Arduino Workshop: An Introduction to Microcontrollers for Interactive Media and Art-Technology with Arduino
An Introduction to Microcontrollers for Interactive Media and Art-Technology with Arduino
Download The Arduino Workshop Notes and Tutorial Code
February 18, 2007
This one-day workshop introduces the Arduino open-source microcontroller platform, a sophisticated i/o board designed for easy development using a simple programming language and a user-friendly, cross-platform (Windows, MacOSX, Linux) free development environment.
The Arduino programming language is an implementation of Wiring, itself built on the award-winning Processing environment.
For art-technology projects and interactive media, the Arduino makes it simple to develop interactive device-art, taking inputs from a variety of switches or sensors, and controlling a variety of lights, motors, and other outputs. Arduino projects can be stand-alone, or they can be communicate with software running on your computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP)
The Arduino board is based on one of the more popular industry microcontroller product lines — the Atmel ATmega8. This allows users to tap into more sophisticated features of the ATMega8 as the need arises, including interrupts, SPI, TWI (I2C), USART and A2D conversion. The Arduino is also an excellent, easy entry point for rapid prototyping of concepts that may eventually migrate to a custom embedded design.
This workshop will be held at the Zemeckis Media Laboratory at the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts at 3131 South Figueroa Blvd on Sunday February 18, 2007, from 10:30-6:30.
Participation is limited to 10 members of the University of Southern California community (faculty, students, staff, etc.) Email me to confirm your participation at bleecker at usc dot edu.
You will need your own Arduino board, USB Cable (A to B), and a laptop compatible with the Arduino IDE. You will need to bring your own computer, laptop preferably.
(Caution: Order your Arduino sooner rather than later. There is at present only one supplier in the US and they tend to run out of stock at times.)
If possible, install the Arduino environment following the instructions available on the Arduino web site.
At the workshop, you will be required to purchase for yourself a small kits of parts and supplies, the approximate cost will be less than $30. The kits will be yours to keep and use in future projects.
The workshop will cover Arduino fundamentals, installing the Arduino environment, basic input/output, and physical interfaces to software (Arduino to Processing). As an option, more advanced users will work with interfacing the Arduino to external sensors using I2C protocols.
* Purchase the Arduino
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=666
* Purchase a USB Cable (A to B) if you don't already have one. Make sure it is really A to B and not mini A or another variant.
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=512
* More about the Arduino
http://arduino.cc
* More about Processing
http://processing.org