SPOT

Smart Personal Objects Technology much hyped a few years back (Wow! almost a decade!) with its inclusion in smart watches etc has clung on to existence in the .Net Micro Framework and is once again coming into prominence with the rising interest in do-it-yourself hardware.

SPOT contains a number of useful APIs aimed at standardising applications, events, timers, images, fonts and a host of other things.

Extensions to SPOT now available in the just released .Net Micro Framework version 4.2 provide layers for hardware devices and give access to facilities such as communications systems like USB and other serial standards. It provides simple access to file systems on SD cards or USB flash drives and enables the use of small displays and touch screens to name but a small part of what it is capable of.

Like so many good ideas, SPOT was in advance of the capabilities of the hardware of the time, giving a sort of utopian view that couldn't be realised and which was, sadly, vilified by the press and to some extent, the community itself. Now however, with the arrival of open-source hardware like Arduino and Gadgeteer, SPOT is becoming a front line choice for hobbyists and professionals alike. If you're even remotely interested in the maker ethos or have a hankering to create a smart doorbell or a super-smart "talkie toaster" then SPOT will make that task easier.