Today at an Arduino Day celebration at MIT Massimo Banzi announced an upcoming initiative that will extend the Arduino platform to interconnected intelligent modules.

The project is code named “Eslov.” Banzi said it will be ready to demonstrate by this year’s Maker Faire Bay Area, which will take place May 16 and 17 in San Mateo, California.

“A creative person will be able to plug together these modules and have a device in no time,” Banzi said. “It could take just seconds.”

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Essentially Arduino is trying to do for modular kits what it did for microprocessors. According to Banzi, the modules will have embedded intelligence that will allow them to interact in new ways.

At the MIT event Banzi briefly showed images of the modular system. Banzi said a blog post early next week on the Arduino web site will elaborate on the vision.

“I just wanted to give a little preview gift today, to the people who came out for Arduino Day,” he said.

In a few months, Banzi predicted, there may be hundreds of Arduino modules that could be assembled into products.

“Arduino is no longer a tool for making prototypes,” he said. “It’s a tool for making products.”