Hi everyone. Thank you for having me. Thank you for the organizers and volunteers that
have been doing this event and all the other ones as well. I appreciate it. So yeah, so
my name is Alexander Soto or please just call me Alex. I'm the founder of Modus. So just
a bit of a backstory. In 2021 at the height of the pandemic, my bedroom transformed into
a workspace. So I was spending most of my time from the morning to the night just in
front of a computer, right? So using the computer and sort of battling this distraction,
refocusing and then trying to get back into my work. And you know, the same tool that I have
to use for work is also the same tool that I'm using for like leisure, for entertainment,
and sort of this is kind of what brought about the idea of being able to or trying to re-imagine
what would it look like to have computing that is calm, inclusive and humane. So at Modus,
we're kind of reimagining personal computing with focus on creating calm and inclusive
and humane computing. And we're doing that by creating a high refresh rate electrophoretic
display controller. In the slide that's uploaded, we have videos where you can take a look at that.
I also have our prototype here. So if you see me or if you want to try it out, I'd be happy to
demo it so people can check it out. And this wouldn't be possible without the team. So this is
really the team that's turning this vision into a reality. Wenting or Zephyre has led the development
of our electrophoretic display controller. Brody, who's done amazing work sort of like
CAD and manufacturing for our paper monitor chassis. And also Michael, who have had many
conversations of what the possible software architecture and sort of stuff would look like.
And last but not least, I want to thank the community really. We did a community survey. We had
about 3,000 people fill out the community survey. We had about 300 different contributors and people
who are interested in joining our pilot program, over 5,000 people in our mailing list, and a
special thanks to Nelnet. We were working on a prototype. We're getting close. But we needed
some support and Nelnet really, we're a Nelnet sponsored project. So really extended thank you
for your support. If you haven't, please check them out. They're amazing. And a little bit about
that survey. Oh, a little jump. Sorry. A little bit about that survey. So from the survey, there
were multiple responses that were allowed. We had about 3000 people who filled that out. And some
of the most popular use cases of why people want to use E-ink were reading, writing, coding, and
just in general, be able to do it for a focused work. Not too surprising, but from the survey,
what I learned a lot were from the feedback. So I think for me, I was also, what I experienced,
just being focused, being distracted, refocusing. There were other people as well that shared
similar concerns just from this quote, you know, I lose hours and days and weeks of my life,
getting sucked down rabbit holes. I'm not so sure who hasn't experienced that before.
In this room at least. And, you know, just with entertainment and content, missing deadlines,
and then other people expressed concerns about our eye strain and just accessibility.
Other folks who have been using commuter, you know, since they were a young age and have tried to
look at other solutions between, what are the examples that they gave? Well, using different
solutions that are available and still not having really any success. So I've read each one of the
comments of all the feedback that I got. And there's some overarching like patterns and themes. So
there's this one, there's a desire for living a more balanced digital life. So reducing your
screen time on social media, entertainment, be able to kind of like unplug and be able to be
outdoors. Oh, and I connected online. Be able to connect, be outdoors and also being a more
less visually stimulating environment and kind of reducing digital clutter. So that's like one
particular group. The other group where I learned more about is just people experience eye fatigue
and strain, but also very specific health issues, people experiencing myopia, epilepsy,
some level of light sensitivity, headaches, migraine, traumatic brain injury. And I think one
feedback or comment that's been engraved in my mind was an engineer who was writing or completing
the survey on behalf of his wife because she had epilepsy or has epilepsy. And it's tried all the
existing solutions and they weren't working. So that's like one specific comment or feedback
that's engraved in my mind. So Cat Holmes is the author of a mismatch how inclusion shapes
design. And this particular quote is one that kind of speaks to me. It's, you know, all of us are
temporarily able bodied and at some point in our lives we'll face new kinds of exclusions. As we age,
when we design for inclusion, we're designing for our future selves. So I'm getting older,
I'm more divergent, I have a host of other health issues that I'm aware of and unaware of.
And this quote and then kind of working with Models and the work that we've been doing,
kind of spoke to that to me at least. And overall I think that there's a need for creating technology
that satisfies our essential needs and while protecting our world being. How can we like
redefine the role of our digital devices to foster more healthier and balanced life?
And at least a vision is, you know, can we create a new class of devices that are built from scratch
that sort of embody these principles of humane technology both in hardware and software design?
So what about software? You know, how can we be productive in a calm world? Can the work that we
do be synced on the cloud, fall into our focus? Can we collaborate without notifications?
Can we scale a minimalist UI to more than just reading and writing?
So if we start with the basics, the common use cases were reading and writing.
We have kind of like a mockup of an example of a writing application,
simple text editor that will allow you to do prose and code and also a simple reference for
we can like browse the web using Gemini. You know, this is how you would sort of explore and use
information. So, you know, how can we possibly scale something like this? And modellix. So modellix
is a core framework that's in development that's designed to tailor applications and documents
across various devices and end users' needs. So the way that I like to think about it is
imagine responsive design but taking much further, not just related towards particular screen types,
but a longer range of different types of devices they have and really cater to the needs of
individuals. So here we have the source of the particular application, a minimalist reader,
and then let's say you have a reader who has low vision or perhaps is using maybe some
forfeiting device, the application itself will sort of adapt to that.
