Physical Computing
Physical computing is, in short, making interactive physical systems out of hardware and software that sense changes in the real-world environment and respond to them. Analog input from sensors is digitalized and processed to software applications or electromechanical systems (e.g. motors, LEDs) or used to control other hardware components via actuators. If software is running on an embedded microcontroller inside the system it is called embedded system. Physical computing is used in a wide range of domains and applications such as education, art, and both scientific and commercial applications.
Examples
I-CubeX is a system of sensors, actuators and interfaces configured by a personal computer. It uses MIDI, Bluetooth or USB for communication, making it simply for music or visual artists to create and modify musical instruments or interactive installations.
An example for physical computing with an embedded system is the popular open-source Arduino platform, developed by italian researcher Massimo Banzi and his team since 2005. Making it possible to simplay control interactive objects or to interact with software applications the platform gained great popularity in interactive art installations.A huge numebr of installations can be discovered on the official Arduino Project Hub.
The Raspberry Pi is a mini linux comupter on a SD card. Pins allow makers and hobbyists to connect electronic components, extend the capabilities with add-on boards and program physical devices in the real world, such as inputs like sensors and outputs like lights. Visit the offical website to browse a number of tutorial-like projects.