We started off with an introduction to BeagleBoard for new users, followed by the concept of MATLAB and Simulink rapid prototyping.

In Chapter 2, Installing Linux on the BeagleBoard, we set up the BeagleBoard target system and configured a Windows 7 PC as a host PC for cross-platform development. Chapter 3, C/C++ Development with Eclipse on Windows demonstrated how to build our first program, a classic Hello World! on the Windows 7 host PC. The key feature of our development is the pure Windows-based cross-platform compiler CodeBench Lite. Two embedded code generation methods for rapid prototyping, namely, textual programming in MATLAB, and graphical programming in Simulink were discussed in Chapter 4, Automatic Code Generation. They were demonstrated by two projects: a MATLAB program for an averaging operation, and a Simulink model of a music player. One unique feature of Simulink prototyping is the performance optimization by tuning parameters on the fly. In the last three chapters, various applications from simple digital I/O access, serial communication, IR sensor with motion detection, voice recognition to advanced video motion detection are developed, which demonstrate the features and advantages of MATLAB/Simulink rapid prototyping.

We slowly built up a set of rapid prototyping techniques covering from simple data processing to advanced video processing. These techniques and algorithms are transferable to devices that have different applications, for example, home security, biometric identification, and traffic monitoring.

We can now use these methods and techniques to build custom applications, which we will look at now.