Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

New Directions in Third Wave Human-Computer Interaction: Volume 1 - Technologies pp 123–144Cite as

Physical Computing | When Digital Systems Meet the Real World

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

Abstract

Maker culture, from soldering sensors on an Arduino to 3D printing a prosthetic limb, has established that hobbyist computing is intimately rooted in the physical world. In education, ‘physical computing’ courses have captured this interest, introducing code through its physical interactions. Interpreted more broadly, physical computing sits at the nexus of a number of strands within HCI including tangible interaction, ubiquitous computing, and spatial/mobile systems. Ideas of embodiment and an experiential approach to design are natural frameworks within which to view physical computing and so it is almost tautologically third wave. However, the hidden action of computation in certain kinds of sensor-rich ubicomp and the AI turn in computing calls any simple identification into question. Product design appears to encounter the ‘waves’ in a different order; as its artefacts become more digital, it is having to consider the agency of computing and adopt more analytic approaches in research and design. Physical computing forces us to regard the ‘waves’ less as a teleological progression, and more as complementary approaches addressing different facets of human experience with physically embodied digital technology. Furthermore, it suggests there are new challenges ahead as we seek to find research and design paradigms that use physical objects as part of rich collaborations with active computation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   219.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   279.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   279.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Avrahami D, Hudson S (2002) Forming interactivity: a tool for rapid prototyping of physical interactive products. In: Ballagas et al (eds) Proceedings of DIS’02. ACM, New York, pp 141–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Baldé CP, Forti V, Gray, V et al (2017) The global e-waste monitor. http://collections.unu.edu/view/UNU:6341. Accessed 2 Jan 2018

  • BBC (2016) BBC micro: bit launches to a generation of UK students. http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/bbc-micro-bit-schools-launch. Accessed 13 Dec 2017

  • Bell G, Brooke T, Churchill E et al (2003) Intimate ubiquitous computing. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp’03). ACM, New York, pp 3–6

    Google Scholar 

  • Bødker S (2015) Third-wave HCI, 10 years later—participation and sharing. Interactions 22(5):24–31. https://doi.org/10.1145/2804405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bridge M (2017) Bitcoin network ‘is using more energy than world can sustain’. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bitcoin-network-is-using-more-energy-than-world-can-sustain-sqks6rpk0. Accessed 6 Dec 2017

  • Clark A (1989) Microcognition: philosophy, cognitive science and parallel processing. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark A (1998) Being there: putting brain, body and the world together again. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Culverhouse I, Gill S (2009) Bringing concepts to life: introducing a rapid interactive sketch modelling toolkit for industrial designers. In: Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on tangible and embedded interaction, pp 359–362

    Google Scholar 

  • Digiconomist (2017) Bitcoin energy consumption index. https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption. Accessed 14 Dec 2017

  • Dix A (1992) Human issues in the use of pattern recognition techniques. In: Beale R, Finlay J (eds) Neural networks and pattern recognition in human computer interaction. Ellis Horwood, Amsterdam, pp 429–451

    Google Scholar 

  • Dix A (1994) Computer-supported cooperative work – a framework. In: Rosenburg D, Hutchison C (eds) Design issues in CSCW. Springer, Berlin, pp 23–37

    Google Scholar 

  • Dix A (1995) Cooperation without (reliable) communication: interfaces for mobile applications. Distrib Syst Eng 2(3):171–181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dix A (2007) Designing for appropriation. In: Proceedings of the 21st British HCI group annual conference on people and computers: HCI…but not as we know it – volume 2. BCS Learning & Development Ltd, Swindon, pp 27–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Dix A (2010) Struggling with Heidegger. http://alandix.com/blog/2010/08/12/struggling-with-heidegger/. Accessed 13 Dec 2017

  • Dix A (2017) I in an other’s eye. AI & Society (in press). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0694-7

  • Dix A, Ghazali M, Gill S et al (2009) Physigrams: modelling devices for natural interaction. In: Formal aspects of computing. Springer, 21(6): 613–641

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dix A, Gill S, Ramduny-Ellis D et al (2010) Design and physicality – towards an understanding of physicality in design and use. In: Designing for the 21st century: interdisciplinary methods and findings. Gower, London, pp 172–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Dix A, Gill S, Ramduny-Ellis D et al (2018) TouchIT. Oxford University Press, Oxford. http://physicality.org/TouchIT/

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzmaurice GW, Ishii H, Buxton WAS (1995) Bricks: laying the foundations for graspable user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘95). ACM, New York, pp 442–449. https://doi.org/10.1145/223904.223964

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia C (2012) The BBC micro. http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/the-bbc-micro/. Accessed 13 Dec 2017

  • Gibson J (1979) The ecological approach to visual perception. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill S, Walker D, Loudon G et al (2008) Rapid development of tangible interactive appliances: achieving the fidelity/time balance. In: Hornecker E et al (eds) Special issue on tangible and embedded interaction. Int J Arts Technol 1(3/4): 309–331

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gray W, Fu W (2001) Ignoring perfect knowledge in-the-world for imperfect knowledge in-the-head. In: Proceedings of CHI ‘01. ACM, Seattle, pp 112–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare J, Gill S, Loudon G et al (2014) Active and passive physicality: making the most of low-fidelity physical interactive prototypes. Int J Des Res. Inderscience Publishing Ltd

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison S, Tatar D, Sengers P (2007) The three paradigms of HCI. In: Alt. Chi. Session at the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, San Jose, pp 1–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann B, Klemmer SR, Bernstein M et al (2006) Reflective physical prototyping through integrated design, test, and analysis. In: Proceedings of UIST. ACM, New York, pp 299–308

