building knowable.org

Say hello to issues and tasks! – 16.6.2014, by kryobot

knowable's collaboration beta just made another big leap: Today we finally introduced task and issues!

Whenever you visit your project's workshop, you'll now find a fully fledged task management system there, too. Issues are a great way to keep track of the things that you still have to take care of - or of the things that need fixing. And of course we made sure that you can assign your collaborators to specific tasks. Delegating complicated problems is half the fun, right?

All of this comes paired with powerful filter mechanics that make sorting through lots of tasks and issues a snap. These are so cool in fact, that we even put them on our brand new front page for you to try out, even if you don't have a knowable account yet.

What a ride: ThingsCon 2014 and beyond. – 10.6.2014, by jimmiehu

It's been quite a few weeks already, since we have come together for ThingsCon. And we're still trying to get our head around how amazing it was.

On May 2 / 3 we invited designers, tinkerers, hardware professionals, and researches to join us for two days of talks, discussions, and hands-on workshops. We talked about the state and future of the internet of things, about connected devices, about building a hardware business - and about scaling it. We discussed how we are working today, and how we will be working tomorrow. We took a closer look at the potential and the hurdles of open source hardware, of patents, and open innovation. We took a step back and thought about what devices we are building - and why we do it. We listened to stories of success and of failure en route to building a hardware business - and we learned quite a lot about a space, that is just about to take shape. In short: We had a blast.

But first of all we met each other. ThingsCon felt like a warm family meet-up where everybody is working somehow on the same big idea and finally got to meet to catch up on how everyone else is doing. In addition to experts and thought-leaders such Matt Webb, Brady Forrest, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Usman Haque, Gawin Dapper, Peter Troxler, and many more, we had an incredible crowd of engaged and inspiring Makers over. It was delighting to see the European hardware movement, that we felt it was out there, finally get to gather in a physical place, work together and learn about each other. And it was even more so, since this was the very idea of ThingsCon in the first place: To get everyone in one room for just a few days and gather momentum to push hardware to the next level.

Why we did it

However, for us at knowable, there was yet another reason to pull this together: We wanted to learn about you. After having reached out to many product designers, engineers, makers, and hardware entrepreneurs in person, we were keen on getting a very personal and first-hand answer on the big question we're tackling with knowable, that is: How do you work today? What are you currently working on? What is missing to push hardware entrepreneurship to the next level? What is already there? Is there a bottle-neck to handle collaborative design more efficiently? To go about scaling? To find talent and collaborators? Or just to access interesting ideas and project? We believe that this new realm of hardware businesses that is arising today, is also posing a very new approach to how everyone is working together - and we wanted to find out how this looks like.

A new breed of products - and their designers.

If one thing, ThingsCon made clear that we're no longer exclusively looking at big companies or OEMs when it comes to building the products of tomorrow. Rather, we're witnessing this incredible democratization, enabling individual designers and clever minds, to come up with amazing products. And to actually ship them. This of course, questions the way we go about designing, creating, scaling, and shipping them - and chances are we're doing this in a highly collaborative and networked manner. Knowable is setting out to be the link between this networks, allowing professionals and tinkerers to join forces in building the products of tomorrow. And ThingsCon certainly marked another step towards doing so.

Beyond ThingsCon - What now?

As great as it was, ThingsCon does not stop here. First of all, you can dig most of the talks and discussions that took place over at our YouTube-channel. Also, to get a sense of what kind of people and projects were around, make sure to head over to the ThingsCon page a knowable (feel free to add yours, if you haven't already). We were literally blown away by the response to ThingsCon - and we very quickly decided to do this again. While ThingsCon 2015 will certainly happen (more info soon), we're currently puling together a few satellite events, meet ups and gatherings - not only in Berlin by the way: Watch out for Things-events in London, Amsterdam - and maybe your city as well? Just give us a shout-out and we'll be happy to pull some together with you.

Meanwhile, of course, we will further grow knowable. By building on the feedback and learnings we got through ThingsCon - and by continuing to listening closely to what you would love to see to make collaborating in your hardware team easy, efficient and productive.

Preview your files! – 7.5.2014, by kryobot

Our collaboration beta is moving along quite nicely! Only last week we introduced private projects - and today we’re rolling out yet another feature: the file viewer.

