Project Ara: the next big thing by Google

May 24, 2016 06:38 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 01:47 am IST

If you are not happy with the camera on your smartphone, this phone will give you an option to replace it with the high-end one by simply swapping the module with the one you want. Google has developed a smartphone which allows the consumer to slide out its parts like Lego blocks.

The tech giant first introduced the project in 2013 and has been working on it ever since. The project is titled Ara.

The phone contains six modular slots and all of them are flexible. If you wish to update your phone with the new processor, it will be as easy as to change the processor module. You can slide any Ara module in any slide. It works with the help of Greybus, a new software designed by Google.

Hence, Google is letting you decide what you want in your smartphone.

Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects organisation used the next generation technology for different modular parts to be inflow with each other. ATAP developed the wireless capacity pads with the help of which communication with the main board of the smartphone and interaction among the modules is possible.

This modular smartphone will have small hardware components called modules which can be upgraded or replaced independently.

The phone technology is integrated with a metal endoskeleton frame referred as “endos” by Google which will have slots for smartphone modules such as camera, processor, display screen, speakers, etc. These modules will be locked in the “endos” with the help of electro permanent magnets between the board and the modules. All the modules are passive components which mean they do not require any source of energy.

So far the endoskeletons are developed by Google. But, the tech giant is planning to reach out to the third parties to create the ecosystem of modules.

Developer’s edition is expected to be released by this fall, whereas the consumers will get their hands on the phone only by next year.

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