neuros technology
thanks, joe born, for sharing your insights on neuros technology and open devices .
joe born, ceo of chicago - based neuros technology, discusses the new neuros link device. photo credit: ian monroe / medill
orlando sentinel technology columnist etan horowitz reviews the neuros osd a device that lets you convert dvd, vhs and tv shows to a digital format. for more technology news and reviews, go to urltoken
about neuros technology neuros technology is a manufacturer and marketer of innovative, easy - to - use portable media devices. the company supports an open environment that allows consumers to play their content when, where, and how they want. neuros encourages its community of users to participate fully in the design process, from concept to post - production enhancements .
the consumer electronics (ce) industry is in an upheaval as devices become more open and a rift emerges between hardware manufacturing and the software that steers them. on the cutting edge of this development is neuros technology, which has brought the linux and open - source model to ce devices for tv - internet convergence. i recently spoke with joe born, neuros technology ceo and founder, to learn more about neuros technology and where this exciting trend toward open ce devices is headed .
“joe born is an important pillar of chicago’s technology community, ” said michael krauss, co - chair of chicago mayor richard m. daley’s council of technology advisors. “he’s a true entrepreneur and inventor that has succeeded more than once, and is challenging convention with his neuros products. ”
open source neuros a website dedicated to the open source neuros community and development under direction of joe born .
neuros technology international llc has announced their neuros mpeg - 4 recorder 2, a device that records video straight to memory cards for sony’s playstation portable (psp), without requiring a mac or pc to transfer first. the neuros mpeg - 4 recorder 2 is shipping now and costs us $ 149. 99 .
neuros iii is part of neuros technology new 2007 - 2008 platform lineup that will be based upon texas instruments dm320 platform and will be using a stripped down embedded linux system. open source development on it has since stopped as the product is currently in the research phase .
playstation portable owners who use neuros technology' s mpeg - 4 recorder 2 to record video for playback on their consoles are being warned not to apply sony' s latest psp firmware, version 2. 7. neuros claims the update prevents the psp playing video recorded on its device .
neuros – hack me if you can: when a company publishes a hacking guide for its own products, and offers bounties (cash) to developers to add features and “hacks” to its product, you have to take notice. the company in question is neuros technology, a consumer electronics manufacturer based in chicago. neuros manufactures two products: neuros osd, which is a digital recorder and archiver, and neuros link, a device that connects your tv to the internet. neuros’ decision to open source its products is contrary to what happens in commercial hardware products, which are typically closed. so why did neuros do it ?
born, chief executive officer, of neuros technology international, is an entrepreneur in the classic sense. he got his start in the 1990s with a patent on a device for repairing damaged cds. then in 2001, he started chicago - based neuros technologies, which started out making portable digital audio products, much like apple’s ubiquitous ipod .
( 6) neuros osd: neuros technology, a chicago - based spin - off of digital innovations (di) with approx. 35 employees, sells audio and video devices, among them the neuros osd (open source device). the neuros osd is an open source, linux - based, embedded media center, i. e. a device to record digital content from various sources and to store and output this content in a standardised format used by most digital devices, from mp3 players to mobile telephones and televisions .
myfi (my frequency) digital tuning technology enables convenient wireless high - fidelity playback through any fm radio without wires or connectors. myfi automatically scans and locates the least populated station available for transmission .
but neuros technology international, creator of a new video recorder, has decided to go in a different direction. the company, based in chicago, is providing full documentation of the hardware platform for its recorder, the neuros osd (for open source device), so that skilled users can customize or “hack” the device — and then pass along the improvements to others .
neuros technology makes an mpeg - 4 recorder that records video from the tv, dvd player, cable box, tivo / dvr or camcorder and allows for playback on many cell phones, pdas and smart phones including the motorola q, treo 650, razr and nokia n70 and n90 .
you' ve used the term “super odm” to describe neuros. what does that mean ?
can be directly accessed from neuros built - in processing modules. built - in modules allow
neuros tells psp users' don' t run firmware 2. 7' • the register
the neuros osd is a development development board from neuros technology, based on the ti dm320 multimedia soc with a 200 mhz arm926, 120 mhz c54x dsp processor and 32mb of system memory. connectivity is provided by 10 / 100 ethernet, usb, and sd / cf / mmc flash. the neuros osd has support for a wide array of a / v codecs. running an iscsi initiator on this device opens up hundreds of gbs of network accessable media storage from linuxios .
the neuros digital audio computer it didn' t used to be that every mention of neuros technology was accompanied by the phrase
open source .