The viewer allows you to preview files before downloading them. This works currently with most image formats (.jpg, .png, .gif) – and .stl files. Yes, that’s right: You can now view your CAD files in all their 3D glory! We're currently working on support for more file types - and we'd love to hear form you which ones you would like to see next!

This update also introduces the option to add comments to all files. This should make it easier for you to give specific feedback to your collaborators.

Say hello to private projects! – 28.4.2014, by kryobot

We’re rolling out another big feature to our collaboration beta today: Private projects.

With this release you will finally have full control over the privacy of your projects. Want to share your work only with selected team members? No problem. Want to keep the nitty-gritty details in private but publish the final result as a showcase? Easy. Do you want to work on that big open-source hardware project where everyone should be able to contribute? Nothing is easier than that!

You can choose the privacy setting the moment you create a new project – or adjust it later in the project’s admin area. This will make it easier to keep the settings up-to-date when your project evolves over time.

Set your privacy when you create a new project...

... or change it later in the new project's admin area.

Private projects will be part of our paid plans in the future. But as long as we're still in beta, they will remain completely free and we'd be super happy if you give them a try!

Collaboration starts today – 16.4.2014, by kryobot

Since the beginning of knowable we wanted to connect people with great ideas, let them share their knowledge and enable them to join forces and collaborate. With our latest version we finally found a great way to enable you to share what you've been building in your labs and Makerspaces – but the collaboration was still lacking. Even though we took some steps in that direction, our vision and promise of a truly collaborative tool was never really fulfilled.

That finally changes today.

I’m super excited and happy to announce that we just released the first open beta version of our collaborative tools! Starting today you’ll be able to set-up a workshop area for your projects, give team members access in order to collaborate on your ideas, discuss your thoughts, document what you’ve been working on and easily share all the necessary files with your team.

A lot has changed, so let’s take a closer look at all the new things!

Fig1 "Workshop Area": Split your project into more manageable areas and topics. We call these areas "Workspaces"

Fig2 "Workspace & Files": Each Workspace allows you to write a text, add files and discuss ideas with your collaborators.

Fig3 "Markdown": Descriptions support Markdown formatting: That makes it easy to style the text you write.

Fig4 "New project creation": Our new project creation interface makes creating projects a snap!

This is still a beta, though, and there is a lot more to cover. But we decided that it doesn’t make sense for us to develop all of this hidden away in our secret labs - your feedback and your suggestions make knowable what it is! We couldn’t wait to get this in your hands as early as possible and are eagerly awaiting your feedback.

"Maker Tales” is an ongoing series on knowable, where we highlight outstanding Makers and their projects.

Maker Tales: Micro Experimental Growing (MEG) - the indoor greenhouse – 8.4.2014, by kryobot

Hi Carlo, great to have you here! Can you tell us a bit more about your background?

I'm part of Yradia, an innovation agency dedicated to Lighting Design. Our background is in industrial design engineering with strong skills in lighting technologies. MEG - our indoor greenhouse - is a self-innovation project combining our skills (industrial and lighting design), and our passions (IoT, growing, open knowledge).

Yes, and MEG is currently knowable’s „Project of the Week“! Can youTell us more about it? How did you come up with the an open-source greenhouse? What fascinated you about the idea?

From Wikipedia: "Photosynthetically active radiation, often abbreviated PAR, designates the spectral range (wave band) of solar radiation from 400 to 700 nanometers that photosynthetic organisms are able to use in the process of photosynthesis. This spectral region corresponds more or less with the range of light visible to the human eye. "

Actually we started from a research on optimizing a photometric spectrum to maximize a targeted Photosynthetic Active Radiation - scary huh? Some interesting tech details can be found in our third Kickstarter update. After that we started adding functions, investigated the usability, and thought about the whole experience of self-growing. It has been a smooth, natural process so far!

Haha, yes - "Photosynthetic Active Radiation" does indeed sound scary! Can you tell us a bit more about your main challenges so far? How did you go from prototype to Kickstater?

The main challenge for us is being... heard. We do not have the power of a communication agency neither have budget to afford a proper one. But we're not afraid. From prototype to Kickstarter, the path was quite smooth: after bootstrapping some several thousand Euros from our other activities, we felt that we needed crowdfunding support.

> The main challenge for us is being heard.

