Notes from a Small Cruise

I quite fancy going on a round Britain Cruise, in Sept 2013?  It seems a comfy way to visit the British  isles and wildlife of Scottish Islands. However in July 2011, I cruised on P&O Oceana.
I have had two years to reminisce on the best and worst of my last Med cruise and below are distilled pleasures and pitfalls of the trip.

You can click on images to enlarge.

If in a hurry go to the WORST features below.

Facebook pictures 


Top 10 BEST  features - not in order

• Inspecting the Bridge and asking the 18 year old in charge "what can go wrong?" (Nothing as we always have someone on watch... famous last words ). And  Yes, I have got the horizon at the correct angle in photo!
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• So, getting INTO the lifeboat

• Getting OUT of the lifeboat..somewhere in France.

• Taking two 16 years old children who really enjoyed every moment, probably the youngest on the boat 
  
• Climbing to the top of the Gibraltar Rock and seeing the monkeys in cool mountain air 
  
• G&T from the fridge in my room
• Large room with power shower and  balcony (but see below)
• Our room maid was charming and she showed us a picture of the last cruise ship she was on which sank (really, I checked on Google when I got home, as I thought she was just after a large tip!). (I did tip generously due to her kindness, cheerfulness and one extra chocolate one night) 
• Being able to read loads of legal thrillers (John Grisham)  on the balcony (fiction I think)
• Experiencing 24 hours of pitch, roll and yaw (repeat 1000 times) while on my double bed for one in the Bay of Biscay  (not sure if this is good or bad)
• Inspecting the Anchor Room  
  
• Opportunity to take unusual photos, e.g. the Black Box Accident Recorder positioned at front of boat.
• Quite a good library.... with printed books from the last century
• Churches and Cathedrals in Florence, no tripod used 
  
• Generally very good P and O staff (I must say this but true)
• No BBC radio but had podcasts on my ipod
• Watching a young man with no helmet, flying 200 feet in the air cleaning windows (but see below re *men* cleaning windows ) 
• Ship refueling, very tidy engineering, please come and tidy the cables in my office  and work for me...
  
• The French Doctor :-) (but check dead patients as below)  He had a wooden  bookshelf full of reference books. I had an ear infection and he advised me to have ear syringed back in Cambridge. I did, and it was the most delightful and rewarding  physical experience (apart from a back massage) I have ever had in the last two years. No ear problems since then!
• Music synthesisers on the ship, very neat!  - see image 

• Best bit - Getting home to my garden and watering it, drought in July 2011 in UK  and grey cat  Poppi asleep in the bird bath  (Poppi has since left home)

BUT ...



The Top 10 WORST  features - not in order

• Getting dressed for dinner, looked like all ladies were dressed up in white  for a wedding and blinged out with jewels and wobbly shoes . Actually picture below was taken on the lifeboat.
  
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• No internet connection, apart from paying £12/hour  for 14.kBits/sec, I am NOT  desperate (but see below re Norway and Unbrellas  )
• Getting a very high mobile  phone surcharge off the coast of Spain,  in the Mediterranean, via Norway. O2 lady asked if Norway was near to Spain? mobile phone signal only goes 10 miles (signal got *latched on* to a Norwegian ship 
• Eating breakfast (soggy bacon...yes it is possible)  on my own in the restaurant  with a spare chair, but being asked by a handsome young gentleman  "is anyone sitting here?". I  said No... ;-) ... so he  nicked my chair.
• TV in room was a 12" Cathode Ray Tube set to perma orange, could not mend TV
• Rome, (again)  3 hour walk in intense heat in July, had to sit down on shop step as as dehydrated but was kicked off, as thought to  be a tramp , used an App on iPhone to capture my walk. The circularly track is where I got lost in the Colosseum. 
  
