Never Use This Font » Projects

Tools for Co-Working Spaces

aaron — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:06:38 +0000

Souk Co-Working Space

I recently spent some time at Souk, a co-working space in Portland. It’s a great space with lots of room and lots of light, which is important when you’re going to spend hours on end somewhere. Over the course of a couple days, it became apparent that there are several tools that can help facilitate the coming and going of people in spaces like these.

CloudKnock is an application built using Tropo to facilitate letting people in to co-working spaces. When you need to get in, you can text “knock knock” to the application’s phone number. The application will then forward your message on to anyone who has checked in to the space. Since it uses Tropo it works not only by SMS but also by AIM, MSN, Yahoo IM, or Jabber! This means your “knock knock” SMS can be seamlessly forwarded on to people sitting at their desks using Gmail chat or AIM. While this app won’t actually open the door for you, that also means there is no physical hardware to install making it feasible to start using it today! Download the source code on Github, and sign up with Tropo to get started.

Have you ever wondered where someone in your group ran off to at lunch? Wouldn’t it be great if you could find out where they are without having to call them or text them and wait for their reply? Using Tropo, you can just send a quick IM to a bot which can find out where they are if they’re using Geoloqi.

Every person who you want to track should download the Geoloqi app for iPhone or Android.

From your map page, create a new shared link which never expires.

Copy the token at the end of the URL that is created, and paste it into the users array in the script.

Copy the sample code into a new Tropo scripting application, and add the Geoloqi shared link tokens for everyone in your group you want to track. You can give people nicknames so they can be identified by multiple names.

Then, you can send a message (via SMS or IM) like “Where is Aaron?” and you’ll get a quick reply with your friend’s location if they’re tracking themselves using Geoloqi!

How to build a multi-user Delicious clone with WordPress and Delicious XML Exporter

aaron — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 12:14:06 +0000

If you’re like me, you’ve probably got a lot of bookmarks saved on Delicious. If you’re not, you might know someone who does. With Delicious going offline, the question is where people are going to be taking their Delicious bookmarks? If you have a Delicious account (created after the Yahoo! acquisition), your only download option is a html download exporting to browser bookmarks. This doesn’t give anyone much freedom in where you can take your data. To ease this frustration, @caseorganic and I set out to solve this issue.

WordPress and Delicious XML

Here’s a live Delicious clone running WordPress with data from Delicious XML.

Delicious XML Exporter is an export tool takes your Delicious bookmarks and exports them as XML, allowing you easily import them into other systems.

Importing Delicious XML data to WordPress

Install WordPress and the three plugins here. This is a custom post type for storing bookmarks, a Twenty Ten child theme for displaying the custom post types, and an import tool which will import Delicious bookmarks from the XML export.

Once you install the plugins and theme, use the Delicious XML utility to download an XML file of all your bookmarks from Delicious. It’s secure OAuth, so you never have to enter your password.

Then, in WordPress, click on “Import”, and choose the “Delicious” option. Upload the XML file and press import. Your bookmarks and tags will be imported and functional!

Happy bookmarking!

Enjoy, and let me know if it works for you. If you find it helpful, let @caseorganic and I know!

Random Hacks of Kindness – December 2010

aaron — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:08:24 +0000

On the weekend of December 4th and 5th, people gathered in coworking spaces around the world for the Random Hacks of Kindness hackathon. In Seattle, two teams worked on Population Centers in Disaster, and Mobile Assessment of Damage for the Public.

Results

After a weekend of much hacking, good food, and good company, we came away with solid problem definitions, UI mockups, and prototypes of an iPhone app, Android app, a website backend, and a voice-powered phone menu.

Mobile Assessment of Damage for the Public

The goal of MadPub.org is to build an application that streamlines the process of reporting and assessing the amount of damage after the occurrence of a natural disaster in the United States. Beta testing will be for the State of Washington.

In the event of a disaster, each county has a 72 hour window to report a dollar estimate of damage to the state and federal government in order meet the threshold for a federal declaration. The current system for assessing and reporting damage has many inefficiencies, requiring government personnel from each county to manually fill out a form after talking on the phone with the person reporting the damage.

