Hardware ideas

Projects and proposals    +/-
Content ideas	Content projects
Hardware ideas	Hardware projects
Software ideas	Software projects

A list of hardware ideas. See also Category:Hardware ideas

Project: The ten dollar e-reader (10ER)

http://wikibox.googlepages.com/home

Experimental idea: smartphone

THE CONTENT BELOW IS JUST AN EXPERIMENT (TEST MOCK-UP), NOT A NEWS ABOUT PILOT MODEL FOR A TECHNICALLY MATURED PRODUCT

We are now making a prototype of XO Smartphone prototype based on Openmoko and Chumby frame as well as various linux smartphones such as E28. Our ultimate purpose is NOT to make a brand new machine, but ONLY to reduce the physical size of XO to hand-held machines.

An OLPC Smartphone is for college students of South Korea, almost 100% of them now having both (laptop or desktop) computers and mobile phones. So, our goal is to provide an XO derivative which can substitute those computers as well as mobile phones. Though the Larger XO for secondary school students can also be applied to college students, we think a mobile-phone type XO will be much more easily adapted by those students, because of their peculiar interests on mobile phones.

The hardware and software architecture is all the same to those of OLPC, except;

• perhaps MX31 or MX31L rather than x86 processors. As you know, changing CPU of OLPC makes all peripheral circuits to be changed also. Our interests are how to move the SUGAR architecture to a new hardware frames such as Openmoko-based FIC Neo1973 smartphone, which even without marvell mesh wi-fi chips.
• additional input/output device, consisting of one display and one keyboard.
  • we hope a college student may select any size among 12.1", 13.3", 14.1" and 15.4" wide panels.

There are some problems in attaching marvell wifi chips on boards such as that of FIC Neo1973. If those problems are solved, sample test machines will be distributed no later than 15th, May, 2007 (about 100 units). However, we don't expect those test machines be well harmonized with SUGAR. There must be too many difficulties left before pouring SUGAR on those smartphone-type XO models. --User:Php5

ONCE AGAIN, IT'S JUST A TEST. NOT A REAL MODEL FOR MASS PRODUCTION.

Sugar on Chumby

One of the two XO smartphone mock-ups is to sprinkle SUGAR on Chumby, a radio on open source platform.

Changing the current 266 Mhz MX21 freescale cpu of Chumby with MX31 or MX31L (which provide much better graphic function) may be sufficient to load SUGAR on it and to operate external display devices.

However, the board of Chumby is too big to be a mobile machine. We are looking for somewhat smaller boards for Chumby.

Sugar on Neo1973

From the aspect of size, FIC Neo1973 is an appropriate one to load SUGAR on it. Because the marvell wi-fi chips such as libertas 88w8305,88w8381,88w8385 and 88w8388 series are too big (size) and too hungry (power consumption) to be on the Neo1973 board, the FIC team is currently looking for some smaller ones.

However, as we (OLPC Korea) don't need GSM related modules as XO doesn't, we are now removing those chips from both hardware and software specs of NEO1973. By removing those, there will be sufficient physical space and power supply for the Marvell Libertas 88W8388+88W8015 chips.

Additional feature we expect is Dual User Interface, one Openmoko & the other SUGAR. When the smartphone stands alone (as a phone), it's 2.8" display panel will show Openmoko interface on Linux 2.6.x kernel. However, when connected to an external Input/Output device such as our 12.1" wide display panel and keyboard set we design, then SUGAR will show on that wide screen.

No later than the end of May 2007, we hope to show our prototype mock-up sample.

See also Belkin with Marvell 88W8385 integrated 802.11g wireless MAC/BB and 88W8015 RF transceiver devices.

Magnifying glass / macro-lens bugbox

A minor modification to the plastic around the camera would leave a slide-in connector for a magnifying glass / slide microscope / bugbox / macro lens. I'm not an expert, but even just a cheap plastic bugbox dealie, cost of manufacture in the $.10 range, would open up a lot of exploration - a macro lens with a field of view of a few centimeters. Leaving the connector now would let you design the lens later. Would a true microscope be possible at a reasonable price? Note that this would be used with the screen rotated facing up, natural light from above. Homunq 00:57, 28 July 2007 (EDT)

Obviously this idea exists in prototype, quoted from News:

5. $1 video microscope: A video of Mary Lou's prototype microscope attachment for the XO video camera is posted on the web (Please see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI28-IS9AII). In the video, she compares various LCD screens. The microscope, which has ~ 100× magnification, could be useful to analyzing water quality, among other things.

My question is, how is this connected to the laptop? Is the connection hard to build or flimsy? Homunq 16:23, 8 August 2007 (EDT)

display swizzling

The swizzling is not optimal for all tasks. It would be good to let software load a 3x3 or 5x5 convolution matrix to adjust things better. Currently you have:

 0  1  0
 1  4  1
 0  1  0

(divide by 8)

A much better matrix for eliminating color artifacts is:

 2  1  0
 1  4  1
 0  1  2

(divide by 12; scale everything up if you wish to approximate with a shift)

In some cases the following could be more attractive:

 2  1  1
 1  2  1
 1  1  2

(divide by 12; scale everything up if you wish to approximate with a shift)

For apps that wish to do sub-pixel rendering, swizzling needs to be disabled. Note that this is distinct from greyscale mode, which needs to mix red/blue/green in the proper proportions for human vision. Disabled looks like this:

 0  0  0
 0  1  0
 0  0  0

(divide by 1)

BTW, hopefully the swizzling is done after the gamma look-up table has converted the data to linear. Failure to do so would be a cause of some nasty artifacts.

TeleHealth Module

The idea is to connect electronic instruments plus sound and video to a wireless-equipped low-power computer such as the OLPC Laptop, and send data back and forth between a village and a doctor's office in a town, thus multiplying the effectiveness of doctors. It would also save villagers much time and money compared with taking busses or walking to town, or worse, not being able to get there at all.

The result is that a health worker with modest training can carry out most of a standard medical office examination, to be interpreted by a doctor in real time. The doctor and patient would be able to see each other and talk to each other.

There are some limitations on this process. In particular, the doctor would be unable to touch the patient and feel for abnormalities. But the doctor could decide which patients needed to come in for further tests and examination, and which could safely remain at home and be treated there.

For an overview of the technical ideas, see TeleHealth Module

Keyboard

For the sight impaired

A Braille embossed, transparent(silicone rubber), and removable Keyboard overlay.

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B-1 Keyboard layouts

default QWERTY Layout

Thailand Layout

Further information can be browsed checking the Category:Keyboard and Keyboard layouts; or more general, Category:Hardware, Category:Language support or Category:Languages (international)

For children

Why stick to QWERTY layout? Maybe a better layout can be applied here... a simple sequential ABC... layout would let the child learn faster where the keys are. Remember... Most of those kids would have never seen a keyboard before. I like the idea of "removable keyboard overlays". that idea could be applied here, once the kid is familiar with the keyboard function and usability, he could overlay a more standard "QWERTY" layout and start learning to type in such. Or maybe this will be the end of the QWERTY layout for good :-)

Summary

OLPC Korea shall make a few voip phone prototypes; one of smartphones is based on neo 1973 and Belkin, and one of wifi phones is based on VM1188T phone. This product will be distributed after 1~2 months later deploying XO laptops in Korea.

Candidates

Partnership information shall be disclosed after signing agreements between participant companies and our joint venture.

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