Tangible interfaces are interfaces that you touch. You control them with your hands, feet, and other body parts. Their shape, feel, and arrangement provide feedback. In this seven-week class, you\’ll build devices with tangible controls in order to better understand how we learn about and manipulate the world through our sense of touch. We\’ll discuss physical interaction concepts such as expressive interfaces and utilitarian ones, real-time control vs. delayed control, and implicit vs. explicit interactions. We\’ll discuss programming and electronic techniques to sense state change, thresholds, peaks, and other signs of user action. The primary tools will be the microcontroller and common tangible controls: pushbuttons, switches, rotary encoders, rotary and slide potentiometers, force sensors, touch sensors and others. The class will also cover on-device feedback through LEDs, speakers, and force-feedback actuators. Weekly projects will be designed (and parts specified) in pairs in in-class design sessions, and executed as homework. Projects will be mostly microcontroller-driven, and will build on the programming and sensor-interfacing skills learned in Intro to Physical Computing. Prerequisites: Intro to Physical Computing and Intro to Computational Media, or a working knowledge of microcontroller programming in Arduino; Intro to Fabrication or basic knowledge of laser cutter. We 9:00am – 11:30am (01/30 – 03/13)

ITPG-GT.2126.1 () | Instructor: Tom Igoe | Wed 09:00am to 11:30am | Meeting Pattern: 7-First Half | Start Date