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Physical Computing (PhysComp)

making computers understand the physical world around us +++ Klima Kontrol by Roel Wouters +++

how the computer sees you

Tom Igoe Human Note: Tom Igoe, 2003 +++ Touchscreens, touchpads and the Kinect have changed this perception a little but it remains largely the same. +++

Kinect

Skeletal tracking

The Kinect introduced skeletal tracking for full-body interactions but as you can see the image that the computer has of the human is still reductionist at best. +++

electronics

let us bridge the gap between the digital world and the physical world

Arduino: a primer

+++ I'm sure you have heard about this Arduino thing. +++

Arduino

is a platform to program microcontrollers

(think of it as a wee little computer if you will) +++

A microcontroller

(your washing machine has one)

Note: microcontrollers far exceed the number of computers in the world and they have been around for a very long time +++ sensors and actuators

Working with Arduino

+++

Inspecting your kit

what are all these weird objects? +++

breadboard

breadboard +++

the arduino platform: the UNO

Arduino Uno +++

the arduino platform: the NANO

Arduino NANO +++

If you have a cheap Arduino clone, get the driver

CH340G serial driver install +++

Download and install the software (IDE)

get a recent version, greater than 1.8 +++

What's in the IDE?

+++

Mac only

If you have problems: disable System Integrity Protection (SIP)

Disable SIP +++

Verify

Can I see my Arduino in the list of ports in the IDE?

if so let's move on +++

The canonical blinking LDE

blinky +++

Blink code

load it from the examples > basics > Blink menu +++

Sensing the world around you

sensors and what they do +++

What is a sensor?

A sensor is an electronic device that can transform a physical property of our world into an electrical signal that a computer can understand.

The only thing that you need to know about a sensor for now is that it is "a value that moves through time". People in finance call that a "ticker" in EE it's called a "signal" in electronic music they call it a "control signal" but in all of them they mean "a value that moves through time". +++

There are (for now) two types of sensors

We can classify them according to the kind of signal that they produce:

  • digital (two states)
    • shit happened (HIGH = 1)
    • shit didn't happen (LOW = 0)
  • analog
    • how much of the actual shit happened
    • it is often a number between 0 and 1024 +++

Light-level sensor

setup your breadboard LDR sensor

code

reading the LDR sensor with Arduino

CHOICE

of sensors

+++

Distance

Presence & motion

Smoke, gas and alcohol

Touch

  • Button
  • Switch
  • Potentiometer
  • Capacitive sensing
    • simple resistor circuit (see cap. sensing slides)
    • QT113 +++

Movement

  • Tilt sensor
  • Vibration sensor
  • Joystick +++

Acceleration

  • Accelerometer
  • Gyroscope
  • IMU (Inertial motion unit, 9-DoF) +++ YCAM Awareness in Motion +++

Light

  • LDR
  • Flame sensor
  • UV index sensor
  • Color sensor (RGB)
  • Camera (3CCD)
  • Thermal camera +++

Weather

  • Barometric pressure
  • Wind (anemometer)
  • Temperature
  • Soil humidity
  • Atmospheric humidity +++ James Bridle's A Ship Adrift where he installed a weather station on top of the Southbank Centre in London and used the data generated, including wind speed and air pressure, to determine the path of an "imaginary mad airship". The program logs its theoretical position on Google Maps and gathers streams of information from the internet that are tagged with that location, using them to generate tweets and a log that combine a selection of words it picks up. from Dezeen +++ Weather thingy by Adrian Kaeser Weather thingy +++

Identity

Electricity and magnetism

  • Magnetometer
  • Hall effect sensor (magnetic fields)
  • Compass
  • Solar cell +++

Sound

  • Microphone
  • Clap sensor +++

Biosignals

Are kinds of signals that can be (continually) measured and monitored from biological beings. The term biosignal is often used to mean bio-electrical signal but in fact, biosignal refers to both electrical and non-electrical signals. +++

Biosignals (electrical)

  • EEG (electroencephalogram)
  • EKG/ECG (electrocardiogram)
  • EMG (electromyographer)
  • Respiration
  • Goniometer (position / angle)
  • Pulse oxymeter (pulse / light) aka PPG photoplethysmography
  • GSR (galvanic skin response, aka EDA electro dermal activity)
  • Esthetoscope (sound)
  • Ultrasound (baby's heart monitor) +++

Biosignals (acustic)

  • Breathing rhythm (lungs)
  • Muscles
  • Heart
  • Gut +++ Most biosignals are either electrically weak or acoustically weak and they all are fairly complex, so they require heavy amplification are prone to noise and require extensive digital signal processing (DSP) before they can be used. +++

Example QRS complex

QRS complex +++

Brain activity

Biosensing platforms