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Product Description BeagleBone Black is a low-cost, open hardware computer uniquely suited to interact with sensors and actuators directly and over the Web. Introduced in April 2013 by BeagleBoard.org, a community of developers first established in early 2008, BeagleBone Black is used frequently to build vision-enabled robots, home automation systems, artistic lighting systems, and countless other do-it-yourself and professional projects. BeagleBone variants include the original BeagleBone and the newer BeagleBone Black, both hosting a powerful 32-bit, super-scalar ARM Cortex A8 processor capable of running numerous mobile and desktop-capable operating systems, typically variants of Linux including Debian, Android, and Ubuntu. Yet, BeagleBone is small enough to fit in a small mint tin box. The "Bone" may be used in a wide variety of projects from middle school science fair projects to senior design projects to first prototypes of very complex systems. Novice users may access the power of the Bone through the user-friendly BoneScript software, experienced through a Web browser in most major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, or the Linux operating systems. Seasoned users may take full advantage of the Bone's power using the underlying Linux-based operating system, a host of feature extension boards (Capes) and a wide variety of Linux community open source libraries. This book provides an introduction to this powerful computer and has been designed for a wide variety of users including the first time novice through the seasoned embedded system design professional. The book contains background theory on system operation coupled with many well-documented, illustrative examples. Examples for novice users are centered on motivational, fun robot projects while advanced projects follow the theme of assistive technology and image-processing applications. About the Author Steve is a life-long teacher. He has taught at a variety of age levels from middle school science enhancement programs through graduate-level coursework. He served in the United States Air Force for 20 years and spent approximately half of that time as a faculty member at the United States Air Force Academy. Following military "retirement," he began a second academic career at the University of Wyoming as an assistant professor. He now serves as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Associate Dean for Academic Programs. He is planning on teaching into his 80s and considers himself a student-first teacher. Most importantly, he has two "grand beagles," Rory and Romper, fondly referred to as the "girls." Jason got an early start with computing at age 9 programming his mom's Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80. He was also a big fan of Forrest Mim's Getting Started in Electronics. Much of his allowance was spent developing projects. He really enjoyed the adventure of trying new hardware and software projects. His goal is to bring back this spirit of adventure and discovery to the BeagleBoard.org community. While still in high school, he worked extensively with AutoCAD as a leak and flow testing company. He joined Texas Instruments in 1992 after a co-op with them while a student at Texas A&M University. He started using Linux at about the same time. Since joining T.I. he has worked on a wide variety of projects including audio digital signal processing, modems, home theater sound, multi-dimensional audio, and MP3 player development.