lost opportunity - closed hardware

[miriam_e]

I bought a cute little keychain photo display device the other day. It is tiny -- similar to a box of matches, but not as thick. It can store and show about 50 color photos on its little 128x128 pixel display. I was interested in hacking it to use as an extremely low power display for a small computer that I might carry in my pocket. Sadly, its architecture is utterly closed. It connects via USB, but looks to the computer like a CD drive. The computer is assumed to be a Microsoft Windows XP machine which automatically downloads and runs a program that lets the user move pictures to the device. It doesn't present the storage area to the connecting computer at all. Any movement of data must be done via this proprietary, secret interface.

Sad. A lost opportunity. By assuming people are idiots they truncate the possibilities of their device. Most people these days don't have any problem moving stuff in and out of their flash drives without specialised software.

I might still be able to bypass its processor, but I doubt it. I expect the display electronics will be integrated in the one chip, and I don't know enough about driving such a display to build my own yet. If I was going to do that I'd start from a simpler beginning, with a standalone display, adding memory and a simple processor. But I have too many other things to do so I guess this one falls into the couldabeen area. [sigh]

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Sad. A lost opportunity. By assuming people are idiots they truncate the possibilities of their device.

But most people are 'idiots'. That's why they buy iPods.
/snark.

I might still be able to bypass its processor, but I doubt it.

I'd be completely surprised if you can't hack it. Someone, somewhere, will have done so, surely. The first thing I do when I get a new flashdrive is scrub it of software.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I know many people who are very smart, but still get sucked in by glossy advertising to buy overpriced crap. Sadly, there seems to be little correlation with lack of mental capacity and susceptibility to advertising or other propaganda.

I was going to buy several of these devices; one or more to experiment with and break, one to use as a simple pocketable display, and a pair to link to a couple of lenses so I could experiment with a 3D viewer. I'll still fool around pulling apart and probably destroying the one I've bought, but I don't have a lot of expectation that anything will come of it. I have too many other things I want to do anyway. This would have distracted me (even more).