Synopses & Reviews
Building electronic projects that interact with the physical world is good fun. But when devices that you've built start to talk to each other, things really start to get interesting. Through a series of simple projects, you'll learn how to get your creations to communicate with one another by forming networks of smart devices that carry on conversations with you and your environment. Whether you need to plug some sensors in your home to the Internet or create a device that can interact wirelessly with other creations, Making Things Talk explains exactly what you need.
This book is perfect for people with little technical training but a lot of interest. Maybe you're a science teacher who wants to show students how to monitor weather conditions at several locations at once, or a sculptor who wants to stage a room of choreographed mechanical sculptures. Making Things Talk demonstrates that once you figure out how objects communicate -- whether they're microcontroller-powered devices, email programs, or networked databases -- you can get them to interact.
Each chapter in contains instructions on how to build working projects that help you do just that. You will:
- Make your pet's bed send you email
- Make your own seesaw game controller that communicates over the Internet
- Learn how to use ZigBee and Bluetooth radios to transmit sensor data wirelessly
- Set up communication between microcontrollers, personal computers, and web servers using three easy-to-program, open source environments: Arduino/Wiring, Processing, and PHP.
- Write programs to send data across the Internet based on physical activity in your home, office, or backyard
- And much more
With a little electronics know-how, basic (not necessarily in BASIC) programming skills, a couple of inexpensive microcontroller kits and some network modules to make them communicate using Ethernet, ZigBee, and Bluetooth, you can get started on these projects right away. With
Making Things Talk, the possibilities are practically endless.
Synopsis
Building electronic projects that interact with the physical world is good fun. But when the devices you've built start to talk to each other, things really get interesting. The workbenches of hobbyists, hackers, and makers have become overrun with microcontrollers -- computers-on-a-chip that power homebrewed video games, robots, toys, and more. In Making Things Talk, author Tom Igoe shows how to make these gadgets communicate.
Whether you need to plug some home sensors to the Internet or create a device that can interact wirelessly with other creations, this book shows you exactly what you need. The projects in this book are powerful yet inexpensive to build. You'll become familiar with the Arduino open source electronics prototyping platform, as well as networking hardware such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Bluetooth. Get instructions for more than two-dozen simple projects, and then customize them with your own designs.
- Get an overview of the key concepts you need to work with microcontrollers, including basic electronics, programming, and networking concepts
- Make your own game controllers that communicate over a network
- Use ZigBee, Bluetooth, Infrared, and plain old radio to transmit sensor data wirelessly
- Write programs to send data across the Internet based on physical activity in your home, office, or backyard
Synopsis
'This book contains a series of projects that teaches readers what they need to know to get their creations talking to each other, connecting to the Web, and forming networks of smart devices.\n
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Synopsis
Make microcontrollers, PCs, servers, and smartphones talk to each other.
Building electronic projects that interact with the physical world is good fun. But when the devices you've built start to talk to each other, things really get interesting. With 33 easy-to-build projects, Making Things Talk shows you how to get your gadgets to communicate with you and your environment. Its perfect for people with little technical training but a lot of interest.
Maybe you're a science teacher who wants to show students how to monitor the weather in several locations at once. Or a sculptor looking to stage a room of choreographed mechanical sculptures. In this expanded edition, youll learn how to form networks of smart devices that share data and respond to commands.
- Call your home thermostat with a smartphone and change the temperature.
- Create your own game controllers that communicate over a network.
- Use ZigBee, Bluetooth, Infrared, and plain old radio to transmit sensor data wirelessly.
- Work with Arduino 1.0, Processing, and PHP—three easy-to-use, open source environments.
- Write programs to send data across the Internet, based on physical activity in your home, office, or backyard.
Whether you want to connect simple home sensors to the Internet, or create a device that can interact wirelessly with other gadgets, this book explains exactly what you need.
About the Author
Tom Igoe teaches courses in physical computing and networking, exploring ways to allow digital technologies to sense and respond to a wider range of human physical expression. He has a background in theatre, and his work centers on physical interaction related to live performance and public space. He is a co-author of the book Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, which has been adopted by numerous digital art and design programs around the world. Projects include a series of networked banquet table centerpieces and musical instruments; an email clock; and a series of interactive dioramas, created in collaboration with M.R. Petit. He has consulted for The American Museum of the Moving Image, EAR Studio, Diller + Scofidio Architects, Eos Orchestra, and others.
Table of Contents
Preface; Who This Book Is For; What You Need to Know; Contents of This Book; On Buying Parts; Using Code Examples; Using Circuit Examples; Acknowledgments for the First Edition; Note on the Second Edition; Chapter 1: The Tools; 1.1 It Starts with the Stuff You Touch; 1.2 It's About Pulses; 1.3 Computers of All Shapes and Sizes; 1.4 Good Habits; 1.5 Tools; 1.6 Using the Command Line; 1.7 Using an Oscilloscope; 1.8 It Ends with the Stuff You Touch; Chapter 2: The Simplest Network; 2.1 Supplies for Chapter 2; 2.2 Layers of Agreement; 2.3 Making the Connection: The Lower Layers; 2.4 Saying Something: The Application Layer; 2.5 Complex Conversations; 2.6 Flow Control; 2.7 Finishing Touches: Tidy It Up, Box It Up; 2.8 Conclusion; Chapter 3: A More Complex Network; 3.1 Supplies for Chapter 3; 3.2 Network Maps and Addresses; 3.3 Conclusion; Chapter 4: Look, Ma, No Computer! Microcontrollers on the Internet; 4.1 Supplies for Chapter 4; 4.2 Introducing Network Modules; 4.3 An Embedded Network Client Application; 4.4 The Finished Project; 4.5 Programming and Troubleshooting Tools for Embedded Modules; 4.6 Conclusion; Chapter 5: Communicating in (Near) Real Time; 5.1 Supplies for Chapter 5; 5.2 Interactive Systems and Feedback Loops; 5.3 Transmission Control Protocol: Sockets and Sessions; 5.4 The Clients; 5.5 Conclusion; Chapter 6: Wireless Communication; 6.1 Supplies for Chapter 6; 6.2 Why Isn't Everything Wireless?; 6.3 Two Flavors of Wireless: Infrared and Radio; 6.4 How Radio Works; 6.5 Buying Radios; 6.6 What About WiFi?; 6.7 Conclusion; Chapter 7: Sessionless Networks; 7.1 Supplies for Chapter 7; 7.2 Sessions vs. Messages; 7.3 Who's Out There? Broadcast Messages; 7.4 Directed Messages; 7.5 Conclusion; Chapter 8: How to Locate (Almost) Anything; 8.1 Supplies for Chapter 8; 8.2 Network Location and Physical Location; 8.3 Determining Distance; 8.4 Determining Position Through Trilateration; 8.5 Determining Orientation; 8.6 Conclusion; Chapter 9: Identification; 9.1 Supplies for Chapter 9; 9.2 Physical Identification; 9.3 Network Identification; 9.4 Conclusion; Chapter 10: Mobile Phone Networks and the Physical World; 10.1 Supplies for Chapter 10; 10.2 One Big Network; 10.3 Text-Messaging Interfaces; 10.4 Native Applications for Mobile Phones; 10.5 Conclusion; Chapter 11: Protocols Revisited; 11.1 Supplies for Chapter 11; 11.2 Make the Connections; 11.3 Text or Binary?; 11.4 MIDI; 11.5 Representational State Transfer; 11.6 Conclusion; Where to Get Stuff; Supplies; Hardware; Software;