Physical Computing - LEGO Mindstorms
In my discipline of Computation Physics , Course of Interaction Design from the Institute Faber Ludens / FISAM / UnC , students learn to develop prototypes of objects and interactive environments, using computing and electronics. At the beginning of the discipline we see an introduction to computing focused on reactive systems: systems consisting of a set of input devices (sensors), a processing unit (microcontroller) and a set of output devices (actuators), which is programmed to receive environmental information, process them, and react (act) according to the information received.
Used in practice, the kits Mindstorms NXT LEGO, which allows learning to program reactive systems using a playful way to write (actually "mount") programs, where each "command" or instruction of our computational system is represented by a pad of LEGO in the graphical interface.
Below are the slides of the lessons of prototyping with the Mindstorms NXT.
