Restore the right to repair and modify the product I buy
Last year, the BerryNet team launched AIKEA Kickstarter project, the first AI camera which collects no data. It was not only a successful campaign but also drew a lot of attention from the community. In November, AIKEA and BerryNet were both reported by the special edition of the Internet Health Report 2019 published by Mozilla Foundation.
All AIKEA lovers know AIKEA respects user’s privacy, but not all of them are aware that AIKEA also respects the environment and the right to repair.
When I was a child, fixing electronic devices was not difficult. If my radio or computer was broken, I could bring them to the repairing shop at the corner of the street; even my dad was able to help me fix some of the problems. That was the time when manufacturers still respect the right of consumers to repair and to modify the product we purchased. Today, if my laptop or mobile phone is not working, I have no way to fix them but to call the services offered by the manufacturer and pay. This not only creates good revenue for the manufacturer but also makes it super difficult to repair or modify the product which leads to a huge amount of electronic waste.
AIKEA AI camera is built on top of Raspberry Pi, but it is not a toy or a maker project. It is a real product, easy-to-setup and intelligent. We choose Raspberry Pi because it allows users to extend the functionality of AIKEA easily. The AI engine of AIKEA can be controlled by a simple config and all users have full access to it. The system image is going to be released soon in February, and the full source code will be released by June 2020. We hope the openness of AIKEA makes it simple to modify and simple to repair.
One of my friends who bought AIKEA turned it from intruder detector to a dog detector so that he can analyze the activities of his dog. Another of my friends who used AIKEA in the bedroom felt that the noise from the fan was too loud, so he replaced it with a quieter fan. Today, my friend, Penk, told me that he made a super cool dinosaur case for AIKEA. “If you buy a product, you should have the right to repair and modify it easily”, that’s the message we hope to deliver to every AIKEA user. We believe it’s the responsibility of manufacturers to create products which are easy to use and easy to repair. For AIKEA users, even at some point that you don’t want to have an AI camera anymore, you can flash the SD card and turn it to another cool Raspberry Pi project.
We believe this is just the beginning. It has been a long time that our software, our hardware and even our data are all controlled by the IT companies. By respecting users’ right to modify and repair, we hope AIKEA can contribute a little bit to the reduction of electronic waste and open the door of a better future.
