The open source hardware movement has long championed the importance of the right to repair, fully own the technology you buy, and be able to remix and reproduce gadgets, just like you can with music. And so, during this challenging time, open hardware is providing some answers to some of the problems created by the coronavirus pandemic.
These are the projects covered in more detail in the linked article:
* Opentrons says its products can help dramatically scale-up COVID-19 testing with systems that can “automate up to 2,400 tests per day within days of an order being placed.”
* Chai’s Open qPCR device uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to rapidly test swabs from surfaces (e.g., door handles and elevator buttons) to see if the novel coronavirus is present.
* OpenPCR – the device aims to democratize access to molecular diagnostics.
* PocketPCR thermocycler is used to activate biological reactions by raising and lowering the temperature of a liquid in small test tubes.
* Open Lung Low Resource Ventilator is a quick-deployment ventilator that utilizes a bag valve mask (BVM), also known as an Ambu-bag, as a core component.
* Pandemic Ventilator is a DIY ventilator prototype.
* Folding at Home is a distributed computing project for simulating protein dynamics, including the process of protein folding and the movements of proteins implicated in a variety of diseases.
A further 8 other projects are also listed at opensource.com/article/20/3/open-hardware-covid19
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