Virtual Gateways Research Articles

Semantic symbology: the evolution and amplification of cosmograms

ABSTRACT Around 1905, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about the ‘Megascope’, a device through which its wearers could see ‘the Far Great and the Near Small but not the Great Near.’ The Great Near refers to realities that are simultaneously so near and powerful that they are usually imperceptible. Du Bois’ speculative short-fiction has become a reality in the multiverse era where virtual gateways don’t have to remain tied to traditional notions of technology in the physical world – they can be imaginative realms with different physics. We can see this demonstrated in the cosmogram, a cultural diagram of the Universe. This essay considers the function and style of this design across cultures and in virtual worlds. Artists such as Houston Conwill, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Xenobia Bailey, Sanford Biggers and Saya Woolfalk incorporate cosmograms in their works. Artists simulate the algorithmic qualities of the design that include physical, spiritual or ritual performances. They use the cosmogram – a diagram usually in the form of a circle – to make connections between the archetypal world of invention and the multidimensional nature of time. This essay explores these symbolic occurrences and various connections, looking to uncover a set of principles underlying and guiding Afrofuturistic production.

Virtual gateways: enabling connectivity between MAC heterogeneous sensor networks

Over the years many different MAC protocols have been developed for sensor networks, each optimised for a different set of application requirements. Since these MAC protocols are not compatible with each other, there is generally no interoperability between sensor networks. This is a severe problem when connectivity between sensor networks is required. In this paper, we demonstrate the feasibility of using virtual gateways, sensor nodes running multiple MAC protocols simultaneously on top of a single radio interface, to enable connectivity between sensor networks. To this end we have developed MultiMAC, a network stack for TinyOS capable of running multiple MAC protocols simultaneously. We show that the architecture of the MultiMAC stack is flexible and extensible enough to support a wide variety of MAC protocols and that the overhead of this network stack is minimal. We also discuss the results of our initial experiments with a testbed on the impact of using virtual gateways.