Arduino

If you’re a budding entrepreneur and you’re a chip-savvy techhead you might be interested in Arduino. “Arduino is a physical computing platform based on a simple I/O board and a development environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language.” And it’s an open-source hardware design, which means that it’s free. All you have to provide is the ingenuity, creativity, and elbow grease.

“Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

“Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

“The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs.

“Arduino received an Honory Mention in the Digital Communities section of the 2006 Ars Electronica Prix. The Arduino team is: Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino, and David Mellis. Credits.”

What would be really cool would be a Bay-area Arduino hobbyist group. If anyone knows of such a thing, drop me a line.