Maple was mentioned on Hackaday! Check it out and see what they had to say in their "The $2 32-Bit Arduino (With Debugging)" post.
Using Linux Device Trees for Fun and Profit
How does a computer know which parts it is composed of? What hardware and peripherals are connected? For a desktop computer, many things like storage drives and attached USB devices are discoverable on boot. But for embedded systems, a lot of the hardware is connected via non-discoverable protocols such as SPI, UART, and GPIO. The kernel, which controls the hardware, needs to be told what devices are attached and how to talk to them.
LeafLabs at SFN 2016
The LeafLabs Neuro team is pleased to announce their return to the Society for Neuroscience 2016 conference. Next week in San Diego from 11/13 to 11/16, they'll be showing off some exciting new projects, along with updates on their progress since last year. While their project scope has expanded, their focus remains to be the theme of big data challenges in neuroscience.
Autoportrait on Display
LeafLabs had the pleasure of working with Tellart and Visionaire (sponsored by Cadillac) to create the interactive art exhibition, Autoportrait, which featured an assembly robot drawing portraits of gallery patrons. Autoportrait is on view to the public at Cadillac House through November 4, 2016!
What Happened to My Headset Jack?
Have you wondered how information is carried over a modern interface like USB-C, or if the manufacturer of your smartphone decides not to provide a 3.5mm headset jack, how audio is routed? This post is intended to address these questions at a high level: I’ll embed various links to additional information, for those who care to explore further.
Open Letter to Future Graduates
Hello Soon to be College Graduates,
I have advice for you, especially if you’ll soon be graduating in the next year. I am a recent graduate from MIT starting my career at LeafLabs, working on sensor interface and FPGA design. There are so many students who are starting to think about life beyond school so I wanted to share the knowledge I gained when trying to enter the workforce. I really enjoy what I do and what I am working on, but while I was still in school, I was very uncertain about how to find a job that would be right for me. With the combination of exploring options in and outside of school you can prepare yourself and feel more confident leaving school behind.
Project Ara: Erring on the Side of Epic
Written by Andrew J. Meyer, LeafLabs CEO
An early Project Ara phone boots for the first time!
Among my favorite moments during the three years we worked with Google to build Project Ara, was reading the deluge of internet comments following the press coverage of Google I/O 2014. The responses were split roughly 50/50 between “shut up and take my money” and “I’m an engineer and this is impossible...and stupid.” We knew we were on to something. We also knew a lot more than any of the commenters about what the technical risks and challenges actually were.
It was past the time that we should have gone home, earlier that spring, when we huddled around a lab bunch, inserted a few fully assembled modules - display, processor, and battery - into a sleek aluminum frame, and saw the Android logo pop-up for the first time on a Project Ara phone. I think the battery died pretty soon after that, which was longer than we expected. Engineering had barely started 6 months before, and for the first time, I changed my technical opinion about Paul Eremenko’s grand vision of a modular phone from “probably impossible,” to “let’s get it done.”
Thanks, Paul, for a vision that was absolutely worth chasing. Thanks, Regina and Ken, for pushing us to err on the side of epic. Thanks, Ara and Seth, for inviting us to be a “part of it.” Thank you, Google, for having the courage to keep looking beyond what’s “obviously possible” for new products.
Most of all, thank you to the tremendously talented engineers, both inside and outside of LeafLabs, who reliably pulled rabbits from hats, repeatedly solved problems the internet specifically deemed unsolvable, and for being a team that I’m proud to have been a part of.
Maple Forums
Please note that the Maple Forums have been converted to a static archive. Thanks for the good times and keep on hacking.
Project Ara in the News
Some of the buzz surrounding the Project Ara demo at Google I/O:
"It's been years since we've had anything like true experimentation and newness in smartphones. "
"A developer edition running Android with a 5.3-inch screen is shipping this fall, while a consumer version of the phone will be available some time in 2017. To get your hands on a device this year, you have to head over to ATAP's dedicated Ara website and fill out the form indicating what type of module you'd like to develop for the phone."
"'Step one, plug in a module,' Camargo told the crowd. 'Step two, use it.' The system can eject the modules electronically with a simple voice command like, 'okay Google, eject the camera.' That one got arguably the biggest applause line of the demo.'
Project Ara at Google I/O
Rafa Camargo, the Google ATAP Project Ara engineering lead will be speaking today (May 20) at Google I/O at 1 PM EST. Watch the live stream here.
Eli Presents at SAC 2016!
