Description:

Children are often fascinated with robots and want to control (program) them. Currently, most programming environments are screen-based, requiring the use of either a mouse and keyboard or a touch screen. This project will investigate the use of physical coding blocks (tangibles) as an alternative approach to programming robots, and writing software programs.

 

The project will primarily focus on the creation of an embedded system to detect and interpret a chain of physical programming blocks, generate the intended software program, and display the associated output. 

 

 

Type:

Undergraduate

Outcome:

Potential research components of this project include:

• Designing and prototyping the physical coding block system. This will likely include,
• Arduino implementation
• Interface for multiple RFID sensors 
• Embedded processing on Arduino (C++)
• Feedback to user (TBD)
• Exploring new types of tangibles
• Evaluating the developed system against existing solutions 
• Possible user evaluation 

Prerequisites

None

Specialisations

• Computer Systems Engineering

Categories

• Embedded Systems
• Games & Education Aids 1
• Human Computer Interactions

Supervisor

• James Tizard

Co-supervisor

• Craig Sutherland

Team

• Victoria Jones
• Matthew Taylor

Lab

Embedded Systems (405.760, Lab)