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Overview - What Is It?
The Lamobo D1 is an incredibly small and portable multimedia development board with a built-in HD mini camera. It allows you to create and customize your own mini-cam and can be a valuable part of any cool hardware you are working on.Even with all the top-notch features it has as a mini-cam, the beauty of the D1 lies in how customizable and open-source it is. For example, you can upgrade the lens (D1 Pro version) and storage or add night vision, and it’s all powered by Linux. Even with this level of creative freedom, the D1 is 50-70% more affordable than other leading mini-cams or development boards that require add-on camera modules.
The Big Picture
We created the D1 in part because we couldn't find a high-quality camera with real development features - in short, a portable HD camera that can be attached, reworked, rejiggered and whatever else the human imagination can come up with. As the development and creative process continued, we realized we had something special on our hands: a truly flexible combination mini-cam/development board that could really help makers and creative individuals everywhere bring their ideas to life. If you've used mini-cams like the GoPro or NannyCam, you know how valuable and useful a high quality portable camera can be. These models revolutionized how small a traditional camera can be, but Lamobo has explored even deeper territory, creating a hackable mini-cam and development board with rich multimedia features.
Detailed Features
It's All Built-in!
We noticed that many industry-leading development boards are very versatile and customizable, but that all the plug-ins, add-ons, and attachments end up creating a stack of peripherals, making the boards anything but portable or neat. Things are even more frustrating for multimedia-minded markers. Never fear, though! The Lamobo D1 is designed specifically to give you all the multimedia tools you need in one small package. Simply connect to an external battery source (with your desired power capacity), and the D1 does the rest: there’s a HD mini-cam, audio sensor, microphone, CPU, GPIO, WiFi, and more - you name it, the D1 has it. Simple and clean, you're good to go.
Small, Small, Small
At 1.42” (w) x 1.42” (l) and weighing in at 10g, it’s much smaller and lighter than any mini-cam or camera board out there, including the popular GoPro camera line and the Raspberry Pi camera board. The portability is contagious. In hardware development, it unlocks so many possibilities. As a mini-cam, it is ready for anywhere and any time.
The Power of Real-time HD Vision
Small yet powerful, the D1 prides itself on providing high-resolution image quality: Both video and photos are captured at 1280x720p with a video capture rate of 30 fps. The camera also supports photo bursts. Our goal is to make sure you have your hands (and mind!) free for those wonderful moments you don't have to miss. So, imagine taping a powered D1 to your wall at a party. Connect to it via WiFi and you'll be able to view and record video and photos in real-time from a PC or smart phone. Backed up by our soon-to-be-released cloud server or a host of other infrastructure tools, it will be able to upload photo and videos to your Facebook page automatically and within a customized time frame.
If storage is a concern, you will never have to think twice about recording with the D1, as it's equipped with hefty internal (64MB/16MB RAM/Flash) and external (8GB SD card included) storage.
There are 3 modes of power consumption:
Power-off = 0 power consumption
Recording+wifi-off = 200mAh per hr
Recording+wifi-on = 350mAh per hr
So, a D1 (with a 10000mAh battery and expandable SD card storage) will be able to record continuously for up to 24 hours. Of course, it's easy to upgrade to even stronger battery/memory combinations.
Open-Source Ethos: Hardware
One of the most crucial components of a mini-cam is the lens. Don’t sweat on comparing lenses of current prototypes, because you can replace the D1's lens with any of 3 lenses with a host of viewing angle options.
If you're a night vision fan (or even just a person that doesn't always have time to take pictures during the day), we have a surprise for you. Forget about wasting time and energy mounting a heavy external light or making a DIY LED for your mini-cam. - the D1 board offers built-in LEDs to help you shoot in any lighting conditions.
The D1 features 8 GPIO (General Purpose Input-Output) pins, and the D1 Pro has 20, which really pushes the potential of your multimedia board set-up. The built-in WiFi module extends its connectivity even further.
Open-Source Ethos: Software
Our team has 14 years of experience in software development, so you're in good hands. The D1 comes with built-in firmware, running on Linux 3.4.35 and Kernel. Write straightforward code to further discover the D1’s development capability. For example, you could program the camera to only shoot videos once it has detected continuous motion for 3 seconds. Other possibilities include taking pictures exclusively of still objects or turning on at a predetermined time. The D1 is your playground. How many out-of-the-box mini-cams are this smart? None.
