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.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 23 Ratings

Great second book on microcontoller projects - 2009-07-15
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book with one of the Arduino kits online thinking it would be a really great way to get my feet wet with microcontroller programming. While the book does give some very basic starting points, as stated in the preface, it is not a first book in microcontrollers, as some of the marketing might suggest. For me it just took getting up to some speed using the Arduino online tutorials, so if it is your first foray into microcontrollers you will definitely need some supplemental materials. Also the point about making things talk is not about sound but rather about networking, i.e. talking to your computer or a web server.

With that said the book is really well laid out and the projects are applied enough to be useful and fun enough to keep going. The projects have a good ordering to them. You learn about serial and slowly move up to network modules finally getting to wireless and RFID components. You have fun creating things that play games, clap when triggered by events, or automate the home. While some may call the project not very useful, they are really the building blocks for your imagination with the basic to complex, a very nice addition to the simple tutorials you find online.

One note while the book has some neat projects the price tags can really start to add up. Flex sensor here for $25, XBee module there for another $30 and so forth. I have been able to do a lot with switching out some of the more expensive parts but if you are someone thinking about a course or summer study with this book make sure you get it in advance and do some pricing of the projects.

I give it 5 stars for a great combination of items even though the book requires supplemental knowledge. The simple networking tutorials are great though, a subject that is normally a complete bore.

Not a book on speech chips - 2009-06-29
Reviewer Rating:
The description of this book fooled me into thinking that it was about speech chips that "make things talk". You know, like talking toys you buy for your kids. Doesn't that monkey on the cover look like one of those? But the book is actually about simple ways to get wired and wireless communication onto hobby projects. Interesting, but not what I needed.

Making Things Talk - 2009-04-30
Reviewer Rating:
Enjoyed the book.. there was TONS of info on networking Arduino. Haven't had a chance to implement anything yet, but the book made it appear straight forward.

good resource for Audrino experiments - 2009-10-15
Reviewer Rating:
If you are planning to go any further beyond the blink program, this book is for you.

Great Stuff - 2009-06-24
Reviewer Rating:
Assumes a little more knowledge than I had thought (or maybe I just wasn't that careful). Be sure to check out what they assume you know; for me it was the circuit schematics stuff.

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