Bio-OS

This project established a series of Collaborative Data Lab’s, Bio-OS 1.0, to develop and share ‘instruments’ or ‘provocative prototypes’ that lead to new practices, knowledge and resources for artists and transdisciplinary practitioners. The intention is to make the data generated by human and ecological activity tangible and readily available to the public, artists, engineers and scientists for potential social, economic and cultural benefit, exploring the transformative potential of digital technology to nurturing new cultural forms.

‘Bio-OS 1.0’ is a pilot for i-DAT’s Collaborative Data Lab initiative which aims to identify opportunities to support and develop innovative ideas, prototypes and dissemination of creative content with a focus on the harvesting, sharing and visualization of data and information.

Bio-OS: DIY.

Bio-OS: DIY Human Geography v1.0 is the first Bio-OS publication.
You may have arrived at this page by way of the QR code in the physical publication.

First published for i-DAT in 2011.
http://www.i-dat.org
Produced by i-DAT in collaboration with Message, E-Health and Health Informatics.
Published by Liquid Press (i-DAT).
Copyright: Bio-OS by i-DAT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-84102-298-7

Bio-OS: DIY, Human Geography v1.0 describes the emergence of ‘Bio-OS’ (http://www.bio-os.org/) – prototype technologies (hardware and software) that make data generated by the human body, (heart rate, breathing rate, body temperature and galvanic skin response), tangible. By making this data readily available to the public, artists, engineers and scientists we can better explore its transformative potential for nurturing scientific research, new arts practice and new cultural forms.

This online publication is intended to offer a DIY insight into the development of the Bio-OS prototype.

Bio-OS Technology:

• 0: Bio-OS (continue on this page).
• 1: Bio-OS Data Input: sensor strap (publication QR code).
• 2: Bio-OS Data Input: sensor strap (publication QR code).
• 3: Bio-OS Data Input: smartphone & software (app) (publication QR code).
• 4: Bio-OS Data Processing: data server (publication QR code).
• 5: Bio-OS Data Output: triggers (publication QR code).
• 6: Bio-OS User Guide (pdf download).

About Bio-OS:
The project is supported by Arts Council England and delivered by i-DAT working in partnership with E-Health and Health Informatics at Plymouth University. The project was developed through a series of collaborative ‘DataLabs’ and artist commissions to co-research and develop the Bio-OS prototypes through practices which embrace interactive art, ubiquitous technologies, data visualisation, transmedia story telling, social gaming and interaction design.

i-DAT’s collaborative DataLab is an initiative which aims to foster an open and collaborative environment which brings together artists, researchers and scientists to develop ‘provocative prototypes’ that lead to new practice, knowledge and resources for the arts and society as a whole. This initiative will enable artists to engage with these new digital opportunities and processes, to foster the creation of new work and engage with new audiences. These activities build dynamic links between academic research and artistic practice to foster transdisciplinary, and new cultural forms.

The artists commissioned to collaborate on the DataLab project were: Katy Connor, Hannah Wood and Slingshot.

The Body:
It is a temporal fragmented body that Bio-OS engages with. It sees the body both as a landscape and as an object in a landscape: Bodies in Environments / Bodies as Environments. Within and through these internal and external landscapes the instruments developed for the Bio-OS create a space for creative practice.

The body operates as a conduit for the exchange for ideas, knowledge and the transformation of physical objects. The body is also a node in a more problematic network; such as supply chains for food, traffic and amenities. Bio-OS engages with the body and the ‘things’ that cluster around it through a process of participatory design of ‘provocative prototypes’ to generate realtime data models of human activity. Consequently, Bio-OS enables the human body to become a networked and shared ‘thing’.

Through Bio-OS dynamic visual and sonic experiences, derived from human movement, are being tailored to enhance public understanding of the collective, mass biology. In this context Bio-OS and its distribution and engagement mechanisms provide an open tool for public engagement, with a domain that is primarily owned by medical, scientific fields.

Bio-OS provides accessible tools (through ‘hacks’, wearable devices, phone Apps and domestic and public health technologies and social media tools), that are being deployed in daily life for monitoring health and activity. Data collected from these tools feed dynamic databases that facilitate a shared understanding of the mass body index, through visualisations and sonifications.

Context:
As a biological instrument Bio-OS builds on the i-DAT’s ‘Operating Systems’ (www.op-sy.com) initiative. These are open instruments for gathering data from environments (buildings and landscapes) and organisms (crowds and bodies), and are focused on delivering dynamic and interactive outputs through a range of technologies (such as social networks, streaming media, mobile phone apps, Full Dome environments, etc). These ‘Operating Systems’ dynamically manifest ‘data’ as experience in order to enhance perspectives on a complex world, in order to design and share such ‘instruments’ or ‘provocative prototypes’ topically described as the ‘Internet of Things’.

The Operating Systems initiative explores data as an abstract and invisible material that generates a dynamic mirror image of our biological, ecological and social activities. The Operating Systems initiative proposes a range of tools and methods that have the potential to enhance our ability to perceive and orchestrate this mirror world.

Collaborators:
Bio-OS was bought to you through a collaborative process involving:

i-DAT:
based at the Plymouth University, bridges the gap between academic research and real world engagement to generate social, economic and cultural benefit.

E-Health and Health Informatics, Plymouth University:
Professor Ray Jones and Kurt Defreitas

Message Research Group:
MADr, Arts Faculty, Plymouth University:Tom Barwick and Dean Owens

Hannah Wood, Transmedia Writer:
“I’m interested in telling stories across multiple platforms that enable players to interact with narratives in compelling and unusual ways. This project offers an opportunity for players to use their own body as a storytelling platform to interact with a narrative that crosses technological and real world platforms. This asks us to think about the way stories impact on our bodies and how our bodies are written into narratives.”