To solve this, we are building a system that allows businesses and individuals to report damage on a variety of platforms including: a phone tree with voice recognition managed with Tropo, a web form, and Android and iPhone apps.

Information Flow

Mobile Apps

Laurel (@laurelfan) and Chi-Bong Ho built working prototypes of iPhone and Android apps! The apps allows you to enter the required information to gather information about the damage, and you can take photos and send them in the report as well. Mark (@malept) prototyped an HTML5 form using jQuery Mobile.

Server

Mark (@malept) and Pat Tressel built a Sahana-backed web form for submitting data, which the mobile applications can also send data to. While that was getting ready, Kav (@kavla) threw together a quick Rails app so uploading from the apps could be tested.

Phone

Aaron (@aaronpk) worked on a phone interface for entering the data. This involved a Tropo app to handle the speech recognition.

Speech recognition is a difficult problem in general, but Tropo provides a great platform to make it a lot easier.

When someone calls the hotline, the Tropo application answers the call and offers to provide an overview of the information the caller will need to answer the questions. It then asks a series of questions needed to fill out the form.

Most questions can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” More complicated questions require more computing power to understand. Even the top of the line speech recognition technologies have a long way to go to understand what people are saying on the phone. How many times have you, a person, asked someone on the phone whether they said “b” or “d”? Now imagine a computer trying to hear that without any context!

Luckily, Tropo provides a way to recognize speech patterns from a smaller set of vocabulary. Tropo has built-in speech recognition to understand numbers, currencies and dates, and you can even specify your own set of options. What this means is that it’s far easier to get a computer to tell the difference between “sales” and “suppport” than it is to tell you what word a person said in no context. If you give the computer two options, it can more accurately match what the caller has said.

With this in mind, I set up a system for building survey applications with sets of options. For any questions that have completely free-form answers, such as “please describe the damages to the property,” the system records the audio from the caller so that the operator can play back that part of the message later. In fact, every response to every question has the audio recorded automatically so that the individual responses can be played back at a later date.

Here is some sample code showing what it takes to create a survey in this framework.

You can see the different types of responses the Tropo can understand. I added the “[BOOLEAN]” and “[RECORD]” types to the framework which causes Tropo to listen for a “yes” or “no” response, and that will just accept a recording of whatever the caller speaks.

My goal in designing this Tropo application was to make it as easy as possible to set up survey questions and change them in the future. The application takes care of recording responses and tracking answers, and provides the callers’ responses in the admin’s web interface.

The data gathered from the call is presented to admins in a web view. Here is an example of a transcript of one of the calls. There are “listen” links which will play the audio for that response. Some questions don’t have recordings because the answers were determined based on other answers. For example, entering a zip code determines the county and state.

If you’d like to check out the source code to this application, you can find it on Github. For more information on Tropo, check out the Tropo documentation.

Mapping wifi access points in Portland

aaron — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:09:46 +0000

I’ve been logging GPS data for about a year and a half. I use an app on my Windows Mobile phone to log the GPS data, and my phone has a wifi antenna that stays in the “off” position most of the time. I met with @donpdonp the other day and he introduced me to the geomena.org project. I realized it should be possible to log access points along with my existing GPS logging. It was easy to install Airomap on my phone, so now I can log wifi points too!

So far I’ve only made about a dozen trips with the wifi antenna on, but I’ve already logged 2200 unique mac addresses, and 427 open access points. And this is only on my normal route to and from work, I haven’t made any special wardriving trips yet. Here is a heatmap visualization of the access points I’ve logged so far.

This uses a custom tileserver I wrote to provide an additional data layer to the map. Hotter spots on the map correspond to more open access points in that area.

This is a version which shows each access point as a marker on the map so you can click on them.

Wifi Access Points in Portland. Red: encrypted, Blue: open

Most of the access points appear to be in the middle of the street, because most have been seen only one time by my logger, which was in the middle of the street. As the access points are seen repeatedly from other positions, the points will adjust to a more accurate position. You can already see this happening for a few points which appear in the middle of blocks or on streets through which I did not drive.

