MESH: DIY Development Kit that Anyone Can Materialize Their Ideas
Sony’s DIY development kit, ‘MESH’, goes on general sale in the US
by Wataru Tsuchiya
The ‘Makers movement’ -or the 3rd industrial revolution as some would call it- has brought about an entirely new vision of the future when it comes to innovation. 3D printing, open source technology and laser cutting are just some of the technologies behind this movement with many of these machines having already been adopted by workshops, companies and educational institutes. Even complex systems for prototypes are now being developed using open source technology like Arduino. To put it simply, innovation is now in the reach of the entire general public.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone can simply make what they want or need. For example, to use a 3D printer, you first need to learn how to create a 3D rendering using CAD. Even relatively simple development tools like Arduino require users to have at least a basic understanding of electronics and programming. So when it comes to materializing new ideas, we’re still faced with the hurdle of having to first learn how to use these various tools.
If you were to ask me whether I think that we live in a world where anyone can make anything, my answer would simply be no. But that’s exactly what the young developers at Sony are trying to change with their new product ‘MESH’ — a simple amalgamation of Make, Experience and SHare.
MESH is a simple system that consists of joining wireless electronic blocks or ‘MESH Tags’. Each MESH Tag comes with a basic feature/function such as LEDs, buttons and accelerometers etc. Programming how these tags communicate with each other is done via the MESH Canvas app for the iPad; a simplified drag-and-drop based visual form of programming that allows users to easily map/program various functions. There’s absolutely no requirement for users to learn sophisticated coding and the simplicity allows users to quickly create a colorful canvas of MESH Tags as if by magic.
MESH Tags aren’t just limited to communicating with one another though. They can also be combined with other devices such as microphones and even web based services to create new so-called recipes (MESH Canvas maps). The possibilities are endless!
We wanted to find out more about how the team at Sony arrived at the intriguing idea behind MESH and what they hope to achieve with it. Project founder Takehiro Hagiwara was more than happy to fill us in.
The MESH story
The original idea behind MESH was actually born from Hagiwara’s own lifestyle habits.
“I always hit the snooze button on the alarm clock in my bed, then, I fall back to sleep right away.” He explained, “Then one day I thought ‘what if I could relocate just the snooze button to the bathroom. That way I would HAVE to get out of bed.’”
Naturally, Hagiwara immediately looked around to see if such a product already existed but his extensive search ultimately yielded no results. However, he did notice that he wasn’t the only one with a desire to solve this sort of basic problem; there seemed to be many others out there with similar demands like a simple system that monitors the opening and closing of a front door so you can check-in on your family/home from abroad.
“I just wanted a simple way to make these little things that weren’t available” recalled Hagiwara.
Everyone’s needs are different. And there’s certainly nothing available in the market that can answer to them all. This was the starting point of MESH; to create a system that can answer to everyone’s simple day to day problems or needs.
MESH first caught the public’s eye at the Maker Faire Bay Area in California, spring 2014. Despite only having a prototype at the event, Hagiwara and his team were inundated with people looking to purchase the product there and then. In response, Hagiwara turned to Indiegogo, a crowdfunding platform to raise enough capital to realize the product. Offering several packages, including a $119 basic set, the goal was to raise $50,000 but in the end the campaign raised a total of $64,875! And by the time of writing this article, all those who backed the project had already received their products in return. Although Hagiwara works for Sony, a huge multi-national company, there’s a reason why he opted to crowdfund the project.
“It wasn’t due to lack of funding,” he explained “We just wanted to get the product out to potential users/buyers as soon as possible. We wanted to see how they would use MESH so that we could then work towards improving the product.”
SHare — Ideas and the multiplier effect
Generally speaking MESH users fall into one of the following categories:
1. Classroom and workshop teachers who show students how to materialize ideas. 2. Parents looking for a fun activity to share with their kids. 3. Engineers/designers looking to make a prototype of some sort.
