Google’s modular smartphone will let users swap parts like screens and cameras on the fly
The modern smartphone is a masterpiece of
adaptability. It lets you talk, snap photos, and tote around sprawling
media collections. Downloadable apps let you do lots of other things,
too, like track your workouts, monitor your diet, or remix a song.
There’s even an app that helps you find hidden treasure, thanks to
software that turns your device into a metal detector using the magnetic-field sensors that make up your smartphone’s compass.
But don’t let this apparently awesome adaptability bamboozle you. For
all its vaunted versatility, a smartphone is still only as good as its
hardware. Though hundreds of new apps appear every day, your phone’s
hardware is unchangeable beyond perhaps the option of swapping in a more
spacious memory card.
This inflexibility has two drawbacks. First, your phone cannot take
advantage of the steady improvements to hardware that accrue from
Moore’s Law and other factors. Second, other than installing an app, you
cannot modify your phone to fit your lifestyle or temporary needs.
Suppose you’re finally going on that long-dreamed-of vacation
to Indonesia and want a better camera in your phone. Add-ons can give
you a new lens to work with, and photo-editing software can improve the
resulting pictures, but these tweaks won’t make a dramatic difference in
your photos. If you really want to take better pictures with your
phone, buying a new one is your only option.
Google hopes to change that this year when it releases the first iteration of Ara
smartphones, which consumers will build and customize using hardware
modules. At press time, Google hadn’t disclosed many details about its
plans, including the exact release date or the modules that will be
available when Ara debuts. But the company intends to begin sales of a
“market pilot” version of the phone in 2015.
Google also announced that Chinese chip manufacturer Rockchip will
provide the central processor for the device, which will be housed in a
single, removable “application processor” module alongside the graphics
processor and main flash drive. It was unclear as of mid-December
whether the cellular antenna and radio components that allow Ara to
serve as a phone will be contained within a single module or spread out
over several. However, Project Ara director Paul Eremenko tells IEEE Spectrum
that the phone will be capable of 4G LTE connectivity when it
launches. Other basic offerings are expected to include display modules
that serve as the screen, as well as battery, microphone, speaker, and
camera modules.
To turn this hodgepodge into a functioning smartphone, you’ll plug
everything into an “endoskeleton” that has built-in electronics to
manage the flow of data and distribute power among modules. This
supporting framework will also contain a tiny backup battery, which can
keep the phone alive while you swap a dead battery module for a charged
one. While Google will build the endoskeleton, the module design will be
left to independent developers. Members of the design team expect that a
basic Ara phone could be built from materials and components that
cost between US $50 and $100. The retail cost of the phone could, of
course, be more, depending on the specific modules the customer chooses.
The ultimate goal, Eremenko says, is a marketplace for hardware that
rivals the vitality and diversity of offerings available now in app
stores. Independent developers will create modules that are compatible
with the phone’s endoskeleton, in much the same way developers write
apps for the Android operating system. Google has offered some initial
ideas for these modules, such as a thermal imager and a pulse oximeter,
which lets users measure their pulse rates and blood oxygen levels. And
independent developers are brainstorming designs for a slew of other
modules, including radiation detectors and haptic-feedback devices to
enable the blind to read braille on their smartphones.
Launching a wireless
revolution isn’t easy, and it’s a task that not even a tech giant would
take on alone. Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects group, which
oversees the company’s more far-out efforts, like the 3D-mapping Tango tablet,
leads Project Ara. This small group is collaborating with companies
including Toshiba and universities such as Carnegie Mellon. To build a
version of Android that can operate a modular phone, Google has teamed
with the nonprofit engineering consortium Linaro.
This organization of engineers from around the world helps to develop
open-source operating systems like Android and Ubuntu. The group also
hosted the Linaro Connect USA conference in California where Eremenko
laid out some of the details of Project Ara.
Speaking at that conference, Eremenko said that the device would
initially target people without smartphones. “There are 6 billion people
who are not connected to the mobile Internet,” he told the audience.
“Delivering the mobile Internet to those people could in fact be
world changing.”
Does Google have the muscle to get a new kind of smartphone adopted
by billions of new users? Alan DeRossett, cofounder of the firm VOXearch,
which makes portable medical devices, is optimistic. One of the reasons
is the burgeoning market for self-diagnostic gadgets. An Ara phone, he
says, could host a suite of standardized modules that will diagnose a
variety of diseases using an assortment of already available
lab-on-a-chip technologies.
