Physical Computing with Unity

Computing and electronics are separate worlds

Physical computing bridges that gap

Who's doing this kind of thing?

Cirque du Soleil

Simone Giertz

Robin Baumgarter

NIME community

Things I've done

Things I've done

Electronic prototyping boards

What can we sense with electronics?

• Capacitance
• Light
• Colour
• Sound
• Proximity
• Temperature
• Humidity

An example of an Arduino sketch

// the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
  // initialize digital pin 13 as an output.
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}

// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(13, HIGH);   // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  delay(1000);              // wait for a second
  digitalWrite(13, LOW);    // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  delay(1000);              // wait for a second
}
						

Another example of an Arduino sketch

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup() {
  // initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second:
  Serial.begin(9600);
}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:
void loop() {
  // read the input on analog pin 0:
  int sensorValue = analogRead(A0);
  // print out the value you read:
  Serial.println(sensorValue);
  delay(1);        // delay in between reads for stability
}
						

So where does Unity come into play?

• We can use the Serial port from .NET to communicate with the Arduino
• We can also use the Arduino as a Joystick! (HID)
• Or we could use it as a MIDI interface (it could require extra costs)

Setting it up

We can use the Serial port from .NET to communicate with the Arduino.

Why bother with all this?

We still need something