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Ars Technica: A typical Arduino microcontroller board is pretty small, about the size of a credit card. This makes it suitable for embedding into all sorts of electronic devices.
I’m buying one of these as soon as they become available.
What does this mean for entertainment?
Looking at the specs, the power consumption of this unit is pretty much proportional to the size of a larger board, meaning all things being equal, this board gets better battery life. This makes it ideal for properties use, anything from flickering lanterns to real sound music boxes.
At $20 per unit, scenery could conceivably stock a number of Microduino units with durable housings that could wirelessly communicate with each other. With the correct shell programming, this would allow for a “plug-n-play” solution for non-safety-critical effects where a wired connection is undesirable. For instance, a series of flown windows that would slam shut when an actor stomps on a pressure plate (an effect I’ve done). Even the best stage managers may be challenged to call that perfectly. With a stock of general-purpose wireless units, scenery could throw that together with little prototyping or design time.
Arduino is one of those tech tools that I've always had an intention of getting around to playing with, but never have. The progressive miniaturization of technology is quite exciting for the entertainment industry, as it allows for smaller scenic elements or props be able to tie into a larger show control network. There are opportunites for this to be implemented into scenery, lighting, sound, and even costumes. The possibilities are endless, and I look forward to experimenting with them.
The Microduino is pretty neat, but I don't see it making that big of a splash in the theatre world. At first I thought "Wow this will be really great for props!" but then I thought about the reasons why we don't use micro-controllers in very many props currently. It's not because they are a few inches to big. It's because the props department doesn't need to be using it's time programming, soldering, and messing around with other electronics like that. So I'm not sure that this product will do anything for theatre.
Right at the end of the article there is a line about how there is already an even smaller arduino out there. I checked out the Femtoduino. It turns out that it's smaller, cheaper, and already on the market. I'm not sure if one is a better product, but I think it's interesting to note that there are some options out there.
This is incredible. Its outstanding that makers continuously push out new and better products. This new Microduino, which apparently will soon get even smaller, is bound to open up a new world of possibilities. I see it most practical for small robots or multi piece projects that need to communicate with each other. I can't wait to see what comes of this.
4 comments:
I’m buying one of these as soon as they become available.
What does this mean for entertainment?
Looking at the specs, the power consumption of this unit is pretty much proportional to the size of a larger board, meaning all things being equal, this board gets better battery life. This makes it ideal for properties use, anything from flickering lanterns to real sound music boxes.
At $20 per unit, scenery could conceivably stock a number of Microduino units with durable housings that could wirelessly communicate with each other. With the correct shell programming, this would allow for a “plug-n-play” solution for non-safety-critical effects where a wired connection is undesirable. For instance, a series of flown windows that would slam shut when an actor stomps on a pressure plate (an effect I’ve done). Even the best stage managers may be challenged to call that perfectly. With a stock of general-purpose wireless units, scenery could throw that together with little prototyping or design time.
Arduino is one of those tech tools that I've always had an intention of getting around to playing with, but never have. The progressive miniaturization of technology is quite exciting for the entertainment industry, as it allows for smaller scenic elements or props be able to tie into a larger show control network. There are opportunites for this to be implemented into scenery, lighting, sound, and even costumes. The possibilities are endless, and I look forward to experimenting with them.
The Microduino is pretty neat, but I don't see it making that big of a splash in the theatre world. At first I thought "Wow this will be really great for props!" but then I thought about the reasons why we don't use micro-controllers in very many props currently. It's not because they are a few inches to big. It's because the props department doesn't need to be using it's time programming, soldering, and messing around with other electronics like that. So I'm not sure that this product will do anything for theatre.
Right at the end of the article there is a line about how there is already an even smaller arduino out there. I checked out the Femtoduino. It turns out that it's smaller, cheaper, and already on the market. I'm not sure if one is a better product, but I think it's interesting to note that there are some options out there.
This is incredible. Its outstanding that makers continuously push out new and better products. This new Microduino, which apparently will soon get even smaller, is bound to open up a new world of possibilities. I see it most practical for small robots or multi piece projects that need to communicate with each other. I can't wait to see what comes of this.
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