Building interactive objects with Arduino

PROGRAM

13th November · Monday, 7 p.m.

Presentation of the Guía Arduino (Arduino Guide) for High School Technology teachers

Ismail Alí Gago (Coordinator of the Development Group MAX: Madrid_linuX)
Juan Carlos Alonso (High School Technology Teacher)
David Cuartielles (Co-developer of Arduino and Director of the Prototyping Laboratory at the K3 School in Malmö, Sweden)

14th November · Tuesday

Presentation / introduction to the Arduino platform

Platform description:

• Hardware: what the board is like and what possibilities it offers
• Software: development interface (IDE)

Basic examples: four basic schemes for physical computation.

• Digital input 
• Digital output
• Analog input
• Analog output

Presentation of real projects made with Arduino

15th November · Wednesday

Intermediate level examples. Another step forward

• Combining analog input and digital output: thermostat
• Making music with Arduino. Using a piezoelectric as a sensor and actuator

Examples of integration with other development environments:

• Processing
• Pure Data

Did you get any of this? Do one or more of the simple exercises we suggest you try

What do you think? What do you want to do? What is your project?

• Presentation and explanation of the materials available at the workshop
• Tell us what you want to do and we will look into it
• If you are not sure, we will suggest several projects you can do

16th and 17th November · Thursday and Friday

Working on projects begun on the 15th

Note: if you have any old or broken electronic devices, you can bring them, take some of their parts out, and reuse them

I can do this, too

Juan Carlos Alonso

We live in a technology-rich environment, full of all kinds of objects that react and interact, satisfying our everyday needs. The accelerated pace of technological saturation places us in the comfortable position of satisfied consumers.

The price we have to pay, which many consider bearable or even desirable, is ignorance and dependence. After all, who cares if they don't understand how their electronic slave works? (As long as it doesn't break down.)

Massive electronic production offers us another gift: how amazingly cheap its basic components have become. Highly sophisticated elements are available at ridiculous prices.

Knowledge formerly limited to elite circles is now being spread on the Web. Increasingly active communities are exchanging and generating that knowledge, trying to make it public and accessible.

In this workshop, we intend to use that available knowledge to regain control, enjoying the advantageous position of one who begins to understand how part of his or her world works and has the tools to transform it.

We will look into the possibilities of creating interactive low cost electronic systems, sharing those currently being made, as we design and create our own projects.

To do so, we are going to use the Arduino platform. It is an excellent example of this attempt to simplify, produce, and share a technology that will increase the understanding and creative capacity of anyone who approaches it out of the desire to say: "I can do this, too".