So yeah, so modellix adapts to the interface to users' preferences, making adjustments
depending on their need. There would be a semantic model that guides the adaptions across
different modalities, screen types, operating system devices, and enabling developers and users
to extend and enhance the application for each of the modalities. Some of the approaches of this
is to be able to restructure the complexity of the interface and moving complexities associated
with the particular modalities. I have a little bit of a mock-up here of kind of explaining how the
modellix and modalities would work. We would have a modellix-aware application and then would
present to the user a visual and or possibly like an audio interface. And we're also looking into,
well, missed a slide there, but the complexity, some of the challenges are the complexity in the
representation of user interface and also how can we be backwards compatible with existing applications.
So here we're also looking into saying, also looking into possibly using like large language
models for being able to support applications that are not made with modellix from the beginning.
Need to expand on this a bit more, but we'll do that later. So next steps. So we've been working
at this for about two years now with our display controller and our prototype. We are pretty much
done and one of the things we want to do is be able to do a crowdfunding campaign later this year
to be able to make the devices or the boards available to people. We're also a small team.
We're about three or four people who've been working on this. So if anyone wants to get involved,
anywhere between documentation, between design, we'd love to have you all. So we also have a link
here if there's different ways to be involved. And I think that's mostly it that wraps up. I think,
I don't know if I sped that through too fast. I have 15 minutes. Well, I have 15 minutes and
have a demo and I'm happy to answer any questions. So that's it for me.
Let's take some questions first and then we'll see if we've. Yeah, I could do. Yeah, I would have to
disconnect it from the display, but I can't get here, but yeah.
I would have to disconnect the from the here and there, but we can do it afterwards. Not a problem.
Any questions? Okay, I see one down here. Please repeat the question. Yes.
So the.
Yeah, so I didn't. Sorry, the question was am I working with multiple different devices or displays?
Is that correct? So initially, the motivation for the project was to make a laptop. We initially
had an investor was interested in supporting it. Sadly, they backed off a little bit. So we
continue just working being complete bootstrapped and working on the display controller. So the
first device that we want to make available to people as well, one, the board itself or
hardware engineers, hackers, people want to work on it, give it accessible. The second one being
the monitor itself. It'll be a nicer case. So that'll be the second device and we're working
right now actively and identifying like what would be the third possible device where they're
being between doing a reader or maybe a dedicated like typing device for like authors and writers.
This talk today was more focused on like software and like what we envisioned. What would it look
like to rethink to be an inclusive technology? I have another talk tomorrow is talking more
about the hardware side of things, but the long term vision is to be able to create a whole new
class of devices that use our controller hardware and software stack that is optimized. So
right now I'm on the next year. Hopefully we'll have maybe a reader here and Fosom 25.
But yeah, so that's kind of what it is. And I think part of it is that everything's open hardware.
It's on our repositories. There's a read me. So if you're a hardware hacker engineer,
please feel free to get started. Hi. Have you been in contact with one of the larger
districts of environments like the integrating
is one of the challenges you had was not being able to easily easily tell
what part of the interface needs to go where it needs to be changed in a certain way.
Yeah, so the question is, have I spoken to larger projects, for example, like no more KDE
and the second part of it? Just want to make sure.
In regards to the changes, I haven't spoken to any of the larger projects. If anyone is in KD or
I'm happy to talk. I did speak with Drew DeVault from Swarstut and kind of thinking about what
would it look like to create a dedicated software stack at the higher levels. And we see promise
in using Wayland particles, specifically things related to damage tracking that would enable
applications to create this idea of an ink native application, for example. So if everyone's ever
used like a remarkable or any other dedicated device, be able to create
ink applications that are natively built and with the support of Wayland protocols. So that's
the extent that I've gone, but I haven't spoken specifically to no more KDE projects, but happy
to. This is what I've been thinking and working on for two, three years nonstop. So I have many ideas.
Yes.
Yeah, we're going to hit a 60 Hertz refresh rate. Sorry, what is the refresh rate that we are aiming
or targeting with the ink displays? We're able to hit a 60 Hertz refresh rate right now with our
controller. It's has good, has anything that's in the market right now. And we strongly believe we
can improve upon that both in the optimizations at the hardware level. And also with the dedicated
software stack and Implement and Wayland protocols, we could create a more native,
create a more native like experience. So yeah, open up the hardware stack,
dedicated tailored software stack. I think we can see a lot of optimizations. Yeah, back.
