Open Hardware

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10 Industries 3D Printing Will Disrupt Or Decimate

Lyndsey Gilpin | TechRepublic | February 12, 2014

As it evolves, 3D printing technology is destined to transform almost every major industry and change the way we live, work, and play in the future.  For better or worse, the 3D printing industry is poised to transform nearly every sector of our lives and jumpstart the next industrial revolution.

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3-D Printing Could Offer Savings On Replica Lab Kit

Working replicas of expensive scientific equipment could be made for a fraction of conventional cost using cheap 3-D printers, possibly saving developing world labs thousands of dollars each time, says a researcher whose book on the subject was published last year. This and similar advances mean the age of appropriate technology — affordable, sustainable solutions designed and built to meet local needs — may be here, argues Joshua Pearce, a materials science and engineering professor at Michigan Technological University, United States, in an article in Physics World magazine.

3-D Printing Offers Quick, Cost-effective Solution to Help Train Aspiring Nurses

Press Release | University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) | June 20, 2018

As a regular attendee of conferences on healthcare simulation around the world, Dr. Lori Lioce was already well aware of the growing trend of using 3-D printing to create task trainers – clinical simulators that allow nursing students to repeatedly practice a specific skill in preparation for providing healthcare in the real world. What she needed was access to the technology. So the clinical associate professor in the College of Nursing at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) turned to Norven Goddard, a research scientist at UAH’s Systems Management and Production (SMAP) Center, for help.

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3D Design Contest for Medical Tools in Africa

The moment the open source RepRap 3D printer was created, its potential for helping the developing the world was evident. The distributed digital production of open source appropriate technology can make a real difference. Research in this area has been heating up with numerous applications from the Enabling the Future's prosthetic hands, to the Waterscope microscope, to more mundane things like organic farm tools. The ReFab Dar project hopes to accelerate this trend. It is a pilot program that explores how plastic waste can power entrepreneurship using 3D printers in Tanzania. They have built on the early work done by the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology Laboratory's efforts with open source recyclebots to turn plastic waste into 3D printing filament and then into high-value products...

3D Printers Become Viable Tools In Healthcare

3D printing has received a lot of attention for its applications in the health sector, from helping Bespoke prosthetics change patients' lives to enabling huge strides in stem cell research. And with desktop 3D printers becoming increasingly affordable and reliable—and open source software such as Cura being versatile, easy to use, and free to update—barriers to further 3D printing innovation are quickly disappearing. What was once only available to well-funded practitioners has now become genuinely accessible to every patient, nurse, doctor, surgeon, hospital, and teaching facility...

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5 DIY Hardware Platforms for Physiological Computing

Physiological computing focuses on the use of biosignals for the development of interactive software and hardware systems capable of sensing, processing, reacting, and interfacing the digital and analog worlds. However, biosignals have specific requirements for which typical physical computing platforms are not particularly tuned. Until recently, many projects ended up hindered by high costs and limited access to suitable hardware materials. That scenario is different today, partially thanks to the following 5 DIY hardware platforms...

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5 Ways to Invigorate Education with Raspberry Pi

Recently I was invited to talk to a group of eighth grade students about the Raspberry Pi. Of the 15 students and three teachers there, only a few had heard of the Raspberry Pi. None had ever held one in their hand, nor did they know how to set one up or even where to look for information to do so. I spent 40 minutes talking to them and inviting them to explore the Raspberry Pi and the wealth of high-quality, open source software that comes with it. They were energized and eager to learn more...I think something needs to be done, so I am inviting fellow open source advocates to join me in making minor investments in their communities to move the ball forward.

6 Reasons People with Disabilities Should Use Linux

Often, when issues of accessibility and assistive technology are brought up among people with disabilities, the topics center around the usual issues: How can I afford this device? Is it available for me? Will it meet my needs? How will I receive support? Open source solutions, including any Linux-based operating system, are rarely, if ever, considered. The problem isn't with the solution; instead, it is a result of lack of information and awareness of FOSS and GNU/Linux in the disability community, and even among people in general. Here are six solid reasons people with disabilities should consider using Linux...

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A Look Inside the 'Blinky Flashy' World of Wearables and Open Hardware

While looking at the this year's All Things Open event schedule, a talk on wearables and open hardware caught my eye: The world of the blinky flashy. Naturally, I dug deeper to learn what it was all about. Though Gina Likins and Jen Krieger of Red Hat would like to leave a few surprises for the lucky folks who attend their talk, they told me they can promise at least the following: ideas about how you can integrate simple circuitry into your outfits to "tron-ify" your wardrobe,
ways to add interactivity to art projects (or science projects! or exhibits!) that turn a spectator into a co-creator...

A Primer on the Open Source Movement from a Health Care Perspective

Open source, in myriad forms, has emerged as a significant development model that drives both innovation and technological dispersion. Ignore it at your peril, as did the major computer companies destroyed or totally remade by Linux and free software, or encyclopedia publishers by Wikipedia, or journalists and marketers by social media. The term "open source" was associated first with free software, but it goes far beyond software now. People around the world use open hardware, demand open government, share open data, and--yes--pursue open health. The field of health, in particular, will be transformed by open source principles in software, in research, in consultations and telemedicine, and in the various forms of data sharing all these processes call for.

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An Inside Look At The Latest Telemedicine Instruments In Action With VSee & Open Source PTZoptics

Press Release | PTZoptics | October 22, 2015

VSee TeleMedicine Software announces robotic PTZ camera control support for the PTZOptics camera line...PTZOptics and VSee have teamed up to produce a video demonstrating the latest telemedicine instruments in a quick 5 minute presentation. In this video Paul Richards, Dir of Business Development for PTZOptics, reviews the latest telemedicine instruments with Dr. Anne Chang of VSee. This inside look at the technology doctors will be using to perform remote telehealth appointments demonstrates the following healthcare tools in an online patient survey...

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As Moore’s Law Slows, Open Hardware Rises

Jessica MacNeil | EE Times | April 6, 2014

At 8-years old, Andrew "Bunnie" Huang appreciated the fact that his Apple II came with schematics and source code because it allowed him to figure out how it worked...Today that information is guarded and protected in the hardware industry and Huang, now a research affiliate at MIT who holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the school, realized this change wasn't because hardware became too complex, but because it was too easy to improve, and Moore's Law was tough to keep up with.

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Attention Hardware Hackers: Win A Trip To Space With The Hackaday Prize

Ronald Barba | Tech Cocktail | April 29, 2014

If you’re not around the D.C. area and can’t make it to our Sessions event with SpaceX’s Steve Davis tomorrow, then I guess you’ll just have to settle for this space-related news: Get the chance to change the future of humanity and win a trip to space in the process.

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Autodesk Announces $100 Million Spark Investment Fund, The World’s First 3D Printing Investment Program

Press Release | Autodesk | October 30, 2014

Autodesk, Inc...has announced that it intends to invest up to $100 million in 3D printing companies over the next several years. The Spark Investment Fund...is the first of its kind for the 3D printing industry and will invest in entrepreneurs, startups and researchers who push the boundaries of 3D printing technology and accelerate the new industrial revolution. Read More »

Best Of Open Hardware In 2014

Luis Ibanez | Opensource.com | December 22, 2014

Open hardware is the physical foundation of the open movement. It is through understanding, designing, manufacturing, commercializing, and adopting open hardware, that we built the basis for a healthy and self-reliant community of open. And the year of 2014 had plenty of activities in the open hardware front...

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