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Physical computing involves interactive systems that can sense and respond to the world around them. While this definition is broad enough to encompass systems such as smart automotive traffic
control system A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial c ...
s or factory automation processes, it is not commonly used to describe them. In a broader sense, physical computing is a creative framework for understanding human beings' relationship to the
digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...
world. In practical use, the term most often describes handmade art, design or DIY hobby projects that use
sensor A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon. In the broadest definition, a sensor is a device, module, machine, or subsystem that detects events or changes in its environment and sends ...
s and
microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable i ...
s to translate analog input to a
software system A software system is a system of intercommunicating components based on software forming part of a computer system (a combination of hardware and software). It "consists of a number of separate programs, configuration files, which are used to se ...
, and/or control electro-mechanical devices such as motors, servos, lighting or other hardware. Physical computing intersects the range of activities often referred to in academia and industry as electrical engineering, mechatronics, robotics, computer science, and especially embedded development.


Examples

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


Education

The advantage of physicality in education and playfulness has been reflected in diverse informal learning environments. The
Exploratorium The Exploratorium is a museum of science, technology, and arts in San Francisco, California. Characterized as "a mad scientist's penny arcade, a scientific funhouse, and an experimental laboratory all rolled into one", the participatory natur ...
, a pioneer in
inquiry based learning Inquiry-based learning (also spelled as enquiry-based learning in British English) is a form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios. It contrasts with traditional education, which generally relies on the teache ...
, developed some of the earliest interactive exhibitry involving computers, and continues to include more and more examples of physical computing and
tangible interface A tangible user interface (TUI) is a user interface in which a person interacts with digital information through the physical environment. The initial name was Graspable User Interface, which is no longer used. The purpose of TUI development i ...
s as associated technologies progress.


Art

In the art world, projects that implement physical computing include the work of Scott Snibbe,
Daniel Rozin Daniel Rozin (born in 1961) is an Israeli-American artist working in the area of Interactive art, interactive digital art. As an interactive artist Rozin creates installations and sculptures that have the unique ability to change and respond to t ...
,
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (born 1967 in Mexico City) is a Mexican-Canadian electronic artist who works with ideas from architecture, technological theater and performance. Lozano-Hemmer lives and works in Montreal and Madrid. Biography Rafael Lozan ...
,
Jonah Brucker-Cohen Jonah or Jonas, ''Yōnā'', "dove"; gr, Ἰωνᾶς ''Iōnâs''; ar, يونس ' or '; Latin: ''Ionas'' Ben (Hebrew), son of Amittai, is a prophet in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran, from Gath-hepher of the northern Kingdom of Israel (Samaria ...
, and
Camille Utterback Camille Utterback (born 1970 in Bloomington, Indiana) is an interactive installation artist. Initially trained as a painter, her work is at the intersection of painting and interactive art. One of her most well-known installations is the work ''Tex ...
.


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 and Teague are known to approach
product design Product design as a verb is to create a new product to be sold by a business to its customers. A very broad coefficient and effective generation and development of ideas through a process that leads to new products. Thus, it is a major aspect of n ...
in this way.


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 including machine vision utilized in the automation of quality inspection along a factory assembly line. Exergaming, such as Nintendo's '' Wii Fit,'' 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 Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the hum ...
, 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 Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...
and
gesture recognition Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. It is a subdiscipline of computer vision. Gestures can originate from any bodily motion or sta ...
are fields that rely on computer vision to work their magic.


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. An example of physical computing modeling is the ''
Illustris project The Illustris project was a series of astrophysical simulations run by an international collaboration of scientists. The aim was to study the processes of galaxy formation and evolution in the universe with a comprehensive physical model. Early r ...
'', which attempts to precisely simulate the
evolution of the universe The chronology of the universe describes the history and future of the universe according to Big Bang cosmology. Research published in 2015 estimates the earliest stages of the universe's existence as taking place 13.8 billion years ago, with ...
from the
Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
to the present day, 13.8 billion years later.


Methods

Prototyping plays an important role in Physical computing. Tools like the Wiring, Arduino and
Fritzing Fritzing is an open-source initiative to develop amateur or hobby CAD software for the design of electronics hardware, intended to allow designers and artists to build more permanent circuits from prototypes. It was developed at the University o ...
as well as I-CubeX help designers and artists to quickly prototype their interactive concepts.


Further reading

*


References


External links


Arduino
a highly popular open source physical computing platform
Raspberry Pi
complete computer with GPIO's to interact with the world, huge community, many tutorials available. Many Linux distros available as well as Windows IoT and OS-less unikernel RTL's such as Ultibo Core.{{cite web , title=Ultibo Core , url=https://ultibo.org/ , website=Ultibo.org
BeagleBone
a complete Linux computer with GPIO's, but a little less flexible
FoxBoard (and others)
yet another Linux computer with GPIO, but with little information *Arieh Robotics Project Junior]. A Windows 7 based Physical Computing PC built using Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio.
BluePD BlueSense
a physical computing platform by Blue Melon. This platform is visually programmable using the popular (open source) Pure Data system.

features images and video of Daniel Rozin's interactive installations and sculptures.
Dwengo
a PIC microcontroller based computing platform that comes with a
Breadboard A breadboard, solderless breadboard, or protoboard is a construction base used to build semi-permanent prototypes of electronic circuits. Unlike a perfboard or stripboard, breadboards do not require soldering or destruction of tracks and are ...
for easy prototyping.
EmbeddedLab
A research lab situated within the Department of Computer Aided Architecture Design a

ETH Zürich.
Fritzing
- from prototype to product: a software, which supports designers and artists to take the step from physical prototyping to actual product.

another popular choice that allows building physical systems with PCs and traditional languages (C, Basic, Java, etc.) or standalone using a point and click development tool.
Physical ComputingInteractive Telecommunications Program
New York University
Physical Computing
by Dan O'Sullivan
Physical Computing
Tom Igoe's collection of resources, examples, and lecture notes for the physical computing courses at ITP.
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)
Theremino
an open source modular system for interfacing transducers (sensors and actuators) via USB to PC, notebooks, netbooks, tablets and cellphones. Applications of computer vision User interfaces Design Digital art Virtual reality Computer systems