Kenya’s Ushahidi is best known for its pioneering crowdmapping efforts, but right now the company is busy finishing off its BRCK router, a fascinating device that’s designed for rough use in sub-Saharan Africa. As posts on Vice and TechRepublic explain, the $199 router has its own battery for coping with blackouts or bush use, it can automatically hop between Ethernet, Wi-Fi and mobile broadband as its source, and it’s set up to act as a hub for “internet of things” sensors. BRCK got crowdfunded last year and a recent blog post from the team explains some of the challenges of engineering such a device in Kenya.
Subscriber content
?
Subscriber content comes from Gigaom Research, bridging the gap between breaking news and long-tail research. Visit any of our reports to learn more and subscribe.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
["wijax_edd67b81b24f16a2a4ebb3256cce4cc5","wijax_e574ef3c82ba3510e0d71087604d6ec5"]
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2014\/02\/04\/blackouts-dust-and-poor-connectivity-why-kenyas-brck-router-requires-a-different-approach\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_27c86491b3d478e0ab7a6bd5868af587","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2014\/02\/04\/blackouts-dust-and-poor-connectivity-why-kenyas-brck-router-requires-a-different-approach\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_27c86491b3d478e0ab7a6bd5868af587","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}
Comments have been disabled for this post