Bug Labs are my favourite new company right now. The idea is quite simply genius. They're building a hardware and software platform that will allow people to build their own gadgets from individual components like a base computer; sat nav; digital camera; weather station etc etc. These hardware components physically stack together and then there's a software platform so you can program your gadget to do anything you like.
It means that for the first time ever, there will be an opportunity for all sorts of niche gadgets which will never have a mass market (and therefore never even be even brought to market by a major electronics vendor) to become a reality. Each combination may only be used by a handful of people, but when you add up all of those handfuls, there is a potentially enormous market.
The entire thing - hardware and software - is open source meaning anyone can build upon and extend the system. This gives the platform the opportunity to become a widespread standard damn fast because there's no fear of one company having the platform locked down.
The system is currently being beta-tested and should be launching later this year.
This looks really cool : ) - You can see the beginnings of this type of hardware mashup in the community that's grown up around Lego Mindstorms - what was just supposed to be a simple robotic control system for older kids based on a central CPU thang & some Lego has developed into a whole tech ecosystem with some quite complex hacks and gadgets.
Posted by: Alistair Birch | 24 September 2007 at 11:00 AM
That's really interesting, I hadn't thought about the parallels with Lego MindStorm. It should be perfectly possible to mash MindStorm onto BUG to extend the system into robotics - cool!
Posted by: Tom Nixon | 24 September 2007 at 11:26 AM
have your seen ponoko,[ponoko.com] does a similar thing for products claiming to be the worlds first personal manufacturing platform : make and/or sell and/or share
Posted by: john cooper | 24 September 2007 at 12:02 PM
Mashing MindStorms onto the Bug platform would produce a StormBug, which is a pretty cool name, if nothing else ; )
Ponoko looks very interesting too, John - I found that the relative simplicity with which I could potentially produce all kinds of stuff actually made me want to think products up - I'm intrigued that my creative motivation was so affected by the knowledge of the ease with which I could actually make something. Hmm, maybe that's what's so exciting about the web, it allows you to make stuff - virtual or otherwise.
I guess a Cluetrainer would perhaps quote something about the "return of the artisan" and they may have a point : )
Posted by: Alistair Birch | 04 October 2007 at 09:56 AM
This is very interesting. For years we've been led to believe that there's an unstoppable force moving manufacturing to countries such as China. However, pulling in the opposite direction is technological advances, driving down the cost of manufacturing to the point where almost anyone can do it. Having low cost labour then decreases in importance.
Posted by: Geoff | 13 October 2007 at 02:43 PM
Very cool idea... Shame it's Linux. ***ducks***
Posted by: Ash | 18 October 2007 at 03:01 PM