Again, these maps are still in their infancy, since I’ve only logged a few days worth of points on very narrow routes. But it’s amazing that I’ve already driven by 2200 access points just in the normal course of the day. I’m looking forward to continuing logging data and eventually importing it into the geomena database. It’s easy to see how quickly we could map out the entire city with just a couple people running loggers!

More tests with the Nike+iPod protocol

aaron — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 19:14:14 +0000

A lot of information about this device online is misleading. When I first heard about this, the site I was reading claimed the transmitter didn’t have a battery, and used the energy from the foot impact to power the burst transmission of the device’s ID. This is what got me excited about the device in the first place: that it was so simple.

Other places I’ve read say there is an accelerometer inside. While not entirely inaccurate, it is again slightly misleading. It does not have an accelerometer the same way a Wii controller does. It has a piezoelectric sensor. (See SparkFun’s Nike+iPod Dissection page)

I am not entirely confident that I know the capabilities of piezoelectric sensors, but if I am understanding correctly, they are primarily used to detect impact, and not smaller accelerations like the Wii controller does. What I am saying is that the sensor doesn’t know it is being dropped, it just knows that it hits the table.

Here is another data dump from the sensor. I tapped the sensor on the table two times every second. It’s two short taps followed by me waiting for the receiver to show it received a packet.

