Last week I attended the monthly presentation at the Boston Flash Platform User Group (BFPUG) about physical computing using Flash CS3/Flex. Michelle Yaiser did a great job showing how to interface with several different pieces of hardware through Flash.

Basically, using a board from Making Things that can be connected to a PC via an USB port, a Flash application can exchange data with external sensors. This means the Flash app. can receive inputs from photocells, temperature sensors, potentiometers, bend sensors, etc, and send orders to servo motors and other devices. Pretty cool stuff.

In the past I have seen many demos related to physical computing with Flash, but I did not understand what was involved. Michelle explained the process explicitly.

After the meeting I started to explore the Making Things site to see what kind of things people are doing in this area. In their Projects page they list many exciting examples. One of the most attractive projects to me is the CandyFab 4000, - large - low cost - low resolution - 3D printer that uses sugar as the printing material.

They list many other innovative projects that could provide great ideas on how to use the computer to interact with the physical world. They have software interfaces for other programming languages besides Actionscript, but those are outside of my area of interest.

It seems I have to save some green to start playing around with these controllers and sensors. Probably my 11-year old Daniel would enjoy the journey even more than I.