It is the end of the year and I have the inevitable desire to think about where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.
The HiLO Lens concept emerged in mid 2011. It needs some diverse technical skills : iPhone app design, optical system design, mechanical design. I’ve been fortunate to find great people to help. It has been awesome working with Nyugen, Alexander and Onur. Thanks guys for making HiLO Lens possible. We had a first working prototype in early October which validated the concept.
This blog started and we built a team of advisors to help with broader marketing and design questions. A lot of people were contacted, a few stood out with their desire to get involved : Pedro dos Reis, Robert Haleluk and Goran Zorja offer a breadth of perspective that is a huge help in making key decisions.
Another member of the team is a our patent attorney John. With John’s help HiLO Lens is now worldwide patent pending.
We stumbled across the Crowdfunding model for funding new product designs and we are planning to work with Kickstarter.com or IndieGoGo. A friend even invested in HiLO Lens !
The final optical design was finished in November and we have been in discussions with optics manufacturers since then. This has been slower than I would have liked but, c’est la vie. While this was going on Arif created a neat mascot.
To be fair things are advancing at a good speed and we’ve also managed to move from France to New Zealand. New Zealand is close to the date line and celebrates New Years ahead of most places. I’m looking out over a sea of green bush (it is raining again…) and hopeful about the new year on the horizon.
I would love to show some images of HiLO Lens. But before doing that I want to be sure about the manufacturability of the optics. As this could impact the form/size. The next step will be the manufacture of prototypes to prove our final (fingers crossed) optical design. Then we can open the project up to Crowdfunding, confident that we will deliver a great product.
Have an awesome New Years and catch ya next year !