Family Projects for Smart Objects: Tabletop Projects That Respond to Your World

John Keefe

Sep 2016 · Maker Media, Inc.

About this ebook

"The Internet of Things" is the new buzzphrase, but what is it? A toaster that texts? The fitness band on your wrist? The camera in an infant's room? Sure, it's all of those things. But it's also your phone: an ultra-sophisticated sensor and communications system in your pocket or purse--capable of tracking your steps, capturing an image, or calling an Uber. And it is actually not hard or expensive to make a sensing, communicating object yourself. Doing so can be rewarding, fun, and even useful. This book teaches the basics of building sensors and communicating objects through a series of practical, demonstrative, and fun activities.

About the author

John Keefe is the Senior Editor for Data News at public radio station WNYC in New York. The team infuses the station’s journalism with data reporting, investigations, visualizations and interactives that are both useful and playful. These range from hurricane-tracking maps to do-it-yourself kits to help predict a cicada emercence.Keefe previously led WNYC’s news operation, developing its election coverage and breaking news capacity. He is an adjunct instructor in the Journalism + Design program at the New School and is an Innovator in Residence at the West Virginia University Reed College of Media. Keefewas an adviser to News Challenge winner CensusReporter.org.Much of Keefe's professional work is focused on building useful, playful things for New Yorkers. On the side, he loves building useful, playful things for his family, himself and just for the fun of it -- often with friends who, together, call themselves Team Blinky. When he realized there just wasn't enough making in his life, he committed himself to making something new every week. While he hasn't quite held to that pace, he's managed to make a lot of new things, learning about electronics, sensors and coding in the process.