on the company' s wiki, ceo joe born explains that neuros once
didn' t pay a lot of attention to the open source movement
that has produced now - commonplace technologies like linux, firefox, and lamp. born co - founded digital innovations in 1995 to manufacturer the skipdr disc repair device and, eight years later, found himself pushing out the first neuros product: the digital audio computer (dac) .
the neuros osd allows the recording of material from many sources, and thats just for starters .
neuros technology applies an open source approach to hardware and software development. “as engineers, most of us spent our academic careers in an environment where open peer review was just taken for granted as the most sensible way to advance science and technology. once we transitioned to the business world, we were conditioned to accept that secrecy was a necessary evil, ” says neuros ceo joe born. “in fact, experience is showing us that peer review works great in the business world as well. the more information we release to the public, the more our community helps provide us with the ultimate strategic business advantage: better products” .
products like the osd are a good example of a small but growing trend toward openness, said jimmy guterman, editor of release 2. 0, a technology and business newsletter published by o’reilly media of sebastopol, calif .
[ 01: 43 ] we’re getting ready for the * big * computex here in neuros taiwan .
what' s in the box neuros hd20gb, ear bud headphones, belt clip, ac adapter, usb cable, car power adapter, cd - rom with neuros synchronization manager software, and printed instructions .
what' s in the box neuros hd60gb, ear bud headphones, belt clip, ac adapter, usb cable, car power adapter, cd - rom with neuros synchronization manager software, and printed instructions .
the osd has not only open hardware, but also open software: it is based on the linux operating system. neuros technology encourages hacking of the device; it has contests with cash rewards for new applications for the osd. one winner, for instance, designed a program that lets people use it to watch youtube on their televisions .
[ editor' s note: this is an antiquated product that is no longer available from neuros. ]
© copyright 2014, lee scheffler. patents pending. cognitivity™, neuros™ and neuroblocks™ are trademarks of lee scheffler
this irc excerpt isn’t a reject from bash. org. joseborn is joe born, ceo of the electronics manufacturer neuros technology intl, llc. in this conversation from june 2nd, born was reminding his staff of his company’s presence the following day at computex 2008, a major industry trade show attended by about 130, 000. the chickens were entirely fictional .
operating systems, neuros includes development and deployment tools and extensive libraries of functions and reusable modules (neuroblocks) .
stable precompiled builds of core - iscsi using linux 2. 6. 15 can be found at neuros osd .
while neuros hinted at open sourcing the firmware of the recorder, no code has been released to this date .
first, thanks for joining us in this conversation, joe born. the open devices from your company, neuros technology, make perfect sense to us linux and open - source geeks but are quite disruptive in the world of electronics. can you start us off by giving us a quick rundown of your products and how they are different from your typical set - top box ?
eventmachine: fast, simple event - processing library for ruby programs. fixing some bugs of immediate interest for neuros .
yes. neuros is explicitly architected to be open. it includes extensive mechanisms for integrating, extending and embedding. see
read on to learn how the rocky history of neuros’ open product development process caught the attention of chip giant texas instruments and see how it all worked out for neuros’ latest product, the osd. plus, decide whether or not the osd would fit into your living room’s entertainment center and take a sneak peak at the osd2 and neuros’ other upcoming projects. continued…
sanders, nathan (2008 - 06 - 23) .
open source consumer electronics: neuros osd
. extremetech .
neuros synchronization system (neurossync) is the advanced operating system that automates the transfer of music / files from your pc to the neuros player, and vice versa. it uses the neuros synchronization manager software application as the conduit for information transfer, and allows management of complete pc library, including future downloads, playlist creation, and song deletions from the device itself .
neuros is a company based out of chicago, il that specializes in audio and video devices for the consumer electronics market .
recently, we really had a lot of fun with “crowd narration”, a technology that superimposes two lines of chat text over a video broadcast, effectively allowing individuals to provide commentary in real time to live events or shows. it' s a kind of closed captioning for crowds .
can be “wrapped” in neuros modules via a variety of standard interfaces (e. g. , pipes, streams, services) .
neuros technology is the developer of the neuros osd, a digital media recorder. the devices works with external hard drives to archive and copy your media. unlike a normal dvr, the osd can record from any source: set top boxes, dvd players, dtv signals. it is limited to standard definition signals (720×480 max), but works with a plethora of formats, including mpeg - 2 and mpeg - 4, flv, wmv, divx and others. other limitations include s - video input (no component) and no support for digital signals from hdmi sources .
chicago, august 16, 2006 – neuros technology, a leader in portable media devices, has enhanced their mpeg - 4 recorder 2 by adding a multicard slot to the unit’s hardware. the new “neuros recorder 2 plus” can record live tv, movies, and other video content directly onto sd, minisd, microsd and mmc memory cards, allowing instant video playback on smart phones, cell phones and pdas without the use of a card adaptor. like the recorder 2, the recorder 2 plus can also record directly onto duo memory sticks, compact flash (cf) cards and microdrives .
