Physical Computing’s Greatest Hits (and misses) Response

This article is, as it says, a list of some of the most effective categories of projects done in physical computing. I don’t have much to analyze here, but this is an article I will certainly refer to again if I need ideas for a project. The most interesting bit is actually the specific comment that just because something has been done before doesn’t mean you can’t be original in the same theme. That he was able to identify multiple successful variants of each theme that separately contribute to fleshing out the theme is impressive, but suggests to me that as much as the technology for interactive media is advancing, its most effective applications are still to come. In particular, while many of the devices he described are interesting and exciting for the user, and most often beautiful, he never describes any as life-changing or the like. I can see the theoretical potential of physical computing to allow people to have experiences that would otherwise be impossible, but are also relevant to their life experience on a large scale, and it seems to me that once this becomes commonplace the number of ways a theme can effectively be repeated will shrink.

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