Dear Backers,

The weekly roundup is here! Last week we told you that the new PCBs arrived and the tooling for part of the camera's casing had been successful (you'll find that update and the others here). This week:

Hardware

• The tooling responsible for the front part of the Memoto plastic shell has now successfully gone through its first injection molding, just like we accomplished last week for the back part. It is the most complicated part we have in the mechanics assembly, so this is excellent news. The next step for the tooling is to process it to create the final texture and feeling of the surfaces and to fine-tune some dimensions to make everything fits together optimally.

Software

• The design for the main interface on Windows is done. We are now working with the tray interface and linking it up to our backend.
• We are making the momentification more stable and able to work in real-time (moments are being built while the photos are being uploaded now instead of waiting for all photos to be uploaded).
• The installer for the OSX uploader is done.
• We are working on a guide to help new users through the setup process.
• We are working on the web view that will show shared moments.
• We are continuing to develop the tests used by the factory for quality testing at various places in the production pipeline. 

Backend

• We are continuing work on uploading directly to our server to prepare for production loads.
• We are continuing work on improving how we build moments.
• And working on the API. For example, tagging photos and moments (this can be used for starring, sharing, hiding and so on). We have also started working on how to connect users and devices through the API.

Have a good one!

/Memoto team

Dear Backers,

Things are happening! 

We release these weekly updates on our journey in order to let our backers know where we are and what we're doing. The previous ones are here, in case you missed them.

This week:

Hardware

• We're happy to confirm that we received the first 200 bare printed circuit boards this Monday, and around half of them are being assembled with components on Friday.
• We did the first injection molding of one of the two parts of the Memoto plastic case and it looks very good.
• Samples of the packaging arrived from the manufacturer as well. Some minor changes are needed, but overall, we are very happy with the results.
• The custom Memoto USB cable design was released for manufacturing and is being produced. We are awaiting the first ones.
• The metal clip has been released for manufacturing.

Software

• The windows upload client is moving along, what's left is building the user interface and connecting the application logic to it and the following user testing.
• We are modifying the USB upload protocol for both the OSX and Windows uploaders to improve the user experience and allow amongst other things the setting of camera parameters.
• Interviewing beta-testers about the momentification so we can continue improving the algorithms further.
• Designing the LED patterns and responses for the different situations they should convey information on. The LEDs are our only user-interface output, making this an important feature.

Backend

We have been working on optimizing the photo storage and processing on our servers using a multitude of benchmarks and tests, and are now feeling satisfied that we have a good scalability and so will be able to meet the user demand on photo upload, moment processing and moment browsing performance. One challenge has been to balance instant availability of photos as they are being uploaded with the benefits of having larger chunks of user photos on the server before analyzing them for the segmentation into the Memoto moments.

Wishing you all a fantastic weekend!

/Memoto Team

Hello Dear Backers,

Time sure does fly, it's Friday again! Friday means it's time for an update regarding our production progress. We want to keep everyone in the loop as we work towards locking down a reliable delivery date and bringing you an incredible lifelogging experience. You can take a look back at previous updates here.

So, what's been happening this week at Memoto?

Hardware

Regarding production,

• we're still waiting for the pre-series production. 200 PCBs will be done next Monday and half of them mounted with components during the week. As mentioned before, these will be run through a couple of standard environmental tests before we let them continue with the rest of the production. It is difficult to estimate the risk that any of those tests will hold up anything; some of them are for regulatory compliance and some are simply to make sure the quality is good enough for a ship worthy product, but of course our hope is that it will be a quick procedure.
• We have concluded the design of the Memoto USB cable. The port on the camera is a Micro-USB connector. We are ordering 5000 of these next week or so and the production time for this is just a couple weeks.
• Our packaging manufacturer in Taiwan has made the samples of the packaging and are shipping them to us with DHL today. They will arrive on Monday or Tuesday next week.

