Applications based around "something with microcontrollers" increasingly use a link to a smartphone to provide the GUI. Light switches can be operated from the iPhone, a rain sensor sited in your back garden can relay information to an Android device. For developers however such an app can be relatively complex but now help is at hand with Smart.IO...

The development of a smartphone front end in the form of an app typically takes a lot of time and effort for a microcontroller application. And since time = money, we are already talking a sizeable outlay in a semiprofessional context. Using Smart.IO however it’s done and dusted for 16 $. How’s that possible?

Smart.IO consists of three parts:
1. A small module with a chip.
2. A software API for the GUI.
3. A "programmable" smartphone app.

Part 1 is a chip that can communicate with any microcontroller type and which handles the (radio) link with the smartphone. With part 2, you can create a graphical user interface suitable for your application really easily and part 3 determines how the smartphone and the module interact with each other via Bluetooth. In short Smart.IO is a modular system, which allows you to quickly and easily ‘smartphonify’ any microcontroller application.

Smart.IO is also a kickstarter project, ending soon. They have already succeeded in busting their original $ 5,000 target by a substantial margin. It looks like the Smart.IO developers have already been awarded an early present this Christmas. Maybe there is even time to put your name down for a $16 package (but don’t expect delivery before Christmas). The smartphone app itself is also available free of charge (with reduced functionality) for testing purposes.