Start-up encourages users to build own mobile gadgets
BUG Labs offers snap-together gadget modules, a kind of open source hardware platform. At CES this week, the start-up will release pricing (pretty inexpensive) and availability (pretty soon).
LAS VEGAS — Bug Labs may be the kind of company only a geek could love. But that may be enough. And it may end up reaching far beyond the enthusiastic Linux hackers and gadget mavens that have been driving a growing buzz about the company for much of the past year.
The cross-continental start-up, based in both San Francisco and Manhattan, this week will announce the availability and pricing of its collection of Linux-based, snap-together electronic modules that let you build and program your own mobile gadget. It’s like extending the concept of open source from software to hardware.
(I’ll be meeting the BUG team on Wednesday to talk with them in more detail and see the BUG modules in operation. If you have questions or comments, send them along to me at john_cox@nww.com, and I’ll share some of them with the BUG guys. If you’re in Vegas for CES, you can find BUG Labs at the Sands Convention Center, in an area called the Innovations Plus Pods. The company has an online map and details of its activities both at various CES venues and online.)
BUGbase is the foundation of your BUG gadget: a fully programmable and hackable Linux computer with an ARM1136JF-S microprocessor, 128MB of RAM, built-in Wi-Fi, USB 2.0 and Ethernet interfaces.
Today, you can pick from four BUGmodules that plug into BUGbase: GPS, digital cam/video cam, touch-sensitive color LCD screen and combination motion sensor and accelerometer.
The BUG smarts are built completely of open source software. The BUG Module Interface logically links modules to the base. Relevant services and applications dynamically become available depending on which modules are plugged in. Higher up the software stack, Java hosts a service-oriented standard framework for dynamic software modules, called OSGi, created by the OSGi Alliance. The goal is to make simple, intuitive BUG applications that can discover and work with each other automatically. The BUG software development kit is available for download and BUG applications are share through an online community, BUGnet. A BUG wiki goes into details on getting started.
The tinkerers behind all this are just that: tinkerers. And, according to the company Web site, they think everyone longs to discover their Inner Tinkerer: “At BUG, we want people to recapture and share this excitement again, and we want them to apply this to their everyday device. We believe everybody is an inventor at heart, so we’ve developed a platform for users to create and forever modify their favorite gadget, allowing for ultimate customization and use.”
The BUG in chief is Peter Semmelhack, 42, who notes in his brief online profile that “I started Bug Labs after a roughly 20 year career in software because I desperately wanted the product we are now building.” BUG is his third start-up, the most recent being Antenna Software, which offers a toolset and applications for mobile enterprise computing.
This week at CES, BUG Labs unveiled its pricing, along with a limited-time, “Early Adopter Discount” of 13% or more; for the first 60 days the product is on sale:
* BUGbase: $349, discounted to $299
* LCD module: $119, or $99 with discount
* GPS module: $99, or $79 with discount
* Camera module: $79, or $69 with discount
* Motion detector/accelerometer: $59, or $49 with discount
The components are on sale as of Jan. 21, with shipment due on or before March 17. Customers who buy the base and all four modules will get an additional discount, to be announced on Jan. 21.
The company also announced a new BUGmodule, called the Von Hippel (named for MIT professor Eric Von Hippel, author of Democratizing Innovation”). The module adds an interface of additional inputs and outputs to the BUG. Pricing and availability have not been decided but Semmelhack’s blog entry says the company is targeting sometime this quarter.
Also new is a program called BUG+EDU, which will be a series of promotions and programs to introduce BUG to all levels of the education market. “We believe the BUG is a great platform for aspiring engineering students as well as kids who just like to tinker,” Semmelhack says in his online blog.
There’s something contagious about tinkering.
Gizmondo.com got a walk-through of the components last November, posting video, photos and some tough questions for founder Semmelhack, such as “Who will buy this thing, besides hackers, that is?” and “How will you avoid comparisons to the revered but ill-fated Handspring?” (That start-up, by the Palm Computing founders, tried to create a new line of PalmOS devices, including the Visor and Treo; it was eventually acquired by Palm.)
Popular Science magazine, with BUG Labs, has just announced a “Build a BUG Challenge”. The idea is simple: use the BUG SDK and the existing modules to build a module that will stun the judges. The prize: a BUGbase and all four BUGmodules. Contest ends Feb. 15.
