The last seven months have been somewhat of an unplanned hiatus from the Keyglove project. As I mentioned in my last Kickstarter project update as well as a bit later in a post on my personal blog, my position at Bluegiga has been taking virtually all of my time. There is a lot more travel, and some odd hours due to the global nature of the business and the kind of support I need to do. This has been getting better over time though—the odd hours part, anyway—and I am absolutely determined to get back into working on the project, for a few reasons.

For one thing, I have now passed the two-year anniversary of the successful Kickstarter campaign. It was one week ago today, in fact: April 27. That is a tremendously long time to wait, for all those of you who backed the project. I am continually encouraged by the ongoing support, and conversely by the conspicuous lack of impatience displayed despite the long, drawn-out development process and the painfully long silences at times (like over the last many months). I want to work on this project, and I want to do it now. This by itself is motivating.

For another thing, although I haven't had much time to <em>work</em> on the Keyglove, I have still found myself thinking about it quite often and at times doing what could be accurately called brainstorming. Some of the ideas I've had should prove to be fruitful once I immerse myself in development again. A corresponding observation to this point is that I think it will be beneficial for me to begin again with the codebase and designs I already have, but with a relatively fresh viewpoint. It will be easy for me to objectively evaluate the systems I have already built and look for any areas which may benefit from certain changes or a re-imagined approach. This kind of analysis is easier to do when you haven't been neck deep in the project for a while.

Third, there has been quite a bit of relevant innovation in the areas of wearable computing, wireless connectivity, battery technology, and low-power programmable microcontroller systems. Might it be worthwhile to incorporate an Arduino compatible ARM processor instead of the AT90USB MCU I have? Possibly. Bluetooth Low Energy for wireless comms? Very likely, at least as an option. Flexible PCBs? Maybe. New, tiny motion sensor? Sounds great. Bundling everything into a single FPGA? It could be done. The bottom line here is that six or seven months on the embedded system design timescale is significant. There is a lot that has happened in the world since then.

Perhaps the most personally exciting reason for me though is this:

I managed to snag a slot on the new Google Glass Explorers group as part of the #ifihadglass contest that Google put on back in February. I am definitely more excited about this than is healthy for someone as far down the list of early adopters as I am (though I am still thankful that I'm on the list in the first place). My entry tweet was about combining it with the Keyglove, and their reply came a little over a month later. I was (and am) ecstatic.

As it happens, I actually got to try a Glass device back towards the end of January of this year, while having dinner in San Francisco with a friend from college who is now way high up on the Glass development team. It was a pretty short demo, but I was completely enamored. Truth be told, I'd actually had a dream the night before about what it might be like, in subconscious anticipation of that eventuality. I truly can hardly wait for until my turn comes to get a development unit. This is exactly the platform for which I originally created the Keyglove. I don't know when I will get mine, but I want the Keyglove to be ready to take full advantage of the opportunity.

In my opinion (and others'), Google Glass has tremendous potential. Augmented reality and instant contextual information has a value that we can't accurately quantify yet. We don't have enough data to predict with. Glass will allow innovative people to expand the range of possibilities, to give us ideas about things we will find invaluable which today we can't even imagine since we don't have a mental framework to put them on. I want the Keyglove to be right there along side this discovery process, solving the input challenge where Glass so (comparatively) eloquently solves the output/display problem of wearable technology.

So, while I'm waiting for Glass...what's next?

I need to run through the Roadmap again and freshen things up a bit. Then I need to try compiling the last code snapshot I have and see exactly where I left things at the end of September. Then, I will read through the modular code structure I have and see if there are any structural changes to make right off the bat, or if I should go straight to fixing bugs and adding or completing features.

Begone, distractions! I have work to do!

As most of you know, I got to participate in the Open Hardware Summit and then World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science at the end of September. This was an excellent opportunity, and for those of you who remember my update about the Keyglove exhibit at Maker Faire last year, let me say that this one went significantly better than last time--no sickness, no loss of voice, much better preparation, and of course more development done on the project. OHS was great as well, but I'll explain more about that in a moment. First, a bit of news about why it has taken me a full month to update you all about the trip to NYC.  

