Riding on the widespread popularity of JavaScript (particularly event-driven Node.js) in combination with low cost prototyping hardware, a new set of projects have emerged letting client side web developers use their skills to start controlling elements in the physical world. This posting has several interesting videos around this topic:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Robo Car Via 3G
http://hackaday.com/2016/02/07/robo-car-via-3g/
[Emil Kalstø] has a pretty solid remote control car. We don’t mean a little car with a handheld remote you can drive around the neighborhood. [Emil’s] car has a camera and a cell phone so that it can go anywhere there’s 3G or 4G networking available.
The two batteries onboard will power the vehicle for over 20 hours of continuous use. The 30W motor is reduced with a chain drive to go about “walking speed.” There’s a Raspberry Pi with a Huawei 3G USB dongle onboard and [Emil] uses an XBox controller to do the steering from the warmth of his living room. Of course, a Pi can’t handle a big motor like that directly, so a Phidgets USB motor controller does the hard work. The software is written using Node.js.
Remote Controlled Car- Raspberry pi & Node.js
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa6yq3KtXdc
Tomi Engdahl says:
Node.js Version 6 Released With LTS
https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/26/1941203/nodejs-version-6-released-with-lts
The JavaScript runtime Node.js has reached version 6.0, and unlike version 5.0 this version will receive Long Term Support (LTS). LTS is meant to provide the release with long-term stability, reliability, performance and security. The LTS will begin in October. The current LTS release will go into maintenance mode and will only receive bug, security and documentation updates. Version 5.0 of Node.js will continue to be maintained for a few more months. The latest version features improved module loading, 96% of ECMAScript 2015 features, as well as reliability and security enhancements.
Node.js version 6 released
http://sdtimes.com/node-js-version-6-released/
The JavaScript runtime Node.js hit version 6 today with performance advancements as well as reliability and security enhancements. This version, unlike version 5.0, is intended to be a long-term support release in order to provide front-end, back-end, Web and IoT developers with a consistent and high-quality solution.
“This release is committed to Long Term Support [LTS], which allows predictable long-term stability, reliability, performance and security to the growing number of enterprise users that are adopting Node.js as a key technology in their infrastructure,” said Mikeal Rogers, community manager for the Node.js Foundation.
According to the Node.js Foundation, the highlight of this release is in the module loading performance improvements. Module loading is expected to be 4x faster than the current LTS release (version 4) and will help developers accelerate their application development release cycles. Other performance updates include V8 JavaScript engine 5.0 with improved ECMAScript 2015 support. The previous release accounted for 56% of ES6 features, and this release is meant to include 93% of its features, such as default and rest parameters, destructuring, class, and super keywords.