• No live animals on a cruise, plenty of food however, but no decent coffee (have mentioned already?)
• IMPORTANT: Having the urge to go over the railing of my balcony (this is not weird or  morbid, apparently many people (I did speak to some passengers) have this urge and so block the balcony door with a chair)  
  
• Being told we were due for Force 6 Gale. As I had no internet, I texted Ex-hub, R,  to asked what this means. He kindly  replied "You need an Umbrella" . That is official on the Beaufort Scale, but not not useful on a cruise ship.(No Umbrellas) 
• Money grabbing opportunities at every turn, perhaps jewelry?  (see The Cost of Oxygen)  No I do not want a fake Rolex, got a perfectly decent fake one in Hong Kong  circa 1990  
• no proper milk or fresh food for 2 WEEKS! Just condensed milk, rubbish for coffee. Why no fresh prawns in the Med? All UK food!
• Man who reserved his sun lounger for 90 mins!  while he ate lunch in the restaurant . We were short of seats at 13:00  and I needed to sit down. I mentioned that The Captain said we cannot reserve sun loungers, but he was rather rude about the captain. I took his picture and also of 5 rather startled senior ladies listening to  this exchange. (please ask for picture).
• Seeing couples eating a meal for 45 mins with no conversation or eye contact  between them (not sure if good or bad). Not very romantic. 
• 3 people died on our cruise. One paralysed as slipped down the banister.  One man at our table paid £400 to be resuscitated (survived) Re The Cost of Oxygen. 
  
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• 2 men appeared unexpectedly  in front of my cabin window on a rope  "cleaning windows" while I was un-attired,  with a glass of wine (me not them)
  
• visited Leaning Tower of Pisa, we were not allowed to climb it! Horrible long walk, very hot and no toilets.(Nipped into a disabled loo in a pub) .  
• Paid P and O   for an executive coach from Cambridge to Southampton with a toilet on board for the 4-5 hours, but they forgot to install the toilet. Luckily not a problem.
• The internet link failed for 2 days, apparently due to a "faulty bit", but I was told to keep quiet about this in case the other  passengers were alarmed.
• It was noticed that I was single, so I was put with a table of senior single ladies, some of who had severe  learning difficulties and hearing issues. I am sorry if this sounds unkind, (I am 20dB down in the left [ear]   but  conversation was a challenge. However, you can see me here chatting on iPhone 4 from my Cabin , could call my Mum :-). Fantastic!
  
• I think I was the only single person, but a good opportunity for photography and my main pleasure was in daughter and her BF enjoying cruise. I was reprimanded for taking too many photographs of the antenna and the "flight recorder" 
  

Estimated spent 4 x 6 = 24 hours total in 10 days sat on a hot COACH! This is time that preferably should have been spent sitting on the boat, with a sea breeze, with a refreshing drink and reading or socialising. (Children under 18 need supervising so I could not/would not  send them to Rome on their own).

Please remind me of these notes in case I ever want to go on a cruise again. 

All the above is true.

Details:

P& O Oceana, Mediterranean July 2013

Winner - Techweek Europe Office Gadget June 2013

Talking Head Wins Our Office Gadget Challenge

This is a  winning design by Lyndsay Williams  for  a European design competition for an original  new office gadget. See here for details of competition from Techweek Europe.

The design is a  3D printed head  placed in an office kitchen and records samples of gossip and replays this at appropriate moments, but disguising the speaker. It is similar to a parrot but with animations for the face. See here for design details  Office Pet - Talking Head .

From Techweek Europe:

When judging the competition, we were asking ourselves one question – which of these wondrous devices would we want to see in our own office? And the answer was clear.

We sit in a world which has been silenced. Everyone spends most of their time interacting through Skype and Twitter, with only an occasional grunt or sigh. The truth is, tech has killed our office conversation, and we’d like to see tech bring it back to life.

The original design was based on a 3D head design and has now slimmed down to a  3D printed wall poster created in Bas relief as below.  The face can talk and the animated eyes can follow the staff around in the kitchen using  sensors that track the person. 

The plan is to have an  interactive  poster designed with an animated eyes like this Lord Kitchener poster:
Your face can be scanned with a 3D scanner and used for the poster.

The new design has sensors and microcontrollers embedded into the poster. The entire 3D poster should be less than 3mm thick inc lithium battery. The tactile face has touch sensors for further interaction. 

