Jean Noël Lefebvre, of Lyon, France, is the inventor of the Ootsidebox touchless technology, an innovative interface that enables adding touchless technology to an existing tablet.
Recently, Lefebvre shared with Circuit Cellar photos of his workspace, which he prefers to call his “personal hackerspace” where he conceives inventive ideas and builds them.
Lefebvre’s desk reflects his new project.
His desk has an old oscilloscope, with only two inputs. “I have to upgrade it as soon as possible,” he says.
He is working on a shield for the Arduino UNO board on his desk, which is also where he keeps a Weller soldering iron with specific tools for surface mount devices (SMDs).
“On the screen of the computer you can see the logo of my project Ootsidebox and also the logo of Noisebridge, the San Francisco hackerspace.”
A diverse library
Lefebvre says his library is filled with “a lot of good books (old and modern)” covering many different topics and skills, including electronics, software, signal processing, cryptography, physics, biology, mathematics, and inventors’ biographies.
What is he currently working on in his hackerspace?
“I’m working on my own invention: a touchless gesture user Interface based on electric-fields (E-fields) sensing,” he says. “It’s an open-source and open-hardware project, compatible with the Arduino environment.”
Storage for some of Lefebvre’s stock components
Although Lefebvre is currently working alone in his “personal hackerspace” at his family’s home, his dream is to go to San Francisco, CA, and work out of the well-equipped Noisebridge hackerspace.
A few years ago, he says, big ideas and innovations in technology started in garages. “Today this will take place in hackerspaces, where creativity and technical skills are omnipresent,” he says. “By making stuff in such a place, you are fully connected with a worldwide network of creative people of different backgrounds, and this synergy highly accelerates the innovation process.”
You can follow Lefebvre and his work on Twitter.
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