The Cricket is based on the Microchip PIC series of microprocessor. User programs are downloaded to the Cricket via its infrared communications system. The Cricket has a button that when pressed triggers it to run the program that was downloaded to it. LEDs on the Cricket indicate when it is running a program or sitting idle, the state of the two motor outputs, and indication of infrared transmission.

Crickets are programmed in a dialect of the Logo programming language, a procedural language that includes constructs like if, repeat, and loop, global and local variables, 8-bit numeric operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, comparison), motor and sensor primitives, timing functions, a tone-playing function, and a random number function.

We have developed a variety of activities based on Crickets, as part of our Beyond Black Boxes NSF research:

• Crickets are small and light enough that they can be carried around in a shirt pocket, collecting data about body activities.
• A collection of Crickets communicating with each other to simulate natural life.
• A network of Crickets positioned in an indoor environment to collect and share data about human traffic patterns, room temperature variations, lighting preferences, and other dynamic qualities.
• Mobile, creature-like robots built on a smaller scale than was previously possible.

You can find out more about the technological infrastructure that runs the Crickets by taking a look at the Technical Overview presentation. It is presented in form of talk slides from a May 29, 1997 Media Lab presentation.

The Cricket grew out of Fred Martin's work with Programmable Bricks. The Cricket project has had many contributors, but has been primarily created by Fred Martin, Brian Silverman, Bakhtiar Mikhak, and Robbie Berg.