Events
Elin stormed the sparkling top of the Google ARA
The Google Corporation gathered in Singapore the advanced developers of super new and promising applications for its modular smartphone project. In the Asian Google ARA Conference attended by the strongest "Asian Tigers" Russia was represented by the single candidate – Vladimir Elin, Ph.D. in Engineering Science, Project Manager Do-Ra (Skolkovo nuclear cluster).
Google may have a significant impact on the global smartphone market by its modular gadget. The company that seeks to occupy a niche of devices maximally adapted to individual needs pointedly emphasizes at the project ARA website “In the world there are still billions of people who do not have a smartphone”. In the 14-hour marathon turf battle for the potential market of the future Vladimir Elin presented his dosimeter-radiometer built-in in smartphone; he developed one of the Do-RA options for ARA (gadgets are concordant even in the titles).
Allocation scheme of the Do-Ra module in the ARA smartphone (Do-Ra image)
The main topics of the forum which was held on January 21-22 in Singapore were the following: current project status, production plans, change of the hardware platform, presentation of module developers, program of software developer support, smartphone and its modules sales channels, software and others. Despite a sleepless night Vladimir Elin, "the Hero of the Day", tell the readers of Sk.ru about how it was in Singapore:
“We were the only Russian developer. And only judging by the countries where the conference was broadcast online (India, Malaysia, Japan and others), it was clear that we gave a good account of ourself in face of all the "high-tech Asian tigers". It is important that anyone could talk with the developers of ARA. Before the event we as all other guests received a developer KIT (motherboard of ARA smartphone). However, it happened late in the day: only in middle of December 2014, and it was delivered even later to Sarov where our developers and programmers are concentrated, so the developers of DO-RA and Intersoft Eurasia team were pressed for time to make all preparations for the Сonference!
Vladimir Elin and Paul Eremenko (picture by V. Elin)
Nevertheless: we brought three working DO-RA modules to Singapore, they were slightly different from each other only in size: from the largest one (39x17x7 mm) to very compact unit (18x18x3.5 mm). And certainly the DO-RA software based on the Android platform to control the module of radiation analysis and excessive ionization radiation measurement. By the way, these modules may be integrated into any gadgets now. The Conference was opened by the Project Ara Manager Paul Eremenkom, and then the producers from Toshiba, Marvell, Foxconn Interconnect, Quanta Computer, Synopsys and IDT spoke out. Now we certainly can better understand all the refinements of the ARA project, and are pleased to note that we keep up with the participants and developers of the ARA modules, with no lag in design and software!
DO-RA.Module-2 and DO-RA.Module-3 made in Skolkovo and modular smartphone Ara
At the Conference in Singapore it was stated that since January 25, 2015 the accredited ARA project developers will be provided with a new platform Spiral-2 with MDK (Modular Developer Kit) 0.2 which has the larger number of interfaces and technical capabilities; and in the second quarter of 2015 Spiral-3 with MDK 0.5 will be released. By the end of the year Google within the ARA Project is planning to launch a pilot project of an operational modular smartphone with 20 to 30 modules passed technical tests and certification.
It is assumed that the test quantity of modular smartphones, about 50 thousand pcs., will be produced by the end of the year. Puerto Rico is selected as a test area; there is the maximum percentage of using the smartphones by people, the widespread application of the Internet and the American standards for cellular operators is valid here. As to the Google's $ 100K award for the development of the most outstanding module for the ARA smartphone, it was announced that due to technical delays in deliveries of Spiral-1 and Spiral-2, filling for participation in the contest is prolonged until March 1, videos about the modules development must be submitted before April 15, announcement of results of the contest for the best module for ARA will be held before May 1, 2015. Despite the fact that the contest is prolonged, the results for us are difficult to overestimate. Firstly, we received information about the current status and development of the project from its direct developers and ideologists. This allows us to synchronize plans for the development and commercialization of DO-RA module for ARA. In addition, it was possible to establish direct contacts with the ARA Project Manager Paul Eremenko and his team, as well as component manufacturers of the promising modules for the ARA smartphone represented byToshiba, Marvell, Foxconn and others. On the margins of the Conference we also announced our development of another module for ARA smartphone – Multi SIM which allows increasing the active numbers of various service providers due to the possibility of using the strengths of the individual basic cellular operators in the country of residence.”
