[dorkbotdc-blabber] Building Your Own High-Tech Bug - Bits NYT Blog - 12-28-07

[Josh Duberman]

FYI - The DIY 'Make' model is spreading.... best wishes - Josh

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/building-your-own-high-tech-bug/index.html?hp 


"Are you ready to build your own high-tech gadget?
Early next year, Bug Labs, a startup based in New York City, will begin 
selling the Bug, a powerful but highly malleable base unit and a series 
of add-on modules that allow buyers to create their own consumer 
electronics device.
Think of them as Legos for adults who are tired of having limited gadget 
choices and want to make their own hardware as easily as they now mash 
up Web sites and write their own software.
“The idea for the company sprang out of my own frustrations with the 
consumer electronics business,” said Bug Labs founder and chief 
executive Peter Semmelhack, who describes himself as an inveterate 
tinkerer who yearns to pull back the screens and experiment with the 
innards of today’s gadgets.
The company will announce pricing and availability of its product at the 
Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.
The device builder begins with the BUGbase unit, a highly modular 
computer with room for four attachments. Four such attachments will hit 
the market at first: a full color LCD touch screen, a GPS unit, a 
digital camera and a motion detector/ accelerometer.
The company says that over 80 BUGmodules are in development and every 
three months it will release four new ones, like a credit card reader, 
hard drive, compass, RFID scanner, TV tuner and solar panel. The company 
will also publish the devices’ open source specs and allow anyone else 
to build and sell their own module.
Bug customers are expected to do the rest. For example, Mr. Semmelhack 
said, someone could combine a radar detector, GPS and wireless modem 
modules together and put the device in their car. Every time it detects 
a police radar trap, the unit could post that information to an online 
map and share it with the world..."

-- 
Josh Duberman
Pivotalinfo LLC | pivotalinfo at usa.net | 425-591-8200
Information for Solutions in Business and Technology