The first camera modules for the modular smartphone Project Ara



    While Google is working hard on the final version of the modular smartphone Project Ara , third-party developers have also joined the game.

    Toshiba is developing camera modules for the smartphone.

    Cameras fully support the modular concept, and photographers can easily upgrade the phone’s camera by simply replacing one module with another. In the event of a camera breakdown, this is also not a problem.



    Toshiba is currently working on three modules: a 2-megapixel front camera and 5/13-megapixel modules for the back.





    So far, the first of three stages of creating camera modules has been completed: basic functionality. The start of sales is scheduled for 2016.



    A small demo video shows how the camera module is photographed at 5 MP.



    Recall that the prototype Project Ara was first shown to the public at the Google I / O conference in June 2014. The communication of individual modules in it is carried out via the UniPro MIPI network protocol via FPGA chips (programmable gate arrays). They plan to make changes to the Android operating system to support hot swapping of modules without turning off the phone. The modules themselves, according to the creators, will produce hundreds or thousands of third-party companies. “You can imagine Ara as an analogue of the ecosystem of Android applications, but only in the hardware sense,” said project manager Paul Eremenko at the Google I / O 2014 conference.

    This concept is the exact opposite of the iPhone concept, which now dominates the market. “If your bike has a flat tire, you don’t throw it away to buy a new bike,” said Dave Hakkens, a Dutch industrial designer who introduced his modular smartphone concept in September 2013.

    Google has already released dev-kits and began to send test equipment to developers, including harazhitelami .

    Google expects to release the basic design of Project Ara with a WiFi module for $ 50.


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