AF AC CD 2A 92 4E 71 EC 5B 3C 3A C9 72 EF 3A F0 75 AE 79 35 3E D9 B6

A0 B3 69 55 76 0F 7E 19 C4 95 A0 A5 21 33 B1 8F AC 1F F9 01 8E E6 BA

A1 23 53 40 75 8F 5C 2E 07 39 4B A3 97 12 26 BB EA 86 A4 3B 78 6E 80

A2 6F 27 1A B8 E4 5D 4F 80 05 19 6A A1 75 6C 0B 96 D5 59 69 B7 C7 78

A3 4A 58 38 55 F6 3D 1E B3 90 44 64 5B 5D 4F 9B 89 51 B8 CC 6E 3A 9C

A4 37 16 36 AC A0 B3 B5 08 86 94 4E D4 9E 1C 6E 5B 85 85 53 8D AB 1B

A5 FD AE FA 74 3B B6 88 CF 1B 95 32 56 75 BB F1 96 2B 19 A3 1D 73 E6

A6 45 59 1F 41 38 6A 20 60 FD AC 44 91 1F F4 E8 EE 1A 8B 43 CC A6 CB

A7 1C 94 06 CA E0 C4 7C 3F 87 4D 95 E8 9A 04 27 6D 4E 86 96 FC 11 D2

A8 57 53 73 E9 4B 58 92 CB FE 99 F5 C0 91 C1 90 1E C7 8C 04 A6 E9 72

A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0

AA 06 85 D1 B6 AB 9F 83 ED F1 74 88 AC 99 28 A6 1E A9 C7 E6 CA 11 8D

AB EF DC BC 6D 0B 8F 0A 30 22 9A 70 22 3E C8 CE 04 F5 2B 39 5F CE 33

AC 78 B4 0B F9 02 49 7C 05 4F 05 3B 2A 4D 4C F4 20 CD 73 16 2E 0F B1

AD 2B 17 0E 5A 70 77 26 3C F6 C8 1F 92 58 F7 72 00 0E 27 14 74 A2 23

AE A1 3E 49 FC EA 78 F6 A8 DA F9 AD AC 92 D4 E1 DF 35 A7 24 0D 6F B2

AF AC CD 2A 12 D2 ED 70 C8 AF A9 56 EF 72 9F 55 D0 49 56 1E 97 6E 62

A0 B3 69 55 F6 93 E2 85 61 30 05 48 CE DC 56 68 4B 46 40 48 85 1F 4E

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB

A5 FD AE FA C4 CB 46 78 7F AB 25 C2 A6 85 4B 01 66 1B 09 B3 0D 83 66

A6 45 59 1F 91 E8 BA F0 10 8D DC 74 A1 2F C4 D8 DE EA 5B 93 1C F6 AB

A7 1C 94 06 1A 90 B4 0C 8F 37 FD E5 98 EA 74 57 1D 7E 96 86 EC 21 D2

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92

A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0

AA 06 85 D1 B6 AB 9F 83 ED F1 74 88 AC 99 28 A6 1E A9 C7 E6 CA 11 8D

AB EF DC BC ED 8B 0F 8A B0 A2 1A F0 A2 BE 48 4E 84 75 AB B9 DF 4E 33

AC 78 B4 0B 79 82 C9 FC 85 CF 85 BB AA CD CC 74 A0 4D F3 96 AE 8F B1

AD 2B 17 0E DA F0 F7 A6 BC 76 48 9F 12 D8 77 F2 80 8E A7 94 F4 22 23

AE A1 3E 49 7C 6A F8 76 28 5A 79 2D 2C 12 54 61 5F B5 27 A4 8D EF B2

AF AC CD 2A 92 52 6D F0 48 2F 29 D6 6F F2 1F D5 50 C9 D6 9E 17 EE 62

A0 B3 69 55 76 13 62 05 E1 B0 85 C8 4E 5C D6 E8 CB C6 C0 C8 05 9F 4E

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB

A5 FD AE FA C4 CB 46 78 7F AB 25 C2 A6 85 4B 01 66 1B 09 B3 0D 83 66

A6 45 59 1F 91 E8 BA F0 10 8D DC 74 A1 2F C4 D8 DE EA 5B 93 1C F6 AB

A7 1C 94 06 1A 90 B4 0C 8F 37 FD E5 98 EA 74 57 1D 7E 96 86 EC 21 D2

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92

A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0

AA 06 85 D1 36 2B 1F 03 6D 71 F4 08 2C 19 A8 26 9E 29 47 66 4A 91 8D

AB EF DC BC 6D 0B 8F 0A 30 22 9A 70 22 3E C8 CE 04 F5 2B 39 5F CE 33

AC 78 B4 0B F9 02 49 7C 05 4F 05 3B 2A 4D 4C F4 20 CD 73 16 2E 0F B1

AD 2B 17 0E 5A 70 77 26 3C F6 C8 1F 92 58 F7 72 00 0E 27 14 74 A2 23

AE A1 3E 49 FC EA 78 F6 A8 DA F9 AD AC 92 D4 E1 DF 35 A7 24 0D 6F B2

AF AC CD 2A 92 52 6D F0 48 2F 29 D6 6F F2 1F D5 50 C9 D6 9E 17 EE 62

A0 B3 69 55 76 13 62 05 E1 B0 85 C8 4E 5C D6 E8 CB C6 C0 C8 05 9F 4E

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB

A5 FD AE FA C4 CB 46 78 7F AB 25 C2 A6 85 4B 01 66 1B 09 B3 0D 83 66

A6 45 59 1F 91 E8 BA F0 10 8D DC 74 A1 2F C4 D8 DE EA 5B 93 1C F6 AB

A7 1C 94 06 1A 90 B4 0C 8F 37 FD E5 98 EA 74 57 1D 7E 96 86 EC 21 D2

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92

This dump is from tapping it once per second on the table:

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A4 37 16 36 7C D0 C3 C5 B8 36 24 BE 24 6E CC BE 8B B5 95 43 9D BB FB