Bluegiga Adventures  

In the middle of August, I had a fantastic opportunity fall into my lap: Bluegiga Technologies offered me a position as the senior Field Application Engineer for their US customers. Bluegiga is the company that makes the WT12 module I use in the Keyglove for wireless communication, and it was entirely due to my search for a good Bluetooth module for the Keyglove that I found them in the first place back in 2011. I was just a customer then, and their products, documentation, and incredible customer service got me hooked.

My subsequent efforts to create a few breakout boards for my own prototyping (and later resale) and the Arduino code library I wrote to interface smoothly with their iWRAP firmware put me on their radar, and so they came to me a couple of months ago with a very good offer, which I accepted. It would have been crazy not to under the circumstances, though I and my previous employers were sad about my departure from their company--I've been a web application developer there for almost 10 years, since before I started college, and I enjoyed both the people and the work. But this position at Bluegiga was too good not to take.  

Fast forward to the beginning of October, literally one day after Maker Faire ended. I had a week-long trip to Atlanta for introductory training at Bluegiga's US headquarters, followed immediately by two weeks of more focused training at their main office in Finland. I got back from there on Sunday morning (the 21st of October), and I actually wrote a good part of this update while sitting on a plane on my way back from another week-long event in Chicago! The schedule has been crazy, but it's settling down a bit after this last trip, and I should be able to get back to a normal routine soon. There's still a whole lot of steep learning curve for me to overcome in a very short time.

So what does this mean for the Keyglove project? Well, it's still mine to work on; changing day jobs doesn't affect ownership. There is no competition with Bluegiga's products--quite the opposite, in fact--so they are more than happy to have me continue working on it. Most importantly, my head has now been crammed full of knowledge about their products, including some of their upcoming modules. I will be able to make the WT12 integrate as well as possible with the Keyglove, finish the iWRAP code library (which is still missing a few features), and plan much more thoroughly for incorporating Bluetooth Low Energy in the future. This will allow for better integration with new iOS devices and any other new hardware that supports BLE.

In short, my new position at Bluegiga will help tremendously in the areas of Keyglove development that use wireless technology. I am really excited about this.  

Open Hardware Summit

The Open Hardware Summit on September 27 was the first main event that we attended in NYC. (By "we" here, I mean myself, my wife, and her mom who came along this time and helped out a ton--thanks, Sonia!) The event took place at Eyebeam in the southwest part of Manhattan, and held at least a few hundred people. There were a few dozen speakers and even more exhibitors, including Super Awesome Sylvia, for whom I had the pleasure of demoing the Keyglove that evening. I met some great new people and a few current friends, and learned about amazing tech and even some things that will help with Keyglove development. One of the guys from Mach 30 even did a quick interview of me at the booth, which you can watch here if you're interested. (Pardon the noise; it was an incredibly loud environment.)

I most enjoyed the OHS speakers for the day, including a great keynote by Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine (his presentation starts around 11 minutes in on that keynote link), a humanitarian Geiger counter project by the guys at Freaklabs, and some interesting discussion about intellectual property and licensing when it comes to open-source hardware. One of my favorite lines: "Give away the bits, sell the atoms." Bingo! Chris Anderson's tale of a Chinese product cloner converted into a value-generating contributor was another great lesson. Structuring a company and development process to encourage openness is definitely the way to go. Or, at least, the way I'm going.

One of the main Keyglove lessons I learned at OHS is that the sensor wire connections still need work. They are easy to solder now that I have metal contacts, and electrically they are quite good. But mechanically, they are far too easy to break after normal usage by cold-working the solder joint. This means that I need some better strain relief. This could come in one or more forms: one guy recommended that I simply crimp the sensor wire in place between the two layers of the fabric snap, and avoid soldering altogether, since this is what made the stranded sensor wire so susceptible to cold-working. I really like this idea, but I need something that will also work for repairs, and there's no way to re-use a fabric snap to crimp a new wire end in. You'd have to replace the whole snap...which could work, but is quite difficult to do once the glove is already built.  

