Unlocking Your Open Source Imagination with Arduino

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine gave his 8-year-old son a toy car. Typically, we would buy such gifts at a mall, but he didn’t. Instead, he downloaded a file from a website and printed the toy car using a printer. The idea of creating things with electronic devices is referred to as the third industrial revolution by The Economist.

But I believe we are now experiencing another revolution—a movement involving open-source hardware and makers. Because the printer my friend used is actually open-source; anyone can go to this website and download various files needed to make this printer: construction files, hardware, software, and various help can be found online. This is a large online community where thousands of people gather to create printers like this. Innovation moments are happening because everything is open-source; you don’t need anyone’s consent to create great things. The emergence of this market is akin to the advent of personal computers in 1976, where Apple and other computer companies competed, and years later, we will see the emergence of an Apple in this market.

Equally interesting is that, as I mentioned, all electronic components are open-source. The key component of this machine is the Arduino board, which is the core of this printer. This is a project that has been ongoing for seven years; it is an open-source project that I collaborated on with four friends—two Americans, two Italians, and one Spaniard (also referring to a plant). This is indeed a global project. We all work at the Ivrea Interaction Design Institute in Italy, which studies how to design simple shapes that can interact with people. Such devices must interact with people; making just a foam model of a phone is meaningless. What we create must have significance in terms of interaction. Therefore, we developed Arduino and other projects to provide our students with a simple platform that allows them to create practical things. However, they do not have five years to become electronic engineers; we only have a month.

So, how do we create something a child can use? In fact, with the help of Arduino, as you see this child, Sylvia, can create her own things; an 11-year-old child can use Arduino to make things. I feel that once these children are given the tools, their capabilities are truly somewhat frightening.

Let’s look at some examples. With such a tool, anyone can quickly create what they want with its help. First, let’s look at the first example: a device for feeding cats. The owner of this design has two cats, one of which is sick, so he had to separate them during feeding. Thus, he designed this device that identifies the cat’s identity through a chip installed in the collar and then opens the door for the cat to eat. This device used a reused CD player, parts from an old computer, some cardboard, tape, a few sensors, and a blinking LED display to be made. This tool is something you cannot buy in the market. There is a saying: “Scratch your own itch.” If you have your own ideas, you must take action to realize them, just like drawing on paper, but completed with electronic devices.

One significant feature of this project is the hardware, of course. First of all, it is lovingly made in Italy. You can see from the back of the circuit that more importantly, it is open-source. We publish all the design files online; anyone can download them to make or modify, and learn. I learned programming by looking at other people’s code or circuit diagrams published in magazines. Learning through observing others’ work is a great way to learn. All components of this project are open-source. For example, the hardware is released under a “Creative Commons License”. I like this idea of treating hardware as a part of culture to share and use, just like songs or poetry, only with “Creative Commons” certification. Moreover, the software is released under the “General Public License” and is also open-source. Various files and hands-on teaching resources are open-source, following the “Creative Commons License”. This agreement only protects the project name, allowing us to tell everyone what Arduino really is.

Currently, Arduino includes many different open-source components. These components, when separated, are too difficult for a 12-year-old child to use. Therefore, Arduino combines these components into a whole open-source tool, allowing users to quickly create something and provide them with the best user experience.

Let’s look at some examples. In Chile, some users decided to make circuit boards themselves instead of buying them at stores, establishing their own workshops, or saving money. Some companies have made modifications to Arduino to meet the needs of a particular market. There are currently about 150 such modifications. For instance, this one is manufactured by a company called Adafruit, whose owner is a woman named Limor Fried, also known as Ladyada. She is one of the leaders in the open-source hardware and maker movement. This is an emerging concept in an active DIY community where people advocate for open-source and collaboration. People from different regions gather online to work together. There is a magazine called “Make” that brings together many like-minded individuals to form a community where complex projects are presented in simple and understandable language, and the layouts are beautiful. There are also websites, like one called Instructables, where people teach each other. The page we are currently looking at is about Arduino projects. In fact, on this website, you can learn a variety of things, such as how to make a cake. Now let’s look at other examples.

This is a quadcopter, a small helicopter model, almost like a toy. A few years ago, this was technology controlled by the military, but it is now open-source and easy to use, available online. This website is called DIYDrones, and they designed a flying device called ArduCopter. Later, someone started a project called Matternet, discovering that this flying device could transport supplies between villages in Africa. Because the data is readily available and open-source, and easy to use, they quickly established a company. Similarly, let’s take a look at this project: “I keep hearing these people talking on TV, ‘It’s so annoying, so I decided to take action.’ So I made this Arduino project. I call it ‘Enough!’ It can automatically mute the TV when these high-frequency people appear. Let me demonstrate how this works. Listen closely. Our producer encountered Kim Kardashian today, learning what she would wear to attend—oh? This effect is good, allowing us not to hear the details about Kim Kardashian’s wedding. Well, interestingly, Matt found a module that allows Arduino to process TV signals, and he also found some code written by others that could send infrared signals to the TV. He combined these found items and created this interesting thing.

