[Facil] Fw: open source hardware

[Stéphane Couture]

Tracey P. Lauriault a écrit :
> Tuesday, October 16, 2007
> http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19581/?nlid=604
>
>
>  Open-Source Hardware
>
> A reconfigurable handheld device could foster a community of hardware 
> hackers.
>
> By Erica Naone
>
>
> Software has become easier to customize in the past decade, but 
> hardware, for the most part, remains closed: Apple's 
> <http://www.apple.com/> battle to keep people from hacking the iPhone 
> <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/steve-jobs-girds-for-the-long-iphone-war/> 
> is a case in point. Although most consumer electronics are collections 
> of smaller devices--cell phones typically include cameras and voice 
> recorders, for example--users can't swap out the devices or modify the 
> way they work. Bug Labs <http://www.buglabs.net/>, a startup based in 
> New York City, is hoping to change that with its new device, the Bug, 
> scheduled to start shipping late this year.
>
> The Bug would allow users to design their own electronics and 
> customize them however they want. CEO Peter Semmelhack 
> <http://www.buglabs.net/user/show/2> explains that the foundation of 
> the device is the Bugbase, a minicomputer running Linux that users can 
> program. It has ports for up to four device modules, which snap in and 
> out of place. Among the first modules the company expects to offer 
> will be a GPS system, a camera, a motion sensor, and an LCD screen. 
> But it also plans to offer new modules at a rate of about four per 
> quarter, and it's encouraging other manufacturers to follow suit. "We 
> think we're an enabler company," says Jeremy Toeman 
> <http://www.buglabs.net/user/show/11>, who handles marketing for Bug 
> Labs. He says that he sees the company serving as manufacturer and 
> resource for many smaller companies that could grow up around it.
>
> Users of the Bug can put modules together as they see fit and then 
> write or download code to make them operate as required. They are then 
> free to share designs and programs with other users.
>
> The Bugbase will be about the size of an iPhone, and its modules will 
> be about two and a half square inches. Semmelhack says that the 
> product will be truly open source: not only will source code for the 
> software interface be freely available, but so will device schematics.
>
> Semmelhack, who was a hardware hacker in the 1970s, says that he 
> founded the company out of his own yearning for particular devices 
> that, while technologically feasible, weren't on the market. For 
> example, he says, in October 2001, he found himself, as a New York 
> City resident in the wake of September 11, wishing for a GPS device 
> with a wireless modem that could help him keep track of his wife and 
> baby. At the time, he says, there was nothing technologically daunting 
> about such a device; it just wasn't for sale. "It was frustrating," he 
> says. "I couldn't buy it, and I couldn't build it." Nor was this an 
> isolated example: he had a chronic hankering for devices that were 
> situation specific and thus unlikely to produce enough demand to 
> warrant mass manufacture. So, Semmelhack says, he found some engineers 
> and set to work on a prototype of the flexible piece of hardware that 
> he wished he could buy, a device that would empower users to design 
> their own devices. "We don't want to solve all the problems [for 
> them]," he says. "We want to make as many tools as we can."
>
> 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 <http://www.ladyada.net/bio/index.html>, an engineer who 
> operates Adafruit Industries <http://www.adafruit.com/>, 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 <http://www.buglabs.net/user/show/11> 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 <http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/>, 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.


-- 
Stéphane Couture :: http://stephcouture.info