I really enjoyed watching this hour-long talk by Jonathan Oxer, entitled “Hardware/Software Hacking: Joining the Real and the Virtual,” which addresses the growing trends in physical computing, and the process of connecting the physical world with the virtual.

~ from Google Tech Talks, July 31, 2007

ABSTRACT

Software developers usually confine themselves to working entirely within the runtime environment of a computer just pushing around bits and pixels. Even virtual worlds such as Second Life exist only in the confines of our CPUs.

On the other hand, hardware hacking has really taken off in recent years and there are now magazines such as MAKE devoted to modifying everyday objects. It’s a lot easier than software jockeys may expect, and this talk will begin with an entertaining exploration of simple ways to get started with linking a computer to real-world objects.

But what happens when you knock down the boundaries between the real world and a virtual world? The talk goes on to show specific techniques and examples for linking real-world objects into the Second Life environment so that changes in the real world can be reflected in SL and vice versa.

Jonathan Oxer is founder of Internet Vision Technologies, author of “How To Build A Website And Stay Sane” ( www.stay-sane.com) and “Ubuntu Hacks” (www.ubuntuhacks.com), is currently President of Linux Australia, convened the last 5 Debian Miniconferences, and sits on various boards and advisory panels for groups including Swinburne University and the federal e-Research Coordinating Committee.