Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects | 
 enlarge | Author: Tom Igoe
Publisher: Make Books
Category: Book
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $17.29
You Save: $12.70 (42%)
New (30) Used (7) from $17.29
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 5659
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 428
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0596510519
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.895
EAN: 9780596510510
ASIN: 0596510519
Publication Date: September 28, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: All orders ship same business day via standard shipping (USPS Media Mail) if received by 1 PM CST.
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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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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 MAKING THINGS TALK June 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I take my hat off to Tom for his contribution the rest of the amatures like me. I wish you well
 Arduino ? Say What ? May 2, 2008
2 out of 15 found this review helpful
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 micro and programming language. It could have been a 5 star if he used PIC with C or Assembler.
I loved it March 11, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
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.
Great book of projects involving communications and networking January 29, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
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
Great! December 24, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Good written, and good for artist/hobbyist who wants to make great things with arduino e.g...
So if you want to have all the most important possibilities clearly explained with example code and pixels, buy this book!
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