Technology changes fast in this life. Moore's law, that mystical conjecture that has ruled the evolution of processor chips for 48 years, predicts a 100% increase in processor capacity every two years. You buy a mobile phone and think it is brand new, and a year and a half later it is out of date. OS versions have a shelf life of a year, or even six months. Yet even in this world of rapid evolution, the Raspberry Pi universe seems to inhabit a particularly accelerated reference frame.
The remarkable Raspberry Pi has spawned a myriad of supporting projects – Android apps, program libraries, specialized Linux distributions, and an assortment of hardware accessories. The rapid changes within these projects is testament to the excitement and enthusiasm that developers around the world have given to the Raspberry Pi.
One of the most exciting recent additions to the Raspberry Pi environment is the Pi camera module add-on board, which was officially released earlier this year. The Pi camera opens the door to whole new categories of home-built projects. Let the Pi snap pictures while you're away. Build the camera into your scripts; use the live eye of the Rasp Pi camera to measure light or recognize patterns.
This issue of Raspberry Pi Geek takes a close look at the Raspberry Pi camera module. You'll learn how to configure your Raspberry Pi to use the camera module, and we'll show you some real-world projects that put the camera to work on time-lapse photography and motion detection.
After you've mastered the camera, read on for more tools and techniques from the amazing world of Raspberry Pi. Learn about some Android apps for accessing and controlling your Pi. Set up an Internet-ready web or mail server with arkOS. Create an interactive game for an educational center, and configure your Pi as a Tor proxy for anonymous surfing. We've also got tutorials on Scratch programming, Python on the Pi, and the Coder web app development framework.
If you feel like branching out into other open hardware platforms, check out our article on Arduino as a fire sensor, and learn the secrets of the HDMI interface on BeagleBone Black.
No matter who you are and how well you know your Raspberry Pi, we've got something for you inside. How fast is the Pi world changing? Just as this issue went to press, a whole new camera appeared for the Raspberry Pi – an infrared camera for taking pictures at night! Catch a later issue of Raspberry Pi Geek for more on the new Pi NoIR night vision camera.