The commonality in all 3 of the above is the idea of materializing an idea. In fact, early adopters of MESH have already come up with some interesting MESH recipes for a variety of applications. And according to Hagiwara, there’s currently talks of creating a platform or network through which users can share their MESH recipes.
“Ultimately, we want to make it easier for people to materialize their ideas.” Explained Hagiwara, “Having a platform for users to share their MESH recipes is an essential part of this. Sometimes it’s hard to visualize what you can do with MESH. But by seeing other people’s creations and recipes users you may find something interesting that they then can adapt for their own needs. This is an important aspect of the MESH project and we want to create a solid platform on which users can share their ideas.”
No doubt, the creation of such a platform will directly lend itself to realizing Hagiwara’s vision of a future where anyone can easily materialize their ideas.
MESH examples of use
Education: Innovation from the next generation
As mentioned briefly above, there are already MESH based workshops aimed at elementary school kids and Hagiwara has high hopes for the creative innovations that could be born from these.
“Kids are much more creative than what we adults could imagine” He explained, “these kids had no issue in getting to know how to use MESH.”
Visual programming is a key element when it comes to children and innovation. Last year (2014), the world saw Shubham Banerjee, barely 13 at the time, create a far more cost effective braille printer using LEGO (Mindstorms EV3). Since then, we’ve become almost accustomed to hearing about teens who have come up with creative innovations using visual programming.
However, Hagiwara remains adamant that MESH is still very much a tool and by no means limited to being just an educational product.
“We’re not experts or specialists in child education. And we certainly don’t tout MESH to be an educational product. For us, it’s still fundamentally a development tool. But I think it would be good for teachers and lecturers alike to share their experiences with MESH in the educational sector.”
Perhaps in the future we’ll see a platform dedicated for teachers to share their experiences with MESH, much like Hagiwara’s plans for a MESH recipes platform. Who knows. But by accumulating teaching experiences into a knowledge network, it could potentially give way to a much broader scope of open innovation that we adults we never even thought of.
Who needs an engineer?
“It should be simple enough so that you don’t need to be an engineer. In fact it should be simple enough for a child to use. That’s our goal.” — Takehiro Hagiwara
With simple to use visual programming, the role of your traditional engineer will undoubtedly change; at a recent MESH Hackathon, some users were even able to go beyond creating just a basic prototype. With designers and directors now seemingly empowered with the ability to materialize their ideas, where does that leave the engineers?
“I don’t think MESH will retire the traditional engineer completely” explained Hagiwara, “By making the SDK available to them (engineers), we want to encourage them to come up with new and interesting parts.”
In doing so, MESH hopes to create a system where by the engineers can create the necessary and/or interesting parts which the non-engineer users can then use to make something even more interesting/creative.
It’ll also be interesting to see how MESH integrates or collaborates with other manufacturers and services.
With the roll out of the most recent update (at the time of writing) came the ability for users to connect MESH Canvas with Philips Hue products (light bulbs that can be controlled via a smartphone to change color). It’s this type of interconnectivity that Hagiwara hopes to expand on in the years to come.
“We want MESH to connect with more products and even web based services like weather forecasts, messaging and social media. These can then be linked with other physical devices too to create endless possibilities for innovation in our day to day lives.”
MESH is an interesting and refreshing move for the traditionally product focused multi-national corporation that is Sony; unlike their consumer offerings, MESH is more a tool than a finished product — It’s designed to encourage innovation and learning above all else.
It’s clear that innovation is a key notion for Sony with company establishing an all new ‘New Business Creation Department’ in 2014 and even adopted a Seed Accelerator Program, an ecosystem to develop and grow new businesses.
Unsurprisingly, MESH is/was also a part of this program alongside other notable concepts including FES Watch and Qrio Smart Lock.
So, how will this startup-esque move from Sony impact their overall brand image? It’s hard to say at this point. But at least for us, we couldn’t help but feel excited about the company and their new MESH project.
(photo: Daisuke Hayata translation: Atsushi Fujii)
Originally published at ignition.co.
