I was just checking out
BUG Labs do it yourself DIY gadgets. They have created a sweet array of little open source
programmable gadgets. For those of us who spent our youths taking apart stereos, tvs and anything that plugged in when we were little....these are cool.
Here is what they are all about from their own site:
Bug Labs is a new kind of technology company, enabling a new generation of engineers to tap their creativity and build any type of device they want, without having to solder, learn solid state electronics, or go to China. Bug Labs envisions a future where CE stands for Community Electronics, the term mashups applies equally to hardware as it does to Web services, and entrepreneurs can appeal to numerous markets by inventing The Long Tail of devices.
Here are the different gadgets they have:
- BUGbase - BUGbase WiFi is the heart of your BUG application. A powerful palm-sized computer with storage, WiFi, Bluetooth, rechargeable battery, mini LCD, USB and serial I/O, and more. Connect your BUGbase WiFi to any combination of up to four BUGmodules and build the ultimate prototype.
- BUGbee - BUGbee is a low-power radio module based on the 802.15.4 protocol, perfect for creating a personal area network (PAN) for machine-to-machine (M2M), home automation and intelligent grid applications. Use two BUGs with BUGbee to create a short-range peer-to-peer network, or several to develop a hub or mesh network to monitor your physical environment. BUGbee modules are also compatible with Xbee ZB radios.
- BUGsound - BUGsound provides a flush-mount 20-mm speaker and omnidirectional microphone with hardware stereo codecs and four 3.5-mm stereo jacks for third-party inputs, outputs, headphones and microphones.
- BUGvonHippel - This module is named after Dr. Eric von Hippel of MIT who wrote the book Democratizing Innovation. BUGvonHippel is a breakout board module that includes a female USB 2.0.
- BUGview - BUGview is a 2.46" 320x240 LCD screen which can be used as a touch-sensitive interface. This useful BUGmodule can be used both as a display and as an input device.
- BUGlocate - BUGlocate has a passive internal antenna and includes a connector for an external active antenna. It uses an SiRF chipset based implementation.
- BUGmotion - The motion detector has a range of up to 2m, and detects as little as 30cm of motion. The accelerometer has scalable sensitivity between 2.5g and 10g.
Amazing potential here. You think of what has happened with the DIY online world of social media, youtube, facebook and content generation. Think about the DIY physical world.
Have an idea for a new implementation, get a BUGbase and write some custom scripts to run any of the other gadgets....or build on them and the sky is the limit.
Cool stuff...will be watching where this is going.
