This project will be some sort of physical product which will alert me immediately when I receive new emails. Essentially, I will be building a rather simple-looking box with some kind of light fixture attached to it. Each time I get a new email, I will have the light on the box light up for a certain amount of time. This will all be controlled with an Arduino board. As I am sure I can give the Arduino internet capabilities, it should be simple enough to learn how to communicate with a local web server I'll have to set up which will ping my email account. This way if I am not near my computer and my phone is charging while I'm home (which it often is, in the next room), I will still receive some sort of notification when I have received an email!
Many of you may be saying "Hey! I've heard of something like this before!" Well, you're not crazy, it's been thought of and executed before. Matt Richardson, a MakeZine blogger who has concocted many gadgets, did this with Christmas tree lights! And he wasn't even the first to think of the idea -- others have done similar projects. However, in the case of Matt's project, he was using a PowerStrip tail which he was able to connect to his Arduino board. This allowed him to control the current between the wall and the light, turning it on or off. I plan on making a smaller product, which will more than likely light up a small bulb or an LED. This will keep the project much less costly, and a bit less build-heavy than if I used a full light fixture.
In essence, I'm going to have to:
Gather all of the materials necessary, namely the Arduino board and its ethernet shield
Figure out how to set up a local server
Learn how to execute PHP scripts on said server
Learn how Matt was able to ping his GMail account with a PHP script
Learn to program for the arduino boards themselves, so that I can understand Matt's code
Build the encasement for the product and actually put the thing together.
I plan on logging my progress at least once per week, wish me luck!
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