Responding to the earlier post of Chaitanya on OpenSource, DIY projects, I would like to share two other different, but similar examples of innovative, low-cost DIY products.
The first example is one that some of you will have seen already. It is short 6 minutes TED talk by Johnny Lee:
Although I advise you to watch the movie, it's great, here a short summary: Johnny Lee observed that the presentation equipment for schools is very expensive. For example digital whiteboards. They are now used in a lot of schools, but it costs them a lot of money. In the spirit of what was termed 'frugal engineering' in the papers of Seghal and others and the Scientific American article, Lee hacked a wii remote, which is stuffed with advanced technology and sold for less than $35. He did some quick programming and within a couple of days he created a digital whiteboard for less than $35. Compare this with the price of regular interactive whiteboards ranging from $1000 - $4000! Using technology like this could open up opportunities for all kinds of regions with less money available to spend on education facilities.
The second example I would like to share with you comes from an acquaintance of mine Rolf Hut. He is a researcher at my home university in Delft. Watch his TEDx Delft Talk:
It starts with the same kind of observation: Weather matters for people who rely on agriculture. Because having accurate weather data can provide you with more accurate forecasts. And in agriculture, you want forecasts, since you need to know when the best time is to harvest to crops. But accurate weather information is costly. And especially scarse in Africa. So Rolf Hut, whom I would describe as a true Frugal McGiver, set out with some of his students to design a better solution for this problem. Over night, they designed a cheap sensor which can detect rainfall. Combine this with a similar cheap sensor for wind data (Dr. John Selker), spread it out over Africa, connect it to existing platforms such as the One Laptop per Child program which was mentioned in the class, and you have a cheap, detailed data set on the weather in Africa which can increase crop production and thus wealth. http://www.tahmo.org/120422%20EGU%202012%20TAHMOs.pdf
Some similarities: Detailed observations of sub-issues of problems. Smart engineers who go from problem to prototype overnight. Using exisiting, low-cost technolgy as a basis for their solution.
Pim,
ReplyDeleteThe blog post is very interesting. I came across this today. The talk from TEDx Delft was new to me. I enjoyed it. Thanks