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Semmelhack says that the Bug's design was inspired by the Lego set. Users, he says, should be able to snap pieces in and out without worrying about the device freezing up, and the pieces should be attractive and fun to play with. To that end, the company has developed the Bug module interface, open-source software designed to recognize modules when they are snapped into ports, keep the system from crashing as modules are plugged in or unplugged, and respond to the different power-supply needs of different modules. Because the base has such a sophisticated management job to do, Semmelhack says, "it really is a minicomputer."
Limor Fried, an engineer who operates Adafruit Industries, and who is involved in the open-source-hardware movement, says that the Linux computer running the Bug is the key to the device's beauty. "Your camera, your toaster, and your car have tightly integrated computers that you can't get into," she says. "[Bug Labs] is saying, let's put a real computer inside your camera or your PDA or your GPS. Because it's just like a laptop, it's really simple and easily understandable how you can get in there and modify it."
Bug Labs' Toeman says that at first, the product will be aimed primarily at engineers. While the average consumer is welcome to tinker with it as well, Toeman expects that most will wait until they learn of specific applications that are useful to them. The company plans to make its profit from the manufacture and sale of the Bugbase and modules.
Eric von Hippel, head of the innovation and entrepreneurship group at MIT's Sloan School of Management, says that Bug Labs is part of a general economic trend toward letting users do things for themselves. Von Hippel expects that early adopters will come up with useful innovations, encouraged by the Bug's relatively cheap modular components and the community spirit that Bug Labs is trying to foster. "Ordinary users can benefit from the hacking efforts of the leading edge," he adds.
Toeman says that the company hopes to start shipping Bugbases in late November. The Bugbase itself should cost several hundred dollars, and modules will be priced according to the cost of components.
Why not use a communal approach to fix software?
Everything I own today runs some sort of custom firmware (phones, players, wireless, game consoles, etc) The ability to run custom code influences my buying decision over another product. The only frustrating fact is firmware limitations due to the hardware it resides on. Providing flexibility to hardware by easily adding components would increase the overall creativity. Well done - looking forward to more "out of the box" thinking.
Most cell phones have video recording mode,I wish some would make cell to hook up mini spycam to cell phone which person can record movie.Like a hidden, button, cam
In other industries, users are given a fair amount of flexibility to custiomize their hardware. Just look at the custom bike scene. You can buy a frame, an engine, wheels, and all the other parts from different vendors and there are ways to make them work together. Some vendors even concentrate on certain platforms (such as Harleys) so that their parts will work more easily with parts from other vendors.
So why not something like this? I think it can work. They just have to come up wiotht eh right modules and make sure that the devices can be expanded.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
This document is part of the “How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements” centralized resource portal. This tutorial provides a detailed guide for measurement and device considerations to take temperature measurements using thermocouples. Get an introduction to thermocouples, which are inexpensive sensing devices widely used with PC-based data acquisition systems. Also review some specific thermocouple examples and learn how thermocouples work and ways to integrate them into a data acquisition measurement system.
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andraon
3 Comments
A good move
I've been following this since I first aught a glimpse of it some time ago. I'm not an engineer, but I do love to tinker with electronics. I repaired them on a component level in the navy and it will be fun to have something that I can have all the schematics to play with again.
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