Digital Physical is growing in popularity by the day, Aden Hepburn the man behind the leading blog Digital Buzz Blog even gave it a nod yesterday.
'Lately it has actually been hard to spot an innovative project or campaign that in some way, shape or form, doesn’t use the Arduino board, and while that might seem very single minded, it’s actually a great pat on the back for a more physical-digital world, which is anything but.'
With the lowering cost of entry through the DIY community and Kickstarter being able to fund a number of these digital physical products we are seeing more people enter this space. However unlike the Social Media wave of 2008-10, there is no unifying term for this type of technology.
I have heard this area being called a number of things from Physical Computing, Pervasive Computing, Digital Physical, Phygital, Ubiquitous Computing and the Internet/Web of Things.
Looking at Google Search Insights it does not look like there is one term that is taking precedence either. If anything I would say that it looks like Digital Physical.
When you look at the companies who are making these types of products, there is no one solid category terming either. Take the mission statements for the following companies.
Deeplocal - An innovation studio that creates remarkable experiences for brands
SuperMechanical - Objects that connect us
BreakfastNY - A physical-digital interactive agency
Tellart - Experience Design and Engineering
I think that it would be advantageous to all everyone involved if there was one unifying term for this technology and I am sure with time there will be. What do you think it should be called?
