Intro Phys Comp
120 Years of Musical Instruments Feb 4,2004
A history of 120 years of electronic musical instruments...
Affective computing and physiological sensors Feb 5,2004
Rosalind Picard's affective computing research group at MIT is a good place to go if you're interested in any kind of physiological sensing. They're also doing some interesting thinking about how physical state reflects human affect.
Art Kleiner Aug 30,2004
His thinking on core groups is great, and very useful when thinking about social networks. His scenario planning class was the best I took at ITP, hands-down, and he is still a big influence on my thinking today.
Bad Designs Feb 4,2004
Bad Designs and notes on why they are bad.
Bill Buxton Articles Feb 4,2004
Less Is More (More or Less): Speculations about the Design of Computers - Bill Buxton's essay on the weaknesses of general-purpose computers, and why application-specific, networked appliances are a better idea. See also Bill Buxton's site, where all of his writings can be found.
Blueink Feb 5,2004
Blueink Jen Lewin's project page, including her thesis project, Butterfly. Jen's documentation of her work is very thorough, including descriptions, schematics, code, notes on gears and motors, and much much more.
BodyNet Jun 24,2004
This IBM research article describes using the human body as a transmission element in a data network (very personal area networking), and seems to pre-date this Microsoft patent by at least four years.... Olin Shivers' 1993 presentation on bodyNets is the earliest I've found so far.
Conductive Epoxy? Aug 25,2003
And here's a source. Thanks to Michael Wilson for the links.
Designing for Homo Ludens Feb 4,2004
Gaver suggests that as computing is moving away from the places we work to the places we play, relax, etc., that interactive systems need to become less "task-oriented" tools, and more playful, looser tools. In short, that just as life includes work and play, so should the tools which we use in living it.
Everything I Know Oct 13,2005
Everything comes from Rory Hamilton, who taught at the Royal College of Art's interaction design program. It's a collection of his notes on topics from applying to design school to setting a good project brief to what interaction design is.
Experiments in Art & Technology Sep 27,2004
This biographical note from the Getty site, which details the project well, explains it in a nutshell: "E.A.T., an organization devoted to promoting the interaction between art and technology, developed from the philosophies of Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller.... The organization was created after the landmark event "9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering, " 1966, and sought to continue the artist/engineer relationship forged during those performances.
Galvanic Skin Response Nov 20,2006
Björn Hartmann and colleagues made this galvanic skin response sensor based on Michael Sung and Vadim Gerasimov's circuit design.
Graspable User Interfaces Feb 4,2004
Graspable User Interfaces - George Fitzmaurice's Ph.D Thesis. Explores the idea of multiple physical objects as handles for elements in a computing environment, as opposed to a single physical object (the mouse).
How Stuff Is Made Apr 3,2005
April 03, 2005 Natalie Jeremijenko and her students have started an excellent collective wiki detailing how stuff is made.... Sadly, many of the items' pages have been taken down, but those that are still up are well worth reading.
How to Find Useful Info in ITP Journals Oct 20,2004
Here are a few google tips: add one of these lines to the end of your google search to search all pages on stage: site:tigoemac.itp.nyu.edu site:tigoemac.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu For example, LED site:tigoemac.itp.nyu.edu would give you everything ITPers on stage have ever written about LEDs.... Keep this in mind when writing journals; it will make life easier for you, your classmates, and future students if your notes are easily readable and searchable, and if they include standard terms on the subject you're writing about.
IR Remote control using a BX24 Aug 20,2003
Here's a decent example of how to replace a remote control using a microcontroller, with code written for the BX-24. This could easily be adapted for all kinds of short-range line-of-sight data transfer using IR.
LogiBlocs Aug 19,2003
Logiblocs is a nifty series of components built into a lego-like interface, to teach kids to build their own electronic devices. Probably fun for adults too.
Natalie Jeremijenko Feb 5,2004
I don't even particularly like robots, but I love the way this project visualizes invisible information (concentrations of toxins on a given site) using a technology that has been domesticated from military and industrial use into a child's toy.... This assignment, given to her design students, has grown into an excellent source of information on how various products are made, including chemical, material, labor, and political issues involved.
Peltier Junctions Used for Cooling Aug 6,2004
Here's a nice physical computing project from Norway. I'm not sure if 7 degrees Celsius is the right temperature for Guinness, but this is a good illustration of how to use Peltier junctions for cooling.
Raffi Krikorian Mar 30,2004
Raffi Krikorian is doing a lot of interesting work related to physical computing and networked objects, and has a lot of valuable links and notes online. His mehack blog is " A weblog devoted to taking it apart, learning from it, and putting it back together again".
Random Numbers and Physical Computing May 24,2004
Your consciousness is a great leveller for the sensors that are your eyes, ears, skin, nose, and taste buds When you move a photoresistor from one room to another, your readings will be totally different, and all of a sudden, you have to re-calculate what is "average" and what constitutes the lighting change that you want.... Even when we think we're being very regular physically, we're off by a number of milliseconds each time Most of the time when you use a random function in a program, it's because you're trying to duplicate or mimic the randomness of the real world.
Responsive Environments Group Mar 3,2004
The Responsive environments group at MIT has done a number of interesting projects: parasitic power from shoes, various radio-connected sensors, and more.
ScratchRobot Feb 5,2004
ScratchRobot a robot that converts emails into sound by scratching them on a turntable.
Sewing Circuits Dec 29,2005
Sewing Circuits is a collaborative project between Leah Buechley, Nwanua Elumeze and Sue Hendrix of the University of Colorado. It's a construction kit and acompanying activities that will allow kids to learn about circuits through sewing.
Simmetry Touch Screen Module Aug 19,2003
A small (approx. 6" diagonal?") touch screen, controllable from a microcontroller.
Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms Feb 4,2004
Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms - Hiroshi Ishii and Brygg Ullmer's paper explaining the ideas behing the Tangible Media group at MIT.
Text Is Life Nov 14,2005
We Talk in Text is a Livejournal community of people who communicate mainly or prefereably through text, as opposed to speech, images, sound, or video. Thanks to Terri Senft for the link.
The FAQs of Physical Computing Jun 4,2004
Physical computing takes a hands-on approach, which means that you spend a lot of time building circuits, soldering, writing programs, building structures to hold sensors and controls, and figuring out how best to make all of these things relate to a person's expression.... -end repeat, then you're in good shape If you're a full-time student at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, then you'll be taking an introductory programming course at the same time as you take physical computing.
The Thimbletron Feb 5,2004
The Thimbletron Thimble-based hand MIDI controller.
ThinkCycle Aug 30,2003
From their mission statement: "ThinkCycle is an academic, non-profit initiative engaged in supporting distributed collaboration towards design challenges facing underserved communities and the environment.... "ThinkCycle provides a shared online space for designers, engineers, domain experts and stakeholders to discuss, exchange and construct ideas towards sustainable design solutions in critical problem domains."
Toshio Iwai Feb 5,2004
Toshio Iwai does beautiful light and music projects. One of the best physical interaction designers out there.
Tricorder Aug 19,2003
A homemade 3-D joystick project using a rubber ball, three small joysticks, and three bungee cords. Build your own!
Where The Action Is: Foundations of Embodied Interaction Apr 3,2005
Paul Dourish's book Where The Action Is: Foundations of Embodied Interaction is my favorite book of the moment. He does a great job explaining physical interaction design, justifying it as a practice, and detailing the consequences of that practice....
Wireless SpyGear! Sep 11,2003
These are kinda cute, for experimenting with RF. Perhaps they can be hacked: $30/pair!