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger M (1927) Sein und Zeit. (English translation: Being and Time. Harper, 2008)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchins E (1994) Cognition in the wild. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Hutchinson H, Mackay W, Westerlund B et al (2003) Technology probes: inspiring design for and with families. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘03). ACM, New York, pp 17–24. https://doi.org/10.1145/642611.642616

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Igoe T (2004) What is physical computing?. http://www.tigoe.net/blog/what-is-physical-computing/. Accessed 7 Dec 2017

  • Ishii H, Ullmer B (1997) Tangible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms. In: Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. ACM, Atlanta, pp 234–241. https://doi.org/10.1145/258549.258715

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kushner D (2011) The making of Arduino. In: IEEE Spectrum. https://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/the-making-of-arduino. Accessed 7 Dec 2017

  • Leahy S (2017) Each U.S. family trashes 400 iPhones’ worth of e-waste a year. National Geographic. https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/e-waste-monitor-report-glut/. Accessed 13 Dec 2017

  • Long J, Dowell J (1989) Conceptions of the discipline of HCI: craft, applied science, and engineering. In: Sutcliffe V, Macaulay L (eds) Proceedings of the fifth conference of the british computer society, human–computer interaction specialist group on people and computers. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,UK, pp 9–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Merleau-Ponty M (1945) Phénomènologie de la Perception (English translation: Phenomenology of Perception, Routledge, 1958)

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan A et al (2014) Blue sky thinking meets green field usability: can mobile internet software engineering bridge the rural divide? Local Econ 29(6–7):750–761. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269094214548399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller S, Dix A, Phillips M et al (2012) Interactive construction: interactive fabrication of functional mechanical devices. In: Proceedings of UIST ‘12. ACM, New York, pp 599–606. https://doi.org/10.1145/2380116.2380191

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Norman D, Draper S (1986) User centered system design: new perspectives on human-computer interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Hillsdale

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Sullivan D, Igoe T (2004) Physical computing: sensing and controlling the physical world with computers, 1st edn. Thomson, Boston. ISBN:159200346X

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfaff G, ten Hagen PJW (1985) Seeheim workshop on user Interface management systems. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Policy Lab (2014) About us. https://openpolicy.blog.gov.uk/about/. Accessed 7 Dec 2017

  • Raspberry Pi Foundation (n.d.) About us. https://www.raspberrypi.org/about/. Accessed 7 Dec 2017

  • Rauterberg M, Fjeld M, Krueger H et al (1998) BUILD-IT: a planning tool for construction and design. In: CHI 98 conference summary on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘98). ACM, New York, pp 177–178. https://doi.org/10.1145/286498.286657

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • RSE (2013) Spreading the benefits of digital participation: an interim report for consultation. Edinburgh, Royal Society of Edinburgh, pp 22–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Schön D (1984) The reflective practitioner. Basic Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder S (2017) Bitcoin consumes a ton of energy, but it’s not as bad as you’ve heard. Mashable UK. http://mashable.com/2017/12/01/bitcoin-energy/. Accessed 14 Dec 2017

  • Shneiderman B (1983) Direct manipulation: a step beyond programming languages. IEEE Comput 16(8):57–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • SIA, SRC (2015) Rebooting the IT revolution: a call to action. Semiconductor Industry Association and Semiconductor Research Corporation. http://www.semiconductors.org/clientuploads/Resources/RITR%20WEB%20version%20FINAL.pdf. Accessed 7 Dec 2017

  • Smith DC, Irby C, Kimball R et al (1982) Designing the star user interface. BYTE 7(4):242–282

    Google Scholar 

  • Star SL, Griesemer JR (1989) Institutional ecology, translations and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907–1939. Soc Stud Sci 19(3):387–420

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suchman L (1987) Plans and situated actions: the problem of human–machine interaction. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland I (1963) SketchPad: a man-machine graphical communication system. In: AFIPS conference proceedings, 1963, p 323–328

    Google Scholar 

  • Turchi T, Malizia A, Dix A (2015) Fostering the adoption of pervasive displays in public spaces using tangible end-user programming. In: IEEE symposium on visual languages and human-centric computing, Atlanta, Georgia, US, p 18–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Villar N, Gellerson H (2007) A malleable control structure for softwired user interfaces. In: Proceedings of tangible and embedded interaction conference (TEI ‘07). ACM, New York, pp 49–56

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wang D, Zhang Y, Gu T et al (2012) E-Block: a tangible programming tool for children. In: Adjunct proceedings of the 25th annual ACM symposium on user interface software and technology, 2012

    Google Scholar 

  • Weichel C, Lau M, Kim D et al (2014) MixFab: a mixed-reality environment for personal fabrication. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems (CHI ‘14). ACM, New York, pp 3855–3864. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557090

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Weiser M (1991) The computer for the 21st century. Sci Am 265(3):94–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winograd T, Flores F (1986) Understanding computers and cognition: a new foundation for design. Addison-Wesley, New York

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Zampelis D, Loudon G, Gill S et al (2012) IRIS: augmented reality in rapid prototyping. In: Proceedings of the 13th rapid design, prototyping & manufacturing conference. Lancaster University, Lancaster

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. HCI Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Alan Dix

  2. Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff, Wales

    Steve Gill

Authors
  1. Alan Dix
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Steve Gill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alan Dix .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

    Michael Filimowicz

  2. School of Communications, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

    Veronika Tzankova

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Dix, A., Gill, S. (2018). Physical Computing | When Digital Systems Meet the Real World. In: Filimowicz, M., Tzankova, V. (eds) New Directions in Third Wave Human-Computer Interaction: Volume 1 - Technologies. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73356-2_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73356-2_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73355-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73356-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation