components behind it.
    • What this project can learn from Meme Tag is its easiness to be setup during conference where there are a lot of people in queue to get their Meme Tag setup.
  • The Sociometer.
    • In this paper, we describe the use of the sociometer, a wearable sensor package, for measuring face-to-face interactions between people. We develop methods for learning the structure and dynamics of human communication networks. Knowledge of how people interact is important in many disciplines, e.g. organizational behavior, social network analysis and knowledge management applications such as expert finding. At present researchers mainly have to rely on questionnaires, surveys or diaries in order to obtain data on physical interactions between people. In this paper, we show how noisy sensor measurements from the sociometer can be used to build computational models of group interactions. Using statistical pattern recognition techniques such as dynamic Bayesian network models we can automatically learn the underlying structure of the network and also analyze the dynamics of individual and group interactions. We present preliminary results on how we can learn the structure of face-to-face interactions within a group, detect when members are in face-to-face proximity and also when they are having a conversation. We also measure the duration and frequency of interactions between people and the participation level of each individual in a conversation.
    • The Sociometer described as a wearable sensor packages. It was made in 2002 for helping researcher measuring interaction between people. The development of The Sociometer not only focused on its hardware but it also took ergonomics design as its main concern. The result is a shoulder pad packed with a lot of sensors for social data gathering, that, although it is not as ubiquitous as the previous implementations, it is easy and can be comfortably worn through day. The result was that users are very happy to use it, thus its presence was neglected by the users.
    • It was equipped by microphone, accelerometer, and infrared. There are other sensor as well that can be easily attached, like for example gyroscope. The microphone was used to capture incoming sound and then has its features extracted (pitch and volume). The Sociometer used low - powered infrared to detect if face - to - face communication between its wearer happened. The accelerometer was used to know if the body language between participant in a conversation synced or nearly the same.
    • As for this project, the usage of low - powered infrared could help to determine whether face - to - face communication is currently happened. Normal infrared would detect any incoming signal as far as 5 meters. But, the low - powered one will only be detected in 1 meter range. This would ensure that only valid face - to - face communication happens. The study of form factor is a good example on how to setup less - presented wearable device. Although the size is big for a wearable electronics device, due to its ergonomics and form - factor the user will not be worn out after long time use. This technique presents another dimension of ubiquitousness, of which, device not only blend to the environment but also to its user.
  • UbER Badge.
    • UbER Badge is the best example for this project. As it is in its description, it was intended to be a development platform that can be extended to satisfy any possible cases. At its most basic setup, when it was introduced in 2003, it has microphone and infrared transceiver for social data gathering as well as local positioning system using RFID. It communicate to each other with hopping transmission between other UbER Badge.
    • Form wise UbER Badge has noticeable LED matrices as a display instead of LCD screen that Meme Tag uses. The basic design offers a simple casing to cover its innards.
    • This project could learn from how UbER Badge make everything to be easily extensible. The use of modular circuitry enabled other people to adjust UbER Badge to meet personal needs.
  • nTag.
    • NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 23, 2003--Don't be surprised if at your next conference or gathering you run into the nTAG, the first interactive name badge created to encourage attendee networking at business and social events. While stimulating conversation, nTAGs also help organizers to deliver event information, track attendance, manage security, send messages, and evaluate surveys and polls in real time. Worn like regular paper badges, nTAGs exchange data with one another using infrared sensors. As attendees approach each other, information is automatically transferred from tag to tag, requiring no action from the wearer. Then the tags' LCD screens illuminate and display information on shared interests -- "Hi Karen, we both work in the fashion apparel industry." Imagine a gathering where one person wants to sell a '65 Mustang and runs into someone with an nTAG beaming, "Craig, I am selling a '65 Mustang, mint condition."
