CES 2008: Might Morphing Power Gadget

By far one of the coolest things I've seen come out of CES this year is the Bug Labs Platform. Self-described as the "Lego of Gadgets," Bug Labs does one of the coolest things I've seen in gadgetdom: Allow you, the user and purchaser, to decide what you want your gadget to be and how you want it to work. Need a simple streaming webcam? Check. What about a GPS-enabled camera? Check. How about a GPS enabled webcam that can auto-upload video clips to YouTube with a touch screen display? Check.

Bug Labs accomplishes this by creating a modular gadget. You start with the Bug Base and then insert up to four Bug Modules of your choice. The OS of the base is completely open-source and free to be tinkered with, in fact that is encouraged by Bug Labs. Users can write their own software or download software created by other users on Bug Labs site and install to your very own Linux-based Bug! The possibilities are really only limited by the community.

One other thing Bug Labs got right is the pricing structure. Instead of charging early adopters absurd amount of money only to drop the price shortly after release, Bug Labs is offering a 10%-20% discount on the Base and the first four modules to people that purchase within 60 of release!

Still not enough to convince you this is a hella cool toy? Here's the spec of the Base alone:

• ARM1136JF-S-based microprocessor


• 1 USB 2.0 HS host interface/4 hub port connections


• 1 USB OTG HS interface


• 4 UART serial links


• 4 channel SPI interface


• I2C (400 kbits) interface/4 channels


• I2S interface/2 channels


• Smart LCD interface


• Camera sensor interface


• Micro memory card interface


• MPEG4 hardware encoding/decoding


• Hardware graphic acceleration


• 10/100 Ethernet MAC


• 802.11b/g


• Base unit LCD module interface


• Base unit onboard memory (FLASH/DDR SDRAM)


• JTAG/ICE support


• Serial debug port


• Power system


• AC operation


• Battery operation/up to 4 external batteries


• Fast battery charging/simultaneous of internal and external batteries


• Smart power management support


• Battery-backed real-time clock


• Audio out via onboard piezo speaker

The first four modules are the GPS Device, Digital Camera/Video recorder, Touch Sensitive Color LCD and Accelerometer/Motion Sensor, all set to go on pre-sale starting January 21 of this year. Check out Bug Labs site for more info and to start building your own dream gadget!

Bug Labs: Build your own dream gadget [CNET]