Katy Connor, Installation Artist:
“I am profoundly interested in media technologies and data visualisation, but more significantly in how our bodies engage with this machinery. Often, this kind of interaction is in a medical context.”

Simon Evans, Slingshot, Street and pervasive games company:
“SlingShot use cities as platforms, encouraging players to interact with the urban space in novel ways. The project will allow us to extend this interaction, deepening the connection between people’s bodies and urban space. This will raise some interesting questions about how cities shape bodies and the rhythms of our everyday lives?”

Bio-OS     System    Downloads     Projects     Information

Human Geography 1

Bio-OS Data Input: sensor strap

The Bio-OS strap is a modification based on the Polar Wireless ECG System. In addition to its existing electrodes, on the reverse side of the strap, which detect heart rate, it has been customised with temperature and Galvanic Skin Response sensors and a stretch sensor, which measures breathing through the level of chest expansion. The transmitter on the strap sends the heart rate signal to the ‘Bio-OS Data Input’ sensor harvesting unit wirelessly, whilst the other sensors transmit through a cable to the unit.

1. Sensor Strap: The electrode areas on the reverse side of the strap detect heart rate. The transmitter sends the heart rate signal to the prototype unit. Sensor daughter board (temperature – Galvanic Skin Response). Stretch (Breathing) sensor.  2. Data / Power CablesData cable. Identified by BLUE dot.Power cable. Identified by RED dot.

3. Prototype unit Power On / Off switch.USB connector.Data / Power cable connectors.

4. USB LeadUSB to mini USB

5. 3G Android PhoneAndroid 1.5 or greater3G communicationGPS

Bio-OS Data Input: smartphone & software (app)

The Bio-OS Data Input smartphone and mobile software application requires an Android phone 1.5 or greater. It runs the Bio-OS data app, which receives, displays and transmits the biological data from the sensor harvesting unit. It also attaches a GPS location and a date / time stamp.
A whole world of possibilities are opened up by coupling the computing power and connectivity of an Android device, with its built in sensors (display, camera, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, gyroscope, accelerometer etc), with the external IOIO board sensor harvesting unit.

Bio-OS     System    Downloads     Projects     Information

Human Geography 4

Bio-OS Data Processing: data server

The Bio-OS Server allows remotely measured bio signal data to be uploaded into a database. The server supports multiple sensing devices (data inputs) and so allows aggregation of bio data from many different sources (users, devices etc). It has a ‘Trigger Logic Editor’ which allows system administrators (including artist and scientific end-users) to edit the set of rules held in the trigger database. These triggers cause actions to automatically occur when changing bio data values meet particular predefined conditions. For example, an action might occur if a person’s heart rate is above 90 bpm and they are in a particular location.

The Server also has a ‘Data Injector’ which allows bio data readings to be manually inserted into the Data Storage Server through a simple web page. This might be for testing and experimentation purposes, for real time intervention during a live study/activity or simply for the manual storage of non-sensed bio values.

The Data Storage Server allows remotely measured bio signal data to be uploaded into the Subject Bio Database. The server supports multiple sensing devices and so allows aggregation of bio data from many different sources (users, devices etc). An open webservice mechanism has been used to create the Data Storage Server so that additional data sources can be easily integrated. In order to store a bio data value in the system, a request must be made to the server for the “store-data.php” page, passing as parameters:- The id of the subject (person) being sensed- The name of the bio signal being uploaded- The millisecond timestamp at which the bio signal reading was taken- The value of that bio signal

This should take the form of:  http://server/store-data.php?id=<subject>&<biosignal>@<timestamp>=<value>

For example, the following request stores the BPM of the subject “dave” at timestamp 1316510004461 as the value 70 bpm:• http://server/store-data.php?id=dave&BPM@1316510004461=70

In the interests of efficiency, multiple data values can uploaded to the server in a single request by chaining values together with &• http://server/store-data.php?id=<subject>&<biosignal>@<timestamp>=<value>&<biosignal>@<timestamp>=<value>…
For editing triggers:• http://79.170.44.128/i-dat.org/datalab/mediator/list-triggers.php
For storing data value:• http://79.170.44.128/i-dat.org/datalab/mediator/store-data.php
Log of changed data values:• http://79.170.44.128/i-dat.org/datalab/mediator/data/username/log.txtFor example• http://79.170.44.128/i-dat.org/datalab/mediator/data/leesphone/log.txt

The server is now common for all users, but we will look into replicating the system for each users.

Trigger Logic Editor:

The Trigger Logic Editor allows system administrators (including artist and scientific end-users) to edit the set of rules held in the trigger database. These triggers cause actions to automatically occur when changing bio data values meet particular predefined conditions. For example, an action might occur if a person’s heart rate is above 90 bpm and they are in a particular location. Each trigger has:- Conditions: when to fire the trigger- Trigger Actions: what to do when the conditions are met- Detrigger Actions: what to do when the conditions are no longer being met.

Guide to writing triggers conditions
The conditions for the trigger are logical triples consisting of:    parameter comparator value
For example:  BPM > 70  GSR <= 15

The current list of available parameters are:- TMP: the subject’s temperature- BPM: the subject’s pulse rate- GSR: the subject’s galvanic skin response- lat: the subject’s current latitude- long: the subject’s current longitude- BR: the subject’s current breathing rate- id: the subject’s unique identifier

The id parameter allows us to create user specific triggers, so that actions can be triggered by the bio data parameters of a particular individual. The id parameter is of the form:  Usersphone
For example:  Hannahsphone  Simonsphone  etc

For further information see the Bio-OS Help Guide.