A5 FD AE FA 44 4B C6 F8 FF 2B A5 42 26 05 CB 81 E6 9B 89 33 8D 03 66

A6 45 59 1F 11 68 3A 70 90 0D 5C F4 21 AF 44 58 5E 6A DB 13 9C 76 AB

A7 1C 94 06 9A 10 34 8C 0F B7 7D 65 18 6A F4 D7 9D FE 16 06 6C A1 D2

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92

A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0

AA 06 85 D1 B6 AB 9F 83 ED F1 74 88 AC 99 28 A6 1E A9 C7 E6 CA 11 8D

AB EF DC BC ED 8B 0F 8A B0 A2 1A F0 A2 BE 48 4E 84 75 AB B9 DF 4E 33

AC 78 B4 0B 79 82 C9 FC 85 CF 85 BB AA CD CC 74 A0 4D F3 96 AE 8F B1

AD 2B 17 0E DA F0 F7 A6 BC 76 48 9F 12 D8 77 F2 80 8E A7 94 F4 22 23

AE A1 3E 49 7C 6A F8 76 28 5A 79 2D 2C 12 54 61 5F B5 27 A4 8D EF B2

AF AC CD 2A 92 52 6D F0 48 2F 29 D6 6F F2 1F D5 50 C9 D6 9E 17 EE 62

A0 B3 69 55 76 13 62 05 E1 B0 85 C8 4E 5C D6 E8 CB C6 C0 C8 05 9F 4E

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB

A5 FD AE FA C4 CB 46 78 7F AB 25 C2 A6 85 4B 01 66 1B 09 B3 0D 83 66

A6 45 59 1F 91 E8 BA F0 10 8D DC 74 A1 2F C4 D8 DE EA 5B 93 1C F6 AB

A7 1C 94 06 1A 90 B4 0C 8F 37 FD E5 98 EA 74 57 1D 7E 96 86 EC 21 D2

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92

A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0

AA 06 85 D1 B6 AB 9F 83 ED F1 74 88 AC 99 28 A6 1E A9 C7 E6 CA 11 8D

AB EF DC BC ED 8B 0F 8A B0 A2 1A F0 A2 BE 48 4E 84 75 AB B9 DF 4E 33

AC 78 B4 0B 79 82 C9 FC 85 CF 85 BB AA CD CC 74 A0 4D F3 96 AE 8F B1

AD 2B 17 0E DA F0 F7 A6 BC 76 48 9F 12 D8 77 F2 80 8E A7 94 F4 22 23

AE A1 3E 49 7C 6A F8 76 28 5A 79 2D 2C 12 54 61 5F B5 27 A4 8D EF B2

AF AC CD 2A 92 52 6D F0 48 2F 29 D6 6F F2 1F D5 50 C9 D6 9E 17 EE 62

A0 B3 69 55 76 13 62 05 E1 B0 85 C8 4E 5C D6 E8 CB C6 C0 C8 05 9F 4E

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB

Something really interesting happens if you group all of the lines together that begin with AA, AB, etc. A lot of them match up! This is a re-arrangement of both dumps of data. Blue is from the “1 tap” set, red is from the “2 taps” set.

A0 B3 69 55 76 13 62 05 E1 B0 85 C8 4E 5C D6 E8 CB C6 C0 C8 05 9F 4E

A0 B3 69 55 76 13 62 05 E1 B0 85 C8 4E 5C D6 E8 CB C6 C0 C8 05 9F 4E
A0 B3 69 55 76 0F 7E 19 C4 95 A0 A5 21 33 B1 8F AC 1F F9 01 8E E6 BA

A0 B3 69 55 F6 93 E2 85 61 30 05 48 CE DC 56 68 4B 46 40 48 85 1F 4E

A0 B3 69 55 76 13 62 05 E1 B0 85 C8 4E 5C D6 E8 CB C6 C0 C8 05 9F 4E

A0 B3 69 55 76 13 62 05 E1 B0 85 C8 4E 5C D6 E8 CB C6 C0 C8 05 9F 4E
A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE
A1 23 53 40 75 8F 5C 2E 07 39 4B A3 97 12 26 BB EA 86 A4 3B 78 6E 80

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE

A1 23 53 40 C5 01 D6 A4 92 AC DE 36 04 81 B5 28 79 F3 B9 26 14 CA DE
A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0
A2 6F 27 1A B8 E4 5D 4F 80 05 19 6A A1 75 6C 0B 96 D5 59 69 B7 C7 78

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0

A2 6F 27 1A 08 36 8F 9D B3 36 2A 9D 58 8C 85 E2 7F 6E C2 FE CF 7F A0
A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E
A3 4A 58 38 55 F6 3D 1E B3 90 44 64 5B 5D 4F 9B 89 51 B8 CC 6E 3A 9C

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E

A3 4A 58 38 A5 48 83 A0 52 71 A5 C5 FC FA F0 24 36 BC 0D 81 52 4E 6E
A4 37 16 36 7C D0 C3 C5 B8 36 24 BE 24 6E CC BE 8B B5 95 43 9D BB FB

