In a launch event at San Francisco, Google gave the first glimpse of project Ara modular prototype Smartphone. Google’s Project Ara wants to assemble your Smartphone from individual parts.
“Project Ara is the codename for an initiative by Google that aims to develop a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular Smartphone’s”.
The platform aims at a structural frame that holds Smartphone modules of the owner’s choice, such as a display, keyboard or an extra battery. It will allow users to swap out malfunctioning modules or upgrade individual modules as new innovations emerge, providing long lifetime cycle for the handset and reducing electronic waste.
A new video from Phonebloks gives a quick walkthrough of Google’s offices, where we see some of the new hardware and software powering the company’s most ambitious Smartphone project. The project seems to be interesting and ambitious. As we know that Ara devices will be comprised of modules that users can swap according to their liking, and this new video shows how they’ll stick together. The Ara team is using electro permanent magnets, which allows the individual modules to stay in place.
As Jeff Blanks from 3D Systems, a California-based company says the main challenge will be in creating hardware parts to be robust enough to handle everyday wear and tear.3D Systems is providing 3D printing systems for easily printing the modules for Project Ara.
Another company involved is SoSo Limited, an art and tech studio. It is developing a UI for an application. The app would allow users to check out different combinations of hardware, before they make the purchase.
Google plans to release the first Ara Developers Conference, to be held April 15-16, 2014.
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