Of course, Arduino is also used in some formal places, such as the Large Hadron Collider, where parts of Arduino are used for data collection and parameter measurement. It can also be used here (music). This is a music interactive media created by an Italian student, and he is currently preparing to commercialize it. This is an example of a student project turning into a product. Another example is an assistive device; this glove can recognize sign language and convert the gestures into sound, also displaying the words on its screen. This is also composed of different components that are compatible with Arduino and can be bought online. When combined, they become a finished product. This is a project from the Interactive Media Center of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. This boy, due to physical disabilities, could not play PS3, so the project team created this tool to allow him to play baseball, overcoming his own mobility limitations.

Additionally, there are applications in the arts. This is a machine called txtBomber that inputs information into the machine and then rolls it over the wall. Since it has conductive tubes, it can trigger a spray switch, so it only needs to be rolled across the wall for the words to be automatically written on it. These are some political statements. Let’s take a look at this plant; it is called “Plant Person”. Here is an Arduino component with Wi-Fi functionality attached to this plant to measure its growth, and it is connected to a Twitter account. So we can actually interact with this plant; for example, it might say, “It’s hot today” or “I need water right now,” giving this plant a personality. Additionally, this device is also connected to a Twitter account; a pregnant woman wearing it will automatically send messages when the baby kicks. This 14-year-old boy from Chile created a system to detect earthquakes and publish messages on Twitter, and he has 280,000 followers on Twitter at just 14 years old. The local government caught up a year later by releasing a similar system. Let’s take a look at this device that can analyze each family member’s Twitter status, letting you know what they are doing, such as watching “Harry Potter.” More information about this project can be found on this website. Someone also made a chair that sends a tweet when someone farts; it’s very funny. In 2009, Gizmodo rated this thing as giving Twitter a whole new meaning. So—of course, many things have changed since then.

Now let’s look at a serious project. When the Fukushima nuclear accident occurred, some people in Japan believed that the government did not fully disclose information and that the published information was unreliable. So they designed a Geiger counter equipped with an Arduino module and internet connection, making 100 of these devices and distributing them to people across Japan. The information collected by these people is aggregated on a website called Cosm, allowing people to see real-time information from the field, making the information more reliable. Now we see this machine from the DIY biohacking movement, which can complete a necessary step for DNA analysis processing. This instrument is entirely open-source. Additionally, students from developing countries have made their own scientific instruments. These instruments are very expensive, but they can assemble them themselves using Arduino and other components. This is a pH probe. Now let’s look at these kids from Spain; they learned programming to make robots, probably around 11 years old. Later, they used Arduino to make these robots play soccer and won international awards. At that time, we needed teaching robots, so we told them, “You design it because you know best what kind of robot can excite children.” I can’t; I’m an old man, how can I excite people? (Laughter) I mean in an educational context.

There are also companies, like Google, that use this technology to establish connections between mobile phones, handheld computers, and the real world. This development kit comes from Google and is also open-source and based on Arduino, while Apple’s products are not open-source and are protected by confidentiality agreements, requiring contracts with Apple. This is a giant maze; Joy sits there, swinging the tablet in her hand, and the maze swings along with it.

I come from Italy, where design is important but also very conservative. We collaborated with a Milan-based company called Habits to create this mirror, which is also completely open-source. This mirror is also a speaker for an iPod music player. In summary, this open-source concept—from design to production—is all open-source. Everyone can make it themselves, and we hope other makers can also learn to create interactive products and make something tangible through this method.

But once you have an idea for creation, what’s next? There are thousands of such ideas; it would take me 7 hours to explain them all, but I won’t take up 7 hours of your time. Thank you. Let’s take this example: A group of people founded Pebble, designing a watch that connects to smartphones via Bluetooth, allowing content to be displayed on the watch. They first created a prototype using an old Nokia phone’s LCD display, of course, along with Arduino. By the end of the project, they went to the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, hoping to raise $100,000 to produce and sell some of these watches. As a result, they raised $10 million, giving them enough funds to start without involving venture capital, allowing them to focus entirely on creating an exciting product for everyone.

The last design I want to showcase is called ArduSat, which is currently fundraising on Kickstarter. If anyone wants to sponsor, you are welcome. This is a satellite; you might think this is the least likely thing to be open-source. This satellite contains Arduino and is connected to several sensors. In fact, you can upload your experiments to the satellite. Imagine if a high school could use such an instrument to conduct space experiments in just a week.

As I mentioned earlier, there are too many examples, so I will stop here. I want to thank the Arduino community; you are the best. Every day, amazing projects are taking place. Thank you.

Thanks to the members of the community

HostChris Anderson:Massimo, you mentioned that you never imagined it would develop to this point.

SpeakerMassimo:I didn’t expect it.

Host: When you see these things and realize you have started all this, how do you feel?

SpeakerMassimo:This is the result of the efforts of many people. This group of us has enabled everyone to create great things. It is all so exciting; it’s hard to put this feeling into words. Every morning when I wake up and see so many Google alerts, it’s incredible. You can imagine applications in all fields.

Host: Thank you very much (applause)

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