Making things smart : easy embedded JavaScript programming for making everyday objects into intelligent machines
(Book)

"Make: makezine.com"--Page 4 of cover.

Includes index.

'Making Things Smart' is for readers with a little software knowledge who want to get started with hardware, and for those who like making things and are ready to bring their constructions to life with electronics and software. This book would be perfect for a parent looking to find fun exciting projects to do with their children. What need does it fulfill for those readers? 'Making Things Smart' takes you through the process of creating and developing, starting small and building up one piece at a time. The projects are fun and easy to make with cheap, readily available parts. They're intentionally not perfect, and the book will give readers the confidence not just to experiment with, improve, and remix the projects-but to create their own things! What's the most exciting thing happening in your world? The democratization of embedded electronics and software. Not that long ago you had to contact individual electronics manufacturers while pretending to be a company in order to be able to get the parts you needed, and then find ways of soldering the finely pitched pins on the devices you received. Now, you can go online and choose from a huge array of different microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators on easily connectable breakout boards. Everything has changed for software, too. You used to need a microcontroller development kit and proprietary tool chain. Now your microcontroller can be programmed directly using free software-perhaps even graphically. Now anyone with a few dollars and an hour or two can get started!