Girton Labs is looking for sponsors for this research/arts project so the first prototype can be built.

The hardware costs are covered by TechweekEurope  there is some software design required  based on Atmel or ARM processor.

Contact Lyndsay Williams sensecam@gmail.com or +44 (0) 7970 101578.

Cambridge UK.

Low cost electronic scents and smells

Lavender bulb electronic scent designed by L Williams, size approx 10mm x 10mm 

I have been working on scent generation since 2008, initially  financed by a research grant from the UK's East of England Development Agency, for  a cookery book with embedded electronic smells,   From 2009 -2011 I did some of the electronic design  for Dr Jenny Tillotson of the University of the Arts, London.
 Motion is detected by touch (e.g. accelerometers ) which triggers the smell.

The scent, for example synthetic chocolate, is added using a solid scent under microcontroller software. This  is released by embedding the liquid  scent oil  in solid silicone and using a 1- 5W heater to release smell.  There has always been a challenge with computer controlled liquid scent release in making it leakproof,  compact for mobile phones, low battery power and with no lingering smell. Some liquid oils are toxic and need a solid enclosure.   However solid materials can be used to embedded the scent, technology as here from 2008  in silicone scented bulbs which use low cost silicone bath sealant.  Another example are scented silicone wristbands, the body heat releases scent.
 In this example, a  heater (nichrome wire embedded  inside the silicone) is switched on to release fragrance and a non contact thermopile temperature sensor with just milliseconds response time allows just  the correct amount of heat to be added to enable long battery life from a mobile phone battery. Nichrome heaters  have been used to emit scent from materials such as oils  for animal attractant  hunting activities.
 The scent is embedded in  liquid silicone rubber, which cures to a solid over several hours,  so no leakage or lingering smells as with liquid scents. The silicone is inert, and can be mixed with scented oils.  Custom shapes of silicone rubber can be created in a mould. One example is of  heater  resistor dipped in silicone rubber. The scent can be quickly terminated by the closure of a lid, e.g. closing a page in a book. A Flexinol Hinge can be used.

 Multiple scents can be mixed and proportional control of individual  scents added using the heaters with pulse width modulation in an x/y matrix arrangement to reduce cost. Alternative heating can be used e.g. Peltier heaters which can be switched from heating to chilling under software control to stop the odour release. Ultrasonic vibration  may be able to be used to release fragrance so no heat required, instant on/off  and longer battery life.

Apple iPhone with scent cartridge illustration

Prototype chocolate  heater

Lavender bulb, a LED can also be embedded

There are many possibilities for adding miniature scent emitters, e.g. in mobile phones. This will allows no visual or audio alerts to be sent, e.g. roses to your Mother, chocolate from your daughter   or coffee smell from your office. When the scent has expired, a new cartridge can be plugged in as illustration above with iPhone.  Medical applications e.g. sports,  relaxation and sleep devices can be built.
It was  found that embedding colour using  Red Green Blue mixer LED into the silicone aided the aesthetics. Tests are ongoing re adding  invisible UV LEDs.

3 Watt LED heaters from Philips,  can add colour,  Red, Green Blue and all colours of the spectrum, size of a coin

The silicone can be made into an ink and can be printed onto paper using screen printing. 

References


Some of my 2008  work on sensor triggered cookery scented books  as  here.

I  have worked for  Sensory Design and Technology Ltd, The University of the Arts, Central Saint Martins,  London and Northumbria  University 2009-2012 on computer control for scent research with Dr Jenny Tillotson and Prof Raymond Oliver.
2010 report on University of the Arts London research on scent generation. 

Here is a January 2011 patent on scent release from the University of Cambridge.



Contact Lyndsay Williams if you are interested in assistance with computer controlled scent designs.  sensecam@gmail.com or +44 (0)  7970 101578.

