Chapter 1, Creating a Raspberry Pi-Powered Magic Mirror, teaches you about the Raspberry Pi development board, how to navigate the command line using basic Linux commands, and how to set up the open source Magic Mirror modular platform to work with the Pi. Once we set up, we will take a look at configuring the Magic Mirror and integrating third-party modules to create a customized smart mirror experience.
Chapter 2, Automated Gardening System, begins by explaining how to build a simple smart gardening system that automatically waters your plants as needed. The chapter explores the use of an always-on low power Arduino Pro Mini setup and outdoor waterproofing options. We will go into the specifics of building a system that senses when your plants need watering so that you can maintain ideal conditions for your garden to grow.
Chapter 3, Integrating CheerLights into a Holiday Display, reveals how to craft a festive dynamic light display using CheerLights, ESP8266, and NeoPixels. It also navigates you through the functionality of the ESP8266 breakout board and shows you how you can get the world to light up your festive display through Twitter tweets. These Wi-Fi-connected lights change colors based on tweets sent from around the world.
Chapter 4, Erase Parking Headaches with OpenCV and Raspberry Pi, uses OpenCV, a Raspberry Pi with the Wheezy distribution, the Amazon Web Service’s Simple Notification System, and a webcam, to teach you how to create a notification system for a parking space.
Chapter 5, Building Netflix's The Switch for the Living Room, helps you design your own button, which, when pressed, will dim the lights, order pizza, turn on Netflix, and silence notifications on your phone—Netflix, being fans of the maker movement, put out a great project called The Switch. This is an excellent way to quickly get into the movie-watching mood, and it will be sure to impress any guests.
Chapter 6, Lock Down with a Windows IoT Face Recognition Door System, is for you, if you have ever wanted to create a locking system that relies on facial recognition. You will use ideas taken from Microsoft's Hack the Home initiative, the Raspberry Pi, an electric door strike, and other components to create a security system using Windows IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 3.