Plug-and-play Physical Computing with Jacdac
James A. Devine, Michał Moskal, Peli de Halleux, Thomas J. Ball, Steve E. Hodges, Gabriele D'Amone, David Gakure, Joe Finney, Lorraine Underwood, Kobi Hartley, Paul Kos, Matt Oppenheim · Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive Mobile Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies · 2022
Physical computing is becoming mainstream. More people than ever---from artists, makers and entrepreneurs to educators and students---are connecting microcontrollers with sensors and actuators to create new interactive devices. However, physical computing still presents many challenges and demands many skills, spanning electronics, low-level protocols, and software---road blocks that reduce participation. While USB has made connecting peripherals to a personal computing device (PC) trivial, USB components are expensive and require a PC to operate. This makes USB impractical for many physical computing scenarios where cost, size and low power operation are often important.