Sentinel Sensing Computer for your kitchen

Design concept Feb 2013 

If you lived on your own and were ill or fell, how long would it take people to find out? Hours, days?
What if you can't reach your mobile phone? Also not everyone is on the internet e.g. the elderly. We don't all want to wear sensors 24/7.
29% of households in the UK have single occupancy in 2011 as here.
This Sentinel computer can care for you in your home, young and old.  This device is placed in a room you normally use frequently, e.g. the kitchen.  It is useful for those who live on their own, it watches for inactivity of person, e.g. in the kitchen, and sends an SMS  text message to a friend or carer if no activity for a pre set time period. It can be placed on the  window ledge, and so no interference from movement from cats and dogs. Sentinel is like a simplified mobile phone but just with sensors. There are multiple sensors including person detection, light, temperature, humidity,  etc  to provide accurate alerts.  The device is mains powered with a battery backup. A suitable place to put the Sentinel is a  kitchen window ledge so your activity can be monitored by sensing washing and cooking. There is no invasion of privacy as no cameras or microphones used,  alerts only sent by SMS Text message to  selected friends.  A PAYG Sim is used. The Sentinel also provides warm led lighting to indicate it is watching over you. Intelligent software learns normal usage of the room to avoid false alerts.
Sensors include infra red detections of person and also kitchen safety sensors for gas and humidity. Size approx 4 x 4".

There have been several  devices for caring for people who live on their own.=, but with possible disadvantages.  They can be dependant on the internet, installation or wearing of equipment, false signals from pets, invasion of privacy  or subscription services.  The Sentinel is much simpler to use and lower cost.

The Sentinel is an engineering prototype at the moment but the working components are based on Technology based on existing working components from Girton Labs, e.g. SenseBulb as shown on BBC news in 2009. Sentinel is based on this technology but lower cost and more accurate alerts.


The Weather in your Kitchen.

There is also another Sentinel  variant, lower cost, based on a wifi interface. This has applications for social networking and broadcasts via Twitter "The Weather in your Kitchen". (or office) It is a research project and based on multiple sensors, thermal, light, POR, humidity and can broadcast, Quiet Kitchen, Hot Kitchen, Stormy Kitchen,etc. It is a simple way of indicating your physical status at home or in the office in a playful but non intrusive way. People can be so busy nowadays but here is a measure of it....

Source

More details, Lyndsay Williams, Girton Labs Ltd,  sensecam@gmail.com, 07970 101578

SenseEgg - The Caring Egg for you and your family

This good egg monitors the wellbeing of those who live on their own, young and old. We may have an accident, fall and who will know? You may know someone elderly or with Alzheimer's. If you are at home and possibly unwell and not eating regularly, the sensors in the egg will automatically send a text message to a friend or carer.  This is done by monitoring the status of your fridge, for example has it been opened recently?  No installation is required, just a simple setup of phone SIM card. A total of 5 sensors inside the egg monitor the well being of the fridge and it's usage, which can then infer the health of the person.   The fridge was chosen as a  frequently used appliance at home, for when we eat, drink tea or beer, or feed our pets.   If you have not opened your fridge for a few hours, a time you can choose yourself, then a text message is sent to a friend. An added benefit is a fridge light, a warm white LED which comes on automatically to light your fridge, just in case your fridge does not have one.  The battery life is estimated to be a year. Girton Labs  plan on using a trusted  UK partner and  manufacturer .

The image shows a 3D CAD rendering but the technology has the component parts (sensors, software,  GSM  modem) built and tested by Girton Labs. A mobile  phone signal will transmit and receive from inside a normal metal  fridge, tested with Samsung Galaxy S3.
It is the latest version of SenseBulb, the caring lightbulb,  as covered by the BBC News in 2009 here. This design was in the formfactor of a lightbulb but new mobile phone  technology  has enabled the monitoring system to be built into an egg sized formfactor.

Example SMS  text message

The 5 sensors monitor:

• Fridge door opening, by ambient  light detected from kitchen and also movement of door
• Correct temperature of fridge.
• sound and motion sensor - if picked up in hand can determine user state and send message
• touch - tap for settings
• power saving sensors
• fridge door left open alert

The entire egg will glow a variety of colours to indicate status, Red, alarm, fridge not opened for a while and text message sent. Other alerts  are  fridge temperature over 4C - amber flash , status ok -  blue , flashing green -  warning to user that you have not eaten for a while. An audio alert is provided.
There is no on/off switch required. Initial installation requires a phone number programmed into the egg. The case design will be waterproof and can be washed and dropped  (Protection to IP55). The two halves clip together with a waterproof seal to allow battery fitting.


