ITP Physical Computing
Jeff Feddersen Fall 2016
Last modified on August 4, 2017 by Tom Igoe
Welcome! I’m very excited to be teaching this course again this year. It’s material I love, and I think now (2016) is a great time to be learning it: there’s never been more tools, opportunities, and interest in the subject.
Course overview one-page (pdf)
This page will archive the specifics of our section of the course. Your class documentation links will live here, as well as any week-to-week notes that come up in our particular class. The rest of the physical computing site is shared across all sections of the course. Weekly assignments and technical resources will come from there.
Class Time
Contents
Wednesdays, 12:10PM to 2:40PM
Important: I have a conflict with the 6th class on October 12, and have rescheduled week 6 to the following Friday, Orctober 14, at 9AM. Please contact me if you are unable to attend the make up session.
Contact
jfeddersen [at] gmail [dot] com. Please use this address! My NYU one will get there eventually, but gmail is preferred.
Office hours. I will have calendar slots available to meet in person before and after class on Wednesdays. I am also available by Skype/hangout/chat/email/call etc. almost any time with prior arrangement. In the past, I’ve found that regular office hours were under-used, and most contact with students outside of class ended up being via email, or increasingly, via video chat anyway. So, my office hour policy is to make arrangements as needed. Email me and we can set up a time to talk further. On the occasions I can be on the floor outside of class times, I’ll email the class list to let you know.
Schedule Overview
The syllabus is long and detailed, with tons of info and support material for each week. I created this thumbnail to provide an overview only. Please refer each week to the full details in the syllabus
| Class # | Date | Topic | Tasks for following week | Blog | Reading |
| 1 | Sep 7, 2016 | Introductions | Get parts, set up doc site | What is Interaction? | Yes |
| 2 | Sep 14, 2016 | Electricity | Electronics Labs; Quiz 1 | Lab doc | Yes |
| 3 | Sep 21, 2016 | Microcontrollers, Digital I/O, Analog Input | Digital I/O + Analog Input labs, Quiz 2 | Lab doc, Observation | Yes |
| 4 | Sep 28, 2016 | Analog Output | Analog Out Labs + catch up, Quiz 3 | Lab doc | None |
| 5 | Oct 5, 2016 | Review & Reading Datasheets | Catch up on labs and documentation | Lab doc | Yes |
| 6 | Oct 14, 2016 | Asynchronous Serial 1 Note new date |
Serial Labs, Quiz 4, start midterm | Lab doc | None |
| 7 | Oct 19, 2016 | Asynchronous Serial 2 | Serial Labs, Quiz 4, continue midterm | Lab doc, midterm doc | None |
| 8 | Oct 26, 2016 | Project Presentations Midterms Due | Final project concept | Final concept | None |
| 9 | Nov 2, 2016 | Final project planning | Build ‘paper’ prototype, make test plan | Plan, BOM, Timeline | Yes |
| 10 | Nov 9, 2016 | Playtesting | Update project plans based on playtesting | Revise final docs | None |
| 11 | Nov 16, 2016 | Power electronics | Work on final | Revise final docs | None |
| Nov 23, 2016 | Thanksgiving holiday, no class | ||||
| 12 | Nov 30, 2016 | Serial 3: I2C and SPI | Get final project ready for user testing | Progress report | None |
| 13 | Dec 7, 2016 | User testing | Prepare final and presentation | Finalize project docs | None |
| 14 | Dec 14, 2016 | Project Presentations Finals Due |
How to use this site
There’s a lot, lot! of information at itp.nyu.edu/physcomp. Then there’s the whole rest of the internet, starting with Arduino HQ, going on to great sites like learn.adafruit and learn.sparkfun, not to mention infinite how-tos, data sheets for every component ever made, etc… It can get overwhelming. With the ITP site, we’ve tried to do two things:
- Provide a week-by-week syllabus for the semester that takes you through the physical computing material in a logical progression. Each week has clear tasks, assignments for the following week, and links to labs, write-ups, and videos that support or explain the current material. Follow along here and you’ll be fine.