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB
A4 37 16 36 AC A0 B3 B5 08 86 94 4E D4 9E 1C 6E 5B 85 85 53 8D AB 1B

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB

A4 37 16 36 FC 50 43 45 38 B6 A4 3E A4 EE 4C 3E 0B 35 15 C3 1D 3B FB
A5 FD AE FA 44 4B C6 F8 FF 2B A5 42 26 05 CB 81 E6 9B 89 33 8D 03 66

A5 FD AE FA C4 CB 46 78 7F AB 25 C2 A6 85 4B 01 66 1B 09 B3 0D 83 66
A5 FD AE FA 74 3B B6 88 CF 1B 95 32 56 75 BB F1 96 2B 19 A3 1D 73 E6

A5 FD AE FA C4 CB 46 78 7F AB 25 C2 A6 85 4B 01 66 1B 09 B3 0D 83 66

A5 FD AE FA C4 CB 46 78 7F AB 25 C2 A6 85 4B 01 66 1B 09 B3 0D 83 66

A5 FD AE FA C4 CB 46 78 7F AB 25 C2 A6 85 4B 01 66 1B 09 B3 0D 83 66
A6 45 59 1F 11 68 3A 70 90 0D 5C F4 21 AF 44 58 5E 6A DB 13 9C 76 AB

A6 45 59 1F 91 E8 BA F0 10 8D DC 74 A1 2F C4 D8 DE EA 5B 93 1C F6 AB
A6 45 59 1F 41 38 6A 20 60 FD AC 44 91 1F F4 E8 EE 1A 8B 43 CC A6 CB

A6 45 59 1F 91 E8 BA F0 10 8D DC 74 A1 2F C4 D8 DE EA 5B 93 1C F6 AB

A6 45 59 1F 91 E8 BA F0 10 8D DC 74 A1 2F C4 D8 DE EA 5B 93 1C F6 AB

A6 45 59 1F 91 E8 BA F0 10 8D DC 74 A1 2F C4 D8 DE EA 5B 93 1C F6 AB
A7 1C 94 06 9A 10 34 8C 0F B7 7D 65 18 6A F4 D7 9D FE 16 06 6C A1 D2

A7 1C 94 06 1A 90 B4 0C 8F 37 FD E5 98 EA 74 57 1D 7E 96 86 EC 21 D2
A7 1C 94 06 CA E0 C4 7C 3F 87 4D 95 E8 9A 04 27 6D 4E 86 96 FC 11 D2

A7 1C 94 06 1A 90 B4 0C 8F 37 FD E5 98 EA 74 57 1D 7E 96 86 EC 21 D2

A7 1C 94 06 1A 90 B4 0C 8F 37 FD E5 98 EA 74 57 1D 7E 96 86 EC 21 D2

A7 1C 94 06 1A 90 B4 0C 8F 37 FD E5 98 EA 74 57 1D 7E 96 86 EC 21 D2
A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92
A8 57 53 73 E9 4B 58 92 CB FE 99 F5 C0 91 C1 90 1E C7 8C 04 A6 E9 72

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92

A8 57 53 73 39 1B 08 C2 1B 2E 49 25 70 21 71 20 AE 37 3C B4 F6 39 92
A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0

A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0
A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0

A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0

A9 C4 7E 84 82 F0 98 4C ED EB 76 33 30 88 10 02 1E 37 52 05 BB 0B D0
AA 06 85 D1 B6 AB 9F 83 ED F1 74 88 AC 99 28 A6 1E A9 C7 E6 CA 11 8D

AA 06 85 D1 B6 AB 9F 83 ED F1 74 88 AC 99 28 A6 1E A9 C7 E6 CA 11 8D
AA 06 85 D1 B6 AB 9F 83 ED F1 74 88 AC 99 28 A6 1E A9 C7 E6 CA 11 8D

AA 06 85 D1 B6 AB 9F 83 ED F1 74 88 AC 99 28 A6 1E A9 C7 E6 CA 11 8D

AA 06 85 D1 36 2B 1F 03 6D 71 F4 08 2C 19 A8 26 9E 29 47 66 4A 91 8D
AB EF DC BC ED 8B 0F 8A B0 A2 1A F0 A2 BE 48 4E 84 75 AB B9 DF 4E 33

