Elphel: Crazy
[Elphel|http://www.elphel.com/] is manufacturing Linux based cameras with an SOC (System on a Chip) and an FPGA which contains FOSS JPEG and [Theora|http://www.theora.org/] encoders.
The cameras are gadgets on themselves, like doing POE (Power Over Ethernet), having Busybox and telnet up by default. Model 333 is the newest one adding Theora support.
While looking at the [prices list|http://wiki.elphel.com/index.php?title=333_prices] in their Wiki (yup, they do have a wiki and consider using AJAX on the camera web interface!) I had to make a conclusion: they are extremely crazy, but in the best sense.
@@Network camera base $650%%%
@@Sensor front end, color 2048×1536 with (3.0 MPix) $150%%%
@@GNU/GPL Discount -$100
The complete camera without POE is about $800, that’s pretty much, but consider that this is a real open hardware.
@@We usually have some cameras that we can provide to developers free of charge. If you have an interesting project in mind – try convincing us that it qualifies.
Developers, look at this!
@@We offer $100 per camera discount for those who plan to develop software code that will run in Elphel cameras or with them (on a client computer) where the code will be released under GNU/GPL or compatible license. This discount is valid with volume prices too.
And at last, but not least, they encourage customers to release under GPL as giving discount when doing so. Rather cool.
I wish a bright future for open hardware designers.
Commenting is closed for this article.