Prototype proof of concept is based on Arduino. This reads sensor data and does the digital signal processing to decide when to send an alert.


Further Designs

The goal is for an initial low cost simple monitoring egg.
The Egg can also infer if the person in the house (e.g. mobile phone present).
Later designs may use  GPS location.
There is also a design for a finger sensor that can detect the health status of the person and decide is an alert needs to be sent.
A gas sensor may be used to detect decaying food.
Depending on how often  text messages sent and therefore battery drain, a contactless charger in the form of an eggcup may be used.


Designed by Lyndsay Williams, Girton Labs Ltd.
Contact Details Lyndsay Williams sensecam@gmail.com tel : +44 (0)7970 101578

www.SenseEgg.com

The "Internet of Things" , some 2012 Research from Northumbria University P3i Lab

I  was a  Reader in Hardware and Software for Northumbria University from January to October 2012  at the new P3i Lab at White Lion Street,  Islington, London as set up by Professor Raymond Oliver. This Lab is part of Northumbria University School of Design.

some 2012 designs - click to enlarge

 I helped set up the P3i  lab, some of the research directions and initiated designs  for Smart Sensing Clothes, Anticipatory Medicine and the Internet of Things. Some of the sensors we used (one bit of memory) were smaller than a grain of sugar.








The below sensor and medical research is now continued at Girton Labs, Cambridge.


Anticipatory medicine -  Glxcam

This is a lifelogging camera with medical sensors and haptic controllers. The plan is for it to anticipate medical issues.  Device can also link to a mobile phone and get brief text alerts to glance at. Glxcam  is the next stage  from  my design of SenseCam for Microsoft. There are additional thermal imaging sensors. Printed 3D model as below. Slides as here.

E-Ribbon, a novel bidirectional sensing ribbon, 2mm wide for medical sensing. See image below of 3D CAD design  next to a standard 5mm Light Emitting Diode for scale.  This can be woven into a fabric for medical sensing, e.g. temperature, touch, pressure or acceleration. More details here. There were possible applications for Early Onset Epilepsy Detection as discussed here.

We used semiconductors (one bit memory)  that were smaller than a sugar grain from NXP.

Smart Sensing bandage controller and data logger, based on Arduino Mini. See image below. 

SmartTumble. We will require in future  smart sensing clothes for medical and sportswear. These clothes have built in health care sensors, e.g. temperature or motion sensors, e.g. accelerometers, that can be used for fall detection in senior people or people who live on their own.  However people do not want to be concerned with recharging  batteries every day or we might even forget. If this can be done automatically every day "in the wash" this can be useful. The sensors could be built into buttons and so garments manufactured by machine in the normal way. The energy storage can use small Aerogel capacitors.   Various electromagnetic, chemical  and mechanical charging systems were investigated, as a possible method of power harvesting,  as the washing machine provides a variety of powerful sources. This is ongoing work at Girton Labs.

Smartbuttons as used in SmartTumble

image taken from "How it works"

Repurposing Tyre Pressure Measurement Sensors.  These TPMS semiconductors  are low cost ($5) vehicle sensors for pressure, temperature and 2 dimension acceleration monitoring with wireless monitoring. We investigated repurposing these for medical sensors for the body. This is ongoing work at Girton Labs.


Haptics

Simulation of new surfaces, e.g. wetness. In enhancing the sense of touch, we require new ways of thinking. We tested a Peltier Chiller, which as well as chilling, the cold provides a sense of evaporation and so the feeling of wetness on the human skin. This system was also found to be effective for an alternative analgesic for headaches and is in test Jan 2013. See image below.

