Study archive - Week 18

Invention, Intellectual Property, and Income

The final product was not created with the intention to commercialize it; it has been built mainly for learning the fabrication process. All the files of the final project are shared in Fab Academy git, namely git.fabacademy.org.

The product consists of Software, Hardware (design files), design features (e.g., photos, images), and documentation. The Software (the main_board.c and LCD_board.c) is derived from MIT licensed and copyrighted code, therefore it preserves the original copyright holder and the MIT license. Thus I have distributed my derived code with MIT copyright and license information. The Software is free to use, change, distribute under MIT license conditions.

The derived software within the final project is licensed under MIT license

License text:

"Copyright (c) 2016 Dorina Rajanen
Copyright (c) 2010, 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This work may be reproduced, modified, distributed, performed, and displayed for any purpose. Copyright is retained and must be preserved. The work is provided as is; no warranty is provided, and users accept all liability."

More information about MIT license and comparisons with other licenses are here.

The MIT license is simple and permissive (in the sense that it allows commercialization). The condition of using/distributing/deriving from MIT licensed code is to preserve the license and copyright notices.

The non-software materials (design files, design features, and documentation) are distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), therefore anyone is free to use them, derive from them, distribute them under CC BY 4.0 conditions. This licence is similar to MIT, but is targeted to non-software. The conditions are to preserve the license and copyright notice and to state changes. It also holds limitations regarding patent use and trademark use.

License text

"Copyright (c) 2016 Dorina Rajanen

The original and derived non-software materials within the final project are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

Link to license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/."

The product is a proof-of-concept and the aim is to extend it further by adding more functionality and/or design features. The future project aims also to rise students/children interest in electronics, programming, and especially data analytics. By using a simple, everyday situation to generate data, people of all ages and backgrounds can be involved in the process of creating visual analytics.

During the live demo on 17.June, Neil suggested with example link the idea of developing this system further into a hot plate system. The hot plate device is used by scientists in biochemistry and chemistry. This kind of device has commercial value and is quite expensive on the market (hundreds to thousands of USD). Thus, this idea is also worth exploring in a future project.