he added that the link was neuros’ most open device to date, and it relies heavily on community - driven development and open software .
no. neural networks are typically highly connected graphs of low - level neuron - like components. learning adjusts connection weights using extensive input examples with expected outputs. despite superficial similarities (box - and - line graphs, name), neuros neural graphs are quite different. each box is a functional module and each link carries multiple signals from one module to another. the functions inside each module can be implemented in any appropriate technology, including neural networks. flexible multi - layer neural network architectures can be built as neuros neural graphs linking successive memory modules, each acting as a neural network layer .
i have a new most favourite piece of kit: the neuros technology osd, a box that takes the scart or component video output from your dvd or sky / sky + / freeview box or video recorder and can record their output on to a usb or network drive, and play back all sorts of video or audio content from usb or network drives to a tv. and you can schedule it to record from those sources too while it outputs to a tv .
though these neuros employees are discussing plans for future releases, consulting with each other on development practices, and even admitting or assigning blame for the week’s minor setbacks and mistakes—some of the most sensitive information a small company like neuros generates—the conversation took place over public irc, and is available on public logs. public internet relay chat is where neuros has elected to hold its regular developer meetings. absolutely anyone with an internet connection can observe these meetings as they happen in # neuros on freenode, read the log later on, or even join in and offer their two cents. when not officially meeting, # neuros is where the company’s employees have gotten used to chatting with each other. all of this is by intent .
yes, in several ways. neuros is architected from the ground up to simplify and encourage integration with external technologies and be embeddable in other systems .
what happens when consumer electronics are designed, tested, and maintained by volunteers from around the world? the neuros osd is an interesting case study .
neuros' experimentation in open development with the dac was successful by most accounts. born comments that the number of community members who became involved in firmware development was
probably about equal to [ neuros' ] internal staff .
active community - development of the dac continued until mid - 2006, about one full year after neuros had moved on to other products —the mpeg - 4 recorder 1, 2, and 2 plus, 442, and osd .
the recorder 2 and the recorder 2 plus record video content from sources such as the tv, dvd player, cable box, dvr, gaming console and camcorder. “we continually improve our products in response to the wants and needs of our customers”, said neuros technology ceo, joe born. “with virtually all new smart phones and pda’s being video capable, and with many of these devices accepting cards other than duo memory stick and cf, the need to support other memory cards was something we heard loud and clear. ”
yes and no. neural simulators directly model biological synapses, dendrites, axons, neurons and neuron firing. neuros operates at an abstract functional level above that, modeling the
neuros experimented with some unusual features for the dac. the unit had an fm radio transmitter and used detachable hard drive
backpacks
that mounted on a flash player host. neuros operated a service called
hisi
( pdf) that would automatically identify any song given a 30s clip recorded by the dac from its fm radio receiver or built - in microphone. fully five buttons were dedicated to recalling bookmarks and radio presets. at launch, however, neuros was not ready to experiment with free software .
it' s compatible with mp3 vbr, ogg, wav, and wma formats, and transfers files via ultra - fast usb 2. 0. you can also use the neuros hd as a mass storage drive, enabling you to carry important documents and presentations. the neuros hd player is compatible with windows 98se, me, 2000, and xp. the rechargeable, non - replaceable batteries inside neuros provide 10 hours of continuous playback. other features include a removable backpace, which supports future hardware upgrades, and automatic firmware and software upgrades .
as the conversation goes on, born begins discussing technical matters with a veteran neuros developer in a more serious tone. the developer, nerochiaro, updates born on the status of a major software project for the company’s latest product, the osd, and then swaps anecdotes and advice on various software bugs with another neuros hacker, crweb. the atmosphere is kept informal throughout .
osd
stands for
open source device
, because the device runs linux and a variety of open source software, as well as to reflect the vision that the device will become a general purpose device for linking computer and electronic devices. the successor to the neuros mpeg 4 recorder, the neuros osd was released to initial production on september 20, 2006 .
neuros digital audio computer is a portable unit designed for audio and visual playback and recording of audio to mp3, vorbis, wav, and drm free format, but is not currently being marketed .
