by Tom Igoe
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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.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 An Excellent Idea Book On Networking Microcontrollers, 2008-11-25
This idea book and collection of projects on networking microcontrollers with sensors, infrared and radio links, as well as communicating from these sensors and controllers over the Internet, is written by one of the pioneers of physical computing, Tom Igoe. He also teaches at NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program and is a member of the Open Source Hardware--Arduino team. While these projects begin as simply as blinking an LED via the Arduino's port, they proceed through use of sophisticated sensors and actuators involving GPS, RFID, and wireless communications like the Zigbee radio modules. Because these projects involve programming environments (such as Arduino/Wiring, Processing and PHP), physical interaction and interfacing on wireless protoboards and with toys and sensors, and client-server network protocols; it is somewhat unrealistic to assume that a beginning hobbyist without any background in programming, electronics construction or networking could sucessfully implement these designs and others based on their examples without some prior experience. Fortunately, other books such Tom's Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers, co-authored with Dan O'Sullivan and Massimo Banzi's Getting Started with Arduino (Make: Projects) (also published by O'Reilly) amply provide that background. This book is excellent fun and full of ideas on making physical sensors and actuators talk over a variety of networks (direct cable connections), Zigbee and Bluetooth Radio, and with Ethernet/Internet Applications. The applications are as practical as reading GPS and RFID sensors in real-world applications, and as whimsical as interfacing a toy monkey and your cat's litter box. This book shows whats possible with networked microcontrollers, explains the steps in interfacing with hardware and software in clear English, but implementation of further designs based upon these examples does require some background.
--Ira Laefsky
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
MAKING THINGS TALK, 2008-06-14
I take my hat off to Tom for his contribution the rest of the amatures like me. I wish you well
4 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
 Arduino ? Say What ?, 2008-05-02
I understand an author can't be expected to cover every microcontroller in every language but, Arduino ?? What the BLEEP !! Who uses Arduino...never heard of it ? I bought Igoe's Physical Computing and found it of some value on account that he was using Pic Basic Pro to program Microchip Pics when everyone else uses Assembler or C. He did however, in that book, include some other micros such as a Basic Stamp 2 and I could at least slightly empathize with his efforts to keep as many people happy as possible. I thought this book, being a latter work, would be using Microchip Pics with HOPEFULLY assembler or C. What do I get, Arduino in some proprietary language ?? JEEZUS !! How may Arduinos are sold every year compared to PICs ? Maybe I can use this book as a gross guide to some of the other technology introduced in the book such as XBee RF modules. I wish the publisher was upfront in their description in warning people that it's using this exceedingly rare and proprietary programming language. It could have been a 5 star if he used PIC with C or Assembler.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
I loved it, 2008-03-11
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have read it cover-2-cover.
Granted - some of the projects are a little hokey. Perhaps that is why I kept finding alternate uses for the circuitry.
Negative? The author covered a lot of ground and was forced to limit his depth. That makes it an excellent "Intro" book - but makes me wish for more.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Great book of projects involving communications and networking, 2008-01-29
When I first heard about this book, I assumed it was about projects for speech synthesis. When I read the details on the publisher's site I was somewhat disappointed - talking meant communications in this case. However, I ordered it anyway and was quite delighted by the results. The book is well illustrated, well written, and contains 26 very interesting projects. If you are teaching networking to high schoolers or even to college students, these projects might make interesting case studies to drive home some of the points being studied.
There is one thing I would caution you on though. Don't expect the lead-you-by-the-hand electronics-heavy methodology of most other project books. This book - although apparently targeted at electronics hobbyists - goes into painstaking detail on hardware needed and assembly. However, it oddly assumes the reader doesn't need much coaching on the Processing programming language or PHP. Of course, this book would be an unwieldy tome if tutoring on those subjects were included, but just be warned that you'll need some outside sources if you are not already familiar with either of these languages. The following is the list of contents of the book along with the names and locations of the 26 included projects.
1. The Simplest Tools
2. The Simplest Network
Project 1 - Monski Pong
Project 2 - Wireless Monski Pong
Project 3 - Negotiating in Bluetooth
3. A More Complex Network
Project 4 - A Networked Cat
4. Look Ma! No Computer
Project 5 - Hello Internet
Project 6 - Networked Air Quality Meter
5. Communicating in (Near) Real Time
Project 7 - A Networked Game
6. Wireless Communication
Project 8 - Infrared Transmitter-Receiver Pair
Project 9 - Radio Transmitter-Receiver Pair
Project 10 - Duplex Radio Transmission
Project 11 - Bluetooth Receivers
7. The Tools
Project 12 - Reporting Toxic Chemicals in the Shop
Project 13 - Relaying Solar Data Wirelessly
8. How to Locate (Almost) Anything
Project 14 - Infrared Distance Ranger Example
Project 15 - Ultrasonic Distance Ranger Example
Project 16 - Reading Received Signal Strength Using XBee Radios
Project 17 - Reading Received Signal Strength Using Bluetooth Radios
Project 18 - Reading the GPS Serial Protocol
Project 19 - Determining Heading Using a Digital Compass
Project 20 - Using an Accelerometer
9. Identification
Project 21 - Color Recognition Using a Webcam
Project 22 - 2D Barcode Recognition Using a Webcam
Project 23 - Reading RFID Tags in Processing
Project 24 - RFID Meets Home Automation
Project 25 - IP Geocoding
Project 26 - Email from RFID
A. And Another Thing
B. Where to Get Stuff
C. Program Listings
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