Arduino is an open-source 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 your computer (e.g. Macromedia Flash, Processing, Max/MSP, Pure Data). The boards can be assembled by hand or purchased preassembled; the open-source IDE can be downloaded for free.

Arduino Hardware Versions
The development team has released two versions of the Arduino to date:
- the standard serially programmable Arduino, with a DB9 serial connection, and
- the Arduino Extreme, which incorporates a USB interface for programming.
Development Team
The core Arduino developer team is composed of Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, David Mellis and Nicholas Zambetti. Arduino, in the spirit of Open source projects, is supported by hundreds and owned by no one.
External links
- Arduino project main page: http://www.arduino.cc/
- Arduino developer's wiki, aka the Playground
- Make Magazine article on the Arduino
- "Wiring" software project: http://wiring.org.co/
- Arduino photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/arduino/