The Future of Open Source Hardware

Entrepreneurship and technological advances tend to choose the path of least resistance to reach a goal. Open-source hardware (OSHW) will seep into commercial use and be supported by it, just as open-source software has with the commercial support of Linux in embedded applications, Apache web servers, and the Android operating system.

OSHW will go where low-cost processors take them. Intel has recently released the Galileo, with a processor suited to wearable electronics; meaning small, low-cost processors. Look for OSHW developments in wearables, including more projects related to pervasive computing, also referred to as “The Internet of Things” (IoT). IoT includes anything that autonomously communicates over the Internet, and the Internet of Useful Things lends efficiency and convenience to everyday life. Cloud printing is one example; an OSHW board or a mobile device can print to a remote cloud-enabled printer without setting up specific print drivers. Look for more OSHW projects that enhance current technology.

The future of OSHW will be driven by opportunistic ingenuity by semiconductor companies, by the nascent maker community, by academia, and sheer altruism. Look for medical-related projects as professionals look to solve problems, such as low-cost, open-source ECGs and infusion pumps for poverty-stricken areas.

OSHW is also influenced by market trends and by what technology processors have to offer, as long as it is low cost (which equates to accessibility), but with a difference from regular business models. Altruism drives OSHW, for instance, into the medical and education fields. “Makers” are furthering the trend in such far-flung areas as fashion and the arts. Residually, we will see entrepreneurs use and later share OSHW improvements. The level of openness matters to the success and proliferation of an OSHW board and the processors that live on them, and the future of OSHW is only predictable in so far as the future of the embedded processor is predictable. Processors are built to suit market trends. Intel is moving into the next mobile frontier with wearable technology, currently in use in fitness and fashion. A simple convenience can morph into something that you cannot live without. Example: Phones with cameras; in 2000, we thought who would need them? But they evolved into barcode readers and vital social reporting tools, capturing news footage of international atrocities. Smartphones are visual recognition tools, identification and retrieval systems (where did I park on the street), networked triage tools for disaster relief, videoconferencing stations, and often a means of capturing meeting notes from a white-board.

OSHW is a framework on which to share ideas, and therefore a crucible to mix ideas from many diverse streams from businesses, individuals, artists, and both users and contributors from multiple professions and experiences, all applied to electronics hardware. Open-source hardware possibilities are endless and can go anywhere, and so can you. You can start by looking at open-source hardware kits by Arduino, Launchpad, Beaglebone, and more at
mouser.com.

By Lynnette Reese, Mouser Electronics