CanardDevice

As an earlier exploration in the concept of portable news we built a small device capable of sending and receiving text messages - aka two-way pager - what was notable was not the display or transmission technologies, but rather two sensors that changed the user interface in subtle and not-so subtle ways. The first was a mercury switch that allowed us to know if the device was in a readable orientation (i.e., not upside down) - if the device was in a non-readable orientation, the device would beep to allow the user to know pay attention to it. Another sensor was a simple sensor to measure gait - was the person standing still, walking or moving quickly - the device would then alter its display routines to scroll slowly or use a bigger font. These sensors allowed for context aware adaptation of content.