Another option is to use some kind of plastique glue, like a metalized epoxy or something with a silicone component. Depending on the conductivity of the glue itself, this could be used either instead of or in addition to an actual solder joint. One way or another, I have to improve the sensor connection technique, since at the moment it is the primary point of failure, and there's no way I would feel good about distributing something that is prone to break so relatively easily.  

I got an OHS album up on the Keyglove Facebook page if you would like to check it out.

Maker Faire NYC

This year, Maker Faire went fantastically better for us compared to last time. As I mentioned above, none of us got sick, I didn't lose my voice, and we got to stay and exhibit both Saturday and Sunday. I had a demo video looping on two iPads the entire weekend to help save repeated explanations, and that turned out very well. (That video is almost ready for publishing online, but needs a couple minor adjustments.)

We didn't run out of any materials, despite the fact that easily over a thousand people came by the booth over the course of the weekend. Giving away buttons for people who typed their names with the Keyglove was a fun addition this time around, and I heard from some people way over in the Maker Shed later that weekend that they saw a lot of people wearing them. Score!

Having multiple gloves was definitely helpful for accommodating those whose hands were not the same size as mine, and having multiple computers made it easy to run a personal demo from behind the booth at the same time as visitors got to try out the prototypes. At least three people said that it was the coolest thing they had seen at Maker Faire--which I know is very subjective and depends on what order they saw stuff, but it was still amazing to hear.

There were many people who asked for an explanation about what the Keyglove is really useful for, but unlike last time, I felt like nobody at all walked away from the booth unconvinced of the possible utility in at least one relevant area. Some liked it for the novelty, but pretty much everyone was excited about medical possibilities, or gaming possibilities, or 3D design input control applications. Somebody even mentioned that it could be useful for live, detailed feedback from a patient inside an MRI machine, since it could be far enough outside the machine and requires small enough movements not to disrupt the process. Who knew? This influx of new ideas is one of my favorite parts about exhibiting.

One of the other highlights of the weekend for me was getting to meet with Zack Freedman, who had a couple of weeks earlier finished a working prototype of what he calls a Pi-Borg, which is a combination of a Raspberry Pi and a modified MyVu Crystal EV head-mounted display built into a wearable computer. He stopped by the Keyglove booth, and we hooked up one of the Keyglove prototypes for what was the very first realization of my personal target use case for the project: a fully wearable computer. It was clearly a rough draft since there were some immediate calibration issues with mouse control, but as a successful proof-of-concept exercise, I got excited like you wouldn't believe. Well, actually, most of you probably would believe it.

On Sunday, John Baichtal of Make Magazine even gave us an Editor's Choice award for the exhibit! Thanks, John!

I got lot of good feedback over the weekend and met some great people, and I can hardly wait to get back to the project in earnest now that I am finished (for the moment) with all of this new job-related travel.

Check out the Keyglove Maker Faire photo album on Facebook if you are interested.

Seeed Studio

Speaking of getting back to the project, I have some good news about some components I have been able to get from the excellent people over at Seeed Studio and the suppliers they work with directly. I expect I'll be able to use their services even more as some of the last pieces fall into place for the kit version of the Keyglove, and then even more for sourcing, fabricating, and assembling the customized all-in-one controller boards. Despite being 18 months out from the end of the Kickstarter campaign, I still have a sizable chunk of the funds you all provided, and with an outfit like Seeed, it will actually go quite a long way. They are a great team to have available, especially for individual hobbyists like me.

Anyway, in the weeks prior to Maker Faire, I worked with Seeed to get some pre-fabricated rainbow header cables and molded (not cut) female headers to go with the Keyglove Kit PCB. Preparing the sensor cables was the most time-consuming step, after attaching the touch sensors to the glove itself (still working on that one).