the neuros hd20gb isn' t just an mp3 player - - it' s a portable digital audio computer, capable of storing thousands of songs, broadcasting them wirelessly to any fm radio, and recording music via either the built - in fm tuner, microphone, or line - in jack. the hd20gb can store 5, 000 cd - quality songs (encoded at 128kbps) on its 20 gb hard drive and works seamlessly with the neuros synchronization manager software on your windows - based pc to synchronize your library and playlist changes. the neuros hd player includes these exclusive, innovative features :
the neuros hd60gb isn' t just an mp3 player - - it' s a portable digital audio computer, capable of storing thousands of songs, broadcasting them wirelessly to any fm radio, and recording music via either the built - in fm tuner, microphone, or line - in jack. the hd60gb can store 15, 000 cd - quality songs (encoded at 128kbps) on its 20 gb hard drive and works seamlessly with the neuros synchronization manager software on your windows - based pc to synchronize your library and playlist changes. the neuros hd player includes these exclusive, innovative features :
here comes yet another set - top box that connects to the internet and streams web video. thankfully, this one looks pretty cool. it’s called the neuros link and it’ll leverage the neuros. tv interface to stream shows to your tv from sites like youtube, hulu, nbc. com, cnn. com, cbs. com, and fancast. oh, and it’s an open platform .
the box itself costs $ 300 and includes a wireless “keymote, ” hdmi out, and 1080p support. it’s currently in a pre - production “gamma” phase, so neuros is offering a four - month, no questions asked return policy in case you run into too much trouble while all the kinks get worked out. this will all be interesting to watch, as neuros is calling it “the most
technology writer ryan paul previewed the link on the web site urltoken, and wrote, “for experienced linux users, it just takes a little bit of the usual tweaking to get everything working just right. after that initial time investment, i haven’t had any trouble with it at all. it gives me everything i want in an ubuntu - based set - top box, and it offers a broad assortment of options for third - party media center software. ”
so, on the branding end, there' s more resistance, but that' s where neuros comes in. i believe we can pioneer this area and demonstrate enough consumer demand that it will overcome the above .
neuros has pledged to fix the problem with a mpeg - 4 recorder 2 firmware update of its own. it also said it would attempt to raise the issue with sony to prevent the problem from re - occurring .
slashgear’s review coming soon. click over for demo video of the mpeg - 4 recorder and press release. neuros adds multicard slot to recorder 2 for improved ease - of - use with smartphones, pda’s and other portables
born said the final version will remember which episodes you’ve already watched, and will highlight the ones you have yet to see. because it pulls in results from other video services, such as joost, hulu, youtube and fancast, hundreds of shows are available immediately, on demand. the neuros. tv site works on any computer, but also has an interface optimized for viewing directly on your television via the neuros link hardware .
the firmware is still being tweaked and improved regularly in anticipation of the full retail release of the osd so i won' t comment too much on it since it will change by the time you get one in your hands. neuros technology sold a select 200 of these osd units late last year on the thinkgeek site and they are now selling the production units for us $ 229. 99. as you can see on the thinkgeek site there are cash bounties for developers who code functionality into the osd firmware. for example, if you can get a flickr photo browser up and running you could earn us $ 600 and if you can get youtube or google video browsing working then there is a reported us $ 1, 000 bounty .
( but not the biology) of neuron clusters, groups, assemblies or layers, and so might be called a “neural function emulator”. no explicit neuron models are required, although a neuros module can use neuron - synapse models internally .
osgv and oscar plan to take the first route, once they get to this stage; reprap takes the second approach, and neuros osd and openmoko the third. free beer is brewed both by the community and by large commercial breweries .
there are lots of great resources and i recommend you check out the neuros osd information page to see what is being worked on. the neuros osd forums are also a good source of information. if you desire to mobilize your content for free with virtually unlimited possibilities available via free firmware upgrades then i recommend you keep your eye on this device and consider picking one up for yourself. we' ll have more thoughts and a detailed review once a final release firmware is made available .
by releasing proposed specs and involving users in development of a product, neuros gets feedback from the community’s most involved users and in exchange those users get visibility and an opportunity to influence the product’s development from the very beginning .
( urltoken )
briefly, neuros applications are built interactively and iteratively in the neuros visual ide by dragging and dropping icons for modules onto a canvas and “wiring” them together into directed flow graphs with loops allowed. the modules each perform distinct input / sensing, processing, memory and output / action functions. what flows over links are events each representing a value of a distinct neural signal (analogy to a biological neuron spiking rate) at a particular time. multiple such signals are commingled on a single link .
on wednesday at the neuros headquarters downtown, born showed off his company’s newest innovations. in a small conference room with whiteboards scrawled with notes and flowcharts mounted on exposed brick walls, he walked through the operation of the neuros link, a device that is known in technical circles as a “media extender. ” a media extender enables users to access digital media such as mp3s and movies stored on a home computer, and then watch or listen to them on a television or living room stereo .
