smart remote control

Building robots that sense and interact with their environment used to be tricky. Now, Arduino makes it easy. With this book and an Arduino microcontroller and software creation environment, you’ll learn how to build and program a robot that can roam around, sense its environment, and perform a wide variety of tasks. All you to get started with the fun projects is a little programming experience and a keen interest in electronics.

Make a robot that obeys your every command—or runs on its own.

Maybe you’re a teacher who wants to show students how to build devices that can move, sense, respond, and interact with the physical world. Or perhaps you’re a hobbyist looking for a robot companion to make your world a little more futuristic. With Make an Arduino Controlled Robot, you’ll learn how to build and customize smart robots on wheels.

You will:

• Explore robotics concepts like movement, obstacle detection, sensors, and remote control
• Use Arduino to build two- and four-wheeled robots
• Put your robot in motion with motor shields, servos, and DC motors
• Work with distance sensors, infrared reflectance sensors, and remote control receivers
• Understand how to program your robot to take on all kinds of real-world physical challenges

Join media-savvy author Jeff Carlson as he helps you enjoy media on your iPad like never before. Jeff explains basic and advanced ways of adding media to your iPad, and gives you a thorough grounding in Apple's core media apps—iBooks, iPod, Videos, and Photos. He also helps you integrate your iPad with an Apple TV and looks at various ways of using an iPad as a TV remote. You'll also get plenty of suggestions for third-party apps and products, whether you want to read books not available in the iBookstore, stream music from the Internet to your iPad, convert your own DVD library to iPad-friendly format, or put your own photos on your iPad.

You'll learn how to:

Mind your media: Get an overview of options for moving media to your iPad, including iTunes, Home Sharing, and more.

Read books, magazines, comics, and more: Learn about different ebook file formats. Find free and commercial ebooks to read in iBooks, transfer ebooks from a desktop computer to iBooks, and learn how to use iBooks so you can go beyond flipping pages. And, if iBooks isn't your cup of tea or if you want to include multiple ebook-reading apps in your repertoire, or read magazines or comics, you'll find ideas for top third-party options.

Listen to music and audiobooks: Jeff covers the basics of controlling your music and podcasts in the iPod app, and he gives steps for creating regular and smart playlists (a surprisingly complex endeavor), and for using Apple's handy Genius feature. You'll learn how to stream music directly to your iPad with a third-party app or with Home Sharing, and you'll learn how to stream music from your iPad with AirPlay.

Watch video: Learn how to add video to your iPad, whether you want to buy it from Apple or acquire it from an independent source. Specific topics include iTunes Store rentals, ripping DVDs, exporting from iMovie, a GoodReader workaround, and an SD card tip. You'll also learn how to output from your iPad to a television, and get ideas for streaming video to your iPad, with quick looks at YouTube, Netflix, and Safari. Bonus for Apple TV owners—the ebook has directions for integrating an Apple TV with an iPad.

View photos: Benefit from Jeff's experience as an enthusiastic amateur photographer as he discusses moving photos (and certain videos) to an iPad from a camera or a computer. Jeff also covers how to share your photos once they are on the iPad, whether with a slideshow, Picture Frame mode, or via email attachment. You'll even learn what happens when you transfer a raw image file from an external device to an iPad. Bonus for iPad 2 owners—Jeff offers tips for taking better-quality photos using the iPad's built-in cameras!

Control your electronics: If you truly want to use your iPad as a big iPod touch, here's one opportunity—as a big remote control. Jeff shows you how to use Apple's Remote app to control iTunes on a computer or to control an Apple TV, and he offers ideas for how to trick out your iPad so it can serve as a remote control for other consumer electronic devices like TVs and stereos.