This excellent Second Edition of "Making Things Talk" by Professor Tom Igoe is an outgrowth of a course he teaches on "Networked Objects" for Physical Computing and Multimedia Work. The original edition included exciting projects involving an Interactive Stuffed Monkey with resistive sensors, web interaction and infrared and radio based interfaces to microcontrollers.
This edition has been thoroughly updated to include (for example) remote sensing of Galvanic Skin Response (GSR), extensive interconnection with WIFI; Web Services Software and Data Acquisition and use of Android phone-based Processing language data display. It has also been revised and augmented to reflect many new form factors of the Arduino Microconttroller and several Open Source Hardware projects. Extensive (illustrated indexes of tools and devices, as well as contacts with suppliers and manufacturers addresses, phone contacts and web sites. There is also an extensive chapter/appendix on the telecommunication protocols which make possible Web Services and communication with Networked Objects.
The project-oriented approach of this book, as well as the extensive illustrations and commented software listing make it an excellent addition to other works about the Arduino Microcontroller family.
--Ira Laefsky, MSE/MBA HCI Researcher formerly on the Senior IT Consulting Staff of Arthur D. Little, Inc. and Digital Equipment Corporation.