Bridging physical and digital worlds with simple hardware

The reduction in cost, size, power consumption and simplicity of physical devices has led to an explosion in devices that open physical domains to software. These devices often contain little more than a sensor and a communication component like Bluetooth Low Energy or WiFi. As software engineers, we need to expand our thinking to include bridging physical and digital worlds with simple hardware. We are already seeing this in the car, the home, the human body, agriculture and other physical environments. The cost and time required to prototype such devices is shrinking to match the fast iterations possible in software.