[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4cast #454: Arduino and the IoT

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OPLIN 4cast #454: Arduino and the IoT
September 9th, 2015

[image: Arduino board]It has been a little over two years since we
speculated <http://www.oplin.org/4cast/?p=3941> that Arduino boards might
become a common component of library Maker Spaces. As we explained back
then, "It looks like a small circuit board, and can receive input from
sensors and then control things around it based on that input." With
everyone thinking about the Internet of Things (IoT) these days, and
keeping in mind that Arduinos are made to control Things, Arduino boards
are beginning to find a place in products from at least one mainstream
computer company. (And there never seems to be any shortage of interesting
and creative Arduino projects.)

   - Arduino at the Brown County Library
   <http://www.browncountylibrary.org/arduino/>  "Arduino is a
   credit-card-sized, programmable microcontroller that can read sensors and
   will turn on lights, run motors, and more, based on the code you write.
   Want to see the Arduino in action? Click here
   <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7aWYUZTUFuAOXBQyMFpnj_eXUoj_iLFB>
   for a YouTube playlist of some of our favorite projects!"
   - Acer's Arduino-based Cloud Professor wants to get kids into the IoT
   <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/09/acers-arduino-based-cloud-professor-wants-to-get-kids-into-the-iot/>
   (Ars Technica | Mark Walton)  "Buried deep within its stand at IFA 2015 in
   Berlin is a unique development kit called Cloud Professor. It contains the
   obligatory Arduino board, as well as a variety of accessories, including a
   USB to GPIO adaptor, a control LED, and even a dust sensor. But rather than
   just offer yet another way to program things on an Arduino board, the Acer
   kit also contains a separate module that allows the board to talk to other
   devices over the Internet. Essentially, it's an Internet of Things
   development kit that links into Acer's cloud platform, allowing tinkerers
   to control various aspects of their connected device via a smartphone or
   tablet."
   - Putting the "automation" in home automation with Arduino
   <http://embedded-computing.com/guest-blogs/putting-the-automation-in-home-automation-with-arduino/>
   (Embedded Computing Design | Eli Mordechai)  "Looking for a solution to the
   problem and driven by 'stream' technology, I decided to build my own smart
   home IoT system to collect and monitor temperature, humidity, and motion in
   my house. As a platform, I chose the Arduino Uno board, and in less than a
   few days, I had a running system to collect the sensor data and visualize
   it in realtime. However, visualizing the data was not enough. I needed a
   system that would track the data, understand normal patterns, and notify me
   when abnormal patterns emerged."
   - Man uses Arduino set to bring the wild to his pet's feeding routine
   <http://www.techspot.com/news/61748-arduino-pet-feeder.html> (TechSpot |
   Devin Kate Pope)  "Like most modern cats, Monkey didn't have anything to
   hunt other than random bits of lint or crinkly wrappers so [Ben] Millam
   decided to use his cat's instincts for their mutual benefit. Millam hacked
   an automatic feeder with the help of an Arduino set to respond when a
   little wiffle ball was dropped into a bowl. The wiffle balls are each
   embedded with an RFID tag and have to be dropped into the bowl hooked up to
   the feeder a certain way. When it's done correctly, the ball passes an
   Adafruit RFID reader which triggers food to come out of the machine, and
   the hunt is complete."

*Articles from Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - As objects go online.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=94387133&site=pov-live>
   (*Foreign Affairs*, March/April 2014, p.60-67 | Neil Gershenfeld and
   J.P. Vassuer)
   - The big future for little machines.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=100345127&site=ehost-live>
   (*Fast Company*, Feb. 2015, p.62 | Om Malik)
   - IoT board looks like Pi and feels like Arduino.
   <http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=102303136&site=ehost-live>
   (*Electronics Weekly*, 4/29/2015, p.3)

------------------------------
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