The new breakthrough in solar cell efficiency by Durham, NC company Semprius represents a true next big methodology. Semprius announced this winter an independently verified record for a solar module which reached 33.9% efficiency. The company recently made the MIT Technology Reviews top ten list of emerging technologies for its high efficiency solar panel. Recognition from the MIT review is in itself noteworthy and represents a high level of credibility in the technology field.

A 16% stake in the company, purchased by the big industry player Siemens in June of 2011, combined with the company’s own pronouncement to begin manufacturing at their plant in North Carolina later this year has made many in the industry take notice.

This technology called HCPV (High Concentration Photovoltaics), or sometimes simply CSP (Concentrated Solar Power), was verified by Spain’s Instituto de Energia Solar at the Universidad Politechnica de Madrid. In this process, an optic lens concentrates light over 1,000 times onto the solar cells, hence the name HCPV. The solar panels demonstrated are notable for using Gallium Arsenide in lieu of Silicon (most manufactured Silicon panels achieve 16% – 20% efficiency) and have what the company refers to as the world’s smallest solar cells which are about the size of a pencil point.

The actual panels contain three layers of Gallium Arsenide each of which captures and converts different parts of the sun’s spectrum. Gallium is better at absorbing sunlight than Silicon and dissipates heat well thus it eliminates the need for a cooling system. However Gallium is more expensive than Silicon which may be a factor as Semperius moves forward towards manufacturing. Semperius insists it can keep manufacturing costs down and that it will be able to scale up production quickly. The partnership with Siemens should assist as it has the double advantage of expertise in the field (Siemens has experience building solar parks) as well as making future financing easier.

Due to the nature of this technology, HCPV can best be used in certain areas of California and the American Southwest, ideally with tracking systems that would aim the panels to their optimum positions. This would make the panels ideally suited for Solar Parks or Generating Stations as opposed to the more commonly familiar residential rooftop installations.

The significance of having achieved a conversion of over one third sunlight energy to electrical energy cannot be overstated. This level of efficiency would result in a reduction of cost in solar electricity generation in high irradiation areas (sunnier parts of the country) to about 8 cents per kilowatt hour. The average cost of electricity in the US (2011) is about 10 cents per kilowatt hour. This would be the first time that solar electrical generation would become less expensive than gas or coal derived electrical generation.

The Henderson North Carolina factory, Semprius, will be opening this summer producing 9 megawatts of panels this year and will ramp up to 30 megawatts next year. With the contraction and adversity experienced by the solar industry over the past few years as a result of the collapse of silicon prices and competition from Chinese manufacturers, Semprius brings a resounding note of optimism to an industry clouded by post Solyndra fallout and politicization.

Semprius received both a $500,000 grant from the DOE in 2009 and a $3,000,000 subcontract from the NREL in 2010 to bring its solar panels to market and may have the effect of changing perceptions about government funding for research and development of new technologies. In the long term the successes of government backing of renewables will outshine failures and the end results will have a direct and positive effect on not only the industry but people as a whole. We can look forward to Semprius coming to market with its panels later this year.

Click To View Images:

Article Written By: David J. Mazovick

The most important aspect in the design of our new logo was that we wanted to be able to make stickers or decals that could easily be placed on any surface. We specifically wanted the logo to work with future AMA motorcycle advertising and the logo we used for the past 15 years was long and skinny. We wanted the new logo to be more of a square-shaped logo that would take up space evenly so that decals could be placed neatly.

One of the cool things about working at Design-Engine is how much everyone learns. There is a continuous bouncing back of ideas and approaches and one can’t help but learn. From Social marketing to brain storming to vinyl wraps, everything in an engineer or designers life is about learning, and we find ourselves constantly feeding our brains. Whether it’s swimming at a better pace, steady controlled moves in yoga, or smoother/faster lines on the race track, it’s always about how fast one can reason through problems and ultimately how fast one can learn. That is what we are all about at Design-Engine (as we teach designers how to learn new software).

In our most recent project, we set out to learn how to design and apply vinyl graphics. Our hope here is to master the art so that next fall we can administer a course utilizing all we have learned including Adobe Illustrator, design iteration process, and vinyl wrap combination. Now back to the new logo…

To kick off the new logo we showed it off on the Design-Engine Suzuki GSXR 600 race bike which is competing in the Champion Cup Series CCS expert series for 2012. You can find the bike competing in the 600 Middleweight, Supersport, GTU, Heavyweight, Superbike, and GP Midwest Expert races.

We started the vinyl wrap project by looking at past and current race bikes; our thought being that a little internet “see whats out there” research never hurt anyone. We wanted to do something unique yet utilize a design that would leverage the illustrator/vinyl strengths. In our research we noticed people were doing all sorts of different tribal looks with vinyl applications like Huntly Nash’s #75 race bike graphics from last year and the Michael Jordan Race Team bikes that have been wrapped over the years. Even the AMA Safety First Police Race bikes of 2005 – 2008 were quite loud and busy. We wanted to explore the use of vinyl graphics without getting too much graphically. With the help of Max Trujillo, our graphic design intern, we were able to create our own unique look.

The Vinyl we used is a 3mil cast vinyl and it is stretchy stuff. We used a Kawasaki heat gun to heat up the more compound areas and were especially careful not to stretch or distort the vinyl where the graphics are concerned.

Max is pictured with the printed Adobe Illustrator vector art all ready for application to the race plastic. Yes, we made a mess, but nothing the super-dope Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner can’t handle (that product’s latest iteration was designed and developed using Pro/Engineer, which we teach, and copied by Dyson). In case you are wondering, we do work in trade sometimes.