You have to consider that MEG is a complex and delicate project, involving design, engineering, implementation and development of parts in the following fields: photometrics, mechanical and industrial design, electrical design, PCB design, GUI and UX design, as well as several Arduino-related applications.

If your Kickstarter succeeds, what is the road ahead? What will be your next steps?

First step will be fulfilling our backers rewards. In parallel, we'll then have enough resources to finalize the Source Documents and to (hopefully) invest in the Online Platform. From then on, well… maybe is just too early to talk eight now.

In the light of crowd funding and open-source business models – how do you see the Hardware and Maker scene in general evolve in the future?

In my opinion there is a big shift in implementation power and decision making going on right now. I'm talking both money-wise and about manufacturing capabilities. It's sort of like when we shifted from asking people for directions to always having our personal GPS ready. We can finally fully control our paths.

If people want to learn more - where do they find you?

We are really responsive with interesting questions and people. Drop us a line at [email protected] or reach out on Facebook. And we have a Twitter feed, too!

"Maker Tales” is an ongoing series on knowable, where we highlight outstanding Makers and their projects.

Maker Takes: Open Mirror. – 2.4.2014, by kryobot

Hi Juan Pablo! Great to have you here with us. Please, tell us a little bit more about your background.

My name is Juan Pablo and I work for Habit(s) Studio - a design firm from Milan, Italy. I am part of a team of industrial designers and engineers there. As a studio, we’ve been working quite a lot for ‘regular’ business clients but right now we are shifting our attention more and more to the Open-Source sector. We are designing and building a lot of DIY, Open-Source products in our own FabLab at the moment.

And you have a very cool project on knowable at the moment: Open Mirror - a music playing, Arduino powered, gesture controlled mirror! Can you tell us a bit about that? What was the idea behind it?

OpenMirror started basically with some experiments concerning gestural interfaces. Thanks to Arduino we had the opportunity to develop a such an interface relatively quickly. The results of that experimentation were pretty good - so we kept going. This lead us to the idea to use that interface in a stereo for the bathroom, that you can control without making it wet and ruining the electronics. That’s how OpenMirror came to life, basically.

If you want to control the music in your bathroom, just walk up to the mirror and use gestures to change what’s playing. You can for example just swipe beneath the mirror to change the song that’s playing or keep you hand steady in order to adjust the volume.

How do you see this project evolve in the future?

We’ve been working on this project for quite some time now. It has been going through a lot of iterations and changes. But we are pretty happy with it as it is right now. This is the version we are releasing - both, as a product and an Open-Source project on our homepage and here on knowable.

That is really interesting – what is your motivation for going Open-Source?

We are fascinated by the idea that there are other modes of producing things. Open-Source offers us a way to design and release completely new and different products. We don’t need to go ‘big scale’ and use industrial fabrication, but instead we can choose to do low volume fabrication runs and offer customizable products. It also allows us to experiment with different price points: You can get the fully assembled OpenMirror in our store, but you’ll also be able to get the self-assemble kit for a lower price. Or you just download the schematics and build it on your own - completely free. I think this is a great way to allow for diversity and customizability in your products: People who want to have an individual product can simply build it on their own.

So, are you planning to incorporate ideas from you customers?

Yes, we are certainly willing to do that. But it’s actually a bit early to say now - but I think we are watching what the community is doing very closely. I believe that this is the beauty of Open Source: The company and community are growing together.

Last week, we had the chance to sit down with Wachira Ndaiga, who is leading the Robotics department at the iHub in Nairobi, Kenya. We talked with him about his work and his plans for the future, and about a very spacial project that he is working on together with INTEL and with us over at knowable. Let's dive right into it!

Hi Wachira, it's great to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you do?

Hi, Simon. Thanks a lot for having me. So here's a little background about myself: I studied Mechatronics Engineering and graduated last year. When I came back last summer, I couldn't really say I wanted to work in a factory. I was hoping to find a way to design something and build it out, alongside a team of passionate folks and to build it out. I didn’t have too much experience in it at the time, so a lot of learning was expected, and I’m still learning). So I heard about the iHub here in Nairobi, and their Robotics program. It was still in the early days, but we've slowly been building it up. Consequently, I am now the Lead Engineer of the Research and Development (R&D) Group at iHub. The Research and Development Group, a product under iHub Research, is driven to ideate and develop low-cost technical solutions to societal problems that affect marginalized communities. All the more awesome if the solutions devised scale across the continent and the Global South!

