syllabus

Class Schedule

Readings and resources are shared here.

·̊✩₊⋆｡ Fall 2023 students ｡⋆₊✩·̊

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✨ Week 1: Introductions and Electronics

Welcome to physical computing! In this first session, we’ll overview the course, discuss interactive systems, and introduce basic electronics terminologies and concepts:

• What is physical interaction? Differences between inplicit and explicit interactions.
• Examples of physical computing projects (Biggest hits)
• Electronics 101: Electricity, components, schematics, prototyping board, multimeter.

Slides here

Assignments (due 9/11):

• Use this form to complete the survey and submit a link to your blog. You can use your personal blog, or create a new one to document school work if you wish. Make sure to create a category or tag for “Physical Computing”, and assign it to all posts for this class.
• Lab: Practice with a multimeter
• Lab: Wires and Breadboards
• Project: Homemade Switch

Read and Watch:

• Tom Igoe & Dan O’Sullivan, Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers. Read the following chapters:
  • Introduction
  • Ch 1 Electricity
• Sparkfun tutorials on Basic Electricity: Voltage, Current, Resistance, and Ohm’s Law.

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✨ Week 2: Microcontrollers

• Homework discussion: share your switch projects, and go over questions about electronics or anything that came up.
• Switches: tangible and intangible
• Microcontroller boards, programming environment, programming loops and logics
• In-class lab: Digital Input + Output

Slides here

Assignments (Due 9/18):

• Lab: Arduino basics
• Lab: Variable resistor sensors
• Project: Enhanced homemade switch
• Remember to blog about your labs and projects, any questions, findings and more.

Read and Watch:

• Brian W. Evans, Arduino Programming Notebook v6. Page 7-12: structure, variables, datatype

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✨ Week 3: Programming

• Homework discussion: share your enhanced switch projects, and go over questions about electronics or anything that came up.
• A little more interfacing: Advanced sensors
• A little more programming: Operators, memory and variables, data types
• In-class lab: Analog Input + Tone Output

Slides here

Assignments:

• Lab: Tone Output
• Lab: Servo Control
• Project: Sound or movement

Read and Watch:

• Tom Igoe & Dan O’Sullivan, Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers.
  • Ch 9 Sensing Movement. Skip the programming parts and focus on different criterias and methods of object sensing.

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✨ Week 4: Data Management

• Homework discussion!
• Review basic concepts, answer questions.
• Managing Sensor Data: Graphing over time, smoothing techniques, filtering out unwanted data
• Soldering demonstration
• We’re also going over midterm project, due in Week 8

Slides here

Read and Watch:

• Introduction to Serial Communication

Assignments:

• Lab: Debouncing and Smoothing
• Research: Sensor and Project Research
• Midterm Project Brainstorm

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✨ Week 5: Intro to Serial Communication

• Sensor and Project Research Presentation
• Serial Communication: Theory, protocols, data encoding
• Serial Communication Lab with p5.js
• Interfacing with different softwares

Assignments:

• Lab: p5.js Lab
• Lab: Arduino Serial Output Lab
• Midterm Project Proposal

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✨ Week 6: Serial Communication, part II

• Midterm Project Proposal
• Serial Communication Lab II

Assignments:

• Lab: Serial Output Lab II, multiple values & handshaking (in lecture slides)
• Work on Midterm Project

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✨ Week 7: Midterm Project Lab

Midterm projects development: we’ll come around and help each group in case you have any questions.

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🕹 Week 8: Midterm Playtest!

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✨ Week 9: Midterm Crit!

• Present your Midterm Project.
• Remember to complete Midterm Feedback form before next class!

Read and Watch:

• Introduction to Serial Communication

Assignments:

• Post Midterm Documentation …

✨ Week 10: Advanced Communication

• Advanced Topics for inspiration
• How to approach a project!
• Serial Communication Lab III: Handshaking, interfacing with sensors of your choice

Assignments (due 11/16):

• Review in-class lab
• Lab: p5 Serial Out
• Project: Mouse emulation

Read and Watch:

• We’re going to talk about Synchronous Serial next week, preview the introduction slides, and browse through Sparkfun’s tutorials on the 2 most common protocols, SPI and I2C.

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✨ Week 11: Synchronous Serial Communication

• Homework discussion!
• Introduction to Synchronous Communication
• Demo and lab: I2C
• Easing into Final Project & schedules

Lecture slides here

Assignments:

• Final Project Proposal

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😴 Week 12: Thanksgiving, but we have class

plans TBD

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✨ Week 13: Finals Pitch

• Reinforcement of unclear concepts
• Final Project pitch & workshop

Assignments:

• Work on your final project

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✨ Week 14: In-class playtest

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🕹 Week 15: Final Project Crit