Bravo to LeafLabs' Eli who presented at the Association for Computing Machinery 31st Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC) last week (April 4-8) in Pisa, Italy! His paper "Structured Gotos are (Slightly) Harmful" was co-authored with Yossi Gil of Technion (Israel).
How the Brain is Computing the Mind: A Coversation with Ed Boyden
A certain Cambridge, MA startup building "incredible computers" gets a mention in this in depth interview by Edge.org with Ed Boyden about his career and thoughts on the trajectory of neuroscience
CSNE Partnership
LeafLabs is excited to announce our partnership with the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE), an NSF-funded Engineering Research Center made up of MIT, the University of Washington, and San Diego State University. The CSNE focuses on the development of Brain-Computer Interfaces, particularly for the treatment of stroke and spinal cord injury. As an Industry Partner, LeafLabs looks forward to the prospect of working with CSNE labs on exciting and impactful projects that can leverage the benefits of collaboration between industry and academia.
Dr. Boyden & Leaflabs in the Boston Globe
DOMINICK REUTER FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE/FILE
Murray Carpenter (Boston Globe correspondent) interviews Dr. Ed Boyden from MIT and LeafLabs' CEO Andrew Meyer about advances being made in neurophysiology, big data, and of course Willow. Follow the link to the read the full article "Glut of data from mice brains tests MIT’s computing power" on the Boston Globe website.
Maple Wiki & Docs
Please note that the Maple wiki has been taken down and the docs have been moved tohttp://docs.leaflabs.com/docs.leaflabs.com/index.html.
Expedition on the Charles
Intrepid team LeafLabs ready to set forth
Now that it is getting dark at 7pm and we have broken out the bulky sweaters, it is nice to look back to August and our end of summer team activity, canoeing on The Charles. With thunderstorms in the forecast we almost had to cancel. In the end though we had glorious weather (despite a few showers) for a blissful afternoon of canoeing and sightseeing.
Fearless leader
Fearless intern
Casual Friday
eam Names: Team Agro, Team Struggles & Team Emily Dickinson
Photos courtesy of LeafLab's Perry Hung
Willow Featured in Frontier in Neural Circuits
"A direct-to-drive neural data acquisition system" by Justin P Kinney, Jacob G Bernstein, Andrew J Meyer, Jessica B Barber, Marti Bolivar, Bryan Newbold, Jorg Scholvin, Caroline Moore-Kochlacs, Christian T Wentz, Nancy J Kopell, Edward S Boyden.
Read and share the full article here!
Fond Farewell to our Summer Interns
Alas and alack the summer is drawing to a close and so our dear summer interns, Rin and Sara have left us. They did amazing work and were a blast to have around the office. We're sorry to see them go, but wish them the best of luck with their senior year.
Rin:
Personal moon-shot projects:
- A headset/photo-booth/life-size diorama that assists people with poor communication skills to communicate
- Imaging technologies on par with MRI and EEG that can be used in deep brain visualization
Favorite inventions:
- Bicycle
- Clock
- Sewing machine
Special skills:
- Origami whiz
- Ability to sleep through every alarm
Sara:
Favorite invention:
Headphones
Favorite quote:
"What I cannot create, I cannot understand." - Richard P. Feynman
Questions:
How can one best approximate the perfect engineering of another's personal experience?
Special skills:
- Empathy
- Rad party organization
- Carpentry
Secret identity:
Undergraduate student :(
FYI: Knock off Maples
To our dear Maple & Maple Mini users,
It has come to our attention that "LeafLabs Maple Minis" are being sold on AliExpress. Please be aware that although they say "LeafLabs" on them, they are not made by LeafLabs. The Maple line was discontinued in March 2015. That said, the forum is still going strong and the designs are available on Upverter.
Yours truly,
LeafLabs
Team Cooking Class Extravaganza!
A few memories of our team cooking class last month at Shiso Kitchen.
The LeafLabs team before dividing in half for an all out cooking brawl/mandatory fun
Nick and Chris having never separated egg yolks before compete in a test of speed and agility.
At Shiso Kitchen we learned a trick for separating yolks: dump the egg in your hand and strain the whites through your fingers. It was very messy and very amusing.
Eggs separated: time to whisk!
Team effort cream pour
Marti loses graciously to whisking champion Jess
Knife Skills: Neuro vs Ara with Justin and Eli!
Knife Skills: G & A showdown (guess who won...)
Rin and Sara in the Risotto-Stir Intern Face-Off
Meal success: salmon en papillote and risotto milanese with saffron
Dessert: coconut pudding with mango and toasted coconut
Cheers!
Mandatory fun completed!
