Google Little Signals | Mega Thread

[Kazooduck]

Little Signals, a DIY ambient computing kit by Google.

This morning, google unveiled a project called “little signals”, it is their biggest exploration into ambient computing since google assistant. Essentially, it’s little signals are notification alerts that are designed to be as little of an intrusion into life as possible.

“this is not on track to become an actual Made by Google product in mind.” (Source: 9to5Google),

but there are instructions to make your own DIY little signal, with the nest aesthetic with an arruino at the website: https://littlesignals.withgoogle.com/

What counts as an alert:

Spoiler

• What seems to be a notification seems to be completely different from the types of notifications you might get on your phone, the example given in the documentation and supplied code are based on the environment, with possible triggers such as weather, rainfall, temperature, and other quantifiable alerts.
• Example (using the air little signal): the arduino pings the openweathermap.org api, and it says that it has begun raining, the air little signal sends a gust of air into the plant on top of it. You notice the plant move, and are prompted to open blinds, a phone, or more, to get more information. The end goal of this is to eliminate the need for a phone as a feed, and get all the alerts you need without thinking about it. 
• Example 2 (using the movement little signal) (DISCLAIMER: this is purely my idea, and there are no official guides on making this trigger):

the arduino gets the forecast for the day (not putting an api because there is none listed officially), and the pegs move to see how the temp is throughout the day. These values would be arbitrary, but combined with another trigger to see the current temperature, you can see it all at a glance, without the tech being overtly visible.

Meet the objects:

Spoiler

• Disclaimer: these are google’s unofficial mockups, the ones provided by their schematics are made with card stock. You might get varying degrees of success with a 3D printed chassis. Share any designs you have in the comments!
• Video by googleAir interacts with its close surroundings. Pulses of air move nearby items, like the leaves of a plant, to attract attention.     Button combines scale and sound to communicate and provide control. The top twists – right for more details, left for less – and grows as it receives information. It plays a tone when full.Movement features seven pegs that graphically represent information – like a calendar or timer– through their height and motion. The pegs work individually or as a group, and are tapped for simple input.Rhythm generates ambient sounds. Qualities of the melody convey qualities of the information, like its importance, urgency, or tone. A wave over the object, or simply turning it over, mutes it.Shadow communicates through the movements of the shadow it casts. They show the object’s status, like gently breathing when active or stretching in response to presence.Tap makes use of surfaces to create sounds that act as notifications. A stronger tap means more pressing news.

Transcriptions of the annoyingly formatted google website by 9to5Google.

How to build your own Little Signals:

You can build your own Little Signals by following the guide downloadable Here, this guide requires an arduino, and has most of the objects made out of card stock, however, you can probably 3D print your own chassis for them(dont forget ventilation).

Impact of this project:

Google is showing increased interest in ambient computing, and with this being their first real project into it, it shows a glimpse into the future of the google ecosystem. My personal prediction is the eventual death of the phone as anything more than a content (games, videos, and art) creation and consuming facilitator, and work related facilities. But using the phone as a means of asking questions, checking your surroundings, and other things the google assistant can already do, will eventually fizzle away from the phone and be replaced by cues in your environment.

[Wlkn]

I'm looking into the project because I want to try some of the "little" devices 3D printing the shell but decided to see first if there were some communities or people trying it too, but disappointingly I can't find anything, all I see are comments that don't get that the idea is to make less invasive notifications, most of them think it's the other way around. I still want to try it but didn't think I was going to be one of a few actually excited for this

[Kazooduck]

3 minutes ago, Wlkn said:

I'm looking into the project because I want to try some of the "little" devices 3D printing the shell but decided to see first if there were some communities or people trying it too, but disappointingly I can't find anything, all I see are comments that don't get that the idea is to make less invasive notifications, most of them think it's the other way around. I still want to try it but didn't think I was going to be one of a few actually excited for this

it really sucks how little attention this is getting.  i dont have any avaliable ardruinos at the moment, but this sounds SO interesting to me, i was hoping this could be a community for it, but nobody responded