Lisa Nugent asked me to take a look at this initiative. An interesting OS hardware platform for die-hard DIY gadget geeks. Their website left me with many questions, but I gathered some info from engadget and gizmodo. This product “explores the realm of personalized devices and applications” and tries to solve problems that current gadgets can’t. They seem proud of the fact that BUG can easily be re-assembled and programmed – almost as easily as playing with legos. Just imagine that every piece of lego has an embedded chip – one GPS, another screen and another camera, so when placed in the right configuration one forms a GPS enabled digital camera that automatically publishes content to the web. The device in itself as a one-person interaction tool does not excite me, as all of its functionality can be performed by my mobile phone.
What I DO find intriguing is their open source approach to hardware and their future endeavor on a collaborative development environment, what they call BUGnet. I am a big supporter of the open source hardware movement, intrigued by its influences on the design world. This might be a fun tool for the DIY gadget geek crowd, but is not suitable for the majority of users, who do not want to design and reconfigure their products. Most people want a nice package. They want a product to look good and function well.
So again, looks like an interesting project. As a person who works on and develops my own hardware, this *might* be useful for making fast prototypes, but that mostly depends on its price.
BUG helps you explore the realm of personalized devices and applications, and find ways to solve many of the problems current gadgets can’t.
For example, with BUG, you can easily assemble and program a GPS + digital camera device that automatically publishes geo-tagged photos as a web service. Integrating with an online photo-sharing service like Flickr is only a few more lines of code away, and now you have your own real-time, connected traffic-enabled mobile Webcam!
The platform is designed to enable a collaborative development environment. BUGnet (launching soon), our online community, is tied in directly to the BUG SDK, which allows developers to connect with others, share information, and jointly build products or services.