There are a number of different technologies used to implement Status 2.0.  A collaboration of Programming languages and Physical Computing: PHP, RSS, XML, Processing and Arduino.

These different technologies are used in the different stages of the emotional cycle from a ‘tweet’ being published though to the tactile colour expression of the installation.

PHP is a scripting language used to build dynamic web pages. A custom PHP script phases the live RSS feed from Twitter. The XML is searched for a list of 50 key emotional words stored in an array, with their associated colour stored as a Hex colour value. When a key word is found PHP writes out the associated word and colour from the array. This colour is also converted to an RGB value to be passed to Arduino.

 

Processing an open source programming language is used to read this information from the PHP page. Processing displays ‘tweets’ (Twitter updates), as scrolling text pulled from the XML file.

Processing also commutates with Arduino sending the RGB values to the device, which in turn controls the lights and the colour generated.

“Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software” (Arduino, 2009)

Ardunio is used to control stepper motors, which are connected to dimmer switches. The motors and switches are housed in a bespoke rig connecting them to the switches though a system of gears. The dimmer switches are weird to light bulbs split into the three prime colours red, green and blue. The switches control the illumination of the light. Using the RGB colour model any colour can be created.