the project relies on decentralised development and production accomplished by geographically dispersed project members. initially new members simply volunteered and were welcomed to the team. as the community grew, a core team was formed to drive and coordinate development, while maintaining a decentralised, mostly non - hierarchical structure. the first fully functional, self - replicated reprap v1. 0 (called
darwin
) was completed in june 2008 and celebrated as a great success. next steps are the reduction of included thirdparty components, the advancement of the printing technology, and the recruiting of new community members .
soon neuros link will support netflix instant viewing streams as well. it outputs video and audio over hdmi, meaning it plugs directly to a high - definition television with a minimum of hassles. it also supports six - channel audio and optical audio outputs .
neuros is a non - von neumann, non - procedural parallel data - flow graph architecture that resembles biological brain organization and flow. it directly supports the notion that cognitive function emerges from the connection and interaction among functional components. it allows free composition of components into arbitrary cognitive systems, whether closely modeling biological cognition or not. it does not embody any essential sense - process - act or similar cycles, but such are easily built as neural graphs. versions of some other cognitive architectures can conceivably be built using neuros .
in 2005, neuros offered the 442—one of an all too rare breed of portable audio / video player / recorders named after a classic muscle car. neuros released the 442 with closed source, proprietary firmware. while an open source firmware was promised for release within a
few months
of launch, it never materialized. a well - advertised project to port a linux - based operating system for eventual use as the official 442 firmware led to the recruitment of specialist greg nutt, but never resulted in any released code .
after releasing the sync protocol, born says that new software
sprang up, as if from thin air .
neuros - owners, completely independent of the company, soon released the neuros database manipulator and sorune sync managers. born admits that
a number of folks preferred those to ours ,
adding that
the community contributions [ to sync manager development ] were greater than our internal efforts in my estimation .
he indicates that discovering open source development tools was what truly opened his eyes to the concept :
these independent, open source developers had complete toolkits of free software, that were, in many cases vastly superior to the proprietary ones we had been using .
. before 2003 was out, neuros had released the source code to its own sync management software .
for neuros, transparency and openness has transitioned from a notion to an identity. six years ago, the company developed their first product behind closed doors, like most manufacturers. by the time the neuros osd (open source device) was envisioned, the company was in the habit of publishing its preliminary design specifications—closely guarded secrets for some companies – and actually requesting consumer feedback. they sold pre - release versions of the osd to future - adopters, hoping they would try their hand at hacking the firmware. neuros refers to the osd as an “embedded media center, ” a sort of set - top - box for audio / video playback and recording. the osd’s firmware is open source and based on the linux 2. 6 kernel—anyone and everyone is encouraged to download the source code and improve it .
the neuros product wiki notes that the 442 is now discontinued, but preserves the scenario for posterity :
neuros is sponsoring the ongoing effort to port linux to the 442. not as an aftermarket hack, but as an official effort supported by us, the manufacturer .
while the technical details of the port were schemed aggressively, the code never saw the light of day. to many customers, the 442' s failure to support vorbis —a frontier neuros once pioneered—was a similar disappointment. although the recorder and 442 were developed in an open environment, involving users in gamma testing and establishing channels for customer communication on irc and in web forums, the devices never ran open source code. the 442 and recorder each have their merits as products, but open source enthusiasts were left to wonder what went wrong .
the neuros link is a device that connects to a television via an hdmi cable and can stream web video to any hd display. the device requires a broadband connection and little else: there is no subscription fee, because the device brings in free content from the internet .
neuros is to programming languages as digital circuit design is to transistors. neuroblock modules are like lsi circuits: they do lots of work internally behind simple external interfaces. configuring neuroblocks into neural graphs allows a designer to focus on overall system organization and flow, abstracting away fine details .
urltoken is a website designed to complement the neuro link home theater pc. it aggregates online video sources, and sorts videos in an intuitive way. search for abc’s “lost” for instance, and neuros. tv will return the results sorted by season, with the newest episodes first .
then, there is the neuros osd, a standalone device for archiving all your dvds, vhs tapes and tv shows into unlocked digital recordings. it' s particularly good for making recordings that play on your handhelds (iphone, android and so on) with no hassle or conversion .
so in the neuros link [ device ], that means it can browse to any site, and you get access to all the content you can find, compared to just about any other set - top device you can imagine—from the operator boxes to the appletv to tivo and so on .