That sounds great! So what kind of projects are you working on? And what does that look like?

Up until now, there have been two main projects. The first one has been on low-cost robotics and their radication . In Kenya - and much of Africa - people don't have ready access to appropriately heuristic tools to understand what's taught to them in school in theory . So we thought, how can we best supplement, by providing something that kids can actually build on? We then had the idea to build a low-cost robot. It's about the 10-15 USD, and is Open Source, so that kids can build it by themselves. But more than that, they can plug it into different things. For the hardware, we re-used a few PC USB-mouses as a chassis, and connected some DVD-drive motors to them. So all we had to do was design and build the circuit boards, and the kids would then piece the parts together, interact with it and control it. Some of them even programmed the way they would move around.

Now, this sounds like a lot of fun - but what's the idea behind it?

We made sure that it provided substantial learning so that kids could understand how to connect hardware and software, and then slowly start looking around them and see 'That's a DVD-player. Now, how does it work? Here, everyone is buying the latest and greatest iPad or iPhone - but few understand how the technology inside their devices really works. We want to change that and have the kids think in an open and creative way about it. They should go: 'I want to build this! Now, how do it get it to do it?'

Very interesting. But there's another project I wanted to talk to you about. Together with Intel East Africa and several Universities you guys are currently running a joint program around the Intel Galileo board. What's behind that? And what do you hope to get out of this?

The program is tailored for students. It's to show them that, that this sort of stuff is possible - and there's a community that is actively trying to build it and to learn from each other. And - who knows - maybe, we could even start developing (the solutions they come up with after the competition) actual electronics this year!

So all in all, it’s a learning experience for us. We are not only learning about the Galileo board, but also about what individual students would like to get into. And this is not something that is actively done in Kenya. Hardware Development is still very, very nascent over here.

So what did actually happen? You're having these meet-ups and hackathons at different Universities now. What do they look like?

The first meet up was at the University of Nairobi. We had about 36 students in attendance. It was a whole day session where we covered all the basics of the Galileo board: what the board is about, how you can use the board, its similarities and differences to other development boards - the idea being to leverage its power. We also covered the basics of electronics. The afternoon was dedicated to just building. So we gave them a smart home system, a bunch of motion detection sensors, temperature and humidity sensors, light detection sensors, and some buzzers and LEDs. We put them in six groups, gave them all the kits - and they starting hacking.

What did the results look like? And what were the main hurdles you guys were facing?

Not all groups were able to flesh out the entire system the way we envisioned it. That's because most of the students that came were from the Computer Science and IT department and so we were a bit more inclined to the software side of things. But the fact that they came in that day and were able to detect motion in the room and control a buzzer, its tone and pitch - that was really amazing.

"Maker Tales” is an ongoing series on knowable, where we highlight outstanding Makers and their projects. This week we spoke to Berlin's very Felix Kochbeck and Tim Kirchner, part of the team behind the GoPro Stabilizer „LUUV“ – knowable’s current „Project of the Week“ - who also happen to run a very promising crowd funding campaign „on IndieGogo“ at the moment. But let's start from the beginning.

Hey, guys! Good to have you over. Why don't you tell us little a bit about yourself.

Felix: Hi, I’m Felix, I was born 28 years ago in Munich and I studied ‘smart materials engineering’ at universities in Germany and Canada. Since I can walk I am riding all kind of boards, be it a skateboard, a snowboard or a kiteboard. Add a passion for film and photography and the outcome is LUUV.

Tim: Hi, my name is Tim, born in Berlin in 1988. I studied media management and I am currently finishing my M.A. in ‘media science’ at the HU Berlin. In addition to Felix and me, there are Friedrich and Tobias (hi guys!), who have their backgrounds in advertisement and service marketing.

Cool. How did you get started as a Maker - and as a team?

F: I was already spending lots of time as a kid assembling different kind of things on my dad’s workbench in the basement. Refusing to fight my inner child the last thing I tinkered together before LUUV was a kiteboard. I didn't have a concrete plan of becoming a maker, all I knew was that a nine to five office job wouldn’t do it for me at that point in my life. And there has always been the urge to start something, being responsible for a project and sculpting it.

T: Our team evolved organically. We have already been friends long before we started working together on LUUV. In the beginning Friedrich, Tobias and me spent all of our free time on the project. Since it got more and more intense we quit our jobs and joined Felix, full time. None of us planned to be part of a hardware startup, it just happened. Thankfully.

