Generally means building interactive physical systems by the use of software and hardware that can sense and respond to the analog world. In practical use, the term most often describes handmade art, design or DIY hobby projects that use sensors and microcontrollers to translate analog input to a software system, and/or control electro-mechanical devices such as motors, servos, lighting or other hardware.
Electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes data in terms of two states: positive and non-positive (aka 0/1 or on/off or binary).
An electrical circuit that is represented by means of continuous, variable physical quantities (such as voltages and frequencies), as opposed to discrete representations (like the 0/1, off/on representation of digital circuits).
Basically, a functional computer on a little chip. Microcontrollers are used in a wide variety of products and devices, remote controls, office machines, appliances, power tools, and toys.
Acronym for light emitting diode. They are semiconductor devices that emit light produced by converting electrical energy.
A circuit board that is made by hand, usually in building a prototype.
An electrical device which limits the passage of an electrical current.
In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system (such as a computer), and the outside world – possibly a human, or another information processing system.
A physical computing platform based on a simple I/O board and a development environment that implements the Processing language. It can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to software running on a computer (e.g., Macromedia Flash)