This is a new initiative, not much there right now but worth keeping an eye on if you are interested in physical computing.
“Fritzing is an open-source initiative to support designers and artists to take the step from physical prototyping to actual product. We are aiming to create a software in the spirit of Processing and […]

Most persistence of vision projects I have seen involve moving a strip of leds fast enough that our eye perceives it to be an image. Make magazine has covered many projects of this type.
Jens Wunderling, a student of the Digital Media Class at UDK Berlin, has created at second glance, an alternative approach to […]

Arduino Bluetooth released
I have just received my Arduino Bluetooth board (shown top), available for 79 euros (+vat & delivery) from here. It is extremely easy to get going, just connect to the bluetooth device from your machine and it mounts it as a serial port, ready to read sensors and control actuators. I’ll […]

Tuned Stairs is an installation that turns stairs into a playful musical experience. As visitors walk down the stairs leading to the exhibition, their footfalls activate a musical sound. The intention is to remind visitors about the importance of the simplest actions and experiences we take for granted.
Half of each step is covered in […]

On sale for the first time at the Ars Electronica Electrolobby workshops, the Arduino mini is a much smaller version of its older brother. Ideal for plugging straight into breadboards & for projects with limited space, the Arduino mini also has twice as much memory for your code. Saving space by using a […]

I have just attended a 3-day workshop for Arduino, a physical computing platform. Day one we were introduced to the platform and examples of work, then we soldered our own boards together (see photo below). Day two had a great presentation from Crispin Jones about his work, then learning how different sensors and actuators […]

Aside from the excellent Physical Computing book, how can artists and interaction designers learn how to get into electronics to make all kinds of interesting projects? Interaction Design Institute Ivrea had one solution, InstantSOUP. InstantSOUP is a path into electronics using an approach of “learning by making”, introducing electronic prototyping in a playful, non-technical way. […]

“The Mignon Game Kit is a kitset which enables a minimalist Gameboy to be individually designed, programmed and constructed. Workshops and online instructions enable advanced learners to invent and programme their own games. In this way the do-it-yourself console of the “Mignon Game Kit” provides not only the opportunity for basic experiments with micro-electronics for […]

Wiring is a programming environment and electronics i/o board for exploring the electronic arts, tangible media, teaching and learning computer programming and prototyping with electronics. It illustrates the concept of programming with electronics and the physical realm of hardware control which are necessary to explore physical interaction design and tangible media aspects.
The Wiring interface board […]

[ just adding old posts from previous Pixelsumo site ]
Something I’ve been looking at a lot lately is taking external input via sensors into Max/MSP or Processing for installation work. This will enable me to completely hide any kind of computer interface and use light sensors, touch sensors etc, to affect the audio and visuals […]