Ha, sounds good. So, what is the story behind LUUV? How did it all start?

F: I was filming with action cams like the GoPro for many years. Like everybody else I was dealing with the problem of shaky footage ever since and there was no proper way to fix that. It doesn't matter whether you have your GoPro attached to your body, hold it in your hand or put it on a pole, you will never get a decent steady shot in motion. After trying different builds of camera stabilizers out there, I came to the conclusion: Not satisfying at all. Let’s built a stabilizer that fits our own needs and implement the feedback we receive testing it in the field. The product evolved and the list of unique features is still growing.

What were the main challenges in designing it - and in manufacturing?

F: There are basically two types, two different shapes of camera stabilizers on the market and both builds are dealing with the same list of issues. Even after studying the underlying physics of dynamic stabilization it still takes lots of time to adjust them, they are hard to operate, only work for one specific camera model, are way too expensive or easily break. And they all share one enemy: the wind. With all that (and a lot more) in mind I sat down and started constructing. I came up with a new concept for a camera stabilizer, which is not only functional in it’s design but also doesn’t have a technical look and feel.

That's for the actual idea. But how about going from there to production? What happened with your first-day-sketch?

F: After building a very basic prototype with parts from the hardware store I faced a new challenge: how to get the sketch alive? Especially as there are lots of high precision parts required as the state of equilibrium is super sensitive to tolerances? And what about the costs for all the special parts? I decided to make use of the technology of 3D-printing, but using online-based platforms for printing sadly has some disadvantages: you can’t test and redesign your parts right away but instead have to wait some days for the delivery and the prints are pricey. That’s one of the main reasons we decided to scramble up some money and buy our very own 3D-printer, a PP3DP UP Plus to accelerate the whole development process. Design a part, print it, and test it in the field. Implement new findings and pivot. Without the technology of 3D-printing LUUV wouldn't exist. At this stage we are producing on industrial SLS-printers from EOS.

A very common hurdle, indeed. So where did all this happen? Do you have a studio or use a public maker space? Or both?

T: Our office is located at ‘betahaus Berlin’ and we use Felix’s flat as the makerspace. But that’s definitely not a long-term solution. We hope that that the whole movement behind knowable.org, hardware.co e.g. will lead to a strong and connected berlin hardware community, which shares makerspace, infrastructure and capacity. Come on guys, let's build a factory together!

Is there a place online, where people can learn more about you and your work?

"Maker Tales” is an ongoing series on knowable, where we highlight outstanding Makers and their projects. This time we spoke with Ryu Yamamoto and Leonardo Amico, the makers of the awesome „Stone Pad“ – knowable’s latest „Project of the Week“

Great to have you both here! To start things off, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Ryu Yamamoto: I'm a product designer born in 1986, in Tokyo, Japan. I'm interested in exploring the relationship between people, the environment they live in and their daily life. I think that product design should be more strongly connected with technology. This may come from my Japanese background: We have a lot of big electronic companies where great care is given to the design. I really think that the interaction between a designer and an engineer can provide richer answers and insights. I would like to create new objects that emerge from this fusion of two different backgrounds. I'd like to add new values to the design process; adding knowledge that does not only belong to an esthetics-only world.

What about you, Leaonardo? What is your background?

Leonardo Amico: I'm a researcher at the University of Padua, where I design and develop interactive software for education. The rest of my day is spent hacking and coding for my own projects. Lately I've been interested in integrating technology in simple ordinary products. This is also the direction of some projects I'm currently developing together with Ryu and others. Small appliances and house objects are witnesses of people’s daily lifes. They provide some sort of gateway to their private sphere - this really fascinates me. Also, all the interest now generated around the Internet of Things is creating so many resources in terms of technology and community that makes everything easier and a lot more fun.

How did you get started as Designers?

R. Y. : I originally studied architecture at the University in Tokyo. But after university I become more interested in the design of smaller objects. So I started to work as a product designer at Fabrica, a research and communication center sponsored by Benetton. I’m trying to make new objects that I’d be happy to have and use myself. My goal is to create an environment full of things I designed. Objects, interior and even buildings.

