Preface

Internet of Things (IoT) technology has been in our lives for more than a decade now. When I first came across a single-board computer at an expo 20 years ago, I was fascinated, as a young computer engineer, by the possibilities that this device introduced. It was the gateway, in my eyes, to a smart home where you could know what was going on at home when you were miles away!

Since then, I have participated in many IoT projects in different positions, so I have had many chances to see IoT products from different perspectives. As developers, we mostly tend to forget about what the use of technology is while trying to solve a technical problem. However, as we develop an IoT product, the first question that we should ask is what is the value of this product, what benefit will people get from it? It doesn't matter if it is a consumer product or an industrial IoT solution; it should help people to solve real problems. In the last chapter of each part of this book, you will find a complete project that can help people in their daily lives.

There is no single driving force behind IoT, but we can count several strong enablers, such as the emergence of inexpensive silicon chips available in large quantities, mobile technologies, and cloud computing, to name just a few. I think ESP32 has contributed to this on its own terms. When it was launched in 2016 by Espressif Systems, I was working for a smart home company as a technical product manager. We had seen the opportunity immediately – that this chip could cut the cost of our home gateway to a quarter of the one that we had! There was no other Wi-Fi system on a chip (SoC) on the market as a complete computing solution with that price tag. I know it is not possible to discuss everything that we can do with ESP32, but I believe you will find this book quite useful before starting your next IoT project with ESP32.

Besides as a profession, it is my hobby to build new IoT devices together with my daughter at home. I always love sharing my knowledge and experience with her and with people around me, as well as learning from them. I hope you enjoy reading this book and developing the projects together with me.