Have you heard about this thing called Arduino lately? Maybe you've seen some projects that use an Arduino? what's this Arduino thing anyway? seems like a sub sandwich. I'm gonna use plain language to inform you exactly what an Arduino is. You'll learn why it is so wildly popular, and most significantly by the top of this lesson, you'll know if Arduino is true for your project. So stay tuned. (strange music) So let's start with our first topic, what's Arduino exactly? I feel the simplest thanks to explaining what an Arduino is, is to start with what you'll use it for. So Arduino may be a tool for controlling electronics. So believe a pencil. A pencil may be a tool to assist you to write stuff. you would like to write down something down hey, you'll grab a pencil. Same idea with Arduino. But Arduino may be a tool for controlling electronics. you would like to regulate some electronic stuff hey, grab an Arduino. But what do I mean by electronic stuff? Well, let me define two general groups of electronics staff. we have got inputs, and people would be electronic devices that gather information. And outputs, those would be electronic devices that do things. So for inputs, you'll quite consider all the kinds of sensors out there. Like temperature sensors, light sensors, touch sensors, flex sensors, humidity sensors, infrared sensors, distance sensors, of these sorts of sensors out there. So, you'll consider those sensors as input devices, and people sorts of sensors are often read by an Arduino board. Now outputs would be things like DC motors, stepper motors, servo motors, solenoids, LCDs, LED indicator lights, speakers, and electrical stuff that have some sort of action within the world