“we don’t think sony did this on purpose, but, for now, psps with the upgraded firmware won’t play files recorded with the recorder 2, ” neuros told users this week. previously recorded content will need to be converted before it will play on a firmware 2. 7 psp .
neuros mpeg - 4 recorder 2 remains the best way to get recorded video content on many different handheld devices. both recorders allow video playback on devices like the sony playstation portable (psp), 5th generation ipod, motorola q, treo 700w and the razr v3 to name a few .
as to our other products, neuros tv is what a tvpc should be: an open device that can stream virtually any internet content to your tv. building on the lessons learned from the closed, proprietary solutions, neuros has built a device that' s quiet, component - sized and sets up easily with all the peripherals you need and none that you don' t. it' s different from your typical set - top box solution, because it allows you to access any content of your choosing easily, not just the one your provider or manufacturer decides you should have .
it appears that the neuros. tv part of the equation will do most of the heavy lifting associated with getting you what you want to watch with the least amount of resistance, which should be a welcome and refreshing change, as you won’t have to download or convert stuff first. hallelujah .
neither the company nor its now - considerable and vocal customer community were very happy with the dm270 debacle. born deferred to crweb, whom he credited as being neuros' hardware
team
at the time, to deliver proposals for moving to chipsets from amd, intel, and other vendors. eventually, neuros proposed the adoption of another ti chipset—the dm320 (. doc). this time, born was convinced things would be different. continued... neuros and texas instruments today, born firmly believes that ti is a changed company. he writes in early 2008 ,
i was amazed to see how far things have come with ti over just the last couple years... just a couple years ago, our partnership with ti was considered more a free software liability than an asset .
of course, ti' s history is not quite so black and white .
the neuros link is basically a pc designed to be the “brain” of the entertainment center in the living room. it’s a full - featured machine that is specially designed for audio and video applications. it runs on open - source ubuntu linux and uses open - source xbmc as media center software .
the neuros interface includes five programmable preset buttons, a large 128 x 128 - pixel high - resolution display and a main scroll - button that allows for easy navigation of the userõs entire music collection. in addition, an amber backlight display allows for clear visibility in daylight as well as low - light conditions .
mirroring findings from oss, we identify community - driven (oscar, free beer) and company - driven (neuros osd, openmoko, osgv) open design projects as well as projects led by members of research institutions (reprap). in the neuros osd case, one company directs the development process and delivers most of the work, laying open its designs for a community to co - develop. oscar, by contrast, is entirely community - driven, similar to the reprap project in which a community is guided by a university researcher combining project and academic work. in between lie openmoko, rather closer to, but not as extreme as the neuros osd case, free beer, which unites a community of users with commercial contributors and producers, and osgv, which set out with a community of individual contributors and researchers led by a non - profit organisation, but has been largely taken over by a start - up company .
during the next year, neuros' deployment of open development accelerated wildly. in august of 2004, after considerable discussion with customers and negotiation with partners, the company released the source code to the dac' s firmware. a number of alternative builds of the dac firmware with improvements, tweaks, and new features were released by volunteer contributors. in december of 2004, neuros released the hardware schematics for the dac. in april of 2005, born announced a $ 1000
bounty
( later doubled) to anyone who could develop software to integrate podcasting with the dac, a tactic that would prove important in the company' s future .
the neuros osd is a device to archive, organize, and play video content. it can record from any source with composite output including dvd players, vcrs and others. the video input is converted to mp4 format and then output to a user - installed device, either a memory card, a usb flash drive or usb hard drive, or to a network - connected pc. [ 1 ] the resulting mp4 files can then be played back by the osd on a tv, or by other devices with mp4 playback capability such as sony' s playstation portable, apple' s ipod, neuros 442 and other portable devices. [ 2 ]
the company' s experience with open development would be somewhat more faltering with its next products. continued... the dac was succeeded by the first in the recorder series of products, a line of
mini digital vcrs
which are still in production. like most of neuros' products, the recorder was launched as part of the
gamma program
through which neuros sells, essentially, beta versions of its devices. in the case of the recorder and osd products, customer feedback led to significant hardware changes before graduating from the gamma program. gamma adopters were offered
no - questions asked
refunds or upgrades to the revised hardware .
[ 01: 42 ] hi everybody [ 01: 43 ] we' re getting ready for the * big * computex here in neuros taiwan. [ 01: 43 ] this year, we' re doing something special and we' re going to let loose a cage of live chickens [ 01: 43 ] this is going to be big .
this sort of product development is anything but orthodox. neuros’ rare stance on open source software, digital rights management, and customer involvement has garnered it substantial attention from both inside the free software community and out (see the recent new york times or economist articles). a statement on digital rights on the company’s web site riles believers with condemnation of the sony rootkit fiasco and legislation to close the analog hole. in an open letter to appletv hackers, born chided the infamously - reticent cupertino company and invited the hobbyists to work on his devices. born has established himself as a desirable speaker for preaching the benefits of open development. neuros goes so far as to actively target the open source community as a market for its products .
