Grounding Research: Habitats for Humanity...

I Just got back from one of my many (necessary) weekends away... the friday to sunday hell-for-leather nature binge and purge that is known (to a growing sub-community) as doof.


It's a hard thing to explain to those who have not yet experienced it; and to those that have it is almost a religion, a cathartic experience with the family, deep in the Australian bush.  It's a playground for the mind and body, a symbiotic intertwining of technology+nature that feels as natural and homely to me as ... well ... being at home!

Rainbow Serpent (~17000 people)

• outdoor, (usually) generator-based gatherings celebrating the natural environment, art and culture
• there is an underlying ecological push, a fringe-dwelling intelligence and a generally technological-savvy audience
• pushing the boundaries of sound, light, system design, control & automation... interactive environments is starting to become a big theme also
• it is a great networking opportunity, especially with people outside their normal work environs: a level playing field
• it is nice to sometimes have a 'focal' or talking point to make new introductions & new opportunities
• there is an eclipse gathering in Nov 2012 in Cairns - i envisage this to be almost a global summit of the modern cyberpunk... it would be nice to take part in some small way, many great opportunities could arise out of this..

Bush Week - a week of ingenuity, good people and good times

So as i was wandering around, admiring all the doofer's quirk, individuality and creativity - getting inspired and the like... it came to me that this is the perfect place for my device to live.  I want to create a practical device that belongs out here, in the bush, with my friends...

Chillen' with some cold brews (finally)...

It struck me immediately after, as i noticed my friends swapping arms with the esky (chully-bun, if you are a brother from New Zealand) they shared, that we need not to carry the load anymore, we have the technology!

You can see here how far it is to sometimes carry a full esky :(

-why not build an esky, that can follow me around wherever i go? it could be like a little puppy, a battery-powered buddy for the long haul....

..... Over all terrains

of course he would need to be semi-autonomous ('cos sometimes i'm useless, and forget stuff on the dance-floor :), and preferably respond to simple voice commands like 'heel', 'stay', roll over.... hmm, maybe not that one !

This brings the next considerations: How to program a device to know when you are thirsty...