I heard about this arduino project, and I saw it online -
- and I said 'Wow! a lot of people are starting to talk about this. I should check it out!'
Because we wanted to make a tool for our students that was more modern than what was available on the market at that moment.
For me it was a case of - this is a tool that I could see using myself, and therefore I could believe in actually helping to get it out to a wider world.
Open source hardware means to take back control of what is inside things.
We wanted it to be open source - so everybody could come out, help, and contribute.
For me, that's about giving people the information they need to recreate the piece of hardware for themselves.
I'm really passionate about arduino... because I really care about understanding more about how the world works.
My advisors said that... there would come the day when there is more computers than people.
If every computer had a keyboard and mouse... and a screen, it would be impossible to command our lives.
Then we started to figure out that there was a way to get a very nice ecosystem of people...
...participating, and making extensions... making derivatives... and helping...
So it's kind of like I'm taking one step up a ladder. And then I'm helping other people go further up the ladder.
So... we had to simplify the interface. And that's the beginning of a completely new way of looking at... computation.
Arduino: The Documentary
The very first thing I tried to do with an arduino was run a 3D printer.
...so I make moving cakes and singing cakes...
So we make puppets with the arduino...
One of my students is building a guitar.
Here's a... here's a robot...
If I tilt, you see the light goes left - if I go up...
Many people have built helicopters with four or six motors.
Suddenly a message arrived telling us that arduino...
And obviously I said OK... this is just too much.
It ended up being a 17 year old who made the satellite.
Arduino: The Documentary
www.arduinothedocumentary.org