Workshop @ KHOJ

It was a great experience being at the interactive design workshop hosted in KHOJ. Mr. Matt Kenyon was kind enough to teach a bunch of artists, architects, designers, students and enthusiasts about Processing and Arduino.
Though, it was originally supposed to work with Telepresence, using GPS smartphones; but the workshop did not achieve those goals. However, it was really amazing to meet people of all ages and backgrounds coming together and learning about this new revolution in the making.

For starters, Processing is a new and free programming environment designed specially for designers and artists. It is based on Java but it really simple to learn. The commands are simple, and the structure intuitive. Read all about it on the Processing website.
Arduino, started as a sister project along with Processing. It is the name of a circuit board which is easily programmable using a free programming environment very similar to Processing. People have done some amazing yet simple stuff with it. It is great for prototyping and installations. Read more here.

KHOJ ordered the Freeduino Lite (a simpler variant of Arduino) from Bhasha store, Pune. We had some problems setting them up as some of them were faulty while others had pin numbers mixed up. I used my Diecemillia and also helped a couple of people setting their boards up.
I was funny to see how Apple owners were ready with the boards minutes after they connected it; while Windows and Linux users struggled with myriad problems. USB to serial port issues, missing drivers, restarting systems, incompatible versions of things and what not!
Eventually, everyone got started and had their LEDs blinking. Everyone cooked up their ideas and I hope to see them pursuing those soon (including me). I hope to upload something soooon.