{"id":2642,"date":"2015-09-04T10:08:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T14:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/physcomp\/?page_id=2642"},"modified":"2024-09-16T14:30:54","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T18:30:54","slug":"lab-sensor-change-detection","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/physcomp\/labs\/labs-arduino-digital-and-analog\/lab-sensor-change-detection\/","title":{"rendered":"Lab: Sensor Change Detection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/span>Introduction<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Microcontrollers can sense what’s going on in the physical world using digital and analog sensors, but a single sensor reading doesn’t tell you much. In order to tell when something significant happens, you need to know when that reading changes. For example, when a digital input changes from LOW to HIGH or the reverse, you can tell that a person closed or opened  a switch. When a force-sensing resistor reaches a peak reading, you know that something has hit the sensor. In this lab, you’ll learn how to program your microcontroller to look for three common changes in sensor readings that give you information about events in the physical world: state change detection on digital sensors, and threshold crossing and peak detection on analog sensors. You’ll use these three techniques all the time when you’re designing to read users’ actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>What You\u2019ll Need to Know<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To get the most out of this lab, you should be familiar with the following concepts. You can check how to do so in the links below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n