As it turns out, getting those cables pre-made from Seeed not only saves a boatload of time, but the materials cost through them is actually far lower than what it costs me for the individual components! Amazing. The same thing goes for the female header pins, which are surprisingly expensive otherwise. In short, what had required about $10 and two hours (for each glove) now requires about $3 and no time at all. I will definitely keep employing their services as long as I have needs they can fulfill.

Next Steps

So, what's next, exactly? First, especially while everything is fresh in my mind, I'm going to go back and wrap up the wireless functionality with the WT12 Bluetooth module. This is a longstanding incomplete feature that will be good to have all finished. This mainly involves updates to the iWRAP code library I built and integrated into the Keyglove code, but it also involves a hardware modification of the Bluetooth module for the Keyglove Kit (which is a custom design). The Bluetooth module PCB is actually already sitting on my desk, but I need to get a new solder stencil so I can build the thing since there are quite a few surface-mount parts. I should be able to get the stencil within two weeks.

Second, I need to update a few things in my underlying code library for interfacing with motion sensors for improved speed and reliability. What I have now works most of the time, but it has no error recovery. When something doesn't communicate properly on the first try, everything locks up. This is obviously...well...bad.

Third, I need to work on that strain relief issue and experiment with a few different approaches. I'd like to get the hardware as done for the kits as soon as possible, since firmware updates are trivial for technically-inclined end users (e.g. many of you), and I'm sure those of you who pledged in return for kits would love to get your hands on them. This third step will also involve continuing to look for a company who can build the physical glove component with all of the sensors on it. I know there are people out there who can do this, but I just haven't connected with them yet.

That's enough for a short list of near-term to-do items. The new Bluegiga position is taking the majority of my time right now and for the next couple of weeks at least, but I'm determined not to relegate Keyglove to the bottom of the priority list. Keep your eyes open for more news, and thanks again four your support!

Tomorrow--or actually today, since it's after midnight here in New York--I'll be heading off to the Keyglove exhibit at Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science building. This is only a short update since I'm still wrapping up a few software modifications and I probably ought to get at least a little bit of sleep.

The last few weeks have been a flurry of preparations, and my wife has helped out tremendously with much of the tedious and time-consuming demo glove assembly work. I would never have been able to get everything done without her.

The result is that we have five different gloves to work with and three sets of electronics to swap between them. Since the sensor cables easily disconnect, and controller boards move easily between gloves, and I only have three computers to run everything on at the same time, having only three sets of electronics is not a problem. Here are all of the demo Keygloves we're bringing:

That odd-looking on on the top right is my older Prototype D glove, made out of much less durable material (cotton) and powered with the Keyglove Kit v0.4 PCB. I brought it as a backup in case something went terribly wrong with the others. The rest of the gloves you see there are based on the Prototype E model, the Ektelon Classic Pro racquetball glove and v0.5 PCB, along with the rainbow sensor cables. These gloves look considerably more aesthetically pleasing when there's actually a hand in them, so here's a shot of that:

If you happen to be near Manhattan this weekend, by all means stop by and see how things are going, and get a chance to see the current prototypes. We get to be inside this year, right in the middle of the central pavilion of the New York Hall of Science (which is a phenomenal spot for a booth at this event). There's a Keyglove banner up and everything...you can't miss it.

I've learned a lot through this process of preparing for Open Hardware Summit, even more at OHS itself, and I'm sure there will be still more that I'll learn this weekend. However, I'll save that synopsis for another update.

Thanks for your continued interest and support!

I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend! It's actually cold and gray here in Roanoke, but the combination of a holiday and "inside" weather has given me a good opportunity to write another update for you all. One of biggest things is coming up in just a few weeks: Maker Faire! So, I'll start with that one.

Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire NYC

You all probably remember that I exhibited the Keyglove at Maker Faire in NYC last year, and that it was a great experience. This year, I'm going to do it again, but it's going to be way better this time for a few reasons. First, I've come a long way in the past year in terms of development. I've got a lot more to show. Second, I've got a specific list of all the preparations I need to make and exactly what I want to have ready. I won't be scrambling for a banner, or business cards, or flyers, or hopefully anything else at the last minute. This includes the official Maker Faire group-rate hotel, which I sadly missed out on last time. I've already got a whole bunch of what I need done, and the rest is laid out on a conservative schedule. I'll go over some of this in more detail below.

Also, hopefully I won't get sick a day before the event like last time. Yikes. Here's a shot from last year:

Unlike last year, I will additionally be participating in the Open Hardware Summit two days prior to Maker Faire, running a demo booth onsite and networking with a lot of folks who will be great to meet and learn from. If you're going to be in town during the last week of September, I highly recommend checking out both events, especially Maker Faire if you can't make it to both. It's going to be an incredible event.

New Glove and Fabric Snap Touch Sensors

I've found a new base glove to use for prototyping (and hopefully kits, shortly) which is much more durable than the black cotton one I had before. It's an Ektelon Classic Pro racquetball glove. It's got a very snug thin cabretta leather front and a mesh back, along with a sturdy velcro wrist strap. It's definitely a big step up from the cotton handbell glove.

Even more important than that is the implementation of new crimp fabric snaps for 27 of the 37 touch sensors on the glove (the small ones that aren't conductive fabric). These are incredibly easy to mount with a pair of needle-nose pliers for placement and parallel-grip pliers for crimping in place. It's also simple to solder sensor lead wires to them even after they're mounted (great for troubleshooting or repair). This change from the manual "wire loops" I had been using results in a process that takes about 30 seconds per sensor instead of more like five minutes, and adds a lot of precision that is nearly impossible to achieve the old way. Here's the result of the new snap sensors on the new glove:

I'm planning to assemble five of these in various sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL) for demo devices at Open Hardware Summit and Maker Faire. Last time, a lot of the enthusiastic kids had to work with a glove that was way too big for them. Most of them did amazingly well anyway, but that's no way to run a demo booth! This time will be better for those whose hands are either smaller or larger than mine.

New Kit Board Revision and Sensor Headers

I've revised the Keyglove Kit circuit board twice since my last update, with the most recent version being better shaped for the back of the hand, more compact, and easier to mount. The pin arrangement also allows you to use the same board for either the left or right hand, just by switching around the sensor header pin connections and making a small software configuration change. The previous PCB versions had pin headers that only worked in a practical sense on the right hand; you could plug all the headers in either way, but the sensor wires had to be bent all weird if you wanted left-handed operation. Either that, or you had to plug in the USB cable on the top by the fingers, and of course that will never work. This new approach is much cleaner. I'm still waiting on the newest prototype PCBs to arrive, but here's a 3D rendering of the top and bottom:

Additionally, I've incorporated standard 0.1" headers for sensor lead attachment. Since there are 37 of them and keeping track of them individually is a gigantic pain, making each set into a color-coded arrangement of pre-assembled connectors immensely simplifies the connection process on both ends. Every wire of a given color is always in the same pin position, so if you know which finger (or thumb or palm) the bundle comes from, you'll already know which sensor it goes to. Perfect! The controller board end of one set of cables looks like this:

I'm currently working with the people at Seeed Studio to help get these manufactured a few dozen at a time, since for the moment I have to do them all by hand with strips of header pins and a crimping tool. The process isn't too bad since my wife helps (a lot!), but Seeed can do it much faster and cheaper than I can, so I'm happy to use their services.

Keyglove Manager Application

I've been working on a Windows-based GUI management application and a Linux-based console application for interfacing with the Keyglove to provide custom, tight OS integration. The regular HID interface doesn't require an application or driver to work, but since there's so much more you can do if you have one, it's important to provide that as well. My initial focus is on Windows integration, but Linux is forthcoming as well (but still ugly at this point), and I even finally bought an older Macbook for native OS X and iOS development. The Windows application supports direct API control of various applications that can benefit from true 3D input (such as Autodesk Inventor or other CAD software). Here's an early screenshot of the Windows Keyglove Manager app:

You can also check out an early video of basic API integration with Autodesk Inventor below. The Inventor integration has been much improved since this video was taken, but it demos the basic concept pretty well. I'll get a new video up as soon as I can.