Affordability
At the end of the day, our goal is to deliver optimum value and features at a price anyone can afford, without having to compromise key multimedia gadget features. For example, the D1 has similar video resolution and imagery sensor specs as the GoPro HERO3, but has a wider array of compatible audio formats. The D1 is 1/3 the price of the GoPro and 1/2 the price of Raspberry Pi and its add-on camera board with similar features.
D1/D1 Pro Full Specso Size: PCB 1.42” (w) x 1.42” (l)
o CPU: 400MHz ARM926EJ 32Bits RISC Core
o Internal Memory: 64MB DDR2 RAM
o Flash Memory: 16MB SPI-FLASH
o External Storage: embedded microSD Card Seat, with an included 8GB SD card and support for up to 64GB of storage.
o Camera: HM1375 1.3M 1/4” CMOS Image Sensor SoC 1280x720p at 30 fps
o Video: H.264/MJPEG hardware encoding at 1280x720p at 30 fps. Requires 448 MB space per hour of recording.
o Audio: MIDI/MP3/WMA/AAC/AAC+/Speech
o WiFi: RTL8188EUS WiFi module that can switch to AP and the standard modes
o RTC: RTC circuit that supports OSD features
o Power Management: Li-ion with a power management IC
o Microphone: Built-in electret microphone
o Speaker: Audio driver circuit that plays audio
o Power Consumption: Recording: 5V-200mA; WiFi on: 5V-350mA
o GPIO: 8GPIO pins (D1)/20GPIO pins (D1 Pro)
o UART: Independent UART debugging interface
o USB: USB programming interface
o DC: +5V power input o Battery: 3.7V Li-ion socket, battery is not included
o Operating System: Linux3.4.35 o Accessories: see "Rewards" section for more details.
Hardware Development Showcase
Our main goal in designing the D1 was to create a multimedia board so flexible and feature-rich that its applications were essentially limitless. We’re continually impressed by the innovation and creativity of the developer community, but wanted to offer a few suggestions of our own for the D1:The Wearable Safety Cam
The D1 can help make sure your kids, pets or other loved ones are safe; whether they are out and about or home alone, you can keep an eye on them. Wanna make it fashionable? Go ahead!
The Mini-Cam Scout
Use your vision and imagination to build a scout! It could be anything from a cleaning robot at home to a little vehicle for running small errands.
The Bird’s Eye View Drone
Add a D1 to a drone and gain a new perspective on the world.
The Automated Timelapse
Program the D1 to create gorgeous time-lapse photography with ease.
Rewards
Timeline
Team
Founded in 2000, Lamobo’s parent company Kortide has 14 years of experience in operating system development. An international software company with over 200 employees and offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Taipei, Kortide is registered in both China and the US.
We are strong believers in crowdfunding. It’s the fastest way to gather community feedback and deliver the D1 to creators around the world. With the funds from your much-appreciated Kickstarter contributions, we'll be able to optimize features of the D1 and further our research for the next 3 Lamobo products: the M1, B1 and R1. Please visit us at http://lamobo.io for more information. Support us and help the world see what Lamobo can do! Thank you!
Risks and challenges
Design: We initiated research and development for the Lamobo D series in 2012. The D1 is the first in line. We have, in fact, developed two generations of the D1: In the first generation, CMOS and CPU were on both sides of PCB (Printed Circuit Board). With the perforated prototyping, we were able to add 37 GPIO pins on the board to extend its development capability; however, its small size posed a serious soldering challenge.
The upgrade from the first generation primarily involved reducing the amount of GPIO pins, switching SMT to one single side of the PCB, and repositioning the CMOS and CPU to the same side, and compiling the WiFi module, SD card seat, encoding ports on the other side. We also developed the D1 Pro to make lens replacement an option, while maintaining as many GPIO pins as we could.
Software: We are a 300-person software company that has been in business for over 14 years, which means that the D1 is backed up by our software expertise and platforms. The firmware has been completed, and while we are still working on a self-branded app for mobile devices and constructing a powerful cloud platform, these projects have made tremendous progress this year and are scheduled to be finalized by December 2014. In the meantime, we're happy to recommend a few 3rd party apps and platforms to help you get your D1 rolling.
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Funding period
- (30 days)