Open Source

When we first looked at Diaspora back in May, funds were being raised to build the new social network. Now, after a month of development at San Francisco’s Pivotal Labs, they have released the first still and video images showing how it will work.  Read More

On display at the Tokyo Make Meeting this past Saturday was Beatfly, a cleverly designed illuminated blimp created by Hideki Yoshimoto. Rather than just implement simple radio controls, he has playfully given Beatfly a number of control interfaces. You can drive it by iPhone, MIDI controller, Flash web interface, a standard keyboard, voice control, or even music.  Read More

In what is quickly shaping up as the David versus Goliath fight to watch, four students from NYU’s Courant Institute are looking to take on social networking behemoth Facebook with Diaspora – a distributed, open source social network. They aim to address the privacy concerns that has put Facebook under fire by giving users complete control of their details and content and who they share it with. Through the use of a personal web server called a Diaspora “seed”, users will be able to securely share information, pictures, video and more.  Read More

Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF), the non-profit organization that makes Miro - the cross-platform, free software video player and downloader - has embarked on a Herculean task of subtitling all videos on the Web. PCF is creating Universal Subtitles, an open standard protocol that will allow clients such as Firefox extensions, desktop video players, websites, or browsers to find and download matching subtitles from subtitle databases when they play video. But first, the company needs the subtitles. That’s where you come in.  Read More

Photographers looking to create High Dynamic Range images in the field have traditionally been faced with heavy equipment and the lack of user controls offered by digital SLR cameras. HDR Labs took a Nintendo DS gaming device, created a custom camera interface, loaded on some innovative imaging apps and the Open Camera Control Project was born. The open source, DIY controller puts powerful image processing control right in the palm of your hand.  Read More

To take full advantage of stereo sound, many consumers will install their AV equipment to suit the room’s furniture – sound and vision pointing to the best seat in the house so you can take full advantage of that stereo “sweetspot”. That’s fine when you’re sitting watching a movie, but what happens you start playing the latest active games on Nintendo’s Wii, Sony’s PlayStation3 and Microsoft’s Project Natal? Researchers at the Technology University of Dresden, Germany, have the answer.  Read More

Imagine if every time someone wanted to develop a new piece of software, they first had to design and build a computer to run it. Not only would this greatly add to the time and expense required for software development, but it would also mean that all of us consumers would have to own multiple computers. Well, that’s what it’s like in the field of robotics. Because there is no robot-equivalent of the PC or Mac, every time someone wants a robot that can do something new, a new robot has to be built from scratch. Wouldn’t it be easier if there were one standard robotic platform, for which people just designed new hardware or software? Californian robotics company Willow Garage seems to think so, which is why they’re giving ten of their PR2 robots to deserving research organizations.  Read More

When Nokia acquired the former Symbian Software Limited in 2008 a new independent non-profit organization called the Symbian Foundation was established. One of its main goals was to create the Symbian platform used on more than 330 million mobile phones worldwide as a royalty-free, open source software. Now, less than two full years later and four months ahead of schedule that goal has become a reality with the foundation announcing the completed open source release of the Symbian platform source code.  Read More

Trexa has revealed details of a lithium-powered, all-wheel vehicle development platform that will enable engineers and developers to create custom "vehicle apps", doing for builders of electric vehicles what the iPhone did for application developers. Modular and scalable, the standard Trexa platform will feature an aluminum, carbon steel tubing and thermoplastic shell containing open source and user programmable electronics and advanced battery technology.  Read More