Resumen en español al final del artículo

If you've been reading OLPC News for a while you will know that I'm a big fan of projects combining XOs and Sugar with all kinds of sensors, robotics parts, and similar components:

Force measurements with an XO

• Construir un pulsógrafo con XO
• Física con XO: Sensor Resistivo de Fuerza
• Measuring a Lemon Battery with an OLPC XO Laptop
• A Game Built Around Turtle Art and Some Wires
• Controlling LEGO WeDo robots via Scratch on an XO laptop
• Project Butía turns your XO laptop into a robot!
• Uruguayan Pupils Using Butiá Robots at sumo.uy 2011 Event

As such I was very excited when Walter Bender recently announced that he and a group consisting of people from Australia, the United States, and Uruguay had gotten together to write a paper about using the Turtle Blocks Activity in combination with all kinds of sensors. From its introduction:

The XO laptop is designed with an emphasis on openness and empowering the end user. The laptop was designed to facilitate simple user-crafted extensions, such as low-cost sensors that plug into the external microphone-in jack or low-cost I/O boards. This allows a number of science experiments to be done with negligible cost beyond the laptop itself: the laptop can operate as a data logger through a range of sensors which can be built with village technology at negligible cost; and its ability to control actuators and read sensors can be enhanced if coupled with a low-cost I/O board, such as Arduino.

The paper continues to provide a 20-page overview of how to measure physical quantities, how to use, modify, and create Turtle Block plug-ins, and how to turn an XO into the brains of a butía robot.

So to conclude: Turtle Sensors - How open hardware and software can empower students and communities is a great read and I can't wait to see all the cool sensor-related projects teachers and pupils will come up with in 2012.

Resumen en español: A mi me encantan los proyectos donde se usan los XO y actividades como Turtle Blocks en combinación con diversos sensores. Así estaba muy interesado cuando leí que Walter Bender y otras personas de Australia, los Estados Unidos y Uruguayan se juntaron para escribir un papel (en Inglés) de 20 paginas que sirve como buena introducción al tema.