One use of the eStarling frame would be to prototype the Twitter Sampler aio.

The basic idea is a widget that sends your friend’s Twitters to an ambient display.  In keeping with the principles of the aiosphere, this object should not look like a computer display.

I imagine a graphics system with 1. a background image of coarse-weave fabric, and 2. a text overlay system which uses an embroidery-like font.

The display would be framed in an ornate wood picture frame.The result would be a dynamic ‘needlework’ sampler. If you’re not familiar with this historical practice, this Wikipedia article is a good start.

In final form this device would follow aiosphere principles and send very small amounts of data, offloading processing complexity to the devices at either end.

For a proof of concept one could write PC-side code that adds text to an image and emails it to the eStarling.