yurou attempts physical computing

In thinking about different ways to create curriculums or helping students learn physical computing. I thought a fun way to mix things up is to create an experience that’s interactive, just like the projects they’ll be working with in physical computing. I want to make interactive tutorials on different aspects of physical computing. I hope to compile different online resources as well as my own experience to create an interactive journey that’ll be a fun learning experience. I think Twine would be a good resource for me to make the tutorial with.

Example ideas:

explaining how electricity works, but the student gets to choose how they want the material explained to them (i.e. choices could be “so it’s like a water pipe?” or “skip the metaphors, just tell me how the physics works”)

quizzing the students on components (i.e. if this is the complete circuit, should the positive end of the sensor be connected to ground or 5V (there would be a lot of images that explains the parts!!))

A good course of action might be to tackle a different topic a week, creating an additional tutorial for the whole interactive experience.

April 26

Basics of physical computing, electricity and circuits (explaining parts and technicalities)

+ Inputs & Outputs if I have the time

May 3rd

Explaining Inputs and Outputs and what it means for something to be interactive, creating systems of interaction

May 11th

Sophie and I’s “don’t sit on me” chair was a relative success. We managed to create our own force sensor and attach a speaker with a range of tones that’ll ‘scream’ when sat on. I’m really glad that our project was simple enough to be understood and also provide a fun one-off interaction.

The next step is to expand our chair count and widen the ‘notes’ available so that each interaction someone has with our chairs can be different. It would essentially be an oversized piano that require you to play by sitting on it (though of course any kind of force’ll work, it’d be more fun to run around sitting on chairs to play than using hands or an object). 

lessons learned:

the limitations of arduino sound systems

making a small prototype of the system before expanding is extremely helpful

how conductive materials work and how to create our own sensors!

how to create emotional responses (i.e. low/sad sounds as a means of expression)

demo