Arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller, and a physical computing platform based on a simple i/o board and a development environment that implements the Processing/Wiring language. Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or can be connected to software on computer.
Arduino is an awesome tool for physical computing
-- it's an open source microcontroller board, plus a free software
development environment which can be used it to make cool interactive objects that
can sense inputs from switches, sensors, and computers, and then control
motors, lights, and other physical outputs in the real world.
The hardware consists of a simple open hardware design for the Arduino board with an Atmel AVRI/O support. The software consists of a standard programming language compiler and the boot loader that runs on the board processor and on-board.