AB EF DC BC ED 8B 0F 8A B0 A2 1A F0 A2 BE 48 4E 84 75 AB B9 DF 4E 33
AB EF DC BC 6D 0B 8F 0A 30 22 9A 70 22 3E C8 CE 04 F5 2B 39 5F CE 33

AB EF DC BC ED 8B 0F 8A B0 A2 1A F0 A2 BE 48 4E 84 75 AB B9 DF 4E 33

AB EF DC BC 6D 0B 8F 0A 30 22 9A 70 22 3E C8 CE 04 F5 2B 39 5F CE 33
AC 78 B4 0B 79 82 C9 FC 85 CF 85 BB AA CD CC 74 A0 4D F3 96 AE 8F B1

AC 78 B4 0B 79 82 C9 FC 85 CF 85 BB AA CD CC 74 A0 4D F3 96 AE 8F B1
AC 78 B4 0B F9 02 49 7C 05 4F 05 3B 2A 4D 4C F4 20 CD 73 16 2E 0F B1

AC 78 B4 0B 79 82 C9 FC 85 CF 85 BB AA CD CC 74 A0 4D F3 96 AE 8F B1

AC 78 B4 0B F9 02 49 7C 05 4F 05 3B 2A 4D 4C F4 20 CD 73 16 2E 0F B1
AD 2B 17 0E DA F0 F7 A6 BC 76 48 9F 12 D8 77 F2 80 8E A7 94 F4 22 23

AD 2B 17 0E DA F0 F7 A6 BC 76 48 9F 12 D8 77 F2 80 8E A7 94 F4 22 23
AD 2B 17 0E 5A 70 77 26 3C F6 C8 1F 92 58 F7 72 00 0E 27 14 74 A2 23

AD 2B 17 0E DA F0 F7 A6 BC 76 48 9F 12 D8 77 F2 80 8E A7 94 F4 22 23

AD 2B 17 0E 5A 70 77 26 3C F6 C8 1F 92 58 F7 72 00 0E 27 14 74 A2 23
AE A1 3E 49 7C 6A F8 76 28 5A 79 2D 2C 12 54 61 5F B5 27 A4 8D EF B2

AE A1 3E 49 7C 6A F8 76 28 5A 79 2D 2C 12 54 61 5F B5 27 A4 8D EF B2
AE A1 3E 49 FC EA 78 F6 A8 DA F9 AD AC 92 D4 E1 DF 35 A7 24 0D 6F B2

AE A1 3E 49 7C 6A F8 76 28 5A 79 2D 2C 12 54 61 5F B5 27 A4 8D EF B2

AE A1 3E 49 FC EA 78 F6 A8 DA F9 AD AC 92 D4 E1 DF 35 A7 24 0D 6F B2
AF AC CD 2A 92 52 6D F0 48 2F 29 D6 6F F2 1F D5 50 C9 D6 9E 17 EE 62

AF AC CD 2A 92 52 6D F0 48 2F 29 D6 6F F2 1F D5 50 C9 D6 9E 17 EE 62
AF AC CD 2A 92 4E 71 EC 5B 3C 3A C9 72 EF 3A F0 75 AE 79 35 3E D9 B6

AF AC CD 2A 12 D2 ED 70 C8 AF A9 56 EF 72 9F 55 D0 49 56 1E 97 6E 62

AF AC CD 2A 92 52 6D F0 48 2F 29 D6 6F F2 1F D5 50 C9 D6 9E 17 EE 62

AF AC CD 2A 92 52 6D F0 48 2F 29 D6 6F F2 1F D5 50 C9 D6 9E 17 EE 62

What’s really strange to me is that I got a lot of the same lines, even just from tapping it not terribly accurately by hand. With that many bits, it is no coincidence that so many of them match up. This suggests to me that the resolution of data transmitted is not as great as I originally thought.

Reverse Engineering the Nike+iPod Protocol

aaron — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:14:24 +0000

I just got a Nike+iPod gadget thingy. It’s pretty cool, and stores all the running stats in xml files on the iPod, making for easy hacking of the running data. However, that’s not what I really want to do with it.