So the question was related to the 60 Hertz. It is excellent. There is typically problems related to
like ghosting or the problems and have we found a way around it to answer your question? Sorry,
to answer your question, yes, we found a way around it. So there's ways where you can modify at the
hardware level in order to be able to do that. But still coming back to the earlier question about
the Wayland protocols and the larger projects, I think this is where we would need support
to be able to create software that's tailored to that medium. But I have a general belief that the
display controllers that are available in the market that a lot of existing companies and products
use are not optimized so much. I think it's, if we look at E-EngleVraw, they primarily have focused
on e-Veeters and digital signage, but not so much in other form factors or devices, let alone
having software that's tailored to it. So I think there is a unmet need in the market, so to speak,
where these controllers could be pushed further, but they haven't. So I think with the right combination
of optimizing at the hardware level, the software level, probably having specific guidelines of
this is how an E-Engle native application would render, this is thus the homo-dialics piece,
right, that I sort of mentioned before, the tie-in, I think we could hit 60 hertz and also reduce
go-sing and things related to that. Any other questions? I'm going to, do I have two more?
I'm going to go with the person that will, yes.
Yeah, the question, yeah, the question is what would it take to make a modalex of wear application,
modalex of wear application, UI, library, or whole different design system?
We're trying to figure that out, so it's in development, so I think part of it is a combination
of everything you just stated, part of it would be philosophy, part of it would be also design,
another part of it is figuring out the right software stack for it too. So I think we've
gone under a lot of our rabbit holes trying to figure out what would be an appropriate stack,
and I think the way that I look at it is we need to get it to the hands of people,
we need to be able to get the board and the monitoring to the hands of people.
We have some ideas and some levels of direction, but tapping into the much wider community,
I think is where that lies. I'm going to, there was a question over here, yes.
You're covered. Okay, awesome, thank you. There was a, think of a question, yes.
I'm trying to change our user experience, our UI and so on, so what do you want to talk about?
I remember hearing for more, call for the, for last 15 years, starting with one of
a lot of her child and other lots of things, so on the one hand, now you might have a bit easier
because there is more hardware, like the brand laptop, like the brand, so the brand is anything
framework, like M and P, yes, or the other can be, there is much more fragmentation, so
that's one thing you need to fight and then you need to convince people to start using this UI
in your application and we just had talked from standard birth.
Yes, so the question was what is our focus and then mentioning projects like the OOPC,
mentioning the fact that it's been around for about 15 years and just what is our focusing
hardware and software. I think overall, I see Modos and I think where we're at right now,
I see myself as more of like an enabler, an enabler to be able to enable other folks to be able to
take E-ing devices in whatever direction they would want. We as like Modos have this particular
vision of creating this idea of a humane technology and create a hardware and software that's tailored
to it. We might just disappear overnight, right, but the fact that it's open hardware,
there's a repository there, you can go ahead and use it.
I did track, I don't know if everyone's done track, but I think, there's like a totem pole,
I think this is as far as we have a foundation where we can start if someone like Pine 64 or
another one like OOPC would want to use our display controller in order to take it in a
particularly different direction, it's more than welcomed. I think given our capacity where we are
right now, we just want to be able to first focus on the display controller, be able to build the
community and then see where the community really takes it.
So, prior to my work, I worked a lot with universities and other educational
institutions. One thing that's really been happening recently is especially with students with
extra needs, universities have been really pushing for assistive technology a lot more
than we do with this thing. I was wondering about an area that you consider looking into
working with organizations like DSA in the UK or ensuring that the US and the UK are looking
into other organizations. So, finding tools for students with extra needs and almost building
like a foundation there for other developers to then jump into that market. It's a brand
that we are looking at.
Yeah, so the question was related to have it looked into like assistive technology in particular
the needs of students in the education space. Does that summarize the question well?
Yes, I've been looking into assistive technology.
I don't know enough. I need to do more research on it. I've looked into it, at least back in Boston.
There are these SBIR and SCTR grants that are available, but they're complex in the sense of
being able to apply to the grant. The path to enter into a positive grant is a substantial lift.
So, I have looked into assistive technology. I think that there are, it's a different market.
It requires different needs. I don't know enough about it, but I've looked into it as
possibly being a base to start from.
I'd love to talk to you further more about it and learn this is why I'm here.
We're going to take one more question and it was just back there. Sorry.
Also happy to talk afterwards.
Thank you. I have a question about the brief that you mentioned in the beginning of like the E being
a source of less, but the I think you can help in particular high conditions. So, how do you
make sure that your design process matches that needs?
The question was related towards E-ink addressing issues to like eye strain and fatigue and how
we can make sure that our design process is aligned with that. Is that somewhere as a question?
Well, figuring it out, still working on it. The challenge when it comes to E-ink and other
displays is that there's also a lot of mixed studies there. I can't conclusively say that
problem is related to blue light, for example. But also our eyes and pupils are changing throughout
our lifetime and everyone here has different levels. So, I don't have necessarily the funds to prove
this is what it is, but I have heard a overwhelming amount of feedback of people with light sensitivity
and issues. So, to your question, yeah, I think that's something that we need to take
into consideration in our design and would want to get. There have been some folks who have
some level of sensitivity or some problem who've expressed interest and I'd want to involve them
from the very beginning as part of that design process. I think now that we have our prototype done,
that will enable us to answer more questions like this and investigate further.
Okay, thank you so much. Thank you.
Really cool. Awesome. Thank you.