The company behind the world's first widely available modular smartphone has released a set of concepts imagining completely new gadgets created with Google's Project Ara (+ slideshow).
Titled Move, Wear, Link and Play, the concept designs by London design and innovation company Seymourpowell show the Project Ara phone base ? known as the endoskeleton ? transformed with add-on modules to create robots, health trackers and environmental monitoring systems.
US technology giant Google developed Project Ara as a smartphone with modules that can be easily swapped out. The hardware is open-sourced so that third-party designers can easily build on the platform.
The Link concept proposes a wide area network of modules monitoring factors like rainfall, soil, moisture and light Seymourpowell applied its own learning from making the modular Fairphone 2 to explore the outer limits of Google's technology.
Move is a wheeled robot that scans and prints surfaces as it travels along them, which Seymourpowell suggests could be useful in fabric cutting, interior design, construction or surveying.
The studio sees the combined motor and wheel as a potential "killer module" that could enable others to develop wildly different products by incorporating it into their own Project Ara designs.
Play caters to musicians who want a bespoke, portable audio production tool
Wear is a health tracker that can be modified to monitor different biometrics during pregnancy, labour and ...