I came across this video by Andrea Bianchi and Ian Oakley on the youtube channel alsoplantsfly. The video below covers the idea of using real world objects with magnets in them and the magnetometers in most tablets and cell phone devices. I'm always a sucker for magnets! In the video Andrea goes about showing you that with some simple rare earth magnets you can create some pretty interesting interaction and interfaces to do practically anything. Its looks very similar to how Microsoft's surface identifies items when placed upon it, except I believe in the surfaces examples its using RFID tags. Where I see these types of interfaces being a real boon is in gaming of course! You could have a 10" tablet or larger device on top of or embedded into a table and use gaming tokens to play various board games or rpgs. Just like with the RFID examples in the surface demos but you could also recognize them "off the board" (or more on the side) of the board as well! Ideas are just flooding my brain right now where this could be useful. Very cool.
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What is Open Source Hardware? There has been much conversation over the definition, use of, and the meaning behind that phrase. Some in the community such as Josef Prusa, creator of the highly popular and widely used 3d printer the Prusa Mendel, have criticized other members, Makerbot.com, in the community over their definition or interpretation of "Open Source Hardware". This prompted for the creation of the youtube channel OpenSourceHardware by the Open Source Hardware Association and below is their first video of what Open Source Hardware is defined as. The OSHWA even go back to the creation of the bicycle as an example of how Open Source Hardware can help everyone and the benefits of why you too should go Open Source! What will you share!?
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So the release of the newest 3d printer from MakerBot Industries, the MakerBot Replicator MK2, created a brouhaha across the maker community with both detractors. Ok, quite a few detractors such as Josef Prusa Creator Of Prusa Mendel 3d Printer and Zachary Smith co-founder of MakerBot Industries, for starters , but a few kind of supporters such as Adafruit Industries. There was/is even a revolt on thingaverse, the website where you can download "things" to print out on any 3d printer, which turns out was over the TOS. Everyone was unsure of what it all meant and Bre tried to explain their position as best he could in a couple of blog posts, Here and Here, but never really did explain the issue people had with the replicator 2. Even in the comments when people were asking him directly again the question of open vs closed Bre stated
"Folks really want a black or white answer, but in my experience, it just doesn’t work that way when combining open source, hardware, and business. There is an open hardware definition, but it’s a far throw from a business model."
So skip to the Open Hardware Summit, which Bre gave the keynote last year, and was scheduled to talk this year. It was much anticipated on what he would talk about, would he try and explain further the position of open vs closed hardware that the Makerbot Replicator2 has taken, or would he speak about something entirely off the wall and non makerbot related? Well here is the talk and I'll let you find out what Bre ends up discussing. Be sure to watch the other parts of the talk in case you're interested in the OSH community. (skip to 1:21:00, toward the end, for Bre's Talk) Video streaming by Ustream Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!