L. A. : My background is in Electronic Engineering, and strangely enough this is a strongly theoretical affaire in Italy. It involves a lot of mathematics – but really little hands-on practice. During my time at university I've been in an electronics lab once in 5 years! I think that it was my strong interest in music and sound which drove me to actually making things. From playing guitar to music programming to building oscillators and hacking radios and turntables until finally getting everything together.

I also had a one year scholarship in Fabrica – and that was also really important for me! Fabrica is like a small network of like minded people from any sort of creative background put together in a beautiful building. It's like taking the best of virtual communities, with the difference that you’ve got to actually meet the members in person everyday. Ideas flow all the time and collaborations grows naturally there.

Yes, that sounds like a great place. Is that also where you two got together to create the Stone Pad? Can you tell us a bit more about how it came to life?

R.Y.: Jhon William Castaño Montoya, a musician at Fabrica, was making an album inspired from german mineralogist Friedrich Mohs. He came to us with the idea of making some physical object related to its music. A musical instrument made out of stones seemed like a natural choice. This percussion instrument would mimic the diversity of minerals in the Mohs scale by linking each of them to a specific sound, allowing the musician to perform his music by using stones as if they were piano keys. The instrument’s wooden structure is arranged in a spiral, a recurring shape in nature, suggesting harmonic growth. It builds up from the ground, from a foundation filled with rocks. Like stone flowers, some blossom toward the sky on wooden stems.

L.A.: During the realization of the Stone Pad we went through lots of sketches, a paper prototype, a more functional prototype, then the actual wooden structure and the electronics for it. I also had to learn the hard way that stone is not the most simple material to work with. An initial version was using piezos for sensing the stones being hit, but that wasn't any reliable for the musicians to play it live. After another round of tests we figured out a solution using ink-based force sensors, small hinges, and adhesive felt. Pretty neat actually!

So I guess you build all you project at Fabrica, then. Are you part of any “offline” hackerspace besides that?

L.A.: When I was in Fabrica I had a lot of space and tools for making things. But I’ve just moved to Padova a couple of days ago, and at the moment my workspace is my bedroom. But there’s a Fablab in the city, which I’m planning to visit soon.

R.Y.: We have some small workshop facilities at Fabrica. But some of our objects are also produced by local artisans.

Are you working on other projects at the moment?

L.A.: I'm actually working for BIO50, the Design Biennale of Ljubljana that will take place next September. I've been selected with other people for preparing an exhibition around the theme “Hacking Households”. Apart from that, me and Ryu are about to finish our second project together. It’s a simple domestic object that deals with memory. But it’ll be finished so soon that there’s no point in ruining the surprise! Hardware and software will be released Open Source, so by then all its guts and bits will be available to anyone.

R.Y.: Apart from the project Leonardo was talking about, I’m also working on the Hot & Cold exhibition, which is a collaboration with Fabrica and Daikin for the upcoming Milano Salone del Mobile 2014 in April. This is a series of multi-sensory installations, inviting visitors to participate in an immersive laboratory of hot and cold experiences.

A lot of things going on then! Really looking forward to your next project! One last question: Where can people find you online?

R.Y.: The best place is my homepage.

Wow, time flies! Not even two weeks have passed since we opened knowable for the public - but a lot has happened in the meantime. I’m still wondering how all of that fitted into the last 12 days.

We’re so glad that you like what we’ve built so far – and we’re working hard on the things that you want to see improved. But we obviously don’t want to stop there! And that’s why I thought it would make sense to give you an outlook on things that are coming to knowable next and where we are headed!

Maker Tales" is an ongoing series on knowable, where we highlight outstanding Makers and their projects. This time we spoke with José Ernesto Rodríguez, the maker of the great „Hat Controller“ – knowable’s latest „Project of the Week“

1) Hi José! It’s great to have you here. Please, tell us a little bit about yourself!

My friends actually call me Tito. It's the abbreviation for Ernesto. I am a 22 year old Berlin based designer with Nicaraguan roots. I grew up bilingual in Hamburg, Berlin and Mexico City. I'm currently studying Interface Design at the FHP (University of Applied Sciences Potsdam). My Twitter bio says quite well what I'm trying to do: Harmonizing physical & digital worlds.

2) Alright, Tito it is, then. How did you get started as a Maker/Designer?

