The tago arc is a durable premium quality accessory that always matches the wearer’s mood and clothing. It’s lightweight and fashionable. The wearer won’t have to be annoyed by dying batteries and elaborate app settings. The tago arc is a comfortable wearable tech for the sole purpose of looking good on one’s wrist. It’s not a smartwach or a smart-accessory, it doesn’t have any buttons or ports, we won’t burden you with the pain of Bluetooth pairing and it doesn’t need recharging... ever. It is simply an awesome jewelry.

Where do I get the pictures for the display you ask? The right answer is the #tago app and our Pic Shop. 

The tago app is currently in the beta testing phase. Here you will have access to the coolest of designs, patterns, drawings to browse and wear for a few dollars. You will also be able to take pictures with your phone, upload it into the tago app to tag it on your wrist. 

As the wearer you will never have to do more than to buy or create an image (or use a freebie), select the image for transfer via the app and hold your phone close to your tago arc. The image and energy transfer works automatically, smooth and fast. It’s important to note, that only pictures from the tago pic market can be transferred to a tago arc bracelet for security reasons.

We believe in the power of community and the creativity such a community holds. For this reason we are inviting every artist, designer to join our community of tago artists. We designed the built-in Pic Shop to provide artists an opportunity to join the tago community and make real bucks. A contributor can earn 40% of the in-app purchases after his/her artworks respectively. 

The tago community is also a place to share artworks and connect to other artists, contributors and to your customers, the wearer themselves.  This will enable always new, continuously refreshed content in our pic market. 

Everyone can be a part of the tago community. A registered user or contributor will be able to view, upload and download pictures, favorite and/or comment on artworks. If you are interested to become part of our creative community subscribe on our website or send us a message here on Indiegogo with your e-mail address and we will get in touch with you.

We have some pretty crazy rewards. As our backer, you will be a pioneer of a jewelry revolution, the first to wear a tago arc and you’ll become an honorary member of our team as an official supporter and will be commemorated on our website.

We will be ready for mass production in late 2015 and we will start shipping early 2016.

Warning tech content! :)

The tago arc integrates existing technologies into a stylish advanced jewelry. E Ink and Near Field Communication (NFC) are both eco-friendly progressive technologies, E Ink displays only needs a little energy to change physical structure, and once changed it could stay that way practically for several years.

Due to E Ink’s capabilities the displayed image will be 16 color greyscale on the bracelet with a smooth pixel density (150 ppi), similar. This means that the display does not have a backlight as eReaders do, the display is not 100% black and white colors. In order to change the displayed picture on the tago arc and transmit enough energy for the device to work, the user has to place his/her smartphone to precisely match both NFC chips, but this will be aided by a positioning system in your app, the image transfer is very straightforward and secure. The tago arc uses NFC instead of Bluetooth, because NFC is easier to use, smoother and consumes less energy overall. NFC induces enough energy during image transfer that the small E Ink display is able to reconstruct the chosen image.

The image transfer interval is currently 15 seconds, depending on the smartphone device and the image complexity when holding the phone precisely to the NFC chip. We’re working on time efficiency to minimize this time interval. Please note that the actual transfer time may increase when NFC chips are not aligned properly.

For those of you with an iPhone out there, tago application is currently android only. The iPhone 6 already has the NFC technology in it, it is however only enabled by Apple for Apple Pay at the moment. We believe that the iPhone community will be able to enjoy the #tago arc feeling in the near future as well, as online rumor has it that Apple is considering expanding NFC in its future iPhones beyond Apply Pay. For now, you’ll need a smartphone or tablet with an android version 4 or later to be able to interact with the tago arc. 

We are obsessed with creating every single inch of the tago arc bracelet insanely perfect. The tago arc is a premium product, with high quality components, during the design and development process we went to great length to ensure that we deliver only the best to our customers. 

We use flexible E Ink displays and flexible hardware for the tago arc, but the arc itself has a fixed shape. We will be manufacturing it in 3 different sizes (S, M and L sizes). The material of the bracelet will be surgical stainless steel with precious metal coating for the standard bracelets and precious metal for the truly silver and gold bracelets.

We also pay special attention to the material choice and the ergonomics of the tago arc to provide a seamless wearing and user experience. Some jewelry materials can cause an allergic reaction to the skin, so we make sure to use only skin-friendly materials. All the materials are durable and withstand deterioration that comes from wearing the bracelet on a daily basis, the E Ink display itself is built from the strongest material, high quality light steel with gold, silver or black finishing.

We entered the final phase of our development and need one last final push for mass production. We need the help of the Indiegogo community to bring tago arc to you and to start production in 2016 and for this we need 40,000 USD. Here’s a graph describing how we’d like to utilize your help:

We believe that with this bracelet jewelry-design will step into the 21st century. As our backer you can be a part of the development process, pioneering a new generation of stylish accessory. You will also officially become a member of the extended L!BER8 team. With your support we can finish the development and start mass-production next autumn. Have a look at our timeline:

But to make a truly loveable accessory we need your help too and not just by backing us, but also by becoming an active part of the tago community, so please don’t be shy to contact us. Let us know what you think about the bracelet, reach out to us with any questions and requests, because we love to receive messages and would like to stay in touch with you throughout our development process.  

Our team is working hard to deliver an excellent grad-A product to you. Our designers and developers have been working on this product for the past months tirelessly. 

    Zoli Kovács - Founder

Since my childhood I loved electronics and tinkering, I am obsessed with constructing and creating huge Lego StarWars spaceships, my own IT company or a high fashion jewelry with a cutting edge technology, just to name a few.

I am a serial entrepreneur, with a strong business driven philosophy, I am also a perfectionist that is why we are designing and building every single inch of the tago arc bracelet insanely perfect.   

    Sándor Oroján - Co-Founder 

I have been working in the IT sector for the past 7 years, coordinating international and regional projects, I specialized in the regulatory framework aspects of the IT sector. 

I'm a dreamer. I always wished to change big things in the world. For me, L!BER8 means a chance to show: we can make a revolution in the bracelet market and we can create wearable technology that needs no cables or batteries at all. 

    Gábor Kurucz - Hardware Developer

I developed IoT products with US partners for various international projects and worked on future internet experimentation research before joining L!BER8 team. As a small child I loved to play with gadgets, especially disassembling them. As a grown-up, the enthusiasm remained, but now I design the hardware for them. Designing such a unique jewelry as the tago arc, is challenging. And I love challenges…   

    Attila Bódogh - Software Developer

I am the co-founder of Xdroid, a successful software company. During the past years we have developed and launched exciting international products in the field of artificial intelligence, speech analytics and visualization. Now me and the Xdroid team are proudly supporting L!ber8tech on the software development side to achieve its goals in this awesome project.             

    Nikoletta Szirmay - Head of Communications

I have experience both from the media and the corporate communication side, I was involved in several international campaigns.  In my point of view PR means creative info management based on human relations serving a great project. I am responsible for the communication, making sure that word gets out there about our bracelet from the future. I am passionate about tago arc I fell in love with it the first time I saw it.      

    Reka Kovacs - Crowdfunding Strategist

I have a background in business management and space sciences. I worked in the space industry and at NASA since then I have been passionate about emerging technologies and revolutionary futuristic products. I worked and studied in 5 countries in the past 5 years on 2 continents. I previously ran and consulted on several crowdfunding campaigns - and now I am responsible for the campaign of this awesome jewelry from the future.      

    Piroska Trencséni - Evangelist

I love the idea that with this awesome bracelet I have the freedom of variety in one accessory that most expresses my personality and matches my current mood or outfit. I believe in high quality. As an entrepreneur I thrive to give people the very best service and products, I believe that the team of L!ber8 Technology can deliver on their promise and gift you with a world of possibilities on your wrist.     

    Attila Z. Kedei - Junior Developer

As a junior developer I find it challenging to create the most powerful E Ink bracelet ever.  I believe that NFC is the next gen utility to make everyone's life easier. There's nothing better than working with high-tech devices and interesting people all around the world as a part of a startup team.

Work hard, play hard...

*FAQ*

How is it powered if it doesn't need charging?

NFC tags are regarded as passive devices - they operate without a power supply. The same applies for the E Ink technology it does not additional power input to hold the design displayed on it. The NFC tags are reliant on an active device to come into close range before they activate. These active devices are for example your smartphones.  

In order to power these NFC tags, electromagnetic induction is used to create a current in the passive device. We won’t get into too much technical detail-basic principle is that coils of wire can be used to produce electromagnetic waves, which can then be picked up and turned back into current by a another coil of wire. This is very similar to the techniques used for other wireless charging technologies. This EM induction is generated by your smartphone at being held at close range to the #tago arc's NFC tag - which is currently placed on the inside of the bracelet. 

I have an android tablet - does the #tago arc work with a tablet too?

If your tablet is an Android tablet and has the NFC in it, than you can use your tablet as well.

How does the '$99 now the rest later' perk?

Step 1: pay for half of the #tago arc a $99 now

Step 2: return within the next 30 days click on this perk again and pay a $160

Disclaimer: We consider the first half of your payment a down payment for the bracelet, which is not refundable. If you return to our Indiegogo site within 30 days to pay the other half we will be shipping you a #tago arc at the end of 2015. At the finish of our campaign our Indiegogo site will remain live, so that you can pay the second half of your contribution.

Help: If for any reason you cannot pay your remaining $160 balance, we will send you, as thanks for your earlier $99 contribution, a 40% off voucher that you can use at a later time to purchase a #tago arc in our web-shop.

Can I get it in colour?

E Ink can only display greyscale images with the current displays. In fact, there are some coloured E Ink displays on the market today, it’s just not only they’re ridiculously expensive, but also their colours are kind of pale and we decided not to use them until there will be premium quality available of this technology as well. 

How does E Ink work exactly?

If you’re interested to know more about how E Ink works check out this website:http://www.eink.com/technology.html.

E Ink does require some charge to change its state. Typically how much power will be required from a smartphone battery that's being used to change the image?

The power requirement depends on the smartphone used - the bracelet's electronics requires a couple of milliamp for a few seconds - this is an insignificant amount compared to the other power needs of the phone. 

Where can I find more pictures to tag onto my bracelet?

We are currently in the process of the developing a #pic market, an app that will allow you to browse and buy or download for free from thousands of picture provided by our artist and designer community. You will also have the option to have your own gallery where you can store your own edited pictures and just simply select one tag it and wear it. 

The available designs are practically limitless, as we are drawing upon the creativity and artistic genius of the tago community. 

Can I use my tago bracelet with my iPhone?

For those of you with an iPhone out there, tago application is currently android only. The iPhone 6 already has the NFC technology in it, it is however only enabled by Apple for Apple Pay at the moment. We believe that the iPhone community will be able to enjoy the #tago arc feeling in the near future as well, as online rumor has it that Apple is considering expanding NFC in its future iPhones beyond Apply Pay. For now, you’ll need a smartphone with an android version 4 or later to be able to interact with the tago arc. 

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to reach out to us on twitter, facebook or here in the comments.

#noRisk #noGain - challenges 

Risk of compatibility 

For those of you with an iPhone out there - The tago application is currently android only! For now, you’ll need a smartphone with an android version 4 or later to be able to interact with the tago arc. We hope Apple will make changes to the kernel of the iOS in the future that will make iPhones’ NFC usable for other than Apple Pay (or find a way to bridge the gap through third party apps).

Risk of technology 

A drawback of NFC despite its strong advantages is precision. People will have to learn where their NFC chips are located to hold exactly on the marked spot for the energy and picture transfer to be complete. It can be a matter of an inch and the communication may be interrupted. Also the precision decides how quickly the transfer is completed.

Challenge of development

The development of the tago arc test the mettle of our engineers in many ways. To complete the final layout of the hardware parts is no small task, we may even have to order completely custom-built displays in order to integrate them into the bracelet. The material of choice is also a key question and depending on our foreign manufacturer it might change with the progress of the development.

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