New Keyglove Forums and Social Media Reminder

One more minor update: I changed the Keyglove Forums on the project website to use the phpBB system. This is a much better platform than what I had before, and for any of you who have used forums much, it should be more familiar. If you'd like to discuss anything about the project in that kind of environment, head over to the forums and speak up!

Finally, if you'd like more frequent updates on the Keyglove project, you can check out the Facebook page, Twitter feed, or Google+ page. I post short updates on these pages quite often, and although they don't have nearly as much content as what I send in the Kickstarter updates, I find that it's much easier to post them often since they're so short. If you don't already follow the project on any of those platforms, you might want to check them out. The content is usually the same on all three platforms, so you can pick your favorite.

Thanks again to all of you for your continued support, and watch for another update in a few weeks, just before Maker Faire!

Happy Saturday, everyone!

I've been continuing to make progress on the Keyglove, and especially for those of you who are interested in kits, I've got a great update. I've also got some sad news about the potential glove manufacturer I referred to in my last update, but let's start with the good stuff for now.

For the "TL;DR" folks who would love to jump right into oodles of Kit PCB pictures, check out this, this, this, and this photo album on the Keyglove Facebook page.

Kit Board Updates: 3rd time's the charm!

As I mentioned last time, I've been working on a compact, simplified circuit board that will allow people to put together a collection of off-the-shelf parts and prototype modules easily without having to worry about exactly how to connect everything together. My goal is to end up with something that requires only connections from the sensors on the glove itself (clearly labeled, of course), and everything else should be plug-and-play--or perhaps plug-and-program-and-play. The kit board is based first and foremost on the Teensy++ board from PJRC and the 6DOF IMU motion sensor from SparkFun, both of which are easily obtainable and proven, tested components. The first attempt at this board, version 0.1, was a good effort:

But even before the v0.1 board made it back from the fabricator and into my hands, I'd already scrapped it in favor of a new version. First, the circuit was missing a few connections that are required to provide seamless wireless (Bluetooth) connection management. Second, I had just modified the sensor count to include a total of 37 instead of the 34 I had been working with, and this required a significant reworking of the RGB/vibe/buzzer feedback module due to the limited number of pins on the Teensy++ board. Third, this board contains a whole module that won't even be necessary for the kit version of this project. So, I got rid of that, modified the feedback module, laid out the components a little different, and tried again:

This revision, v0.2, is better than v0.1 from a layout standpoint and supports all the right modules and connection, and it pretty much turned out exactly the way I hoped it would. It even has a cozy little space to hold the lithium polymer battery.

But two bad things happened with this board. First, although it worked wonderfully after I first plugged everything in and tested it for a few minutes, the board spontaneously decided to act up anytime I actually wanted to use it. Each component still worked fine on its own, but the moment I plugged them into the board, the Teensy++ would lock up and refuse to blink its pretty little orange LED at me.

Usually.

It would actually work briefly at random times. Intermittent problems are the worst. I still haven't pinpointed the issue, but I suspect the messiness of the circuit traces on the PCB itself may be introducing some capacitance in...actually, I'm not sure. I haven't learned enough to really know what I'm talking about when it comes to that in-depth level of electrical theory. It is honestly more likely that it's a very simple error that I wasn't fortunate enough to accidentally stumble upon.

However, that issue aside, I also discovered a usability problem: although the board was smaller than the solderless breadboard I'd been working with before, once I added those 90-degree header pins on the edges, it became even more unwieldy. Add to this the fact that the PCB is extremely rigid, more so than the solderless breadboard (which has a thin foam pad on the bottom), and my super awesome kit board suddenly felt painfully big and ugly, despite being more convenient from an assembly standpoint. This would not do. So, to attempt to fix the unidentified electrical issue and to drastically shrink the board, I tried again:

All right! Now we're talking! This v0.3 board is considerably smaller, which makes it easier and more comfortable to mount on the back of your hand without feeling the rigidness of the board. Also, it works. All the time. (Well, all the time so far; it hasn't stopped yet, and I've been doing a lot with it.)