Research from October 2012

SenseBulb Plus.  (Aka Deathwatch ) This is a device for assisted living, and for people who live on their own. Here is an earlier prototype SenseBulb.  If a person has become ill, for example, fallen, an alert is sent via  phone  text message (Sensebulb version 1) or  Twitter if not movement for a number of hours.

 It has the advantage of other monitoring systems:
1.  not needing sensors installed in every room of a house.
2. no device attached to person
3. reliable message sent to multiple sources, e.g. Text Message, Twitter
4. no intrusion of privacy
5. multiple sensors including temperature, light  and electricity usage.

 It works by monitoring electricity usage in a house, currently AlertMe is used. Normal home activity can consist of switching on and off lights, e.g. visit to bathroom etc and if this is not done for a period of several hours an alert is sent. Image below  from AlertMe. The advantage of using Twitter is that it is an automated  more public broadcast that could save a  life.
Multiple sensor sources can be used e.g. heat and motion detection using thermopiles.

 Saturday 19th Jan 2013 activity, using computer, housework, cooking, washing etc.
Peaks are kettle on, cooking

inactivity - day off ill Jan 2013

Using water flow for detecting wellbeing.

Prior work done by Williams (Kent Meters, Luton)  included water monitoring, using older magnetic water flow sensors,  but this was possibly intrusive and not desired.  e.g. monitoring fresh water usage in a bathroom and therefore hygiene monitoring of person. However there is new Girton Labs design on a system that uses an high frequency sensor  to detect water flow on the mains water pipe inlet  and product alerts if no usage for several hours.



Older work pre 2011



Here is my introductory presentation to Northumbria University in Sept 2011. It covers some of  my prior research in Digital Audio, sensing for mobile phones,  Microsoft and Apple.

Designs by Lyndsay Williams and financed by Girton Labs Ltd.

contact Lyndsay Williams sensecam@gmail.com

www.sensecam.co.uk

caring clothes

DRAFT  

Sensor button

The average new car has over 100  sensors, our smartphones have at least 10,  the average new washing machine has over 8. The car sensors look after  the engine and safety aspects of our vehicles, and in the washing machine the sensors calculate an efficient wash cycle. Aircraft have black box accident recorders to do crash analysis and make planes safer in future. However our bodies for generally healthy people have no such 24/7 care.
Why is this? One reason is the devices have not yet been developed, we do not like to be thought of as ill people,  and current devices are costly. We design our clothes to be beautiful and to keep us warm. We do not want geeky lumps,  bumps, switches,  or batteries  detracting from these features. Many would find useful clothes and shoes  that can care for us, warn us of dangers, measure sports performance etc. When our clothing measures (using accelerometers) that  we have been sat in front of the computer too long, a gentle nudge from our clothing to switch us out of "couch potato" mode can be useful.   Some of us might like sensors to warn others of  falls in the home, baby nappy care, or just to wake us up in the morning when our Smart  T- shirt detect we have had enough sleep. These are all old ideas, but with all our technology, we still hear of cyclists and car drivers  falling into ditches,  and being so injured for days  they cannot even use their smart  phone to call for help.

What design features can help to embed these sensors into clothes ? The sensors must be invisible and not detract from the clothing. We don't all want to look like astronauts! The sensors should not need on/off switches and should be able to send messages to our phones. If we do want to switch our sensors on and off, this should be as intuitive as doing up a button.   Being small and  able to stitch  the sensors into the seams of clothes during manufacture would help as seams would be able to disguise any additional thickness of the sensors. We do not want the inconvenience of being able to change batteries. Can we  harvest power from the wash cycle motion of our washing machine? There is research to indicate that is possible for low currents.
Much of the hardware for this health monitoring exists already. We have our smartphones for the high end processing and communicating to others if we need help. Re the tiny sensors,  from Nov 2012 every new car in the UK will need Tyre Pressure Measurements systems. (This has been law in the USA for a while). These legal requirements have provided   tiny sensors 7 x7 mm for monitoring our car tyre pressure, acceleration in 2 dimensions, temperature, with the  microcontroller and radio built in. These sensors just need power.

Texas TPMS is the size of a shirt button.

Girton Labs and Associates plans to prototype some of these systems.