Anab Jain and Jon Ardern want you to snoop on their email.
Using an open source gadget they call Open Informant, they grab snippets from recent email messages and display them on their chests for all to see. This electronic badge even highlights the stuff that would look most suspicious the snoops at the NSA and the Department of Homeland Security.
"It's sort of a reverse Fitbit that broadcasts things about us," Jain says, drawing parallels to the fitness tracker that logs your activity.
>'It's sort of a reverse Fitbit that broadcasts things about us'
Anab Jain
The tool is a protest of sorts against the NSA and the DHS monitoring our everyday communications in the name of national security. Using the keyword lists these agencies apparently use to flag suspicious material in our email correspondence, the Open Informant badge shows you just what the government is tracking.
Under the auspices of Superflux, a design firm based in India and the UK, Jain and Ardern and their teammates created Open Informant for an exhibit at this year's Wearable Futures conference in London. They've since open sourced the software code and the hardware blueprints. If you like, you can join the protest too. If you're really feeling creative, you can help Superflex complete its gadget.
Before the conference, the team had two weeks to design Open Informant and build a prototype. It still needs work. "Our idea was that because we didn't have enough time to develop it into a fully working product, we would put it into the community where people could continue it," Ardern says.
The code and plans are available on GitHub. To build one, you'll need an Arduino circuit board, a Bluetooth module, and an e-ink display. That stuff will set you back about £150, or roughly $245.
This is the first time Superflux has shared a project on GitHub, but it's not the firm's first foray into the politics of connected devices. Influenced by environmental sensor projects like Safecast and AirCasting, the company is also creating a platform that will teach people how to build a new breed of internet-connected devices aimed at saving the environment. The team hopes to involve everyday citizens in the creation of "the Internet of Things," rather than just relying on government agencies or corporate entities that may not have as much respect for our cities and natural spaces.
But first, you can join the protest.