These two photos sum it up pretty well:

Due to my artistic informed German family I developed an early interest in drawing, form-giving and other arts. Especially my grandparents – who are sculptors and painters – are an important source of inspiration. So I knew quite early that I wanted to be a designer. That's why I decided to start my graphic design studies at the Lette-Verein in Berlin right away, instead of going for an Abitur (a german high-school degree) first. Best decision ever!

On this picture I'm the one in the middle with the turquoise shirt. I sit between all my aunts and cousins. Growing up I felt just like any other nicaraguan kid. I’m so grateful of being able to visit them almost every year. I guess this mix of cultures, LEGO’s and my father being an electrical engineer has encouraged me to become a Maker.

3) Can you tell us a bit more about how the Hat Controller came to life?

It was actually a homework assignment for the university course "Physical Interaction Design" supervised by Reto Wettach. After giving us a basic introduction into electronics everybody received a keyboard. We then took it apart and had to come up with a cool hack until the next week. The first few day's were quite disappointing for all of us, because every idea we had already existed. Then I remembered playing "Achtung die Kurve" with friends during our breaks on my laptop (Just like in Snake you control your line by pressing left or right. But unlike Snake, the line you draw never disappears. The goal is not to bump into your own or any other line. You can actually play a remake here). I remember that everybody, even the hardcore gamers, were tilting their bodies when pressing the left/right button. So why not control your snake directly with your own body? The next day I went to the FabLab and only a few minutes later I had my first prototype: two tilt sensors and the breadboard taped to my headphones. But then, I spend the rest of the weekend soldering...

4) Where do you build your projects? Are you part of any “offline” hackerspace?

At home of course and at the FabLab Berlin. They are truly great people!

5) Are you working on other projects at the moment?

Inspired by a project of two italian friends, I also developed this prototype during my course with Reto. I was annoyed of missing my bus or using my smartphone to check the departure time. The Superclock always shows you to the next departure time of your subway, bus or train.

I just moved into my new apartment near U-Bahnhof Weinmeisterstraße. So in my case the dark disc represents the U-8 going south, heading to Boddinstraße. The bright disc stands for Wittenau, the U-8 going north. It's also possible to physically interact with the clock. Let's say you are having breakfast and don’t want to leave right now but in 25 minutes, simply rotate the disc by 150° and let go. The disc will then automatically rotate to the next departure time and set an alarm.

I'll make sure keep you all posted on how this project develops!

6) Haha, that’s a great idea! Well, thanks a lot for these insights! One last question, though: Where can people find you online?

At the moment you can find me on Twitter, Behance, Dribbble, Tumblr and on my own homepage!

"Maker Tales" is an ongoing series on knowable, where we highlight outstanding and interesting Makers and their projects. This time we spoke with Coralie Gourguechon, one of the co-makers of the beautiful „Craft Camera“ – knowable’s current „Project of the Week“

Hello Coralie! Nice to have you here with us. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

My name is Coralie. I am a product designer form Toulouse, France. I recently finished my studies in the Institute of Fine Arts of Toulouse.

You have a very interesting project on knowable - a DIY camera! Can you tell us a bit more about how this idea came to life?

Well, my aim was to build my own digital camera. The ideas was actually born out of frustration four years ago: I was traveling when both my laptop and my camera broke. I tried to repair it - but it was nearly impossible! I was really frustrated since I didn’t wanted to throw basically brand new products away. Just take the camera for example: It turned out that it was simply a sand corn blocking the zoom. It was nothing, really - but no one was able or willing to repair it!

– Craft Camera

I thought that this is not correct - and I really believe that we should have the option to easily repair our electronic products. With that experience in mind, I decided to build my own digital camera.

Yes, it is really a shame that there seems to be no easy way to repair modern day electronics. So, did you get other people involved in the product and issue, too?

I actually started the Craft Camera as a university project and wanted to use it for my final examen. But just one month before I should have finished the design and product, I noticed how tricky the electronics of this project really were. Fortunately I was able to convince an engineer  - Stéphane Delbruel (who was working for Snootlab, a company that is developing Open Hardware products) to help me with it. And shortly after that a friend of mine - Laura Messaglio - who is a graphic designer got involved, too. She wanted to make look a little bit nicer and I think she did a fantastic job!

– The case is made out of cardboard - it doesn't get any simpler

Apart form that collaboration - do you also work in a FabLab or Makerspace?

