Aquarium animals: what could be modular Ara smartphone from Google?

What a smartphone? To call, take photos, take you to the Network. Boring. At the end of 2015 the secret Google group working in advanced technology and projects, looking for ways to prove that the Project Ara — modular phone released, antiphon can say, is capable of anything and can be everything to everyone. This group worked to develop unusual ways of customization Ara — the processor and screen to the camera — but after three years, in connection with the twists and turns in the leadership, serious delays and problems the project . That does not negate its charms.

The team Ara the choice was not very large, and she had to do everything in pace.

They had to collect the body from scratch — a full-fledged smartphone with the slots on the rear panel for the brand new hardware, completely different to the usual stuffing of smartphones. With the support of the army contractors, engineers created a working prototype in five months.

Google wanted to create rectangular modules that could inform you about the weather using the E-Ink display, prop your phone on a stand to record songs in cool microphone to call a car by pressing the button and spraying minty scent. However, Google wanted the developers have outdone themselves and came up with the bigger modules, more, more — to do.

And when Google was nearing completion of the shell of the prototype Ara, the company commissioned a team of the Brooklyn engineers, designers and artists to dream up on the crazy incarnations of modules that could be inside the phone.

If you've got a whole phone out of the blocks like high-tech Legos, what would you have done?

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Aquarium animals

Design briefs Google didn't give very accurate job.

"So they came to us in December 2015 and on the brief were: "Here Ara. Here's what it will be. Imagine the strangest possible modules. We are moving roughly in this direction," says David núñez, managing partner of Midnight Commercial.

"They wanted us to do the module, which no one — they already had the speakers, camera and other stuff," says founder and creative Director at Midnight Commercial Jamie Zigelbaum. This Studio has made a name for himself with the strange art-tech projects like the Barista Bot — a robot that 3D prints your face in the foam on a latte and a massive Rube Goldberg machine that played a major role in the music video OK GO.

While Studio Google ATAP has postponed the commercial release of Ara — last time it was planned for the spring of 2017, along with a retail store in Los Angeles, which will show the capabilities of the modules in the headquarters of the Midnight Commercial had four ideas.

One of the options suggested module, which transmits touch, like an improved version of the heartbeat function in the Apple Watch. Another speculated that Google will launch a satellite into space and "super-duper luxury module, which will cost thousands of dollars — many tens of thousands of dollars. And all he will do is provide you with a pass to the club of people that have this module that is associated with the satellite". It was a "very strange concept", says núñez. "They didn't like that idea."

And had the idea of a printer drawing a graffiti ink. "You make a picture — draw a sketch, for example, and then include a printer application, attach a phone to the surface and it prints you on the surface".

And the best idea: a tiny aquarium for a phone in which to live tiny organisms tardigrades. So alive, eating, breathing "Tamagotchi".

Midnight Commercial planned start of aquarium module this spring, but the wild hardware Google dreams were shattered last summer. The project lost its launch time, financial support and, worse, the chances of implementation. It just closed.

Midnight Commercial Engineers swear that the idea of animalcules would have worked, with one caveat: you would have to support the existence of these creatures. Studio makes no warranties that your microbiome survive.

The Popularity of animals has increased in 2014, when compared with other algae-eating organisms. "Water bears" crawled out (or emerged) from the laboratories to the Internet, demonstrating its mythical invincibility. These strange organisms, like thick construction bags with the vacuum cleaner instead of a person theoretically can survive impossible conditions: the vacuum of space, radiation, extreme temperature. Well, that's the theory.

"So the idea was that we create a small sealed biome with microorganisms, animalcules, or someone else, a seaweed solution that will allow them to exist for a very long time. This little sealed the biome will be on the digital microscope, which will be built into the module, and you can watch with your phone for microorganisms in real-time. I think we wanted to do something like 30 times higher," says Zigelbaum.

It was a cool trick. And very expensive. Ideal for engineers and designers who have already looked through all her eyes, bent over backwards, coming up with crazy modules. It would be a masterpiece that could be worn in the pocket: the perfect embodiment of mad science in the era of hardware Google.

Again: the aquarium with the animals in the smartphone.

"It demonstrates our culture when the phone has become a part of the body — he lays in the bed with us, sits in the pocket, he's closer than skin," says Zigelbaum. "Placing life forms — Pets — the phone, we can think about the barriers that divide the organisms, technology, and what in fact is the human body. It would be cool."

This idea, which was kept for a few people who heard about the project under strict confidentiality agreement, was made especially for Ara. Google gave the concept of Midnight Commercial the green light. But first, the Studio needed to prove that it is at all possible. One thing was clear: that the idea took off, she had to be real. Not fake.

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Prototypes

And now, a year later, in the new office Midnight Commercial four engineers — Noah LPI, Matt Borgatti, Sam Posner and Jesse Gonzalez show dusty plastic and silicone prototypes lying on the desks of the lab. All algae are dried, and tardigrades have already died.

Engineers have tried to finish a project posthumously. "No plan of action was not. We had to create a bunch of experimental equipment, so we decided to weigh our forces, and to involve experts. We have read and discussed all this and we were checked by a person who is knowledgeable in optical engineering," says Borgatti.

The First prototype was very simple, was created in one night with ready-made tools prototyping OpenBeam mini computer Raspberry Pie for $ 35.

"the First simple sample consisted of a drop of water from our already dried seaweed. We saw tardigrades float. This allowed us to accurately determine the distance to the lens, in which a picture would be best," says FIAN.

"the Question was how to compress all pocket sizes, left to the phone. It was only a few millimeters for optics", explains Borgatti. More precisely, only 5 millimeters. It's almost like the diameter of a thin pencil.

When working with the first prototype LPI taught the team to successfully photograph the animals. "We got to the point where it could start to experiment with different types of biological samples, just removing them again and again. To change the light. But if it will be monochrome?", says Borgatti.

"With the increase easily when the two lenses are far as the telescope is more difficult when the two lenses are close. We found that if you use an array of microlenses, a lot of small round lenses, each of which produces a slightly distorted, but the distortion which can be removed by overlay".

With the help of micromastia lenses Posner developed a reconstruction method for obtaining clear images in the companion application module under Android on the fly, even allowing for errors in the Assembly, said FIAN. Unfortunately, this prototype took Google last August, like all others, when the project was suddenly cancelled.

The Second series of prototypes of Midnight Commercial included more than 30 different variations. "The most fun was when the meeting devoted to the array of microoptical lenses, we discussed what kind of hats should wear tardigrades, if we decide to arrange it," says Posner.

Together with the former commercial designer Commercial Midnight Bailey meadows engineers discussed group chats and outfits of the animalcules, but in the end refused the add-ons to focus on the main topic. "All of this was to create a sense of peace that you are looking at," says núñez.

The App was to allow you to observe the animals as they float, wiggle their claws, eat the algae and reproduce. But the consultant, William Sindel from biotech non-profit organization Genspace, saw something completely different when I returned to the lab after the long weekend. Strain of animals, he felt, a predatory strain, turned to cannibalism inside the biome. "And honestly, it was just awesome demonstration of the capabilities of the application," says FIAN. Which, however, outlined a major problem for the aquarium. The team has hit a wall: they could not rescue the animals. And cannibalism was the lesser of two evils.

Despite the myths, conventional lab-grown tardigrades — the Internet is easy to find them sensitive to heat, to radiation of the type which emit a small digital camera, built-Midnight Commercial. This heat was enough to kill microbiome. Camera could do it for two hours. Just imagine the owner of the animals, which in the hot ...