The World According to Shumbee
April 6, 2007 on 4:18 pm | In Fun Stuff |
What do felt, RFID chips and velcro have in common with Yahoo! Messenger? Meet Shumbee, the latest addition to our family. Shumbee made his debut at Hack Day last week where Messenger team members Mike Holzer, Brian Kobashikawa and Karl Adam presented their invention.
Shumbee is a prototype for an offline/real-world status changer that’s based on our popular emoticons. Despite looking like a felt humpty-dumpty, Shumbee’s innards consist of a circuit board with an embedded Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader and Bluetooth chip.
Accompanying Shumbee are his different felt faces which each represent a distinct status (“Seeking caffeine”, “Out to Lunch”). So when you get up from your desk to grab a cup of coffee, just drop the “Seeking caffeine” emoticon on Shumbee’s head and your online status changes accordingly. Check out the video demo to see how it works:
Here’s how the technology works: The RFID reader inside Shumbee scans the code in the RFID chip on his felt face. That code is sent to the computer where a small piece of software translates it into an actual Yahoo! Messenger status. When Shumbee is just hanging out with his original face, your status is “Available”. Throw on one of his faces and your status changes accordingly. There’s even an “Invisible to Everyone” face that when dropped on Shumbee, puts you into stealth mode. The prototype software to read and translate the RFID codes was done on a Mac, largely due to the accessible Bluetooth framework that is part of OSX.
Shumbee’s function offers compelling possibilities for offline, real-world applications that integrate with Yahoo! Messenger. Shumbee’s creators originally conceived of changing status based on your cell phone’s proximity to your computer. Most of us always have it on us, so it’s a good indicator of where you are. So as you walk away from your computer with your phone in your pocket, Messenger would change your status to “Not at My Desk”. Similarly when you return, it would detect the Bluetooth signal from your phone as you walk up and change your status back to “Available”. That proved a little too ambitious for a 24 hour Hack Day, so they scaled back a bit and Shumbee was born.
Shumbee is just a prototype, so don’t expect to see him in the aisles of Best Buy anytime soon. Congratulations to Karl, Mike and Brian for earning top honors in the “Fun” category at Hack Day. Special kudos to Brian K. for those mad sewing skillz and to Matte Scheinker for being the “cool boss” that lets his team work on fun stuff like Shumbee.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
[…] The folks that run the Yahoo! Messenger blog did a write up and short video demo on the Shumbee. It just went live. Hilarious. […]
Pingback by Shumbee update « innate :: function — April 6, 2007 #
How come when the software and servers are buggy, irresponsive, breaching privacy, your staff can spare time on Hack Days?
Comment by Sean — April 7, 2007 #
Very cute, but what’s the point? Wouldn’t it take less effort to change your statis by clicking on the appropriate one with your cursor? Wouldn’t it just be another unneeded, expensive toy/accessorie for people to waste money on?
Comment by BlueAngel — April 8, 2007 #
whats the point of all this rubish when chat doesn’t work you can’t log in and is full of porn bots, why are people wasting time with a bag of foam when yahoo is just all stupid rubish now
Comment by Fred — April 8, 2007 #
Omg what is the purpose of this blog seriously its mindless banter avoiding the real issues yahoo users face! like the not being able to get into chat sorry but your automated email response is not enough lmao i highly doubt it will be fixed by may14th mark my words and even if it is there is NO mention of spam prevention so who wants to go into chat any ways when its full of bots yahoo chat is a has been service it was fun keyword being WAS now its a playground for kids,spam bots and other exploitation and also people making money from your chat diminishing and using this blog to advertise there services over and over :l can you address some real issues just once make a blog about spam and see what you get back how infuriated the people who use or should i say used your chat service have become a hack day why cant you have a fix yahoo day geez.
Comment by Karl — April 8, 2007 #
Ok its clear now this is why yahoo is so messed up the coders waste time with as fred put it bags of foam no wonder lmao o yes this is going to be a best seller :l get real lol this blog gets more stupid everyday how much do they pay him to play with bags of foam??? how about making him do his job and improve messenger.
Comment by Ex Yahoo User — April 8, 2007 #
this thing rocks, you’re all haters.
Comment by wyatt — April 8, 2007 #
I want to get a job at Yahoo. Look at that lax dress code! He doesn’t even need to cover up those tattoos. I’m jealous.
Comment by The Pick of Destiny — April 9, 2007 #
Wow. What a gang of player-haters. Let me get this straight, Yahoo! can’t do anything else other than work on your issues with Chat. Talk about “one issue voters”. I have a pothole on my street, but I let the Mayor address issues other issues, because I am not an insane, self-centered freak. No one is forcing you to use Yahoo! Chat. If you hate it so much I am not sure why you keep on using it.
In the meantime, that “hack” is super cool. Whether it should go into production and stores is separate, and I am not sure it was the point. I think the point of hack days, as I understand them, are to work briefly and intensively on creative ideas that allow people to think different things than their standard jobs for a few minutes.
From the sounds of these posts, you would think they want Y! employees to be chained to their desk. At Goog, they spend 20% of their time, supposedly on non-job projects. This seems like a completely cool thing for Yahoo! to do.
And I am sure they are working on Chat issues, guys. Mellow out. Windows is so friggin buggy it is almost unusable and they go years between fixes. Why don’t you go complain about that.