born: like most manufacturers, neuros didn' t pay a lot of attention to the open source movement initially, viewing the various activities on linux, web servers and browsers as an interesting but distant phenomenon with little obvious connection to our business. it was almost by happenstance that we realized what a profound impact on our business the open - source phenomenon could have .
the thing that sets neuros’ products apart from many of their competitors is the emphasis the developers put on using open hardware and software systems as much as possible, instead of building proprietary, closed systems that leave the user at the mercy of the company that built them. “these products are all open source, all the source code is out there, ” born said .
the osd was launched as neuros' first in a planned line of products based on the dm320 running linux. the company expected to develop a new version of the 442 with a dm320 chipset, but was forced to abandon the idea. born laments ,
we' re not currently working on it. we just don' t have the resources .
continued ...
neuros memory modules are trained incrementally and continuously by experience. unlike conventional machine learning technologies, no batch training with large data sets is required. a neuros memory pattern is similar to a cluster in unsupervised learning. if current input signal values do not match any known patterns well enough, a new pattern is created. if the feature combination matches one or more known patterns well enough, a memory pattern module emits match signals with values proportional to matching scores. and, feature - specific parameters (weights, expected values, expected times, spreads) of the best - matching pattern (s) are adjusted according to a learning rate. design - time parameters control cluster breadth, providing a range of patterns from very narrow exemplars to broader stereotypes, enabling flexible natural memory heterarchies .
while born described the release of these tools as
generous ,
it' s worth noting that their release was prompted by
many months
of negotiation and convincing. kridner adds ,
neuros had a strong persuasion on us providing both the c54x code generation tools release in 2007 and the recent c6000 code generation tools by showing that there is a clear need for these tools .
the psp can connect to a macintosh through its usb 2. 0 interface, which can be used to convert and transfer video and other content to the memory stick pro duo card the psp uses to store data. neuros’ mpeg - 4 recorder 2 saves you that intermediate step, enabling you to record directly from your video source to the memory stick, without having to go through the computer first .
an amalgamation of development and production stages can also be identified in our two cases which feature production by the company coordinating the project. both openmoko and neuros osd rely on “release procedures [ which ] are deliberately very soft” (neuros osd), whereby different test versions are produced and released to the community, either for free or at a cost, for testing and improvement. the target group for this co - development and co - testing process is successively expanded; advanced test versions are offered for general sale. thus one version is sold in the market, while the follow - on improved version is being developed based on community feedback. what seems noteworthy in this context is a considerable fault tolerance among the community: their eagerness to buy ‘bug - ridden’ beta versions or ‘developer samples’ for co - development took supplying companies by surprise .
people who are tired of stacks of dvds and vhs tapes in the living room may find the neuros an inexpensive way to tidy up: an entire library can be archived on a u. s. b. hard drive. then you can stroll through your own personal video shop from the living room couch or, when traveling, plug the drive into a laptop to watch programs recorded from satellite or cable service at home .
defines an operating system as “… software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides common services for computer programs. ” the “computer programs” in this case are neural graphs specifying the flow of neural activity signals among computational components. neuros provides such programs with portable, scalable, distributable interfaces, and manages underlying computer operating system (and in some cases, hardware) facilities to achieve correct operation of such programs. more broadly, as in the windows
open sourcing the dac born describes the company' s first step into the world of open development as almost unwitting. the company released the specification for the dac / pc file synchronization protocol in june of 2003. later that same month, neuros announced a collaboration with urltoken to make the dac the first portable media player to support ogg vorbis, the open audio format. under the agreement, xiph produced positron, an open source music synchronization (sync) manager that supported vorbis and ran on linux .
faced with three problems, the need to innovate, the need to obtain very detailed customer feedback on application features, and the need for speed in the fast - moving video space, neuros ceo joe born successively laid open its design specifications and development process to a growing community for feedback, bug tracking, documentation, and co - development. some parts of the design, e. g. components delivered by third party vendors, as well as corporate decision processes, remain closed to the public .
this concept of openness is better known as open source (os) and in the context of software it means that you are free to view and modify the software’s source code. the equivalent concept in the hardware world is called open source hardware (see box for definition) and lately, this concept has seen a renewed interest. this interest is not just limited to the electronics hobbyists and enthusiasts but also to commercial companies like sun, neuros, and bug labs, which are enabling os hardware to gain traction again .
in the meetings, born identifies the cause of the open source hold - ups. he points to
incredibly sensitive
middleware vendors and production houses—the engineering teams that born' s small company turned to for help with creating its products—who refused to distribute information about their intellectual property that would be necessary for releasing source code. in retrospect, born comments that they
presumably saw it as a threat to their proprietary software business .
