Designing Embedded Systems with PIC Microcontrollers

CHAPTER 8 The human and physical interfaces

Figure 1.1 illustrates a typical embedded system. It shows an embedded computer reading in signals, outputting control signals, interacting with a human user and possibly interacting with an external system via a network. All of these activities fall under the broad heading of interfacing, which forms a very large part of the hardware design of embedded systems. In this chapter we look at some aspects of interfacing, including both the human and the physical interfaces.

In order to design the interface we need to know something about the sensors and actuators that can be used. These lie between the wider system and the electronic domain of the microcontroller circuit. There are input devices, sensors ...