Watch Vestigen’s Project Ara Sensors Show How Modular Smartphones Could Change The World

Project Ara is getting closer to producing a shipping product, and a developer conference in Singapore gave some of those building hardware modules for the Google-made smartphone with swappable parts a chance to show off their coming wares. Vestigen is one such company, which is focused on building smart sensors that can, using various test strips do amazing things ranging from analyzing water quality for drinkability, to using a drop of blood to measure sugar levels.

Vestigen CEO Alexander Krisko explains that through tools like their own, Ara has the opportunity not to be just a hobbyist toy for tinkerers, but a way to help broaden the scope and reach of solutions that can legitimately improve the quality of life for device users around the world.

Ara has the advantage of a relatively low starting price, as well as pricing for modules than can beat the cost of dedicated equipment by huge margins, since sensor components on their own are increasingly affordable, and the cost of the rest of the computing platform, as well as radios and other means of communication can be left out.

While Ara is getting a test consumer launch in Puerto Rico this year, the bigger opportunity is for it to become a way in which engineers, doctors and aid workers, as well as just about anyone whose entire computing experience resides on mobile devices, can keep up with the Joneses’ without having to deal with premium hardware prices.

from TechCrunch http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Oss0FiZCJXw/

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