“The ambition of this is just breathtaking,” said Terry Moore, CEO of MCCI Corporation one of the many out-of-town attendees who took a pilgrimage to Mountain View to learn more about ’s modular phone at the oject Ara Developer Conference. 

ile many of those in attendance were awed by the idea of a smartphone with swappable parts, there were several developers who were more preoccupied with concocting different scenarios in which the modules could be used.

During the conference, I talked to several developers who were there to learn more about how to leverage the technology used in oject Ara. Some of the ideas are quite lofty, but one thing is clear: oject Ara has the possibility to pave the way for more than just an Android-powered smartphone with removable components.

Making open hardware mainstream

Convington has spent seven years researching NetFA at Stanford University. It’s a low-cost, reconfigurable open hardware platform that’s designed for research teaching. Covington came to the oject Ara Developer Conference for inspiration. “’re trying to build this development community around this project platform,” he said. He went on:

A lot of what [oject Ara] is doing is essentially creating this developer ecosystem for open source hardware. They’re putting a lot of things in place that are needed in open source in general.

th open hardware, how do I get from a schematic to a board layout?…From a board layout to an actual [inted Circuit Board]… then verify that it works? Having an open source tool chain like that is something that’s missing currently from hardware.”

Convington hopes that he his team can figure out a way to apply the same philosophies presented at the oject Ara Developer Conference to NetFA. “at they’e done here with the modules can go far beyond the phone.”

Bringing medical tech to where it matters

“I think we share a common vision,” said Rinderknecht, a senior research scientist oject ad at CalTech. “They’re trying to make this modular phone to reach the other ‘five billion’ that’s sort of where medical [technology] needs to go, as well. There’s a huge underserved population that just don’t have access to the technologies that you’d need to save lives.”

Rinderknecht’s is researching a non-invasive way to quantify the data associated with the human heart, he’s hoping to figure out a way to successfully do so through a simple phone platform using camera sensors. “From there we can tell you relevant information,” he said. “[ke] the amount of the blood that is ejected from every cardiac cycle.” As for how oject Ara’s modular technology could benefit this:

The common medical device is thouss of dollars is not usually accessible… But on a simple mobile platform like your phone, that could make it more affordable. It could be used in Oncology, for administration of drugs, being able to monitor this stuff in real time…It just gives another level of personalization to medical that is totally not already available.

Helping small villages share technology 

Covington was enthusiastic about the prospect of a modular smartphone coming to market. “By providing open hardware you’re letting the consumers decide what they want, as opposed to another company,” he said, referring to Apple Samsung.

But Tushar Dadlani, a graduate student at Carnegie n, thinks that this particular phone will be an even bigger hit in the developing markets is aiming for. “The Indian market is very capable of using technology like the Ara platform,” he said. “They adopt phones really fast. most every person in India has a feature phone.” He went on:

In a village, you don’t have to donate smartphone to everybody. You just donate a couple of modules then there’s a community center where they’re available. So, if I need -Fi, I just use the -Fi module. enever you need modules, you have a community of modules, like a library.

Some of the ideas spouted out by developers seemed ambitious or farfetched, but it’s a testament to the kind of innovation that oject Ara could spark— that’s exactly why the company held this developers conference in the first place. The idea of a modular smartphone is still highly experimental, for the most part. But the possibilities for something greater to stem from it seem endless.