Press Release

ACM Conference, San Jose, California 11-14/3/01

Nomadic Research Labs has been building technomadic adventure platforms since 1983 (most notably BEHEMOTH, a computerized recumbent bicycle which Steve Roberts pedaled 17,000 miles around the US), and is appearing at ACM1 with its latest creation... the Microship. This is one of two nearly-identical machines (Wordplay and Songline) that Steve and his partner will use on their upcoming environmental data-collection expedition around North American coastal and inland waterways. The amphibian, canoe-scale, pedal/solar/sail micro-trimarans carry robust on-board linux systems, extensive wireless networking tools to support distributed graphic consoles and other communications, satellite and radio links to the Internet, video production capability, nearly 50 live telemetry channels to public servers on the Web, and enough life-support tools for open-ended exploration. The project is supported by over 130 corporate sponsors, a team of industry volunteers, and the full-time focus of NRL staff at its 11-acre facility on Camano Island, Washington. The team is spinning off its data collection tools for free use by educational groups, and is working to promote a worldwide network of fixed and mobile environmental monitoring stations to yield clearly presented real-time displays of water quality and other data. Information about the project is available at www.microship.com as well as through an ongoing series of detailed technical monographs, and Roberts frequently appears on the lecture circuit.