The photo above, ladies and gentlemen, demonstrates the latest in cutting-edge Keyglove Kit technology. The sensors work, the wireless module works, the battery charging circuit works, and of course the microcontroller driving it all works as well. Some of the larger modules do hang off the edge a bit, but this causes no electrical or structural problem, and it allows the base PCB to be smaller. There's not much that could be done to make this any more compact without stacking vertically or cutting out a module entirely (both of which are possibilities, but for now I'm sticking with this design).

Not only is this probably something very much like what the eventual Keyglove Kit will use for a foundation, but it also simplifies the development process for me. Connecting sensors to the prototype module for testing is something I've had to do many, many times, and will have to do many more times during the course of development and debugging. With three dozen or so sensors, this gets to be tedious (or worse). With this board, that tedious-or-worse-ness goes away almost entirely.

However, there's still that issue of what to plug into those 37 sensor-ready right-angle headers, which brings us to the fact that the...

Glove Manufacturer Search Continues

The exciting prospect I had last time has not panned out--not for lack of trying or interest on their part, but the main manufacturing facility in China that they usually use didn't feel comfortable attempting the mixture of textile and interwoven electronics that is necessary for the Keyglove's physical component. The management stateside was as disappointed in this as I was, and they said I could contact them again if could provide a very clear design that would be easier for a manufacturer to follow, rather than a conceptual explanation, simple diagrams, and a prototype. Although I was really hoping to have this taken care of by now (or at least be well on the way to), this is a perfectly reasonable request on their part, really.

So, aside from the kit PCB, module testing, and embedded software development, I'm trying to start some conversations with reputable 3D artists who can help me put together something that will be suitable for a glove manufacturing company to use as a reference design. I've got one prospect on that front so far, but if you're reading this and know of someone (or are someone) you wouldn't hesitate to recommend, I'd be happy to hear from you. I've got a high-quality 3dsmax model of a hand to start with, but I don't have the software or knowledge to develop something better with it:

So, that's the story on that. In my mind, this is still by far the biggest difficulty to overcome, and I'm intent on tackling it as soon as possible.

One Last Thing: Your Enduring Support

I honestly had hoped to be considerably farther along on this project by now, having real Keygloves on your hands and a strong market beginning to develop. My eternal optimism and lack of prior experience in many areas made my estimates off-target, and for this I am sorry (both for myself as well as for all of you). It isn't from lack of money--I still have a good deal of Kickstarter funding left from your generous backing, and I've even been able to take care of many recent Keyglove-related investments with my own income in an effort to stretch the Kickstarter money out as far as I can, to better accommodate future purchases that I don't even know I'll need to make yet. Most of the difficulty comes from a lack of time, since this is not my primary source of income, and that has to take precedence. Some of the difficulty also comes from a lack of knowledge, but I see that as a very temporary hurdle since I love learning new things.

In less than a week--April 27th, 2012 to be exact--we will reach the one-year anniversary of the success of the Keyglove Kickstarter campaign. Wow. The truly incredible thing to me though is that in all this time, not one of you has sent me any nasty messages asking where the @#$! your rewards are, and telling me to hurry up. This is relieving and encouraging, but it is also humbling. I have a magnificent set of supporters, and though I've said so before, I want to tell you again that I am inexpressibly grateful for you all. You've given $12,474.80 and so far received very little in return (unless you really enjoy reading these lengthy updates). I promise it will not remain this way forever, and I'm doing all I can to finish the project and put products in (and on) your hands.

So thank you all, again, for your generosity and especially your patience. You will not be disappointed. This thing is going to be awesome when it's done.

Jeff