I got one of Sparkfun’s USB serial adapters for it, and can now get the raw data off of it. What I need to be able to detect is whether the sensor received an impact.

Before I bought this, I had heard that the sensor in the shoe transmits its ID every time the runner takes a step. However, after a little experimentation, I found this is not the case. Stepping on the sensor activates it, and once active, broadcasts some data chunks every 1 second. The dump below is from me dropping the sensor on the table, then letting it sit there until it stopped sending. You can see it took 13 seconds of just sitting there before it stopped sending data.

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 A5 FD AE FA C4 BF 32 0C 52 86 08 AF C9 EA 1C 56 31 CA B8 02 33 32 79

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 A6 45 59 1F 91 DC 8E C4 FB 66 37 DB 010 9E 75 69 6F 99 08 C4 0A 95 BE

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 A7 1C 94 06 1A 84 A8 010 9A 22 E8 F8 8B F9 67 44 0E 6B AB BB E0 C2 53

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 A8 57 53 73 39 0F 14 DE 0E 3B 5C 38 73 22 72 23 AD 3A 49 C9 1A 4A EF

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 AA 06 85 D1 B6 9F AB B7 20 3C B9 CD EF DA 6B E5 5D E8 86 A7 42 36 B0

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 AB EF DC BC ED 7F FB 7E 9B 89 31 07 57 4B B5 B3 79 DA FC E2 4B 8F CA

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 AC 78 B4 0B 79 76 3D 08 B8 F2 B8 C6 D5 B2 AB 13 C7 68 0E 6B E2 78 CC

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 AD 2B 17 0E DA E4 E3 B2 AF 65 5B 90 1F D5 72 F7 85 89 A8 9F A6 FD AE

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 AE A1 3E 49 7C 5E C4 4A 5B 29 0A 9A 9D A3 E5 D0 EE 66 D4 53 F9 010 F3

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 AF AC CD 2A 92 46 79 E4 53 34 32 D1 6A F7 22 E8 6D C6 D1 9D CB 67 03

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 A0 B3 69 55 76 07 76 11 CC 9D A8 AD 29 3B B9 87 A4 17 F1 F9 CB 06 65

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 A1 23 53 40 C5 F5 22 50 BD 83 F1 5D 69 EC D0 4D 1C D0 DA 49 EA A9 2D

FF 55 1E 09 0D 0D 01 70 C5 07 30 A2 6F 27 1A 08 2A 93 81 B6 33 2F A0 6B BF B6 D1 4C 9B 0F 33 D1 16 41

(If you look closely, you’ll see some 010′s in there. That is obviously not a real hex byte, and has something to do with the VB program that Sparkfun put together. I can’t actually get the checksums to work out, otherwise I’d be able to tell what it should be.)

Here is what we know so far, compiled from here and here

FF 55 : Apple Accessory Protocol header
1E : length of packet data (from mode through data before checksum)
09 : mode for Nike+
0D 0D : command
01 : unknown (start of parameter)
70 C5 07 30 : my transmitter’s ID
A5 : appears to be a counter, always starts with A, counts from 0-F
next 21 bytes : unknown

79 : 8 bit additive checksum ((sum of all length/mode/command/parameter bytes) & 0xFF) Note: I can’t actually get this to calculate out correct on any of the rows. I must be doing something wrong.

Currently I don’t have enough information in order to be able to tell whether a packet contains a footstep or not, since it continues to transmit even after it stops getting footsteps.

Links:
http://www.ipodlinux.org/Apple_Accessory_Protocol
http://www.ipodlinux.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24578
http://www.rockbox.org/mail/archive/rockbox-dev-archive-2008-02/0005.shtml
http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/systems/privacy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike%2BiPod
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/

Caller ID Box

aaron — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:02:32 +0000

Update:

Everything looks like it should be working, and I even modified the answering_machine.c script a little bit. But for some reason, it appears as though the modem is just never receiving the ring signal. It may be because I am running it in a dual processor machine. I am going to reinstall linux in a single processor machine and try again.