When home computers became common, people came up with the bright idea that this wonderful new device could interact with everything electrical in the house. Why can’t you control the lights and temperature through a computer? Why can’t your clock radio communicate with your toaster? Ultimately, although fascinating, the home automation phenomenon never took off. Part of the problem was that the microcontrollers needed to interconnect the analog and digital worlds were prohibitively expensive.
Not anymore. A couple of years ago, half a dozen developers collaborated on a microcontroller project that was eventually renamed arduino. Affordable, open source, programmed using free software, and easy to use, the platform’s popularity has grown exponentially since its introduction. Experts have already begun to expand the horizons of Arduino beyond anyone’s expectations. For example, Leah Buechley developed a wearable Arduino and accompanied it with a power supply, actuators, and clothing-based sensors (connected with a conductive thread, how cool is that?). Clearly, the idea has expanded far beyond smart homes.
Enter Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects. Written by Tom Igoe, one of the original developers of the Arduino microcontroller, the book is a guide to this exciting new platform. In some ways, technology can be intimidating because it’s a huge idea: interconnecting the analog with the digital or, as Igoe says, making things talk to others. And although Arduino has made these previously impossible tasks possible, there is still a learning curve. Igoe doesn’t mince words; While there is introductory information, the book assumes that you have a basic knowledge of electronics as well as experience programming microcontrollers. The Arduino platform uses Processing, a free and open source programming language designed for artists and hobbyists, so the learning curve is relatively low compared to other languages.
Igoe’s book takes the reader step by step, starting with the tools you will need and covering various networking theories, programming tips, and other techniques. Along the way he outlines 26 projects that are the core of the book; The first is a pink monkey that has been hacked to serve as a computer mouse. Project 13 involves wireless data transmission from solar cells. Project 19 shows you how to determine a heading using a digital compass. Some of the projects mainly serve to illustrate many of the different possibilities of the technology rather than being “cool”; For example, Project 8 shows how to make a 19,200-baud infrared transceiver assembly, but it doesn’t combine that technology with any neat gadgetry. Others are a more complete project, like the saucer monkey (Project 12) that bangs its saucers when it detects toxic chemicals in the air around it.
The interesting and terrifying thing about the Arduino phenomenon is the immensity of its potential. Make things talk It’s a thick, very dense manual that does an admirable job of covering as much ground as possible.
