Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 428 pages
- Published by: Make Books September 28, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0596510519
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0596510510
-
Book Dimensions:
9.7 x 8 x 0.9 inches
- Weighs: 1.9 pounds
Product Description
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.
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. Coming from a background in theatre, his work centers on physical interaction related to live performance and public space. Along with Dan O'Sullivan, he co-authored 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. He hopes someday to work with monkeys, as well.
Reader ReviewsI bought this book in the hopes that I can learn some new and cool projects from the folks who bring us MAKE magazine (which is awesome!). I read the editorial review, and this line - "This book is perfect for people with little technical training but a lot of interest." is what made me purchase the book. I think that's a very misleading statement. This book is not for beginners. As early as page 25 it starts to get into programing code. Things like PHP, HTML, command line, serial communications, etc... ALL of the projects in the book require working knowledge of micro-controllers. I'm keeping the book in the hopes that someday I'll learn this stuff, but I'm disappointed that 90% of the book is above my skill level.
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