The beauty of the scheme, he says, is that building a device to
detect diseases in the developing world wouldn’t mean abandoning other
consumers who are interested in more mundane functions. “If you’re in
California, you may need a fitness-monitoring module,” DeRossett notes.
“In a developing country, the malaria monitor is going to be much more
important to you.”
Customizing an Ara phone starts with its
endoskeleton. It will come in three sizes, letting users decide whether
they want a device that’s small, standard, or phablet size. The backbone
of each model is laid out with a grid of slots, which can accommodate
three different module shapes: small squares, large squares, and
medium-size rectangles.
Every slot in the endoskeleton will have a pair of copper pins to
convey power and four single-turn copper coils, each about 3 millimeters
across. This layout is mirrored in each attached module, with a tenth
of a millimeter between paired coils. Data is transferred across this
small air gap by a technique known as inductive coupling—sending a
current through one coil to induce a voltage in its partner. Because the
coils don’t make physical contact, frequent swapping of modules won’t
wear them down.
To manage the interchange of data between modules, Google chose an
interface protocol called UniPro. Like USB, UniPro is a set of hardware
and software standards that defines how devices communicate. Tech
companies began developing UniPro almost a decade ago, under the
auspices of the Mipi Alliance, which sets standards for mobile technology. Project Ara will be one of the first implementations of the protocol in the wild.
To make the most of its modular design, Ara will run a specialized
version of the newly released Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system,
which will allow for “hot swapping” of modules. With the exception of
the screen and the application processor module, users will be able to
remove a module and replace it with another without rebooting the phone.
Want to use an Ara phone to share photos with friends? Remove
the camera, plug in a pico-projector module, and start the show without
ever powering down.
Battery life, which can make or break a smartphone, will be in the
hands of Ara users. The device can be outfitted with more than one
battery module at a time for greater capacity.
The Ara team had to come up with a connection system to ensure that
modules stay firmly coupled to the phone while in use but are easy to
detach when you want to swap them out. These engineers rejected
mechanical latches, which would have detracted from the phone’s
aesthetics and added more moving parts.
At the first Ara Developers Conference
in April 2014, Google announced that it would use electropermanent
magnets to connect the endoskeleton and modules. Modules will be held in
place magnetically while in use. To remove one, you’ll use an app to
send a brief surge of electric current through the magnets that hold it,
altering their magnetization enough to free the module from the frame.
Project Ara could also change how we get rid of our
smartphones. The modular design of the platform would make it easy for
Ara users to swap, share, and resell components, extending their
usefulness and keeping them out of landfills. A cracked screen on an Ara
phone would be annoying, but it could be fixed easily by swapping in a
single part. Team members estimate that the endoskeleton will have a
life span of five years or more. That’s much longer than phones
currently last in many parts of the world. According to the latest
available data, phones get replaced every 22 months in the United States
and every 27 months in South Korea.
The agnostic nature of Ara’s UniPro foundation means modules could
have uses outside the endoskeleton. Imagine popping an MP3-player module
out of your phone and inserting it into your car dashboard or home
entertainment system. Toshiba has proposed an activity-monitoring module
for Ara phones that could also operate in a wristband.
Although Ara is designed for everyone, any grand rethinking of the
smartphone is bound to encounter some obstacles. For example, while some
users will want to make their phones unique, others may find that level
of customization daunting. And Google’s record on product launches is
not spotless. “Google does many experiments,” says mobile-industry
analyst Ken Dulaney. “Not all succeed.”
Eremenko admits that getting Project Ara off the ground will be a
tricky proposition. When the phone launches later this year, the company
will have to build a user base and a developer ecosystem
simultaneously. Google thinks it can do that by building a market where
niche products can thrive.
One developer, for example, is working on a battery with three times
the energy density of standard smartphone batteries. It’s currently good
for only 50 or so charging cycles, though. Ordinarily, Eremenko says,
such innovators would be surviving on venture capital while they try to
improve the technology. By turning to Ara, this company can sell a
high-capacity battery with a limited life span—probably not a go-to
power source, but one that some users might be interested in.
That’s the potential power of a modular phone: Because the pieces can
be ordered à la carte, hardware doesn’t have to appeal to the masses to
succeed. Instead, modules by independent developers and big companies
alike can serve just a small community well. Eremenko and his team think
there are many products like this looking for a home. With Project Ara, Google is aiming to bring them all into the fold.
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