Intro to Physical Computing
Jeff Feddersen
Fall 2002 Syllabus

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Week 1: Introductions/Overview
Friday, September 6

• Who are we?
• How/what/why physical computing?
• Readings for next week:
  • Buxton, "Less is More" (online)
  • Petzold, "Anatomy of a flashlight" (handout)
• To Do
  • Sign up for phys-comp mailing list
  • Sign up for shop clean up time
• If possible, get the following parts for next week's class:
  • Prototyping board
  • DC power supply
  • Voltage regulator

Week 2: Basic Electronics
Friday, September 13

• Electronics crash-course: components, schematics, meter-reading
• Soldering how-to
• Lab assignment: Electronics
• Reading for next week:
  • Myron Krueger, "Responsive Environments" (course pack)
• To Do:
  • Attend tool safety seminar

Week 3: Microcontrollers
Friday, September 20

• Microcontrollers: what they are, different types, levels
• Intro to BX-24
• BX-24 programming
• Digital Input and Output
• Begin Technology Research projects
• Lab Assignment: your first BX-24 program
• Reading for next week:
  • Charles Petzold, Code, ch.7-9 (course pack)

Week 4: Data
Friday, September 27

• Tech Research Group 0 (me) Presentation
• Memory and variables: Decimal, binary, hex
• Lab Assignment: tracking changes with variables
• Reading for next week:
  • Crawford, Understanding Interactivity, chapters 1 and 2 (online)

Week 5: Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC) Input
Friday, October 4

• Tech Research Group 1 Presentation
• Analog input, what an ADC is
• Balancing Input and Output responsiveness
• Lab Assignment: variable resistors and analog sensors
• Reading for next week:
  • Norman, Design of Everyday Things, ch. 1 (course pack)

Week 6: Controlling big switches
Friday, October 11

• Tech Research Group 2 Presentation
• Transistors and Relays: switching higher-current devices
• Discuss Midterm
• Lab Assignment: Turning on a motor 
• Reading for Week 7: Pick a project to disect. We will discuss the projects in terms of their artistic and technical aspects, and speculate as to their implementation.
  • Ken Rinaldo's Autopoiesis (more info on Rinaldo)
  • Curtis Bahn (if you can find him...)
  • Laetitia Sonami's Lady's Glove (more on Sonami)
  • SensorChip, and related work by Pamela Z and Miya Masaoka

Week 7: ADC Output
Friday, October 18

• Tech research Group 3 Presentation
• Analog output: Devices that create analog motion or sound
• Lab Assignment: controlling servos
• No reading assignment: paper due next week

Week 8: Midterm
Friday, October 25

• View Midterm Projects
• Midterm journal entry due
• Reading fornext week:
  • Petzold, Code, ch. 20 (course pack)

Week 9: Serial 1
Friday, November 1

• Tech Research Group 4 Presentation
• Serial output: Sending bytes out
• Serial interpretation: ASCII
• Lab Assignment: getting the bytes to a terminal program
• Reading for next week:
  • Nørretranders, User Illusion, ch. 6, "The Bandwidth of Consciousness" (course pack)
• Examples from Class:
  • BasicSerialOut.bas
  • StringSerialOut.bas
  • BasicSerialIn.bas

Week 10: Serial 2
Friday, November 8

• Tech Research Group 5 Presentation
• Serial to desktop: Into Director
• Lab Assignment: Talking to Director
• Reading for next week:
  • Hoffman, Visual Intelligence, ch. 7, pp.172-184 (course pack)
• Examples:
  • BX-24: Fish.bas
  • Director: SerialDemo.sit
  • Ranging tutorial

Week 11: MIDI
Friday, November 15

• Tech Research Group 6 Presentation
• MIDI and other control protocols
• Lab Assignment: Talking to a MIDI device
• Examples:
  • Midi.zip (includes block data classes, tasks, sin())

Week 12: Orchestrating Other Devices
Friday, November 22

• Tech Research Group 7 Presentation
• Serially controlled devices (motormind B, mini SSC, LCD)
• Discuss final project
• Guest speaker: Jody Culkin, "Building 101"
• Lab Assignment: Controlling an external device
• Examples (AD5206 digital pot):
  • BasicDigitalPot.bas
  • SophisticatedDigitalPot
  • Circuit

Thanksgiving Break (Friday, November 29)

Week 13: Final Project Workshop
Friday, December 6

• Final Project Workshop/Presentation

Week 14: Final
Friday, December 13

• Final Project Presentation