Hi! I’ll be participating in a hackathon next month in the hardware division. I was thinking of making something sollarpunk inspired. I’m posting this to ask for inspiration.

What is some of technology (esp. hardware) that you’d like to see implemented? What is a problem that you’d want solved that could have a potential hardware solution?

I know this is very vague, but I’m curious if anyone has some ideas to share :)

  • @[email protected]
    6•1 year ago

    I’m not sure where your skillets and specializations lie so I’ll just rattle off some stuff from a solarpunk standpoint

    A big piece of solarpunk is in reusing what’s already made, rather than in making new stuff. Maybe an app or ROM that’ll make old cellphones useful for some single-purpose task? Like as a display for linked sensors in agriculture or something? Bonus points for focussing on phones that aren’t supported by lineageOS etc. Full disclosure, I don’t do anything with mobile development so I have no idea how much work I’m putting in front of you with this one.

    Edit: this actually wouldn’t be a hardware task

    Another aspect is the way it connects nature and technology. I’m not sure if there’s a gap in prosthetics for animals that you could help with?

    When I think about solarpunk hardware, I think I’d want any new technology to be simple, robust, and fixable, even if that makes it ugly or bulkier than it could be. The right to repair should be baked in as much as possible. I think where possible, parts like cases should be sustainable (recycled materials) or biodegradable. I have no idea how to emphasize all that in a hackathon but maybe you will?

    I’ll add more as I think of them.

    • @[email protected]OP
      3•1 year ago

      Interesting ideas! I’m don’t do mobile dev either, but regarding your first point, I think the idea is very cool, but taking that direction would be very difficult. Achieving what you suggest the easy way is through a mobile app. The problem is that the if we’re looking at older phones that are not supported anymore, they aren’t secure, so we could run into problems there. The second option you suggested, which is a single purpose ROM seems very cool, but it also seems very daunting, as it is hardware specific from my understanding.

      I’m not familiar with the animal prosthetic field too much, but could be an idea.

      thank you, and please share more ideas if you can :)

    • DeebsterEnglish
      2•1 year ago

      I’m not sure where your skillets and specializations lie

      I love that autocorrect (I asssume) typo. image of frying pans