Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.
Andy Gelme, Systems designer and technical lead at Geekscape has graciously offered to take us through a demonstration of this incredibly liberating technology. Let your mind wander into creative ways to use an Arduino Board to engineer anything from intelligent clothing to monitoring the heating system in your home. You don’t need to be a hardware wizard to participate. All you need is an open mind.
Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).
The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs.
Comments