FYI see Adrian’s response re McGill's Sensestage miniBee gadgets.
I know the guys who did the SenseStage work at McGill from Marcelo’s lab.
They were nice folks, but not the best, and the research application was misguided.
This device was not useful to advance movement / gesture research at the TML.
To check my own assessment, I asked Adrian.
If you want to buy them on your own research funds, chacun à son goût :)
But I would prefer not to throw general AME or Synthesis money at buying such things
unless there’s a specific legacy need for a critical research project that will lead to an concrete outcome in predictable future.
Otherwise, let me suggest that we track the state of the art with Adrian Freed <adrian@cnmat.berkeley.edu>
and Vangelis Lympouridis <vangelis@lympouridis.gr> in USC
and get the best devices for the job under cost time constraint just when we need them.
Cheers,
Xin Wei
Begin forwarded message:
From: <adrian@adrianfreed.com>
Subject: RE: Fwd: Wireless sensor networks
Date: August 22, 2014 at 7:07:02 PM MST
To: "Sha Xin Wei" <shaxinwei@gmail.com>
I am sure they are good for something but I can't use them for various
reasons.
They just aren't reliable enough unless the performers are out of reach
of RF noise from the
audience/ambient sources.
+ Slow, old atmega cpu with too little memory,
+ old accelerometer instead of full IMU.
There are lots of smaller form factor things in the works like SparkCore
and all the bluetooth LE things coming out.
The problem is you have to look at the fully integrated size with
battery, the additional sensors you actually want, the case
etc etc. Small is 6 months away (BLE), small and fast enough for serious
movement work is still a few years away.
Sixense is a company getting this right with stem:
http://www.sixensestore.com/stemsystem-2.aspx-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: Wireless sensor networks
From: Sha Xin Wei <shaxinwei@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, August 22, 2014 3:36 pm
To: Adrian Freed <adrian@adrianfreed.com>
Are these xBees any good? would these be superseded by other common wireless microprocessors …?
We (at Synthesis and AME) are happy with the xOSC boards,
tho I do hope for a much smaller form factor.
...
Xin Wei