Hello everyone, we hope you are well. We have made significant progress over the last 60 days and just wanted to quickly update you guys.
Hardware
After some initial hiccups, and slow decisive steps by us all parts are now coming together very nicely. This is of enormous relief to us.
We are deeply grateful for your patience and continued support.
Until we have these parts all assembled into final units, neatly packaged in boxes ready to ship, we are not comfortable giving you an ETA regarding shipping, simply because we don’t want you guys to be disappointed.
SOFTWARE
You deserve a great toolset.
We’ve made some incredible progress in regards to software. Here’s an early peek at some of the very powerful features you guys will get your hands on very soon. The UX/UI here is unpolished and will be refined.
Noise/Vertex deletion
Like an eraser but in 3D.
Vertex Measurement
Measure distance between two vertices. It's a ruler for your 3D Models!
Surface Area calculation.
Thank you for your continued patience. The next update will be from us in China, with shots of assembly, quality control, and assembled units ready for shipping. We are on the homestretch.
Hi there, this year has really started moving, our Australian Summer is over as many of your Winters are. We're making great progress on all fronts of the business, this is an update outlining key progress that has been made since we launched and acknowledging the Elephant.
While we are making no excuses, we have repeatedly missed our shipping schedules. We sincerely apologize for shipping late, we could have shipped on our original projections if we manufactured the original scanner.
We were, and even moreso now, are extremely encouraged by the response to our Kickstarter campaign, we doubled down to make a product which greatly surpasses the original, in all aspects. We underestimated the number of challenges we would face, as others have said, "Hardware is Hard".
Prior to launching we agreed we would not ship until we were 100% satisfied with the quality, design and durability of the scanners and turntables. There is zero risk that pre-orders will not be shipped.
We are now 100% satisified with the quality, design and durability.
As we have missed our previous shipping schedules we are apprehensive to give an exact shipping schedule until this is set in stone. This is where we are at with our key components:
Scanner Chassis; first batch of aluminum and machining have been ordered, parts are machined and are awaiting anodizing
Turntable Chassis; first batch of aluminum and machining have been ordered, parts are machined and are awaiting anodizing
Lasers; first batch awaiting assembly
Motors and Gearbox; this was ordered over 6 weeks ago and they're currently past the lead time that was estimated, due to arrive in the next three-four weeks
Electronics; ordered and due to arrive in three-four weeks
Packaging; ordered and due to arrive in three-four weeks
Asfand will be departing to China in two weeks (his fourth trip in the past year) to oversee assembly and put into practice our Quality Control tests, Asfand will remain in China until the first few batches have been shipped, the assembly process and QC are running smoothly.
Although these delays are frustrating they have allowed us additional time to advance our software, we have made huge advancements to scanning time, scan quality, calibration, smart noise filtering and rendering normals in-app - these are detailed below.
We thank you for your continued support and encouragement throughout this campaign.
Now for some Good News
Smart Noise Filtering:
Smart Noise Filtering allows for quick clean up of your 3D model. While our auto-noise filtering removes nearly all sources of noise, you're able to quickly refine the level of noise to prepare the 3D model for sharing.
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Colors / Textures and Normals Displayed In-App:
We have implemented the toggling of colors / textures and normals, displaying normals removes the color / texture from the surface and displays the underlying 3D surface.
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Compression Algorithm:
We have built and implemented a loss-less compression algorithm, saving your smartphone's storage (think Pied Piper). The compression reduces the file size by 8-10x of industry standard format files! While retaining all points that were captured, meaning that if you have used the Smart Noise Filter to reduce points in the model it is possible to bring those points back at any time.
High-Speed Scans - 2MB (~20MB when exported as PLY)
High-Resolutions Scans - 18MB (~160MB when exported as PLY)
Laser Module - Double the Power:
We have spent countless hours testing a variety of lasers and working directly with our laser manufacturer and have significantly increased the power of the laser module while maintaining the class 2M eye-safe rating. This remains as a 520nm green laser.
The increased power of the laser allows for:
Better capture of darker colours
Better capture in brighter environment
Allows for faster scan times
20 Second Scans:
We have given glimpses into the high-speed scan mode throughout our updates, this is now finalised and we're excited to introduce high-speed scanning. The high-speed scan captures up-to 1 million points in 20 seconds, including: capture time, processing and rendering the model on device.
This is light speed compared to the original high-resolution scan time of 8 minutes including processing. There have also been great improvements to the High-Resolution scan, this is completed in 2 minutes and captures up-to 8 million points.
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Calibration Time:
When we launched calibration was approximately 1 hour including scanning and processing time, we knew that we could implement a simple calibration process.
High-Speed Mode: 2 minutes
High-Resolution Mode: 10 minutes
Model Load Time:
Loading a model from your library previously took ~80 seconds for the High-Resolution Mode and is now ~6 seconds, load times for High-Speed scans is ~1 second.
