Physical computing

Physical computing, in the broadest sense, means building interactive physical systems by the use of software and hardware that can sense and respond to the analog world. While this definition is broad enough to encompass things such as smart automotive traffic control systems or factory automation processes, it is not commonly used to describe them. In the broad sense, physical computing is a creative framework for understanding human beings' relationship to the digital world. In practical use, the term most often describes handmade art, design or DIY hobby projects that use sensors and microcontrollers to translate analog input to a software system, and/or control electro-mechanical devices such as motors, servos, lighting or other hardware.

Examples

Physical computing is used in a wide variety of domains and applications.

In museums

The Exploratorium, a pioneer in inquiry based learning, developed some of the earliest interactive exhibitry involving computers, and continues to include more and more examples of physical computing and tangible interfaces as associated technologies progress.

In art

In the art world, projects that implement physical computing include the work of Scott Snibbe, Daniel Rozin, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Jonah Brucker-Cohen.

In product design

Physical computing practices also exist in the product and interaction design sphere, where hand-built embedded systems are sometimes used to rapidly prototype new digital product concepts in a cost-efficient way. Firms such as IDEO are known to approach product design in this way.

In commercial applications

Commercial implementations range from consumer devices such as the Sony Eyetoy or games such as Dance Dance Revolution to more esoteric and pragmatic uses such as machine vision used in the automation of quality inspection along a factory assembly line. Exergaming can be considered a form of physical computing. Other implementations of physical computing include voice recognition, which senses and interprets sound waves via microphones or other soundwave sensing devices, and computer vision, which applies algorithms to a rich stream of video data typically sensed by some form of camera. Haptic interfaces are also an example of physical computing, though in this case the computer is "generating" the physical stimulus as opposed to "sensing" it. Both motion capture and gesture recognition are fields that rely on computer vision to work their magic.

In scientific applications

Physical computing can also describe the fabrication and use of custom sensors or collectors for scientific experiments, though the term is rarely used to describe them as such.

External links

* [http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/ Physical Computing] , [http://itp.nyu.edu/ Interactive Telecommunications Program] , New York University
* [http://itp.nyu.edu/~dbo3/physical/physical.html Physical Computing] by Dan O'Sullivan
* [http://www.tigoe.net/pcomp/ Physical Computing] , Tom Igoe's collection of resources, examples, and lecture notes for the physical computing courses at ITP.
* [http://www.nastypixel.com/instantsoup/ Physical Computing] , A path into electronics using an approach of “learning by making”, introducing electronic prototyping in a playful, non-technical way. (Yaniv Steiner , IDII)
* [http://www.arduino.cc/ Arduino] , a highly popular open source physical computing platform
* [http://www.bluemelon.org/index.php/Products/BM7505_BluePD_programmable_Pure_Data_router BluePD BlueSense] . a physical computing platform by Blue Melon. This platform is visually programmable using the popular (open source) Pure Data system.