There were many interesting an inspiring examples. The topic all students had to focus with their projects was light.
http://design.fh-potsdam.de/studiengaenge/interfacedesign.html
One example was like a cylinder demonstrating the online activity of the university’s internal network. Depending on the area students were online in, the colour changed. The number of people logged in was demonstrated by the height the cylinder raised.
Another student built an installation where he had three balls. All of them were fixed on a rail system hanging on wires. When he pulled one of them on, light inside the ball slowly lighted up. All three balls had individual colours. When pulled another ball, the light in the first ball changed.
Another project was a “moving box”. Inside the paper box, there was a wireless mouse. According to the direction you moved the box, the light colour and intensity changed.
http://design.fh-potsdam.de/fachbereich/personen/portrait/wettach-prof-reto.html
The teacher we met introduced us to a few of the ongoing projects.
http://www.fritzing.org/
The project “Fritzing” is an open-source initiative. It is meant to support designers and artists helping them to transform physical prototyping to the actual product. The software, which can be compared to Processing and Arduino, allows a straightforward documentation of an Arduino-based prototype and creates a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) layout for manufacturing. It is basically an Electronic Design Automation software.
The project enables anyone to participate in discussions, so drafts can be discussed, errors can be avoided and manufacturing costs can be held as low as possible.
Te software can easily process your hardware sketch to create PCB layouts. This operation is based on a software called “EAGLE”.
http://cadsoft.de/
The need for software such as Fritzing raises with the decrease of artists, designers or researchers. They do not have to be engineers to quickly develop ideas into functional interactive prototypes. Moreover, the created prototypes are far more robust and can even be the basis of a permanent installation.

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