Introduction to Physical Computing
H79.2301.03 (Tom Igoe) Wednesday 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
This course expands the student's palette for physical interaction design with computational media.  We look away from the limitations of the mouse, keyboard, and monitor interface of today's computers, and start instead at the untapped expressive capabilities of the human body.  We consider use of the computer for more than just information retrieval and processing, and at locations other than the home or the office.  The platform for the class is a microcontroller, a single-chip computer the size of a postage stamp, programmed using BASIC.  The core technical concepts are digital, analog and serial input and output.  Students have weekly lab exercises to build skills with the microcontroller and related tools, and longer assignments in which they apply the principles from weekly labs in a creative application.