Arduino boards are able to read inputs - light on a sensor, a finger on a button, or a Twitter message - and turn it into an output - activating a motor, turning on an LED, publishing something online. Arduino comprises of both a physical programmable circuit board (frequently alluded to as a microcontroller) and a bit of programming, or IDE (Integrated Development Environment) that sudden spikes in demand for your PC, used to compose and transfer PC code to the physical board.