- Provide an organized set of materials covering the core physical computing topics, to serve as a first resource for any questions you may have as you study the subject. These live under the Topics, Videos, and Labs tabs. These materials are also linked to from the syllabus, but here they’re organized by subject matter, whereas the week-by-week syllabus is chronological.
Grading
The most important thing you can do is arrive to each class on time and be prepared to actively participate, with questions, stories of setbacks or successes you encountered in the lab, and interesting material and events related to pcomp you’ve found. Each week, you should put in adequate time to really digest and then apply the material. I’m unimpressed by last-minute cramming. Floor 4 is the best place to do your class work, as you’ll be surrounded by your peers tackling the same topics, and you’ll have access to second-years, residents, and full-time faculty. Our brief time together each week, and your access to the 4th floor, is what distinguishes studying pcomp at ITP from, say, just reading the internet.
30% In-class lab work and participation
20% Midterm a/k/a Stupid Pet Trick
30% Final project
20% Blog & documentation
Supplies
See the following link for Parts Needed
Documentation Links
Email me with direct links to your documentation for this class. Note: please set up tags, categories, or whatever so the link goes directly to the documentation specifically for this class, and not every class, or your life blog, etc.
- Your links will go here – email them to me in week one.
| Akmyrat | Tuyliyev | https://atuyliyev.wordpress.com/category/pcom/ |
| Alexander | Zimmer | http://www.alexzimmer.com/itp/pcomp |
| Anastasios | Germanidis | https://agermanidis.github.io/itp-blog/tag/physcomp_fall2016/ |
| Ari | Melenciano | http://www.ariciano.com/introtopcomp/ |
| Bryan | Hsu | http://www.bryanhsu.com/blog?category=Intro+to+Phys+Comp |
| Grau | Puche Recarens | http://graupuche.info/blog/pcomp.html |
| Jacquelyn | Zen | http://jackiezen.com/PComp/ |
| Rogue | Fong | https://rfpcomp.wordpress.com/ |
| Koji | Kanao | http://koji.ml/blog/index.php/category/itp/physical-computing/ |
| David | Chen | https://roninofficial.com/category/blogs/ |
| Marco | Guarino | http://marco.interchang.es/category/p-comp/ |
| Nitish | Wakalkar | http://www.nitishitp.com/physical-computing-1 |
| Patrick | Presto | http://www.letspresto.com/category/pcomp/ |
| Andrew | McCausland | http://blog.andrewmccausland.net/tag/pcomp/ |
| Ping ‘Erenyx’ | Qiu | http://erenyx.tumblr.com/tagged/IntroToPhysicalComp |
| Richard | Lapham | http://www.richardlaphamblog.com/category/intro-to-physical-comp/ |
Class notes
I’ll post week-by-week notes here, starting off with some links from the beginning of last year that were useful from a podcast I like: 99% Invisible: http://99percentinvisible.org/
Class 1
- Black Mirror, where eyes are always-on cameras.
- An empathy suit for aging.
Class 2
- Two takes on VR painting: NYU’s HoloJam and Google TiltBrush.
- How fun, really, is riding a VR horse?
Class 3
- Eloquent Javascript is a Javascript book that also addresses fundamental programming in an interesting way.
- If you want a peek “under the hood” of Arduino, look here.
Class 4
I saw exhibits by Ryoji Ikeda and Jean-Pierre Gauthier at the Montreal Contemporary Art Museum this weekend. JPG’s used Arduinos and lots of servo motors.- Sparkfun’s servo tutorial shows their insides.
- Speaking of glasses, some are in the news this week.
- And speaking of recording video with your eyes, has everyone watched Black Mirror yet? Especially The Entire History of You episode. Season 3 is coming in October.
Board and schematic for analog output from class this week:
