This campaign has unfortunately not reached its target. Follow Ken on twitter (kenkawakenkenke@) for updates. Thanks!
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Introducing the tempescope
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A physical display that reproduces various weather conditions according to the weather forecast. It's like having a window that lets you look outside at tomorrow's sky.
It can produce conditions like rain...
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clouds...
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lightning...
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and of course sunshine.
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Life with a tempescope
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With a tempescope, you don't have to open an app to find out if it's going to rain today- just take a glance as you leave the house!
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Have a family living far away? You can now share a sky with them. Specify a location from the tempescope app, and your tempescope will always be "synced" to a distant sky.
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Everyone loves reading on a rainy day. The app lets you manually set the weather to play, so you can enjoy any weather, whatever it looks like outside.
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Or use the tempescope as a more dynamic display case!
What comes in the box
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This is a "kit"
The perks we are offering will be kits which you need to build yourself. It won't be hard. You will need to read a very simple manual, connect a few wires together (but no soldering needed!) and screw together 3 or 4 components. The reason we're making this as a kit is because we'd like the first people to use this gadget to be OK with taking the extra few steps to finish this off, in the spirit of our open source roots. (and it makes the cost to produce about half what it would be.)
Certification
Our plan is to certify for FCC/CE/IC/Japan. This certifies this gadget for use in US, Canada, EU, Japan, and other countries where conformity assessments are mutually recognized. We will be shipping to the entire world, because we've received lots of requests from people who will be moving to a certified country soon, or wants to use this kit as a starting point to build their version of a final product. It is up to the person receiving the perk to use it in a way that is abiding of local laws.
The team
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The team consists of designers and engineers based in Tokyo, who gathered around Ken's open source tempescope to turn it into a fully fledged product.
Perks
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Timeline
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Our journey
The tempescope project started in 2012 after Ken just came back from a holiday in the Marianas, and thought how great it would be if he could just take the skies home with him. The first prototype was made from shampoo bottles.
Having received much interest from other DIY enthusiasts, he created an "open source" version of the tempescope which was designed to be buildable with readily available material if you have the right tools (and lots of free time).
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OpenTempescope received overwhelming response, but it still had the problem that it was costly, and needed a lot of DIY skills to build. A team self-formed around this version to develop a kit that was cheaper, and required as little skills as possible to build and deploy; the birth of the tempescope kit. Our origins as an open source project is why we're releasing this first version as a "build the last part yourself" kit instead of a "works out of the box" product.
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We already have a working prototype of the kit and manufacturing plans. The factory is part of the project team. We just need the funds to go ahead and manufacture!
Risks & Challenges (Please read!)
While we are confident that we can deliver the kits you'll love, let us be open with the fact that there are still risks involved with this (and any) crowd funding campaign. Please keep in mind that (while we'll strive to deliver,) perks are offered "best effort", and that we are not "selling" these perks to you.
We ask backers to understand that there are many things that could cause this project to be delayed, or even fail to produce exactly as promised. If we fail to produce, we may end up delivering you something that works less than expected (e.g it rains but doesn't have clouds), or refunding what we have left of the funds.
Whatever the situation, we promise to keep open about how we're doing, and communicate frequently.
- Technical difficulties: the tempescope is a complex product, and there may be engineering challenges that we face only after we start production. Fighting water leakage is one of them. Too many problems occurring at bad timings (like after we've already built the moulds) may mean that we run out of money before we can deliver a product we promised.
- Certification delays: one of the most often blamed causes for delays on crowd funding campaigns is delays in certification, and that's the same for us. We're planning certification in FCC/CE/IC/Japan, and each of these could lead to delays (or, at the worst, failure to deliver to certain countries because of lack of certification.)
- Component supplies: our manufacturing process involves many components originating in various countries. Please understand that there is always a risk that the circumstances of our suppliers may change and the essential components we need may be delayed, or have other unexpected troubles.
- Foreign exchange: We're a Japan based company. USD-JPY fluctuations could always hit us in unexpected ways.
FAQ
Please contact ken@tempescope.com with any questions or requests.
Q. What kinds of weather can it do? How about different levels of rain/cloud cover?
It can currently do the 4 types of weather (rain/clouds/lightning/sunny) described above.
We're also planning to allow 3 levels of rain.
Here's a video of us experimenting with different types of clouds:
Q. How does the tempescope retrieve the weather forecast? How does the app work?
The tempescope connects to the internet via your smartphone.
Once you setup the tempescope and the app, the app will automatically upload the latest weather forecast in the background when you're near the tempescope wirelessly.
The tempescope has several modes of operation, which you set using the app:
Weather forecast mode
During the day the tempescope shows today's weather forecast, or in the evening, tomorrow's forecast.
"Sky sync" mode
Set a geographic location using the map on the app, and the tempescope stays synced to the current sky at the location. This is useful if you want to have a piece of a remote sky in your living room.
Manual mode
You can also force the tempescope to show a particular weather, or define an animation sequence to play.
Or anything you can think of...
We'll also release the development SDK (similar to what we already have for OpenTempescope), so you can develop your own apps if you like.
Q. Do I have to pay VAT?
Yes, local VAT is not included in the funding price, and will have to be payed individually.
Q. What happens to all the money you collect?
We've worked tremendously hard with our manufacturers to get the unit price as low as possible, and we're only collecting the bare minimum of what we need to produce these units. (We don't even collect our salaries or have a profit margin- only a safety buffer to be certain that unexpected problems in the manufacturing iteration or the exchange rate won't kill our launch.)
Here's a breakdown of how we intend to use the money:
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Q. Can it snow? do thunder bolts?
No, not yet. We do have some ideas, but it won't be ready for a years.
Q. What are your plans after this campaign?
After successful delivery of the perks, we'll have a factory setup so we can produce units in bulk. If you're interested in partnering in distribution, please contact ken@tempescope.com
Note that we don't have any idea what kind of price, or when a retail version will be available. If this project doesn't reach its goal, then none of this will happen!
Q. Will you have a "buy back" program so that backers will be able to get a newer version (e.g with lightning) in the future cheaper?
We really can't promise much about the future at this point, but I promise that when we release a newer version after ending with a successful campaign (and we have the resources), we will definitely think of a scheme to make it easier for the backers who make this project happen to upgrade!