Backend

• As we said last week, the focus here is continuing to improve the upload handling and building of moments. We have more work to do before we can accommodate production loads.
• We've made the process handling on the servers better. Issues with deployments and software updates because daemons were terminated improperly have been fixed.

Software

The design for the web-view of a shared moment is complete and we began working on how the LEDs will display different states like: power on, battery status.

We've also been continuing to:

• develop factory tests for the camera
• build the windows client

See you next week!

/Memoto Team

Hi Backers,

Spring has finally arrived to Sweden. We're happy for a bit of sun and we're happy to bring you the weekly update!

Hardware

There's a lot of hurry up and wait going on with the manufacturing process at the moment. We know you're eager to get any kind of estimate on delivery and these outside factors are part of what make giving an estimate difficult at the moment.

• We're waiting for both the first plastic parts and the first mass-produced PCBs.
• We're also finalizing the production of the USB cable.

Friday (yay) and time for another look behind the scenes of Memoto’s production. If you have missed out on why we’re doing this on such a regular basis, check back on previous updates and most specifically this one.

Here’s what’s been accomplished this week:

Hardware

• Our industrial designer has made CMF spec (Color Material Finish) to hand over to our manufacturers. Now they will now how every surface and color will look and feel on the hardware, which obviously is a crucial input in their tooling for the camera case.
• Blueprints are finished for the USB cable (micro usb to regular usb) that will come with the Memoto camera. Let’s leave the details on the looks of it for you to find out when you open your package, but this will be one gorgeous little USB cable. (NB: gorgeous, but not slowing down or risking the rest of the shipment.) Next step is to start the tooling for the cable.
• On the packaging side, we’re waiting for new samples of the actual package, the packaging sleeve and the instruction manual. The ones we got so far looks good, but they needed some polish.
• We’re waiting for the waiting for the plastic tooling to inject and mold the various parts in the Memoto camera. It will take a few weeks more, and we hope that no issues creep up during that time of course. The injection molding tooling in this case is quite advanced for producing the tiny plastic shell with its many features, so when we are done we look forward to doing a quick video showing just what machinery is involved.
• We are also still waiting for the first 75 PCBs to get ready and are preparing the surface-mount assembly of them right now. We have high expectations for the assembly quality as we collaborate with a very good manufacturer, but this is one area where yield issues can creep up so we have to put these assembled PCBs through mechanical and environmental stress tests before ordering the other thousands of boards.
• The production test development and setup is also ongoing, with PCs being set up at the factory now which will inject the production test firmware into the assembled boards and produce a go/no-go signal. We would be happy to share some videos of this process as well when we get the opportunity.

Backend

• Work has been made to stabilize and speed up the process of uploading pictures and creating moments. Today, images are lined up in a que directly on our servers as they are being uploaded, thus creating a heavy load, a drop in speed and an overall not-optimal-experience. When we’ve put Amazon S3 in the middle between the uploading client and our servers the capacity for the que of images will be (almost) infinite and keeping our servers out of the action during the upload process. On the “momentification” side, we’re teaching the algorithm to build moments as pictures are uploaded and not in huge batches as uploads are finished. The result: a speedy and robust upload experience.

• To increase the accuracy of the momentification, we’re also starting to collect data from humans. (Who would have thought, huh?) This way we can test for example that the algorithm’s opinion on when a moment begins and ends correlates with what the human user think about his/her memory.

Software

• The OSX client in older versions of OSX has been a pain. We’ve used new API:s and frameworks to build the client, but these haven’t been supported by older versions of OSX. After new custom-written code, it works like a charm.
• For the Windows client, the last steps of the design process and the first steps of coding has been initiated. Iterating through a number of design alternatives for the OSX client and tested them on people (humans, again!) will prove useful here. 
• Anything you think is unclear or that you want to hear more about? Let us know in the comments!

Anything you think is unclear or that you want to hear more about? As always, let us know in the comments!

/The Memoto Team