Yes, sometimes I am going to TetaLab in Toulouse. That is actually the place where I discovered the whole Open Source movement and learned about Makers and Hackers. I honestly didn't knew about the movement when I started the Craft Camera project. But it was really fascinating to see that there are so many people dealing with the same questions and topics as I am.

So after that, did you decide to open source your project?

Yes! We put all the schematics and templates online. Also the links to the shops where you can buy the parts. I actually think that we should also put together a video tutorial of how you can build the camera. This would make it easier for beginners to get started with their own camera. But even without that, you can basically go and build your Craft Camera right now with the schematics and instructions we have online.

– Assembly process

How do you see this project evolve in the future?

I am not sure - it’s a good question. I am wondering that myself, actually. The good thing is, now that the camera is open source the project can live on its own.

There are still some problems that I want to fix, though. Right now the whole camera is a bit expensive. So maybe we could make a custom Arduino shield to lower the price.

The other thing is, that I’d love to make it easier for beginners to construct the camera. As I said: A video tutorial would certainly help.

– Image taken with the CraftCamera

So are you working on other projects as well?

Yes, I am currently developing paper electronics! The idea is to screen print the circuits on a paper. You can think of it as a new kind of cartography: It’s basically a map that helps people build their own electronic products. This idea came to my mind after building the Craft Camera. Unfortunately the Craft Camera is still a “a box with electronic inside”. With this new project I’m hoping to make the whole process of building your own electronic products a bit more transparent.

It finally happened! We took knowable out of private beta today!

This means that everybody can sign-up immediately without the need for an invitation. So if you don’t have an account yet, go ahead and create one! I’ll just wait here for you to come back.

Our biggest update yet

This is one of the biggest updates to knowable yet: we’re not only making it publicly available, but we also put a lot of work into upgrading and fine-tuning our core systems.

So today, we’re also rolling out a completely revamped platform and a new way to showcase your products, ideas and what you’re currently working on. We basically turned our project pages into a big, beautiful storytelling machine! You can now add videos from YouTube, Kickstarter or Vimeo, show important images in all their full size glory, create picture galleries and sprinkle little pieces of text between all of that in order to tell your product's story even better.

If you want to see these new showcases in action, just take a look at some of these great projects:

Craft Camera

Hat-Controller

DIY Bike

This is just the beginning - we’re very excited to see what you come up with and what you will show the knowable community!

On our way to true hardware collaboration

While nice looking project pages are great, they mark only the beginning of our journey to a truly collaborative platform. They are none the less an integral part of our collaboration efforts:

We believe that great showcases and portfolios will help you tremendously later on when it comes to finding and choosing collaborators. And it will certainly help you to decide what project you want to get involved in next.

I invite you to take a look at our public roadmap to see where we’re headed and encourage you to give us feedback and suggestions.

Help us to reach out to Makers and Product Designers

Now that we’re finally public, we want to reach as many Makers and Product Designers as we can. You can help us by spearing the word on Twitter, Facebook or in your local Makerspaces. Every help is very much appreciated!

This is the second post in a series where I’ll dive into all the new features, design decisions and thoughts behind #NewKnowable. This time we’ll discuss how components allow you to manage your project better. If you want to start with the first post of the series click here.

Let’s imagine you are building a robot. Most certainly it will have a basic control system, some kind of motor and most probably a casing. If you look at these - very simplified - parts, you’ll notice that they are all very different form one another: The control system may be Arduino based and you need to write code for it to work properly. The motor requires some mechanical skills and understanding. And you might want to print the casing with your FabLab’s 3D printer.

All these task are vastly different – and it doesn’t make sense to discuss them with your co-makers all in the same place. That’s why we came up with the idea of components:

Components allow you to split your project into manageable pieces.

To stick with the robot example: You could create a component for the Arduino, one for the motor and one for the casing. Each component allows you to describe what you want to achieve, upload corresponding files and discuss all of that with other makers.

A list of components for one specific project

A detail view of one component

But components have another advantage: They allow for version control. Your project will change over time - but you probably don’t want to lose all your previous iterations along the way. knowbale makes it easy to save “snapshots” of your project at any time. This enables you to view the history of your project and download past iterations.

Components allow you to save and download old iterations

Last weekend we had the chance to attend Maker Faire Rome. And it was such a treat! We met so many great people, learned a lot about new tools and toys and left with the feeling that the european maker movement is gaining incredible traction.