August 29, 2006
The Mobile Phone as a Digital SprayCan
Nokia's project called ‘Mobspray’ is based on the graffiti writing practice of ‘tagging’ were writers leave their individual tags (often a stylised signature) in physical locations. [via Nokia Blog]
Instead of actual physical graffiti we allow users to leave virtual graffiti (using a Nokia 5140 phone with RFID/NFC shell) on RFID tags which have been placed at actual locations in this case around our university campus.
SprayCan graffiti divides communities and generations in terms of how it should be dealt with in terms of either complete acceptance or punitive action. In this project we have developed a system that tries to bridge the divide as it both provides writers with a means of tagging their environment, using mobile phones and RFID tags, whilst minimising the physical effects to the landscape for the communities where it resides.
How does it work?
Writers’ tags are deposited, and collected, from a database operating on a central server using a GPRS connection initiated by a Java application on a Nokia 5140 with an in-built RFID reader. These tags are currently displayed on the writers phone but the system is being evolved so that they can be projected on walls in urban landscapes.
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