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Making Things Talk
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.
CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: The Tools
Chapter 2: The Simplest Network
Chapter 3: A More Complex Network
Chapter 4: Look Ma! No Computer
Chapter 5: Communicating in (Near) Real Time
Chapter 6: Wireless Communication
Chapter 7: The Tools
Chapter 8: How to Locate (Almost) Anything
Chapter 9: Identification
Appendix A: And Another Thing
Appendix B: Where to Get Stuff
Appendix C: Program Listings
Index
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