Hardware Design:
There has been a radical redesign of the hardware as highlighted throughout our updates, here are some key statistics:
Reduction in overall size of 36% - 5.6cm (2.2 inches)
Reduction in overall weight of over 50% a reduction of approximately 450grams (15.9 ounces)
Adjustable Mount - this is the single largest challenge we faced from launch to the final design - this was redesigned and prototyped from the ground up 4 times until we were satisfied. This is an integral part of the scanner as it didn't just need to be easy to mount, it also needed to be strong and highly repeatable (the smartphone needs to be in exactly the same position each time it is mounted)
Mounting your device is simple, view the video below
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SXSW Trade Show
If you're attending SXSW in Austin next week we would love to meet you!
We will be exhibiting at the SXSW Tradeshow in the Australia Lounge.
Booths: 1135, 1137, 1234, 1236
Thanks again for your continued patience, encouragement and support. We will be releasing a very excited and proud update when we are finally shipping our first scanners!
Hi there, we hope you have had a wonderful start to the new year.
This is a quick update to let you know how we’re doing. You may recall from our last update that we have ordered and signed contracts for all the machining, components, parts, electronics and packaging. At this point we are waiting for inventory levels to catch up. (So that we can ship the first units to our beta testers!) We were hoping that we’d have enough inventory to ship before the Chinese New Year (Jan 24th-Feb 8th). Unfortunately the stepper motors and gearboxes are taking longer than we had anticipated and are running behind.
We read all comments and messages and take them seriously! We know that you guys are eager to get your hands on the eora 3D scanner and that the wait has been frustrating. Thank you for your continued patience and support.
Shipping:
Beta Backers are set for shipping this month with all backers set for shipping from mid-March.
Shipping Survey:
Thank you to everyone who has completed the survey. There are a few of you yet to complete the survey, or if your details have changed, please complete/update the survey on www.kickstarter.com
Our work continues at a furious pace to ensure we ship eora 3D scanners to you as soon as possible. We’ve spent the last two months in China working hard to successfully achieve certification and proceed to manufacturing and assembly.
We know it’s been a wait, and we appreciate your patience and support as we get closer to the finish line.
We’ve ordered and signed contracts for all the required components and have begun stockpiling them - this includes BLE chipsets, PCBs, Aluminum parts, motors, gearboxes and plastic - to produce 5000 units and scale beyond.
Shipping
Unfortunately due to varying lead times for different components being between 4-7 weeks, shipping will commence in January.
Shipping Schedule
BETA Backers: All BETA units will be shipped in January
All Backers: All remaining pre-orders will be shipped in February
The main reason for this delay is that it’s extremely challenging to scale production for a brand new product and not sacrifice quality.
Setting a delivery timeline was always going to be more art than science. We made an aggressive estimate but fell short and we are truly sorry for this.
We’ll keep you updated on our production progress. We often post our progress on Twitter and Facebook, which is a lot easier as the majority of our work is a daily grind and wouldn't make for an interesting update on it’s own.
We are sending out surveys to collect your shipping details. These should be in your inbox within the next 24 hours. Please keep an eye out for these.
Now for some good news:
We’re FCC and CE certified!
This is a huge milestone for the team.
Thank you for your continued support. As always feel free to reach us at hello@eora3d.com with any questions or feedback.
We launched the EORA 3D Scanner for pre-orders 1️⃣ year ago. The response to the EORA 3D Scanner continues to exceed our expectations, and we can’t thank our early supporters (you) enough for believing in our product and company.
From left to right: Stephen, Crystal, Weiz, Rahul, Neil, Anastasia, Scott, Asfand and Richard.
A lot has happened in the last few months. We dedicated the month of September entirely towards certification. We are extremely delighted to report that we have passed all tests successfully. There is one remaining test that is scheduled to be conducted next week, passing this last one means the EORA 3D Scanners will carry an FCC and CE ID. This is truly a cause for celebration for the team here.
In our previous updates, you may recall we attempted to redesign the phone mount several times. We finalised the design and manufactured and assembled a test batch, collected a whole lot of data and many bugs. We’ve streamlined many aspects of the code, made significant firmware improvements, and the results are paying off (check out the 3D model below).
Logo placement (mockup)
SOFTWARE
We knew when we started this project that the real advancements will be in the clever software we would have to build. Here's a little sneak peak...
The above model was captured on the EORA 3D Scanner. The raw point cloud is rendered natively on the smartphone. Vertices: 2,011,338
At EORA 3D, we are focused on building products that our users love. Central to this mission is our commitment not to compromise on our products.
It has been a very productive last couple of months. The progress we have made in terms of hardware, software, firmware, packaging, certification, inventory and assembly is real and measurable. We are excited to jump into production, assembly and shipping very soon. Stay tuned.
