PHYSICAL COMPUTING

Description: The slide potentiometer is an electronic component with a slide contact that allows for user-adjustable resistance of voltage.

slide potentiometer

-10K Slide Pot

Fight Spectacle Use: In Project 1: Fight Spectacle, slide potentiometers were used to record the pressure of a boxing glove as it slides back along the wrist upon impact. The potentiometer was secured to the wrist and a metal piece was attached to the slide and to the glove. When impact was page the glove would push the metal piece into the slide contact. The reading of the potentiometer would cause a series of LEDs to illuminate. A spring was attached to the potentiometer to return the slide contact to it's default position after the pressure is released.

PCmount condensor microphone

Audio is a somewhat difficult input to use unless you have an amplifier to make your values usable. The “Super Snooper Big Ear Audio Amplifier Kit" from Jameco ($10.95) proved to do the trick for me. It was able to give me a basic reading which I was able to decipher. In my case, the original microphone was lost and I had to replace it with a "PC-Mount condenser Microphone Element"

Photoconductive Cell
250mW, 250V peak
12Kohm max light, 1Mohm min dark
Jameco Part # 120299

Passive InfraRed sensors (PIRs)

General Description
PIR sensors are passive electronic devices which detect motion by sensing infrared fluctuations. Once a motion is detected, a high is sent to the signal pin.

Because of the biological characteristic of organisms to emit heat, these sensors work well in detecting human motion and therefore are commonly implemented in security applications.

Sensor Operation
PIR sensors are composed of a solid-state pyroelectric chip. This chip is the heart of the device because it generates an electric charge when exposed to infrared radiation. This charge is then enhanced by an amplifier so the output voltage can be interfaced with other devices. The sensitivity of this device is enhanced by a translucent Fresnel Lens covering this chip.