Description
Physical Interaction Design course aims to familiarize students with practices that provide designing new ways of interactions between humans through digital environments. This course makes it possible for students to experience experimental interaction with sensor technologies where the data is achieved throughout the participant’s natural expressive gestures and processed through computer.
PID course introduces physical interaction design in New Media works with microcontroller and sensor technologies. The course explores multimodal interaction practices where they adapt physical interaction to daily life applications and contemporary art works. The course also introduces artistic strategies, structures and methodologies for the creation of interactive installations, physical media/image/sound projects and for the creation of experimental musical instruments. Course will be taught mainly using the Pure Data and Arduino open-source environments.
Final Project
Physical Interaction Design course is a project-based course. At the end of the course, students will submit and present their own physical interaction projects.
Guidelines for the final project.
Grading
- 20% class participation
- 10% assignments
- 70% final project
Location:
Paja (Media Lab 3rd Floor)
Schedule:
Week 1 (Sensing The World)
- 22nd Nov 2011 9:00 – 12:00 – Introduction
- What Is Interaction? What Is Physical Computing? Download the pdf-presentation.
- Highly recommended reading: http://www.dubberly.com/articles/what-is-interaction.html
- Electronics & Arduino basics
- 23rd Nov 2011 9:00 – 12:00 – Sensors
- Sensors #1 (variable resistors, photocells, flex sensors, FSRs etc.)
- See the connection diagram here.
- Assignment #1: DIY Sensor. Find some conductive/resistive material that could be used as a sensor or a switch.
- Arduino & Pure Data – Pduino
- Download Pduino
- 24th Nov 2011 9:00 – 12:00 – Sensors
- Sensors #2 (IR Range sensors, ultrasonic sensors, accelerometers)
- Sensors #3 (object recognition, RFID, reed switches, hall effect sensors)
- Sharp IR Range sensor
- Memsic 2125
- Parallax Ping Sensor
- Parallax RFID Reader
- Download the Arduino code and a PD patch.
- Presenting Assignment #1: DIY Sensor
- 25th Nov 2011 9:00 – 12:00 – Motion Tracking
- Kinect
- For User Tracking: Download UserTracking and the PD patch that parses the information.
- For Skeleton Tracking: Download Synapse and the Synapse PD patch.
- FaceOSC
- Face tracking software based on Jason Saragih’s FaceTracker library.
- Video
- Download: https://github.com/kylemcdonald/ofxFaceTracker/downloads
- Download a PD patch that reads the OSC messages.
- reacTIVision
Week 2 (Mapping, turning real world data into something useful)
- 29th Nov 2011 9:00 – 12:00 – Motors & Actuators
- 30th Nov 2011 9:00 – 12:00
- Return a project proposal (1 A4)
- 1st Dec 2011 9:00 – 12:00
- Smoothing and mapping in Arduino.
- Smoothing and mapping in PD.
- Smoothing multiple sensors.
- 2nd Dec 2011 9:00 – 12:00
- Quartz Composer & Arduino
- Generative Music in PD
Week 3 (Project Work and Tutoring)
- 7th Dec 2011 9:00 – 13:00
- 8th Dec 2011 9:00 – 13:00
- 9th Dec 2011 9:00 – 13:00
- Final project presentations
Recommended Course Books
- Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative applications and Devices
by Dan Saffer - Designing Sound by Andy Farnell
- Machine Musicianship by Robert Rowe
- Handmade Electronic Music: The art of Hardware Hacking
by Nicolas Collins
List of Students:
- Päivärinne Aki
- Nikulin Aleksander
- Lazzari Louise
- Lehtonen Paula
- Koivula Janne
- Wikström Valtteri
- Koskinen Tommi
- Ihalainen Kirsi
- Acosta Jairo
- Duarte Juan
- Lepistö Markus
- Bar-Sheshet Ran
- Best-Dunkley Andrew