Modularity
Thursday, 15Jan2015 Filed in: Tools
Back in the 1980s, some of us tried to “blue-sky” a starship bridge simulator and a star-fighter simulator. Part of the idea depended on making everything modular. So you’d take a control like a joystick (early 80s, remember?) and plop it down in a computer frame. The computer would turn on, sense what was connected, and configure itself.
When I told people the story, I’d say “The computer would wake up and say ‘with THAT I can do THIS!’” Now this was a pretty obvious idea and not original. Our version never even got to the prototype stage.
When I see this, it’s still flashback time. I hope they pull it off with the build quality and the reliability.
More and more it seems like smartphones are becoming the hub of a modular tool system. Not just bits like this or this, but things like this. Not to mention all the home automation that is cropping up.
What I’m worried about is the “edge of utility,” it’s the same thing that makes my Leatherman Charge less useful than it should be.
TOO MANY PIECES.
That’s it.
With a tool box or a workbench, you have room. With pockets, not so much. Short of a utility belt, I’m not quite sure what you do.
Part of it is to make sure that the tools themselves can do more. Who would have thought that the most popular point-and-shoot camera would be a smartphone? More utility is going to get built in, I look for IR capability added to the camera next just because it can be one of the most massively useful tools out there.
Meanwhile I’m watching to see just how are the modular approach will go.
When I told people the story, I’d say “The computer would wake up and say ‘with THAT I can do THIS!’” Now this was a pretty obvious idea and not original. Our version never even got to the prototype stage.
When I see this, it’s still flashback time. I hope they pull it off with the build quality and the reliability.
More and more it seems like smartphones are becoming the hub of a modular tool system. Not just bits like this or this, but things like this. Not to mention all the home automation that is cropping up.
What I’m worried about is the “edge of utility,” it’s the same thing that makes my Leatherman Charge less useful than it should be.
TOO MANY PIECES.
That’s it.
With a tool box or a workbench, you have room. With pockets, not so much. Short of a utility belt, I’m not quite sure what you do.
Part of it is to make sure that the tools themselves can do more. Who would have thought that the most popular point-and-shoot camera would be a smartphone? More utility is going to get built in, I look for IR capability added to the camera next just because it can be one of the most massively useful tools out there.
Meanwhile I’m watching to see just how are the modular approach will go.
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