Enter the maker

2011 was a bellwether year in many ways. It set the scene for 2012 and the roll-out of technology that will ensue over the coming decade. It was the year that tablet computing began to mature, the smartphone market settled down, and we gained a glimpse of where the three titans of tech are heading - Apple, Google and Microsoft. In 2012, trends will solidify and progress, but some of the most interesting developments are taking place off the mainstream radar, as a new generation of developer comes to the fore.

A new era in technology is under way in which the user takes the lead.

Simon Dingle, contributor, ITWeb

I am writing this from my hotel room in Las Vegas, where the Consumer Electronics Show - CES - is about to kick off. Already, in pre-event press conferences, a slew of new products have been released. And none are particularly exciting.

Smart TVs feature prominently in Las Vegas today, with both LG and Samsung unveiling large, 55-inch OLED televisions. Samsung, Lenovo and Acer showed off new ultrabook models, pushing the boundaries of how thin laptop computers can get. Nokia unveiled the Lumia 900 smartphone - its first device to feature LTE connectivity. Lenovo displayed tablets primed for next-generation operating systems, including Microsoft Windows 8 - and so on.

But nothing fundamentally new.

The smartphones are still smartphones. The TVs are still just TVs. And ultrabooks are just laptops with an Intel-devised marketing spin.

The really exciting stuff is happening elsewhere, as a new generation of makers embraces open technology platforms to create their own devices. A new era in technology is under way in which the user takes the lead, creating things out of necessity and free of hype.

While big technology vendors attempt to dictate the rules of engagement with their products, this new generation makes its own. Instead of accepting methodologies prescribed by manufacturers, they're assembling their own reality.

The movement picked up pace in 2011 when platforms like Arduino started to receive more attention.

A descendant of the open source Wiring platform, Arduino is a single-board micro-controller that makes electronics more accessible for use in just about anything.

With freely available plans from the Arduino Web site, anyone, anywhere can pick up a cheap list of parts and assemble their own Arduino systems that can then be integrated into... well, the sky's the limit.

One early commercial example of this is the Twine device that is being developed by a start-up called Supermechanical. Twine can be used to connect and monitor just about anything - from pot plants and doors to washing machines and air-conditioners.

The Twine gadget roughly resembles a bar of soap and contains a WiFi radio along with internal and external sensors for temperature and motion. According to its creators, it will run for weeks on two AAA batteries.

Accompanying Web-based software allows users to set rules surrounding what Twine is detecting in its environment.

“Twine teaches objects how to speak and you just tell them what to say,” says David Carr, co-founder of Supermechanical.

So, for example, you could stick a Twine on your front door and tell it to send an alert to your phone when someone knocks. Or you could tell it to turn the air-conditioner on when the temperature in the room drops to a certain level. The possibilities are endless - especially with a collection of external sensors and devices that can be added to Twine. A moisture sensor could be used to tell you when pot-plants need watering, or a magnetic sensor could be used to alert you every time the fridge door is opened.

Supermechanical pitched its idea on the Kickstarter Web site to attract funding from the public, and at time of writing, has accumulated just short of $118 000 - almost R1 million - to get going. It was hoping to get just $35 000.

Twine - and the possibilities for Arduino that it represents - is exponentially more exciting than anything I've seen in Las Vegas so far, or am likely to see in the next few days.

It represents a fundamentally different take on technology, an attitude that puts the user in charge of the tools, not vice versa.

This is the true promise of technology as an enabler for individuals and society. While smartphones and tablet computers certainly have their place, too much of the consumer technology that surrounds us treats us as incapable of making our own decisions - limits us in what we can do, and hope to do, with it.

So, as bigger, better and shinier products are displayed in Las Vegas, keep an eye on what's happening on the ground. The user-makers and citizen developers are the real story, and possibly more deserving of your attention.