Field Mate Part 2 - Open Your Eyes to an Open Sensorium

A few posts past, I addressed the idea of Field Buddy Field Mate - a portable device for capturing environmental data while in the field. Having had a chance to play with a bit of magnetometry (amongst other toys), and finding that I need to build an intelligent thermostat, I have come to the conclusion that there is something lacking in the world of hobby/amateur electronics - and that is a properly integrated set of devices and software for microcontroller use.

I have decided, therefore, that it is time to formalise the Field Mate concept into a more general project.

To this end, I have decided to commence work on what I am calling The Open Sensorium Project.

The aim is to produce a series of software and hardware modules that can be built up and put together in order to build custom instrumentation. Based around Data Capture using sensors (i.e. a sensorium), the modules will provide both sensing, primary processing and export of data via displays, data streaming and data caching (using SD cards).

It will not only provide an open sensorium, in the sense that the data system's "eyes" are wide open, but will also be an open project - open source software, open source hardware (albeit, using a lot of off-the-shelf modules) and free to use and modify.

Given the relatively low cost of microcontrollers, it would be possible for each major module to be separately intelligent.

I hope that there will be a lot of cross-pollination with various other projects, and between the developers using a range of microcontroller systems including, but not limited to, Microchip's PIC, Parallax Propeller, Atmel AVC / Arduino and Raspberry Pi,

As an open project, the material will be released into the wild with few restrictions, and subject to the Gnu General Public Licence.

The rules will be simple - open source may not form a part of a closed source project unless those portions that are open source remain open source. Derivative works are brilliant. Respect and acknowledge the intellectual rights of those whose work you are building upon - and retain any copyright notices that form a part of the source that you are using.

Finally, there will be standards for various parts of the project - standards for quality of product, for quality of documentation and for communication protocols between modules - and to the outside world.

I hope that others will want to get involved in various ways - even if it is only through an eMail saying that you found it useful.

I look forward to hearing from you. I will pass on the web site address once I have settled upon one. I have set up a project page on Sourceforge at: https://sourceforge.net/p/open-sensorium/



For those who care about these things - the font is Neuropolis, the logos were made in MS Word 2013 and either screen-captured or copied to Inkscape.