    • nTag was first known in 2003 and it went commercial until ~2008. This wearable device was used to manage a lot of people within the same place. Although there is not specific input for social data gathering, it packed with applications to regulate people. It is mainly used in conference,
    • nTag was first known in 2003 and it went commercial until ~2008. This wearable device was used to manage a lot of people within the same place, especially conference. In my opinion nTag was the Meme Tag that went commercial. It has the same sociometric principle that was also in Meme Tag, which is to exchange message within participants as well as stimulating conversation for like - minded people. On top of that nTag was packed with a applications to help conference organizers to manage a lot of people. For example is has a functionality for the organizer to throw a questionnaire that the nTag wearer can just answer right away within the badge and then display the results in real time as the wearer finished answering the questionnaire. All in all, nTag offered control for the conference organizer and networking for its wearer.
    • Form wise, nTag build like a regular badge. The distinction is that it has an LCD display that can handle at least a small (~7 words) sentence.There are input buttons that I suggest these were meant as answer buttons in case of questionnaire and polling from the conference organizer. Also, there is a connection from the badge to database. The database is used to store values from questionnaires as well as other important information like the whoever had meet the wearer during the conference along with information on which room the wearer currently in. It is equipped with infrared transceiver to exchange message and RFID for local positioning system.
    • nTag offers flexibility that none other implementations in this state of the art has. This is due to it has the most basic input and output, the LCD and push buttons. With these basic components the amount of things it can do is so many.
  • Sociometric Badge.
    • A sociometric badge (commonly known as a "sociometer") is a wearable electronic device capable of automatically measuring the amount of face-to-face interaction, conversational time, physical proximity to other people, and physical activity levels using social signals derived from vocal features, body motion, and relative location. We have built several hundred sociometric badges and used them in real organizations to automatically measure individual and collective patterns of behavior, predict human behavior from unconscious social signals, identify social affinity among individuals working in the same team, and enhance social interactions by providing feedback to the users of our system.
    • Sociometric Badge is what the Sociometer has become. It is a wearable electronics device to do sociometric data gathering. It packed with a inputs such as, microphone, Bluetooth, accelerometer, and RFID. The first iteration of the Sociometric Badge came in 2007, up until the latest version which came in as an IP to a company named Humanyze. Unfortunately, since this went commercial, there are little to no information on the current development of the Sociometric Badge.
    • Sociometric Badge packed with a lot of sensors, there are voice input from microphone, presence detection using infrared, Bluetooth to determine the proximity of the badge with other similar badge, RFID for local positioning, and accelerometer to determine body language. These all then packed into nice looking form factor that looks no different than other office badge. There are administration control panel as well control panel for regular wearer as well. The first iteration of the Sociometric Badge in 2008 has a Java based cell phone application that used to display real - time data visualization directly from the badge. However, the recent Sociometric Badge, that I have looked, needs to have its data manually moved from the badge into the main computer using Bluetooth.
    • Sociometric Badge is the main inspiration for this project. The goal of this project is to create the flexible development platform that was once UbER Badge with recent technologies to make an alternative to Sociometric Badge.
  • Rhythm Open Badge.
    • Rhythm Open Badge is the newest approach to the Sociometric Badge since it went commercial. The project's first commit into its GitHub repository was on 21st January 2016. The project is still going up until this moment and it has two stable version to be used. At first, before the shutdown, Rhythm Open Badge has a Google Hangout plug - in to simulate the similar functionality of the Sociometric Badge but with online interaction in mind. Additionally, it also has an Android application to make an Android phone to be the Rhythm Open Badge itself despite some limitations.
    • Although the project is open source, currently, it has little documentations. There are source codes available, there are Eagle CAD PCB file as well as very simple part list. But there is no way for a commoners to know how to build one by looking at the documentation that it currently has. It uses nRF51-DK a low powered Bluetooth development kit to make the device, but it does not mention to which functionalities the Bluetooth serves.
  • The form factor is very small and what could inspire related project is the usage of low powered Bluetooth micro controller that can be powered with only a coin battery.ery.