Open-source hardware for medical devices

Open-source hardware is hardware whose design is made publicly available so anyone can study, modify, distribute, make and sell the design or the hardware based on that design. Some open-source hardware projects can potentially be used as active medical devices. The open-source approach offers a unique combination of advantages, including reducing costs and faster innovation. This article compares 10 of open-source healthcare projects in terms of how easy it is to obtain the required components and build the device

Open source hardware

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-83).Open source software development models have created some of the most innovative tools and companies in the industry today modifying the way value is created and businesses developed. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze open source hardware in its current state and its potential impact at several stages of the value chain. Existing examples of open source hardware at different stages of the value chain are analyzed in terms of their innovation and potential impact to existing players in the value chain. An Ethernet framer is develop through the use of traditional development and benchmarked against a design developed based on open source hardware cores. The research concludes with an examination of business models established around open source hardware.by Roberto Acosta.S.M

KRATOS: An Open Source Hardware-Software Platform for Rapid Research in LPWANs

Long-range (LoRa) radio technologies have recently gained momentum in the IoT landscape, allowing low-power communications over distances up to several kilometers. As a result, more and more LoRa networks are being deployed. However, commercially available LoRa devices are expensive and propriety, creating a barrier to entry and possibly slowing down developments and deployments of novel applications. Using open-source hardware and software platforms would allow more developers to test and build intelligent devices resulting in a better overall development ecosystem, lower barriers to entry, and rapid growth in the number of IoT applications. Toward this goal, this paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of KRATOS, a low-cost LoRa platform running ContikiOS. Both, our hardware and software designs are released as an open- source to the research community.Comment: Accepted at WiMob 201

Standardisation of Practices in Open Source Hardware

Standardisation is an important component in the maturation of any field of technology. It contributes to the formation of a recognisable identity and enables interactions with a wider community. This article reviews past and current standardisation initiatives in the field of Open Source Hardware (OSH). While early initiatives focused on aspects such as licencing, intellectual property and documentation formats, recent efforts extend to ways for users to exercise their rights under open licences and to keep OSH projects discoverable and accessible online. We specifically introduce two standards that are currently being released and call for early users and contributors, the DIN SPEC 3105 and the Open Know How Manifest Specification. Finally, we reflect on challenges around standardisation in the community and relevant areas for future development such as an open tool chain, modularity and hardware specific interface standards.Comment: 9 Pages without abstract and references (else 13), no figure

Understanding the motivations of open-soutce hardware developers : insights from the Arduino Community

Following a change in the paradigm of innovation, much research has been focused on open innovation and user entrepreneurship. Most of this research is centered on open-source software communities as a main driver and tool for innovation initiatives. Moving towards physical objects instead of merely considering software, the emerging topic of open-source hardware deserves closer attention. This study aims to elicit the motivations of open-source hardware developers, in order to develop an understanding of how to manage innovation initiatives in this field. Focusing on the most prominent open-source hardware prototyping platform, Arduino, the results of a survey among community members indicate that developers are mostly motivated by intrinsic and internalized extrinsic factors. Moreover, an interview with a practitioner in the field of open-source hardware reveals interesting insights that can be used to develop a corporate environment conducive to innovation. Focusing on innovation both from a corporate and individual point of view, this study presents a number of strategies that can be employed to optimize undertakings in the field of open-source hardware

What is the “Source” of Open Source Hardware?

What “open source” means once applied to tangible products has been so far mostly addressed through the light of licensing. While this approach is suitable for software, it appears to be over-simplistic for complex hardware products. Whether such a product can be labelled as open source is not only a question of licence but a question of documentation, i.e. what is the information that sufficiently describes it? Or in other words, what is the “source” of open source hardware? To date there is no simple answer to this question, leaving large room for interpretation in the usage of the term. Based on analysis of public documentation of 132 products, this paper provides an overview of how practitioners tend to interpret the concept of open source hardware. It specifically focuses on the recent evolution of the open source movement outside the domain of electronics and DIY to that of non-electronic and complex open source hardware products. The empirical results strongly indicate the existence of two main usages of open source principles in the context of tangible products: publication of product-related documentation as a means to support community-based product development and to disseminate privately developed innovations. It also underlines the high variety of interpretations and even misuses of the concept of open source hardware. This reveals in turn that this concept may not even be clear to practitioners and calls for more narrowed down definitions of what has to be shared for a product to be called open source. This article contributes towards this effort through the definition of an open source hardware lifecycle summarizing the observed approaches to open source hardware.DFG, 325093850, Open Access Publizieren 2017 - 2018 / Technische Universität Berli