as a result, neuros wasn' t allowed to release any code if they wanted to .
but these are just the daily functions, designed for duffers like me. gamers at their consoles can record their online contests, edit the videos and share them with friends. brett manners, a mechanical engineer and wind - surfing instructor in perth, australia, had another innovative use for the device. he rigged up a combination of the osd and a video camera and used it to record his wind - surfing adventures directly to mpeg - 4 format. (to watch some excerpts, see “windsurfing with the neuros osd” on youtube. )
the hd60gb mp3 digital audio computer is a portable audio computer that puts your music listening into overdrive. store over 12, 000 songs on the massive 60gb hard drive. record new songs from any fm station or wire input device. any playlist changes or downloads are automatically synchronized and executed. includes earphones, car adaptor, wall outlet, usb cable and neuros synchronization manager software offers 10 hours of playback with the rechargeable lithium ion battery dimensions (wxhxd) - 5. 3 x 3. 1 x 1. 3 weight - 9. 4 oz .
the problems stemmed from neuros' adoption of texas instrument' s dual - core dm270 chipset for the recorder and osd. the chip was actually chosen with open source in mind—the
theory
, born explains, is that any proprietary multimedia code would run on the dm270' s specialized multimedia chip (the dsp, digital signal processor), while open source code—a linux - based firmware—would run on the dm270' s arm chip. arm is a commonplace architecture powering a large portion of the world' s pdas, mp3 players, and cell phones .
the neuros link is currently in what the creators are calling the “gamma program, ” a sort of public beta testing phase. the software and interface are still undergoing substantial development, but the device is available for sale at a small number of retailers, mostly to early - adopters and hackers that want to try out the platform and contribute to the development efforts. the link is priced at $ 299, about the same as an xbox 360. born said that this testing phase is essential to get the system refined to the point that everyday users can feel comfortable with the device .
basically, neuros is looking to create a device that fills the gap between the typical electronics that connect the net and tv (of varying shapes and sizes) and the wide - open htpc. we want to provide navigation and ease of use like a ce device, but with the openness of the pc. enabling that functionality is a host of free software. under the hood, the link is really a diskless, quiet pc, and with all the power and expansion of the pc, but over time, we' re adding all the seamless navigation of a nice electronics device .
jb: an odm is a original design manufacturer—basically a factory that adds design capability and initiates development of products, providing a more turnkey solution to its customers. neuros considers itself a “super odm”, meaning we not only take responsibility for design, but also launch our products directly to involved users, get immediate feedback from those customers and evolve the product. this means that, to our customers (the larger electronics brands), we have not only done design work, but also evolved the products in direct response to users' needs, proven the early market for the devices and taken a lot of the risk out of the process for our customers .
the neuros osd comes in a high glossy black plastic finish with a plastic bracket to prop the osd up vertically. there is an a / c adapter to power the unit and also an ir out jack so you can control your devices with the included universal remote. i had to unplug the av - in ports from my slingbox to connect the osd and then plugged the a / v - out cables into a 3rd a / v connection i had on my lcd tv. i recorded episodes of lost and csi to watch on my psp and it was a simple process of using the remote to navigate the menu system and select psp output in my recording settings.
neuros technology is a chicago , illinois – based company that produces a number of audio and video devices with the brand name neuros . founded by joe born in 2001 as a division of digital innovations and previously operated under the name neuros audio . like digital innovations , neuros is distinguished by its use of open-innovation and crowdsourcing techniques in bringing products to market , as well as its prominent use of open-source software and open-source hardware . in its development model , end users are involved throughout the product development process from reviewing initial concepts to beta testing initial product releases . 
neuros technology is a chicago, illinois – based company that produces a number of audio and video devices with the brand name neuros. founded by joe born in 2001 as a division of digital innovations and previously operated under the name neuros audio. like digital innovations, neuros is distinguished by its use of open-innovation and crowdsourcing techniques in bringing products to market, as well as its prominent use of open-source software and open-source hardware. in its development model, end users are involved throughout the product development process from reviewing initial concepts to beta testing initial product releases.
neuros technology is a chicago, illinois – based company that produces a number of audio and video devices with the brand name neuros. founded by joe born in 2001 as a division of digital innovations and previously operated under the name neuros audio. like digital innovations, neuros is distinguished by its use of open-innovation and crowdsourcing techniques in bringing products to market, as well as its prominent use of open-source software and open-source hardware. in its development model, end users are involved throughout the product development process from reviewing initial concepts to beta testing initial product releases.