ToothFairy

Having used AVR microcontrollers for small projects for years, one of the bigger challenges has always been providing useful input/output without tethering it to a computer. You can attach keypads, and alpha numeric displays, but that is expensive and unsatisfying. Often more resources are devoted to making the device usable than are actually required for the core functionality.

Most of us now have some type of smartphone or tablet. Android has most of the market share, and is very developer friendly. It follows that a logical way to interact with our electronics is through our phones or tablets. Low cost modules like the HC-05 make connecting an arduino to bluetooth easy, but building a stable, user friendly android app can be daunting. It isn't something everyone wants to do for one off projects. Also we don't want to have dozens of custom apps on our phone for every thermostat, lock, clock, temperature logger, moisture sensor or light switch.

This is the problem that ToothFairy, used with companion library for Arduino BlueDentist, solves. Using only a few lines of arduino code you can define your interface. Available widgets include sliders, number input, text input, text output logs and buttons. These can be combined to create an interface for any device. When your phone or tablet connects it displays the controls and manages the bluetooth connection.