James Leng has created a fantastic blend of art, design, engineering and information display with this arduino controlled "Point Cloud" that you can watch in action below via the Creative Applications Networks website.

An arduino is a small hackable piece of hardware that lets you write programs on your computer and then upload them for use in controlling all kinds of motors, switches, lights, and other electronic devices. I bought one over a year ago and as time allows, I've tinkered away on it. I love the way it has helped me understand the full loop between software and hardware - an inventor's dream that I wish I had 20 years ago. 

The James Leng application is a visionary blend that is inspiring to watch. My first thought when I saw the image and read the blurb was that it might do things like contract/expand depending on temperature, undulate for wind, sit quietly for calm air, and so on. It doesn't seem to be that direct but I think that's a good thing. If you lived with "Point Cloud" for awhile, you'd see it 'behaving' and then experience the weather and eventually you'd understand how to interpret it. I don't know if that's what Leng intended but the project at any number of levels is really a fine piece of work.

Arduino - Open Source Hardware

Tinkering with any kind of code is interesting because it gets you past the front doors of the user experience and a step closer to the science and engineering that lies beneath the skin of our various devices. Access means you can change things, tweak this, drop that, add something new, and see what happens. 

I've been resurrecting my Arduino experiments from January (when Dylan and I took a Saturday course on it) as I learn more about C++ and how to make a computer talk to a micro-controller and then how to make a micro-controller engage with the environment around us. I'm new to this particular platform but inventing, DIY tweaking and looking under the hood are life-long pursuits so the ideas are percolating as the technical elements become more clear. What I really like about the Arduino platform is the idea that it is an open source piece of hardware - a critical link between open source software and the world of atoms. There is deep potential in large-scale open source hardware/software combinations even beyond what we're seeing already.


Installing the drivers and getting an old recycled desktop machine on my bench to communicate with the Arduino Uno was a bit tricky. I don't have it connected online so flash drives have been the transfer medium. Then there were some problems with getting the COM port to work properly. All is now solved and I can make the LED blink, run micro switches, and get the computer and Arduino to send text messages back and forth - all vital signs of an emerging digital ecology that I hope will spark some interesting projects.


This Quadcopter is high on the hit list of things to build next - I like to move from crawl to run and just skip the walk stage. I grew up designing, building and flying radio controlled airplanes so this is a very intriguing project to latch on to. Now, could it be built using an old CD player, a blender, and a broken MacBook...