W. David Stephenson: Ninja Blocks: Adding Fun to the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things (IoT) is already changing our lives in many dramatic, and subtle ways, including the first wireless pacemaker, the IntelliStreets "smart" light post I wrote about recently and the new city-wide nerve center IBM has built for Rio.
But something important has been missing until now: IoT hasn't captured the public's imagination yet because it hasn't been, well, you know... fun! That's no longer the case, because of three young electronics experimenters in Australia, who have created the whimsically named Ninja Blocks. They crowdsourced the money to get the product off the ground, wildly exceeding the goal of $24,000, raising $89,012! Hardcore experimenters have been able to play with the Internet of Things for a while using the increasingly cheap Arduino boards. But you still had to know a fair amount about electronics as well as programming to experiment with them.
Ninja Blocks is the Internet of Things for the rest of us. Each task is made up of triggers and actions. Connect The Physical World To The Web With Ninja Blocks. Through Ninja Blocks, you can connect the physical world to the web and back again.
Most of us live in two separate worlds, the real world and the digital world of the Internet. Some strides are being made, like controlling your car with your smartphone, but there are surprisingly few ways to bridge the worlds together. Ninja Blocks aims to change that. Think of a Ninja Block as a Raspberry Pi computer that interfaces with objects and senses environments. Each Ninja Block is a powerful mini computer with a built-in accelerometer and thermometer complete with multiple USB ports and an ethernet port to connect the physical world to a host of web services.
For example, say you wanted to be notified if the postman or UPS comes near the front door. Each block is its own little computer, so it can respond to stimuli, process inputs and outputs, and interface with the cloud just by plugging stuff in and defining a rule. As the video shows, [Media: AngelList, Ninja Blocks, YouTube] Ninja Blocks - Home.
Ninjablocks (ninjablocks) Ninja Blocks: Connect your world with the web. by Ninja Blocks. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
Want to bridge the things in your life with the web? Maybe you want to get an alert when your friends are playing on Xbox Live, or send an SMS to your phone when someone is at your front door. Even if you're an electronics expert, or a programming prodigy, these are complex, finicky projects. Ninja Blocks puts aside the complexity of electronics, networking, and coding and allows you to focus on creating. A Ninja Block (with old style case) with Motion Sensor connected. Connect your Ninja Block (with old style case) to your favorite web apps using Ninja Cloud. This is the Internet of Things the way it should be: Ninja Cloud is seamlessly integrated into your Ninja Blocks, allowing them to easily listen and talk to web services such as Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, Weather and more. Ninja Blocks are simple but powerful open source hardware backed by an amazing web service called Ninja Cloud that allows your Ninja Block to talk to your favorite web apps.