8mm of Engineering Passion
Interview with VITRO, Akichika Tanaka
by IGNITION Staff
Measuring in at just 13.5mm x 8mm, 8pino is the world’s smallest Arduino compatible board and was even awarded the ‘Design for the future’ award (part of the Good Design Awards). Housed within this tiny yet industry changing invention lies its maker’s passion and engineering pride.
“It all started in 2011” explains Tanaka, the creator of the minimalist board “My good friend Takahashi and I formed a creative unit called VITRO and produced a pen with a built in pedometer. We did this by installing an acceleration sensor into the pen cap to record how many centimeters the pen had travelled. This way, you could measure the amount of studying done by distance rather than time.”
At the time, the creative duo wanted to use Arduino in the device, an open source electronics platform. However, there just wasn’t an Arduino compatible board small enough to fit the project. Compared to other microcomputers, Arduino boards are much easier to program. For Tanaka, this was a necessity given that he was operating the creative unit during his spare time and in between work.
In the end Tanaka had no option but to use a regular microcomputer due to the Arduino boards being too large. The only and largest problem with using microcomputers is that they use an old and somewhat outdated programming language. In fact it took Tanaka 2 weeks to program the device and even then, the debugging process presented a whole new set of headaches of its own. This could have been made far simpler if there was just a small enough Arduino board.
“I was really frustrated” recalls Tanaka “because what we were trying to do was relatively simple but was being made unnecessarily challenging due to size constraints. That’s when I started to think about other developers who might be having the same problem. What if we could make a tiny Arduino board? A smaller board would also benefit existing projects using a regular size board as it would free up a lot of space; space that could be used to add more features.”
Tanaka was definitely onto something here. With the advent of wearable devices, the idea of developing a tiny but capable Arduino compatible board couldn’t have come at a better time. The standardized method of developing a PCB per project or device requires significant resources, both in terms of time and money. On the contrary, a small or minimalist Arduino board can have universal applications, saving on both time as well as cost. Simply put, 8pino is what Tanaka and his team hopes to rewrite the industry standard with.
“I love Lego” added Tanaka, “So there was a part of me that wanted it (8pino) to be small enough to fit onto/into a Lego block or Lego-man.”
Despite the focus on size, that wasn’t all they wanted to achieve with the revolutionary board. As a user himself, Tanaka made it a point to include the features he as a developer would want to see included in a product like this.
“8pino comes equipped with an USB port so there’s no need to use external adapters. It can also be easily attached to a breadboard (a basic circuit board used for prototyping) with minimal effort.”
Tanaka went on to add “The ease of usability with a breadboard was one feature in particular I was keen to include. There are other small circuit boards readily available but the majority of them aren’t compatible with breadboards. This can make it challenging for users and developers alike.”
8pino was born from VITRO, the creative unit Tanaka (an engineer) and Takahashi (a designer) formed back in 2011. By trade, Tanaka is an engineer working for an electronics firm based in Shinagawa, Tokyo. VITRO is what he likes to call an “extracurricular activity”, only being able to tend to the project once his work is finished for the day. We asked Tanaka to shed a bit more light into how he’s able to balance both.
“VITRO is a personal project of mine. But my bosses are fine for me to work on the project during work hours as long as I’ve finished my duties for that day. VITRO is a creative outlet for me and an opportunity to explore new challenges as its not strictly a part of my job. Ultimately, the objective is to use the project as a platform to solve current real world issues rather than exploring novel or luxury ideas”
Tanaka is seasoned robotics engineer and has worked on many projects in the past. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these never materialized into an actual product. VITRO on the other hand has finally given the esteemed engineer a way to not only materialize his ideas but also take these products to market.
Prior to establishing VITRO, Tanaka had actually spent a year studying in the US between March 2013 and March 2014. Taking advantage of his work’s fringe benefits, his trip to the US gave him invaluable research experience at the highly regarded Stamford University. Experience which reaffirmed the need to establish VITRO.
