BugLabs: Open Source Modular Electronics

I’ve read some blog posts and saw some video about BugLabs recently and I’m really blown away. Imagine being able to do your own hardware mashups. Well now you can via an open source API and hardware components from BugLabs. The first production kits are advertised to ship in Q4 2007 so keep your ear to the ground to find out when you can order one. Meanwhile, you can read more about the source (which is Java and OSGi) and the hardware modules on their product page. Here’s more about the software stack:

BUG is built entirely with open source software. BMI, the BUG Module Interface, attaches devices to the BUG. Device-based services and applications are dynamically available based on which modules are connected to the BUG. Higher up the stack is Java, which hosts a service-oriented component runtime called OSGi. Java and OSGi make creating new BUG applications simple and intuitive, as BUG applications are essentially one or more bundles. In addition, each BUG module launches an OSGi bundle which in turn creates services for other components to consume. BUG applications are created using the BUG SDK (internally named Dragonfly), and are shared with other developers and users through BUGnet, our online community.

Here’s a glimpse of the hardware modules:

Very cool stuff. I’m looking forward to the various individual and crowd sourcing mashups that pop up once it’s all released. It will be quite a paradigm shift.