Comment by mrbigdeal — April 9, 2007 #
also, the comment about “showing his tattoos”. Wow…what century is your company from? At my company and almost everyone I know, there is no dress code, and interesting characters are completely encouraged (as are interesting ideas). Last I read, tattoos aren’t illegal. Why would he need to cover them up?
If your company is imposing those types of rules, I would leave for a place that focuses more on “what” you do, rather than how you look. Maybe I am just spoiled after working in the silicon valley and sf for so long.
Comment by mrbigdeal — April 9, 2007 #
looks like a diverse fun place to work! hey, but where are the women…well I guess there is sarah
Comment by mrbigdeal — April 9, 2007 #
These days I have lost almost all my dates from my P.C. because my hard disk “died”. However, I think I was a little lucky because I saved some of my work, before that incident had happened, on a memory stick. That is why some of the audibles (those with sound) are not completely finished, because I have to correct again their moves.
http://atestat.xhost.ro/portofoliu_flash_audible_yahoo.htm
The idea to make these audibles has crossed my mind after a long chat with my yahoo friends from my list. We were asking ourselves why the other countries have audibles in their languages, and we, the Romanians, don’t have such things.
Although I haven’t attended a professional preparation to be able to work in flash (a document to attest my preparation in this domain) I begun “the operation” with pleasure and the desire to make something useful for this chat program. At the beginning I had no productive idea, but now I have many “animations” in my mind, but now the time is very brief and even so, I have to share it with the other passions I have, such as photography, graphics/ digital graphics, making short movie clips ( for relaxing myself).
I think that creating some audibles for each country, in many languages, could be one of the best ways to promote this kind of chat program.
The audibles’ creation should be based on the originality of the graphic design and funny sounds, so that they could captivate us, the yahoo users, with their charm.
On the other hand, another point of this problem is how fast can you find/use/send them. We should find a link or a discrete button on the chat window where to find all the audibles made so far.
However, there are many other possibilities of personalizing yahoo messenger; for example we would like to know by a special sound, chosen by us, when one of our friends signs in or out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5mIyKILr3U
But, till then, I salute you respectfully from this little point of the Globe - Vaslui,Romania
Comment by Pascalin Silviu — April 10, 2007 #
Pascalin - Those are very cool! Thanks for sharing your ideas. I don’t know what the audibles are saying
but they look great! I also like your webcam concept a lot too. Cheers,
Sarah Bacon
Comment by Administrator — April 10, 2007 #
hey Pascalin Silviu,
You can get a unique sound when each friend signs in and out (or changes status and when they IM you)… even more you can get their name spoken to you when they do this. Sounds you can pick from a library of default sounds or pick your own (wav,mp3,avi,mpg,mov) just about any file with sound in it.. check out the plugin here:
http://us.gallery.yahoo.com/apps/513/locale/en
Have fun…
Comment by Andy — April 10, 2007 #
So how do the hack days work? is it time to work on personal projects that have been started in their own time? or was Shumbee thought up and created from start to finish in one day? Obviously the equipment needed to make Shumbee would have to have been available (is there felt and a sewing machine tucked away in yahoo’s office for just such a situation like this?
if so what else do you guys have lying around :p ) I remember studying RFID at uni all those years back when it was going to revolutionise the world… maybe this is the start for consumer applications
I would have thought the phone idea would have been far simpler and more useful to construct? either using the bluetooth as suggested or simply attaching a RFID tag to the phone? They trialed something similar at my uni where members of staff wore an active badge.. sensors placed in various rooms around the campus would let you locate members of staff without having to page them. how about putting the sensor from the Shumbee on your seat and the RFID tag on your bum :p a better solution for bee would be her coffee cup.. that follows her around more than her phone.. and you could gauge the status mood from the coffee level
Comment by Andy — April 11, 2007 #
I’m glad you liked my audibles and the webcam concept. I have shown them to all my friends and they have asked me how to use them on the chat window. Simple, I said, just use copy & paste
So, is there any possibility to put into practice these Romanian audibles? I tried to translate them in English, as much as I could, because they are especially Romanian expressions.
http://atestat.xhost.ro/portofoliu_flash_audible_yahoo_english.htm
Have a nice day !
Comment by Pascalin Silviu — April 11, 2007 #
[…] In one of the more amusing hacks I’ve seen recently, some guys from the Yahoo! Messenger team created Shumbee, a tangible Messenger status control. He’s an RFID reader wrapped in a sewn cloth emoticon exterior that you can place various emotion tiles on top of to swap your online status from Available to At Lunch to Invisible and so on. Aside from being ridiculously cute, Shumbee is a fun example of interesting physical computer interaction and also a precursor to more interesting things like automatic cell phone updates to Messenger to indicate when you come back into range of your computer. It’s also much harder to forget that you’ve left your “Out on an errand” status up for the past week when it’s sitting on your desk staring at you, which would be my main use case for the Shumbee. […]
Pingback by Yahoo! Cool thing of the Day » Blog Archive » Basically still a Thursday post — April 13, 2007 #
o yea a bag of foam can you get it to join a chat room now that would be funny lmao the batteries would prob discharge by the time it got into chat lol
Comment by Karl — April 13, 2007 #
[…] the event, demonstrating some of Yahoo!’s latest product innovations, including the humorous Shumbee prototype that came out of a Hack Day earlier this year. Check out more pictures from Smiley’s anniversary […]
Pingback by Yahoo! Nation » Smiley has a party — September 30, 2007 #