"The 'what is Arduino?' is still a little vague, and that's the Arduino's strength. It's the glue people use to connect tasks together.The best way to describe an Arduino is with a few examples. Want to have when the coffee is ready? Arduino. Want to have a Professor X Steampunk wheelchair that speaks and dispenses booze? Arduino. Want to make a set of quiz buzzers for an event out of ? Arduino.

[...]

"Arduino was mostly designed by artists for artists and designers...I think it's been the most important product/project in the world of educational electronics."

Arduino is sold under a Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-SA) license, so you can make changes to the original Arduino board or how it's programmed and release it to the public, so long as you release it under the same CC-SA license. As you might expect, this has resulted in plenty of variations of the original Arduino board. Ladyada points to the , which is made with DIY gaming in mind. And is essentially an Arduino board put together in a kit to help people learn how to program it.

Seeing as Ladyada's job essentially allows her to play with Arduino boards and create her own projects, we asked her for an example of her best and worst creations: