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Hello, good afternoon, welcome
to the exciting stage, dear creatures
out there on your devices.
I'm really happy to open our states
today.
I'm a bit sad to do it all
alone here, but no audience.
So it's even better that, at
least for our first talk, we have
a pretty full panel.
So with all the seven people
here on the stage, it would be rather
crowded.
But yeah, internet, it's
possible to have them all there and still
be alone on here.
But there are so many people, so I don't
want to talk too much about them,
so they have time to talk to us up.
So welcome to the extended
listing. That's the first talk.
And it's your
talk because,
yeah, thank you very much.
Unfortunately, we just
lost Mario talking about
internet
too, as opposed to actually run the
session mostly.
But I also got the notes here.
So let's let's maybe start with
what this session is going to be about,
and let's hope that Mario will also be
joining back in a bit.
So I want to share the story of the.
That's one of our projects and
our challenges in corona times.
Our goal is to inspire others to create
open hardware and to share the stories
of how they find solutions to problems
and specifically in these corona times.
And in turn, this might help us as well.
And we'll come back, Mario, just at the
intro because thank you very
much.
So, yeah, and actually
so, Daniel, just at the introduction
and people who are watching this now,
they can see how we basically
work. So whenever something's not working
or something needs to be fixed,
this is how we collaborate
with each other.
So I would like everyone
here in this session now to
give a short introduction of themselves.
And then, just like how we do, doing our
usual regular meetings of the Pocket
Science Lab and also nominate
the next person.
So I would like to
nominate the Daniel vessel first
yellow and Daniel.
I joined the rocket science that
I normally of one and a half or three
years ago, but also saw it in
Singapore a few times plus
Asia, and was really excited about
it. And personally, I mainly
concentrate on how people
can use it and work with students
to test it, and some like
musical instrument misuse
of the Rocket Science Lab and
hand over to Alexander.
Thank you.
So I've been working
with the team now for
about a year and a half, and I mostly
work on the software side.
So that means mostly in the
the Python component, which is
a standalone library which can be used
by people who are familiar with with
Python scripting, and it is also
the driver layer for the graphical
user interface.
And I also work on the firmware
I written originally got interested
in the lab.
So during the summer
of 2020, when I was
furloughed from work and
home home and I wanted some
sort of a project to think of it,
so I got one and then that's how I
got involved with the project.
And then I hand over to my.
OK, thank you and everyone.
My name is Podmore, and I
I've been with the project since
my first dissolve in 2017.
And ever since I was
with the project mainly working on the
hardware and.
Collaborating to Android and
performing about as well.
Yeah, I think I can
pass on our
QE II.
My name's QE.
So basically friends
of Mosgiel for quite a while.
So here in Singapore, so
it's not just a piece, but any kind of
a hurry up production.
I need some laser cutting.
Generally, they'll just come out of his
workshop designed troubleshoot
and redesign again until we
manage to get the
design and the casing correct.
So, so kind of go to a wall or
we thought, Hey,
so yeah, I'm with that.
Uh, I'm I'm
I'm kind of co-founder of a funding
group, a
bank cut funding for
big businesses. Yeah.
So my role in Phuket, Thailand lab
is actually the manufacturing.
And of course, the distributing
has been doing with
the manufacturing issues,
which is which is a headache, especially
during the corona times.
Yeah. Correct. So
I pass on to Aleksandra.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Um. Hello.
I'm Alessandra. I'm a microbiologist,
and I joined the Bogus Science Lab
as a project. I guess almost
one year ago, I knew
Mario, and since a while I was
also to Singapore, to the ideal
Kiwi. Everyone and
embryologist and what they want to
do is to integrate the scientific
equipment on the Pocket Science
Lab to give this that
and make it useful
on the on the same side on the scientific
field. And
yeah, that's it.
And I give the world the war
to Daniel
M.
Yeah, thank you very much.
Um, another Daniel and
I have known Mario already for,
I don't know, four years, so maybe
longer.
And at some point you told me about this
space lab project, and
by day, I'm actually a software engineer
working mostly on the web.
And so I took over the
development of the desktop application,
which is based on electron.
And that's interfacing with what
Alex talked about the Python
interface that is our driver
then.
And with that, I hand over to
the question. I think everybody spoke
their hand over back to Mario.
But yet, MS and
yes, maybe a few
seconds left, if you like,
at night. Yes.
Yeah. So the funny thing is I see myself
on the screen, but I
apparently and you don't see me
for some reason. But yes.
So thank you, everyone here.
And I started Pulse Asia
Organization with Mario back in 2009.
And so
what we want to do with the organization,
we we try to improve
people's lives in Asia
and everywhere through sharing open
technologies and foster global
connections.
And besides on Asia, I also serve
as the vice chair
of the Open Source Committee and
I Triple E and
board member of the Open Small Business
Alliance and the Open Source Initiative.
In a recent year, I started to
focus on
localization.
I believe this is the way
to help out to produce locally and
solve some of the global problems,
and I'm very happy to be here today.
So as a focus, I might be coming out of
the consultation organization and being
involved in the project
from the start and engaging with the
community and tried to bring DocuSign
left to education.
Yeah.
OK, thank you very much.
OK. So, yeah, I already got a lot
of flowers here in the
in the introductions.
As you can see, guys, I'm one of the
person you're trying to bring everyone
together, and I'm always really excited
when we achieve to bring people
from around
the world together. So actually,
people didn't say where they are from
because I think in our meetings, it's
always so normal that
we just have these global calls.
But I want to tell you guys here.
So we have four participants from
Sri Lanka like Padma and
we 10 and Kiwi and you guys
are in Singapore.
Daniel Lim or both.
Daniel's in Germany.
Alessandra is right now in Italy,
Alexandra is in Sweden and
Tom focus from Vietnam.
And so it's really exciting.
And this is also one goal
of our session here.
We want to share how we work
with open heart, where how open
hardware can be a way to collaborate
around the globe without having to sign
any NDAs and how we solve
global problems and what
are our ideas and how how
we as open hardware contributors
and how others can help
to solve the climate change.
So before we go and we like
to tackle that question, I
think it's important to share a bit about
our background and how we came
to the point where we are now in
the pocket science lab.
So I would like to start
this conversation here today
by talking a little bit about the
history, and
I think we can hear, like,
maybe start with Padma Padma.
You have been one of the oldest
contributors on this project.
Could you share a little bit about your
story, how you started to collaborate
here in Pocket Science Lab?
I mean, like we know that, for example,
collaboration on software is happening
for a long time already, but hardware
it's been somewhat more challenging.
So how did you get started and how was it
actually that we achieved
to collaborate on hardware
manufacturing?
Yeah, maybe I can tell how I started
with the Space Lab project in the first
place.
In 2017, when I was an undergraduate,
I was looking into this Google summer
program and I was going
through organizations and phone the
process as one of the incredible
organizations to join and work.
At first, this police officer
is more like the software based
program may just
not facilitate much of the hardware
things.
So as a result,
there was this space project,
which was
in the community for a while, but it
was kind of slow
going.
So we
so in the first year took
it over and then we tried
to bring it to a level that we can
mass produce it and make it more user
friendly with a lot of applications that
people can interface design.
And as a result, I got into this basic
Android project, the software.
So so it was
in line with this. These are projects.
So I joined
this Google Summer of Code
project for about three months.
And once the one this period
is over and Mario,
we were discussing how to proceed further
outside this user program because
because of the software.
Software program.
So then
I was doing my internship in Singapore,
so but Mario and me
dad, I think that a couple of
lot of lot of people on this call
were in Singapore at the time.
So we got together and we we had we had
this make us based in Singapore.
We rejoin them.
We discuss how to progress.
And we designed the first prototype.
And from that, we
after doing many peer reviews, we
we develop the version that that
is currently on the market.
And that's how we started and where
we are heading to.
Yeah, thank you very much.
And I think we don't have too much time
to actually go into all the features
and what the Pocket Science Lab can
do. Definitely.
Check out this website.
Look dot org.
And yeah, you can definitely also
produce it yourself or check
a few stores on the internet if you want
to order this. So this is completely open
hardware.
You can make all
kinds of experiments with it.
You can even control simple robots with
it. Up to four samples are supported,
and any sensor that the IS
Grade C standard can be
supported if there's any glitch
and just open an issue in our
repositories and they're all linked
on the website.
But like, we want to talk this time more
about this story, how we produce
the open hardware and the polymer you
already ship, how we make the
how you make the prototypes.
So basically, you work on
the code you use like open source
programs like key cards, right?
And then you how
did you get the prototypes actually
produced?
Well, I I would say for
a for a general
purpose prototype, one would try
to ask some of
the manufacturers, usually in China, to
do the prototyping,
usually assembly assembly part
as well. But here we thought
it would be more more efficient.
If we do it ourselves, it would save us
some time and effort.
So remember we we were doing
like
three or four prototypes before we get to
what we have right now.
And all this were done by
manual soldiering already surely is
empty.
And yeah,
well, quite quite a lot of work.
But we are also very lucky that we
have partnered because the components are
so small. I think not many people
were able to solve them, but
we were sitting down in the hackerspace
in Singapore and yeah,
together and like, I yeah,
supported part my with
my thoughts, with my mind because they
were so small, I couldn't have done it.
But then was the question.
We're pretty happy with the outcome.
And the big question was how can we
produce them?
And I think we could never have done
it without we tied we Ted.
Would you like to share a bit about the
story, how it came to
the production and what were the
challenges?
All right. OK.
The production wasn't easy.
Definitely, right?
We had a lot of challenges, things like
language.
We have things like the
quality assurance, things, all these
things coming.
This is totally new to us, right?
So especially as a s,
we we this is our first time producing.
So naturally, how do we
testing? The thing was, how do we
actually reach out to the people
in China, the the manufacturer in China?
So we actually looked through a few
websites and of course, Alibaba was
one of the the first few that came out.
Right? So Alibaba was actually
brought as a few cups of different
components and stuff.
Initially, we were thinking about
procuring the parts ourselves and finding
manufacturing ourselves, but luckily
we actually found a very
nice distributor who
actually connected us with one of
the longtime partners who actually
was a dusty manufacturing of the
keyboards as well.
So a lot of to and back
and just nicely hit the Chinese New
Year period and oh, doing this
and topped off time, especially
in China, they had actually one month
long of a holiday.
So we actually rush rush
the production and Rushdie revision
Rushdie schematics, and we
rush a lot of things just to just to make
it happen. Yeah.
And of course, this involves going
going down to the factory itself
to make sure that things are
properly in place, the quality assurance,
the quality checks and
of course, and all this stuff as well.
Yeah.
One of the problems that we actually face
while we are trying to source
the components of Salesforce.
We met some of the some
of the distributors actually
selling those second hand components,
which actually overall bring down
the quality of the PCBs.
You bring the bring down in
terms of what we are seeing things like.
There's a higher rate of failure
or we you there will be higher rate
of manufacturing
being disposed of as well.
Yeah.
So how is this process actually
changed now during the corona crisis?
More or less, things are still the same.
Luckily for our distributor, they are
still there they are.
They are not closed down yet.
Yeah, so that's the but
things definitely has become more
expensive.
When we talk about the supply
chain, things are getting stuck at
different ports at the,
you know, factory, shutting down people,
getting quarantine factories,
workers and things like that.
So because of all these issues, the
cost, the turnaround time actually
went up.
When we talk about turnaround time, we
are talking about components that we
might actually wait for, see
what could have been, oh, the
tree could have gotten the components
and treatments that require maybe
to the end of next year,
or maybe not even anything.
So we're talking about three years later,
the next available
components are available as well.
So this this this
this results in some of the distributors
and not just China, probably around the
world as well, to start hoarding on those
companies that are very
crucial.
They are more commonly use, which
resulted in the prices going up sky
falling. We talked about
one of the chips that we are using.
It could be actually just be a few
$1. It's actually about $6
now. So that's actually a quite a huge
jump.
Yeah.
So but the
rest of the changes still stay the same,
finding a partner who you really can
work with and all
these things are pretty much some of the
things that we've seen.
We need to sit across a while
when we were doing the production.
Yeah.
And why do we have that idea
and about local production?
I think we will talk soon about it
a little bit more detail.
We are not there yet.
I mean, our beaches are relatively small.
I mean, the industry produces hundreds of
thousands of patches.
We are producing a thousand or
yeah. And these kind of numbers.
And so we
are still doing the production now in
China. And so what are the challenges
when talking with the Chinese people?
I know I know at the beginning we tried
to talk to them in English
and then we switched to Chinese.
Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah. OK. So, so
true.
The platform.
We actually we are only allowed to
converse in English, purely English.
So any Mandarin was actually reflect
that. So this best Alibaba was meant
to be beautiful for international buyers,
right? So did the one.
The the native speakers
from China to the start going
through around Alibaba in when
jacking up prices and things like that.
So everything was in English.
So naturally after that and
they took it off line
with everything was true.
Gmail was through WeChat.
It was doing English as well.
Right? So up to up to a certain
point, we think that
information was lost
during the communication.
So that's where
where we start to converse
in Mandarin.
You know, luckily in Singapore, we
actually most of us actually are able
to communicate bilingual.
So it's English and other language.
So. So for me, it's of course Mandarin,
right? So I communicated with
Dan with overengineered, of course, to
get it, to get it, to get idea across.
And then, of course,
when you are able to converse and
Mandarin this service to its
the service to us became better
because they understand that
we could also communicate with
other distributors or manufacturers
or
in China is going to compare quality.
So naturally, the quality
of the service became better.
Yeah, but after
and because of
the able to converse in Mandarin,
of course, they were able to do
to show us more stuff.
Even the free checks
on the schematics for us to ensure
that it doesn't hit any
production issues.
Yeah.
Cool and yeah,
but as you said, things have changed a
bit. I mean, our
advantage is that we have
the established connection already
and we understand the process much
better. I mean, like actually, it's
pretty straightforward the process.
But when you do it the first time when
you produce the first time, you're not
sure. Right? Is it like this or is it
like this? What we get cheated into?
And we also, yeah, for us,
it was quite a substantial investment.
Like we started the
commercial operation because as a
community, you cannot just produce
a pocket sized slip.
But we achieved to do it and
we had some insights from you.
We did. But now we have corona time.
So how could we do it in current
times when there are component shortages?
And how did we work it out?
And yeah, Pacman, you were the center
of the hardware prototyping of
the new version, which
comes with a few cool features.
So we are supporting more and more robot
functions and we have edited
SD card.
We are just small battery and more
Wi-Fi. Bluetooth features
pins for more experiments.
So it's it's like kind of a new
product even then.
So yeah, a lot of
new components were added
battery and so on, and we needed
to make new prototypes.
So Padma, how did this
work out? How were you able to
get the prototypes together?
Yeah.
OK. I dropped out of the
thing.
Connection to Sri Lanka.
I got my job back.
Can you? Yes.
How did it work out? How were you able to
produce the new prototypes now in current
times, but maybe shaky connection?
I think also there are
the other people, right?
I mean, so
maybe, Daniel, because you also were
part of that discussion, Daniel McCloskey
or a little bit, how did that work
out with the prototypes?
Do you remember how we tried to figure
this out?
I think I'm back now, OK,
so then go ahead.
Yeah.
So.
I remember when we were doing prototypes,
we usually all
make little portable devices
three or four, and then we distribute
among ourselves and
then we test these.
And while we are using it, we we feel
like, OK, now one might
find this really useful and we try
to put their faith in this
in this new mode.
And so we we get a new prototype.
So we went a couple
of times and we had two or
three of these improvements.
So that's that's how we got this, this
big time with real time flow
and the battery management
system and devices
for existing ones
and then comfortable rolling.
Along with it came this chip
shortage worldwide.
So, but
for most of the chips, they were having
a very long lead time, some
some parts might not not be
even a level for about a couple
more years.
So what? We couldn't wait until these
parts become available.
So as a solution,
what we try to do is we we
celebrate some components from all PCBs
and we sold them and try
to just
have this proof of concept, really, so
that then when, when, when the components
are ready, we can just go directly to
mass production.
That's how we tackle this problem.
Yes, and our big question was,
how could we do that in the future?
Also what we have maybe components that
aren't available?
And what if supply chains are
like more and more disrupted?
So yeah, and then we
have the great
connection here to Daniel Vessel alike,
who work also and supported us in
the Open Next project, which was funded
by EU Horizon 2020.
And Daniel, we took an idea that
the Kiwi had told us, like years ago,
already with the local production.
And so how
do you think like that idea could
apply, for example, for us in future
even more?
Could you explain a bit about
decentralized local production and
how it could benefit us?
And what is the idea, for example,
with the cooperation that we tried to
start with the University
of Applied Science here in Berlin?
Yes. You know, we'll just just
in another thought, but I don't know if
that's technically possible, like to have
like parametric pickup fights,
basically, so that you have a list of
components for.
Each part basically and then reroutes
the things or something, but this was
something along the lines where
I was wondering how to how to possibly
solve this, but like it's very great that
we have this connection to the BE-HOTTIE
building or solicitation.
And they have a long tradition in
making PCBs.
So they have all the chemicals and a lot
of tools to make PCBs,
but also like pick and place machines.
So we were already in the process
of starting to getting this
running, and it's of course, like
machines that have
been sponsored by industry,
for example. So they were running in
production for a while, but no one
has ever used them in the new location.
So, so then
that came the chip shortage
and and everything, but delayed
a bit. But in general, I think especially
for big things and ultimately
it can be like electronics, but it can
also be furniture
and all different kinds of
objects. They are local production
makes even more of a difference
because if you just share the plans
and the ways and the processes and the
production possibilities,
and then you source your product
and the machines locally
and you can just get your, I don't
know your shelf system that's exactly
fitted to your space from
your city and and everything happens.
They, of course, you have a lot
of mass transportation.
And so I think it's a strong
case, especially for bigger
open hardware projects
and back to electronics.
I think we got so
used to just sending off the flights
to China and shortly after
getting everything shipped back and
everything was working perfectly.
And then there was like this ship
ever given and suddenly
nothing was moving anymore and then when
it was corona and so on.
So I think there's more of a realization
that it would be good to have
this to not lose the skills and the
and the possibilities, even though it
might be more expensive to produce
there directly, for example, here in
Germany. But they would be
smart to get better at that
and not to replace the
possibilities of producing globally,
but to add to the
to the ways of doing it and especially
for smaller batches.
I think it's super great if you are able
to go through all these steps,
and it's also for the students
to learn.
So and we have talked
a lot about what are our challenges
in the production.
But the question is also how
a different way of producing
can, for example, help us to save energy.
Help us in the fight against
climate change.
And do we have Kiwi here who is
based in Singapore?
And the works with the yeah,
laser cutter project was the laser cutter
project and his company, Lions
Forge.
And yeah, Kiwi helped us
to produce these casings
in the Pocket Science Lab and for
example, here with laser cuts and
with fires that repulsive
then on our repositories.
So Kiwi, could you tell us a bit about
the advantages of local production
and what advantages?
And does open hardware have you?
Yeah. Thank you, Mario.
Giving you this time to share on this
subject.
So this is a local production,
but I will change the terminology not
just for myself, our community,
but I should.
So, so
I've been talking about comedy
productions since we first met
with Mario Ossetia.
So I'm a strong believer that
not just about
resilience for the community,
but also looking at sustainability.
The reason I just give you one example.
So a lot of the pacing that
we make as a product where you're using
whatever material we can find
in office. So just coming here, guys,
we want to be a prototype.
I I'm with you are here or there.
We just we just recycle.
And until we are to come up with
functional products and these will also
be applied to a lot of projects,
especially during COVID 19.
So if I may, I'll just show you
some presentation.
It just happened that I have given
another session.
But again, from this picture, if you can
see so
again, local production, especially
committee production during the time of
crisis when everything come
to a standstill.
But critical critical supplies
such as medical device cannot
be assessed in other ways
other than fabricating or so.
So just imagine if the school
is opposed to open up and allows
the community to come in and fabricate
like some of the schools we saw
servicing into, like a factory to produce
like ventilator face masks.
You need me just to draw something
that I have done.
So
just put this.
All right.
OK, so Wendy,
what happened here that when the COVID 19
hit that in 2020, much
Singapore was going straight
into a lockdown?
So the and
we all know that if China's like the
shipment of masks, facials
was totally not available.
So what happened then is that we quickly
get with the
community to kind of fight
whoever tippy toes were to get in, though
we use to actually build also a laser
cutter like myself.
We just built what we call
a phase shoe production.
Banks or using these, it got to do this
with this should be about
100 of these to water volunteers.
Each of them within a day can
produce 100 pieces
of facials.
So as a result,
we are able to kind of get to the
community, come together to support
the facials, which you can see.
Don't go to the a front line
workers or people who are
in quite.
As a disadvantage, I saw this guy, the
high risk area, so whether they
are selling food or whether they are
working in the hospital.
So these are some of the example.
Right. OK, so going back, so.
So these are just a very minor swing on
boats, but you can see that if this
process of having the
community able to produce your own
using the resources you have
within the facilities, so
is not just about
not being threatened by China is also
the ability not at
COVID 19 or the pandemic is going to be
the new norm.
So you never know when will be the next
lockdown. Right?
So it's better for the community to be
more prepared. And as we move
towards climate change.
So let's just talk a bit on
the energy efficiency and the material
efficiency perspective.
So put fight COVID 19, so it's
all about energy efficiency.
So using your own
material, or they can find
that it would otherwise be in trouble
a select few or been blown
away as as wastes?
No, you can use it for better.
Think when that perspective can be used a
lot.
And moreover, able to produce it on
goods, busses or the container
ship all the way to here.
There are no carbon footprints produced
by whether it's from the aircraft, from
the shipping industry and the
logistics, or those with low energy.
So in a way, you are reducing waste.
And as in time, you are using the amount
carbon footprint per product.
So from that perspective, I think.
When it
comes in, when we
move away on not just
the material, but also the design of the
electronics. So if in
the future all your training are more or
less the standard template, then
speaking again, just unplug one
components electronics and apply it
into another electronics.
So right now, obviously for the purpose
of education, so they are already
doing that. But one thing is that
can we move debt, open
architecture that interconnect
credibility beyond just education?
Can we move it into the industry?
Can we convince the industry to do that?
So what assuming your your
when people start to bite, you've got is
sort of treasury that you've got.
Can we take this same and apply to a
washing machine? Apply it to your
article and write.
And back to you, Mary,
I think, wow, well, I'm just amazed
you're drawing a very big vision, and I
think these are the times where
we need such big visions
to change the way really the industry
works and we want to
be examples.
We want to give examples how this can
really work. And I would like to ask
Daniel Vessel in regards to
a resilient and sustainable society now
that we mentioned and
you are also a scientist
like a researcher.
And what advantages do you see
as open hardware?
And by going along the way, that
was what you mentioned
him as he's doing it in
a practical way.
What opportunities to you see?
Yeah, like I was very
happy that the computer magazine
published something on the Open-Source
hardware, I think it's blurry now because
of the filter.
But basically, I think
I think this DIY approach is one
side of the picture.
So like using what you have and so
on. But and I think it's a big one, but
at the same time, I think also being
able to like open your devices and so on
like right to repair has
gotten a big push in Germany now because
we have a new government now and they
have it within their agenda to
to foster this, this this approach.
So. So for me, it would be already really
great if, like every device
that I have like laying around,
especially the bigger ones, if I can open
it up with that
like exchange with other
people that might also
know what constantly goes wrong
and so on. So like so I think there's a
lot of.
It would be super great to have mostly
hardware simply in my surrounding,
because because it would make
it all a lot easier, and maybe
one could also like it's also easier than
to if someone has a broken device or
a device that they don't want to use
anymore to really use this directly
in order to exchange parts and so
on.
So. So the more modular things are
as they were just expanding, the
better and.
I wonder, like like what one can do
because I feel like there is some more
emotion now like, look, we had
a peak ten years ago also,
so but I think now it becomes more
and more of the topic to push
Obama out there, also on the political
level.
So I want to see more product
and I want to see them everywhere
in the kitchen and in the
living room and think so.
And for me, like like if they are
comparable devices
like like like I would walk
further for the open ones, of course,
because it's a big advantage for
them. You talked about extensibility
and we have Alexandru here.
And so in the talk of Tankleff
project, we can support them.
Potentially any sensor
that supports AI squared see
this standard supported by a lot of
sensors and we have circuit pricing
implemented.
We are working with 6lh and
we have Alexandro here and you working
on a kind of extension or a component
that can work together with the pocket
time step. It is the open spectrometer
and I think this is a very good example,
not just of how hot extensibility
can work, but also how we collaborate
collaborate in the project.
Please tell us a bit more about the open
spectrometer and what
you can do with it in the future.
Yes.
So for the first about the
first question,
what I envision is this
Open-Source hardware reaching
out to also
the laboratory, the scientific
laboratories, and because there is
such a need of standardization.
The open source movement is
food for the support
scientific activities on the in
in the sense of reproducibility
of experiments and the commitment
and the like.
Key was saying it would be great to have
a community capacity
of building such equipment
because you could empower communities
that are hard to reach
where there, where the where
the parts are not easy to be found.
And yes, by some advising the
construction of this equipment,
this piece of equipment, we could
empower more people to do science and
to make analysis and to study
and to be able to study the world
and the problems that the themselves
about the spectrometer, the
spectrophotometer.
This is a tool that tells
you what's in your sample.
So which chemical compound that is
sample and how much of it there
is?
This is a very common technique.
It was in biology biology
laboratories, and
it can let you do that.
So a lot of
different assays.
So a test.
And yes,
we have seen we're having some troubles
because when you touched, so we have
a really powerful sensor and
there are some we are seeing that it's
not so easy to.
To connect connected with the Rocket
Science Lab, but we are positive because
through this experience, we are really
seeing what's the potential
and how to go beyond that there
the X-ray capacity of pocket sized slots.
So I'm really positive about this
experience and
I'm really looking forward to see when
these we learn this tool with
this device will actually work
and that starting
with some workshops to teach her about
the more complex
scientific experiments to people so
already for young people so that they
can proceed faster
in the life science careers.
So yes, I think that's
that's a quick summary.
Of course, they always find it very
exciting when it comes to your top lab.
And we talk about this and we try out the
first prototypes of the open spectrometer
and you tell me what you can do
with a spectrometer because, for example,
you can go into the supermarket
and check out fruits and so
on.
Could you give us a few more examples?
OK, yes.
So the practical applications
that we envision is to check.
So it works by checking the color,
analyzing the rainbows of the
chemicals so you, you
throw some light at the other substance
and it attracts a color, which is what
we see.
And yes,
I have family and everything,
and it affects the color.
And if you split this color into
a rainbow, you can
check how much of each
tone of color varies and
each chemical has as a known
pattern.
And through this, you can tell
how much nutrients micronutrients
are in your fruit, in the
fruit or vegetable that they're buying,
how right they are.
And then you can make a study to check
how nutritious these are
food.
So a vegetable or fruit,
according to his writing status.
And then you can check
what's nutritious to you
or if you have some really
fine spectroscopic method.
You can also tell if their water
is contaminated and what's
in the water. So which which contaminant
is it? And track it back
up through knowledge to the source.
So there is a contaminant in the river.
You can check if it's metal, which metal
or chemical dye, and you can track
it back to the source.
So the industry, which is releasing gas
into the waters,
these are kind of applications,
this tool.
So a simple version of these is used
in the lab to quantify, for example,
results of PCR tests, which is the
one that we use
to check the gold standard to check
the coronavirus.
For example, COVID 19.
So they are called the air
two PCR tests real time and there is
a different type of.
Of of machine
and there that it has these
kind of spectrometers integrated,
so it's works with light.
So there is a lot of very a lot of
applications and yeah,
maybe that hopefully
we will see something soon in the
next in the coming year or.
I could imagine, like all these kids,
they're doing.
And you can foster
these kind of things where where they go
out in the supermarket test, what
is really true?
Is it really true? What's written on the
product description?
Is it really olive oil?
Are these products really from that
country and so on?
Like, you're trying to find out all kinds
of things with the open
spectrometer?
So that would be so cool because and
of course, also want to lower the price,
not these expensive spectrometers that
are available, but good quality
spectrometers for below â‚¬200
on future even below 100 euros.
So that would be really amazing.
Thank you very much for giving you a few
insights here, and this will definitely
give a talk on the entire thing
because it's such a big topic.
Thank you.
OK. And we don't
have like many hours, but we have a few
more minutes, I think.
And I would also
like to talk a bit about like
how we overcame this corona
crisis by focusing on different
topics, making them the
more extensible, by focusing on
software components.
And we have unexpected money here from
Sweden, who
also joined the project like
I think a couple of years ago.
And Alex, could you talk
to us a little bit more about what has
been the progress and for
example, in the area of circuit python
of working on
plugging in our libraries into
psych rock? And maybe not everyone knows
what to see.
But yeah, it would be great if you could
share a bit about the work that has been
done here during the crisis and also
how we overcame these challenging
times.
Absolutely.
So we have talked already a bit about
the extensibility potential of the
lab.
So any sensor that that
talks over any of the protocols, both
with the FBI or you
can theoretically be made to work
with the lab
with each of those, if every
such sensor ever had such a device
would need to have its own driver
written, basically.
But there's already a lot of drivers
written out there with suitable licenses
for a lot of sensors and devices.
And it turns out that a lot of these
drivers are implemented in sort of
python.
So we wanted to
see if there was a way that we could use
these drivers instead of making our own.
So we had a diesel project on that
this past summer and
it was quite successful and.
Often after that project
was merged, the
lab can now use
any sensor that has an existing
driver written
in Python with minimal
work. It takes a few lines
of code to glue it all together, but
there's no need to reinvent the entire
driver anymore.
It's not a big success, I think.
And the other project, I think
that you mentioned Mario is
existing, a mature
application and library for
interfacing with
a number of sensors and instruments
like telescopes and
motor analyzers and other devices.
And so we wanted to
to see if we could
use sandrock
and integrate with the lab.
And the reason we wanted to do that was
because two reasons, mainly
Seabrook, provide support for
it supports both,
of course, but also Android
as the lab.
But the Android and desktop
support are currently implemented in two
completely parallel driver aspects.
One is written in Java for Android.
On the other, it's written in Python.
So any any work on
the driver has to be done twice.
So if we could instead replace the
drivers with the Ciroc,
then we can do it in one place,
which would be beneficial
for us.
In addition to that, the project also
supports a number of features that we
would like to have but don't have yet.
So if we were successful in
integrating SIGGRAPH, then we would get
those basic things for free.
That work is not done yet, but it's
ongoing going to have some
communication issues with Upstream, but I
think that's out of scope
for further talk.
Yeah,
I think that's what it's for, for that.
Yeah. And thank you very much.
And these are the technical aspects
and it's great to see that progress.
And I would also like to get your opinion
about the slip and the topic of climate
change. So practically, and
we have heard about open hardware can be
more sustainable in regards to the
production and to the logistics,
the delivery process as well
as the repairability.
I would say and but what are the use
cases now of our open hardware
project here?
Where where can the president
be used as a solution
to technology development
or to halt climate change?
Could you think of any potential
experiments or processes
and where it could be useful?
Yes, absolutely.
I mean, one one thing that you can do
with the is that already is
you can measure such things
as carbon dioxide
concentration in the atmosphere.
Yes, that's an example that's relevant to
the climate change
being able to to understand the
world around you. It's essential,
I would say, to to
the whole damage range.
So being able to I'm having some,
I'm hearing something from someone
else right now.
I'm in trouble.
Yeah, me too. Maybe from some backstage
or something, I muted
them.
I hope it's OK. All right.
Thank you.
I know still hearing them.
OK, so I don't know,
maybe I don't have the rights.
Yeah, we're on the fence something.
Yeah,
I think I think it's OK.
For me.
Are there are there some questions from
you from from the audience that we can
switch to him?
I haven't seen any questions posted.
There's one question on the pet.
I found one question and
right now I see four of or not found.
So maybe the pet is getting restarted?
I don't know. Felix has won
the iPhone to the iPad
and still working.
And the question that I found this?
Where can people find out more about
this amazing project?
So they're asking for a link or
something to
find out more?
OK, so the link is settled,
I hope.
You can just check it out,
please. And yeah, exactly
and and we are
coming to the end of this meeting as you
see it, like I'm assuming bit because
I can't forget didn't have the chance
to to talk about like how we
make community efforts.
And Daniel also
didn't talk so much. But like, I think we
have a couple of minutes left.
So, Alex,
the experience, what camp?
So like I was saying?
The piece that is basically
it allows for
citizen science.
So anyone with with a satellite
can can can do a lot of
a lot of measurements to learn more
about the world around them
and through that.
You know.
I struggled to find any
to come up with any specific
ways to solve climate change
through that because it's such a it's
such an enormous, enormous challenge,
an obvious topic.
But just by understanding,
it's my learning more
yourself.
It's, I think, an essential step
which the club and other
open hardware projects like it
enable.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we need to understand the world around
us in order to
solve the problems around us.
And I understand.
Thank you very much, Alex.
And yeah, we have
like a little bit left and
I would like to ask Daniel and on
think and to conclude this session.
Daniel, for example, is working hard.
Daniel, my boss, is working hard on the
desktop app and how VOCA
brings the community together.
So I'd like to invite both of you
for the final conversation to wrap up
this.
Yeah, great. Get together.
And we also just saw the website.
Thank you very much, Felix, for showing
the website. You saw the pictures also
of other contributors.
And yeah, thank you very much
for everyone. So Daniel,
would you like to use these final minutes
for sharing a bit
about the community and the development
and how people can contribute?
Maybe.
Sure. So,
yeah, so I don't when possible,
I don't want to say that I'm so grateful
to be here, to be involved in the
project and to be among
you, the people and
not only my friends, but the people who
give me a lot of energy, a
lot of inspiration
to to continue what I'm doing in the
community.
So I went through the second set just
now. So climate change is a
huge topic and it cannot be tackled
by just a small group of people.
We need everyone involved in the
conversation we are having right now
is an example of how
big a problem can be solved
by sharing of
technology, sharing
of so-called resources.
And I think I don't need to emphasize the
sample here anymore.
A Kiwi and then you a vessel
like our dimension or Aleksandra, or
there's so many applications around
that we can preference do.
But I wanted to make a call for the
people out there and that we need more
people. We need more believers on
the right to be part.
Open-Source hardware can change something
and we need to join together in movement
in this movement.
So then you see, I'm
going to pass it over to him.
I don't want to say that I know Daniel
for several years, also through
the open source community, and that was
totally surprised
by all the work that he'd done so far
and continuously supporting
the project. And
it's great to see so many
people despite of difficulty
during COVID.
We know that the last two years
have been so challenging for everyone
of us.
But still, the people here in this court
and a lot of people out here participate
in the in the AC tree,
and we believe that by coming together
we can do something good, we can do
something. And I truly hope that this
momentum continue
to grow among us and
inspire more people.
Daniel, you'll find a permit.
That's yeah, just just a
quick thought that just came to me
because we've talked about understanding
things and I'm absolutely aligned
with Alex here.
So it really helps if
more and more people understand what's
going on in the world to
fight things like climate change, but
also, well, basically any issue,
right? So reading news, looking
at things is always a very good idea.
And since the Pocket Science Lab is
also open for us, we already discussed
what you can do, for example, as you can
look at the schematics that we have.
So that means you can get the full
understanding about how the electronics
are tied together, and you
can also transfer that to
other electronics.
So it's not a very specific thing,
but lots of pictures that you see
in electronics can also be found
in other devices.
So if you are in that situation where
one of your other devices breaks,
then maybe you can gain the knowledge to,
you know, get that thing
up and running back again
because you may see the very same pattern
also being used in
a lab, but the car difference
may be that you actually have schematics
there. And then maybe you can
conclude and see, you know,
there are these and these devices are
like, you know, specific resistors
capacitors, which have
especially effects if they are coming
together or, you know, larger
circuits like with my sets, for example,
we have many of these
smaller, let's say,
compound circuits also on that
board.
And that can give you a very, very good
understanding of things.
And I can tell you, for example,
with the sensors that you can attach to
the slab, you can find the very same
stuff in your laptop or in your desktop
computer also.
So that could be a very good motivation.
Thank you very much, Daniel.
These were very good final
words, actually, and thank
you very much for
all your work also bringing the community
together.
I want to point out that we have a
courtyard contest called heat
dot org and where you can
even like, win some small prizes
if you contribute to the Pocket Science
Lab project.
And yeah, as I said earlier, you can
find us on laptop
or with all the links, and
you can find Kyrie also like him on
his website for the Lions Forge laser
cutter. And just like a Typekit
into your favorite search engine.
Thank you very much for all the
panelists.
It was a pleasure like it was
really condensed. I love to get all the
information here together,
and I hope we can meet
again soon as our like regular
meetups that we have from time to time.
Before the corona times sweat,
it's great to see you all in good health.
And yeah, I'm excited to get
the next version of
sleep out there with everyone's
work together, and we know not everyone
could be here today.
Some people are like recovering.
Some people are in a challenging time
zone.
But thank you very much for your
work and for your contributions, everyone
and have a good day.
Thanks a lot for the audience.
Please connect with us and
have a good time here at the ICC.
Good bye, everyone.
Yes, but thanks.
Have a nice day.