His time in the US granted Tanaka with the rare opportunity to be a part of a more open research environment, something that simply isn’t seen in Japan. The US is often seen as the birth place of many industry leading robotics startups and it’s this that Tanaka so badly wanted to be a part of.
“The whole experience was a real eye opener for me” explained Tanaka, “I realized very quickly that Japan was lacking in a lot of areas when it comes to robotics research. For example, in the US, they always have the end goal in mind; to make a product. They understand the importance of answering to customer expectations so business advisors are always on hand, even at the development stage. All this is made possible by having an open research environment. Communication and interaction between one another is encouraged, quite the opposite of what you’d see in Japan.”
The culmination of all these experieneces is what lead to Tanaka challenging the industry status quo upon returning to Japan. VITRO is just one manifetation of his much larger vision to change the industry and no doubt we’ll see more from the enthusiastic engineer for many more years to come.
If we look at VITRO as a platform for developers to materialize their products, ShinamonoLab (an amalgamation of shinamono — products in Japanese, and laboratory) serves as the open community which brings together engineers and designers. We asked Tanaka for some more details regarding the creation of ShinamonoLab.
“Whenever we go to meets or conventions, we see a lot of people who share the same ideas. We got talking to some of them and realized that a few are actually based in the same area as my office in Shinagawa. Despite being so close, it just seemed like such a shame that we only meet through these conventions which are often only held once a year. We needed an easier and more frequent way to communicate with each other and bounce idea off one another. That’s when the idea for ShinamonoLab came up.”
Tanaka went on to add that ShinamonoLab is much like a music band in that it brings together engineers and designers. But rather than working on a common project, individuals pursue their own research and projects all the whilst forming connections with likeminded people. This may some a little backward but there is solid reasoning behind this. For example, in the case of VITRO, who makes small products, knowing the best cost to performance manufactures is crucial. ShinamonoLab and its community of engineers and designers can provide VITRO with this information plus any recommendations without interfering with the project itself.
Today, there are an increasing number of venture and startup hardware companies in Japan. Tanaka’s objective for ShinamonoLab is for it serve as a community/hub that supports these companies and the individuals within them; from startup advice to sharing ideas.
VITRO’s 8pino is indeed an engineering marvel. But being awarded the Good Design Award has also propelled the product into the design/art spotlight. In both cases, the diminutive size of the product has creators a buzz with ideas on incorporating Arduino technology into their next projects.
It comes as no surprise then that the initial batch of several hundred 8pino’s sold out almost instantly. Production has since been increased to a 1000 units to meet current demand but Tanaka anticipates the product to scale even larger.
“8pino has so many applications already and many more have still yet to be discovered or explored. It’s fundamentally a component, a tool for making projects possible. As such, it’s only as successful as the amount of people who use it. One of the most common questions we get is ‘what can I use it for?’ so we’re currently developing a beginners kit to expand our reach to an even broader audience.”
Interestingly, Tanaka’s vision for more experimental developers to use 8pino stems from his mission and in turn the meaning behind the VITRO name. In science, the term in vitro experiment means to ‘to be in an experimental envriomont’.
So what’s in store after 8pino?
“I personally like making tools and materials for development” replied Tanaka, “I like to make the kind of things that are useful for developers. I don’t care so much about whether it sells a lot so long as it’s a lot of use for at least some people. As VITRO is a side project, there isn’t’ the constant pressure of having to make a product that sells. In fact, much of VITRO’s success is owed to the freedom within it; it isn’t bound by the constraints of a company concerned with only the numbers. Eventually, I’d like to adopt VITRO’s products and achievements into my actual line of work, in particular robotics.”
Tanaka’s and VITRO’s recent achievements have opened up a lot of possibilities for developers and creators alike. It’ll be interesting to see what creations will be born in the future (both direct and indirect) resulting from Tanaka’s advancements in the field.
(photo: Ryosuke Iwamoto translation: Atsushi Fujii)
Originally published at ignition.co
