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IoT coding kit targets experimenters who can't code
SAMLabs hits Kickstarter target
London startup SAMLabs reckons the Internet of Things is just like LegoTM – and has put together a combo of hardware breadboard and software programming environment to prove it.
The Kickstarter-supported project combines designers and engineers from the Royal College of Art and Imperial College, London, working in Microsoft Ventures' Whitechapel workspace.
The educational project is based on discrete Bluetooth Low Energy-connected single-function modules broken into two categories – “sensors” and “actors”. Sensors include temperature, proximity, light, and tilt; while actors include motors, a servo, and a module that connects projects to SAMLabs' cloud service.
The software is also designed to be easy: it's a drag-and-drop visual environment, the group says, using flow-based programming.
The group is also open-sourcing everything – not only the software, but also the hardware schematics and board designs. Most of the components, they say, are off-the-shelf from electronics distributors.
The group's Kickstarter has passed its £50,000 goal, just three days after launch, so they're now hard at work ordering the components needed to fill the backer orders before going general availability. If the group can lift its funding to £500,000, it says, it will roll out SAM networks for Android, Windows and iOS smartphones, and if it hits a wildly-optimistic million-and-a-half, it will built accelerometers, LCD screens and camera modules for its environment.
There's a video demonstration of SAMLabs' kit below. The group's home page is here. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