Notice the white bleed out to red and the round number plates. We wanted to showcase the new logo coming out of the white portion, something one can’t easily do with paint. The finished product has white on top and bottom and red in the middle sections; we thought the round number plate would stand out this way.

Typically a printer will want an Adobe Illustrator file PDF complete with layers. One layer for the color graphics and another layer for a magenta die cut line.

One challenge with vinyl graphics is simply applying the vinyl without the vinyl sticking to itself. Another challenge is getting the air pockets out properly. Yet another challenge is understanding what flat pattern to utilize from compound surfaces found on motorcycle race plastic, not to mention applying those graphics to the farings. We used a hot glue gun to help the vinyl stick on the b-side of the faring surfaces. Nothing a heat gun can’t untangle. This section of the upper faring defiantly does not lend well for wrapping. This is where the frame sliders would go if we used them, but we don’t use them.

If you are interested in one of the Design-Engine Adobe Illustrator workshops, consider taking our one or two week Adobe Illustrator Intensive to learn the basics of Illustrator, develop graphics for your project, then learn how to apply your printed vinyl graphics. We intend for the class to occur in the Fall of 2012 and it will probably utilize several instructors. The curriculum has not been set, but do send in your inquiry so we can use your input to plan the course dates and structure at Design-Engine|Education Adobe.

Whats next for Design-Engine? As we continue to perfect our vinyl graphics skills, we have already started the process of wrapping our Yamaha Zuma scooters, which are available for employees and out of town students to enjoy. If you see us around town, say hello, stop on in, take a class. As our sales guys says, “We’re here to help”.

Click To View Images:

CARLSTADT, N.J. and SAN FRANCISCO, April 24, 2012 – Pantone LLC, an X-Rite company (NASDAQ: XRIT) and the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today announced the addition of 336 New Colors to its PANTONE® PLUS SERIES, bringing the total to 1,677 colors.

Introduced in 2010, the PANTONE PLUS SERIES is the next generation of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® – the defacto standard for color communication in the graphic arts market. The PLUS SERIES provides an accurate way for designers to communicate and control color throughout the entire design process – from inspiration to final output. The 336 New Colors offer designers more options and flexibility in the creative process and will become permanent standards in the PLUS SERIES Color Library.

The 336 New Colors enrich the current PLUS SERIES palette, providing a more comprehensive selection. All color families are extended to include a wider variety of values, saturation and undertones – from subtle pastels and reliable mid-tones to the intensity of deep tones, vivid brights and vital, nuanced neutrals.

“Color is integral to every project. The more colors I have to choose from, the easier it is to translate from fragrance to color”, said Matt Fadness, partner at Through Smoke Creative in Sausalito, Calif., a design firm specializing in home fragrance and body care scent and packaging design for brands including The Gap, Restoration Hardware and William Sonoma. “We need to form a strong connection between fragrance and color during the product development process and spend a lot of time choosing the precise hue. The additional colors in the PANTONE PLUS SERIES will give us greater flexibility and latitude to translate color into product.”

The New Colors were inspired by the PANTONE Goe™ System and add depth and breadth to the PLUS SERIES Color Library with fresh hues that did not previously exist. The Goe System represents important technical improvements in the area of ink film consistency and coatability, and these benefits have migrated to the 336 New Colors. Formulated using consistent ink-film thicknesses, the 366 New Colors can be easily reproduced by printers worldwide. All 336 New Colors will be available in coated and uncoated formats and are printed on text-weight paper to match popular print specifications.

Pricing, Availability and System Information

The 336 New Colors, coated and uncoated, are available immediately and can be purchased from the Pantone website at www.pantone.com and through PANTONE Resellers worldwide. The additional colors will be available as supplements for a limited time so owners of previous publications can easily update their Guides.

COLOR BRIDGE® supplements featuring the 336 New Colors will be available in June. All new orders for core publications (PANTONE FORMULA GUIDE, COLOR BRIDGE, etc.) will ship with the 336 New Colors supplements.

Digital color values for the 336 New Colors are available in PANTONE COLOR MANAGER, allowing designers to update popular design applications including Adobe® Creative Suite® (up to 5.5) and QuarkXPress® 9. While the original 1,341 PANTONE PLUS Colors are available in the recently announced Adobe Creative Suite 6, the 336 New Colors can be added in the coming weeks through an update to PANTONE COLOR MANAGER.

The 336 New Colors will also be available in CAPSURE™ and the myPANTONE™ mobile app (for iPhone® and Android smartphones) by early June. Owners of all of these products will receive automatic updates to download the 336 New Colors.

Click To View Images:

OLED TV

OLED is a moniker for organic light-omitting diodes. When an electrical current is applied to a thin film between two conductors light is emitted. This particular technology has had its false starts over the past few years and had made its appearance on a more modest scale back in 2007 in the form of a Sony 11 inch TV for just under $2,500. A combination of factors inclusive of the faltering economy prevented Sony’s first steps with the new technology making further inroads to larger screens and a further line of products. This year however OLED technology has re-emerged making a large splash at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (LG won best of show for its 55 inch OLED TV) with the promise of being manufactured and available this year (LG has announced just weeks ago its intention to make its product available in Europe by late May). This will trump Samsung who plans to have their own 55 inch OLED TV ready by summer.

Both companies are expected to offer their product for about $8,000, so the traditional trend of offering a product to the high end demographic for early adopters is immediately in play here. OLED TV offers a better quality picture then any currently available technology, is lighter and thinner than existing flat screen TVs (the 55 inch demos at CES weighed about 16 pounds and were about 4 millimeters thick), and use less energy then currently dominant LED backlit LCD flat screens.

The key distinction of OLED screens is that the illumination comes from the OLED itself thus requiring no back lighting as is normal with the current crop of LED backlit LCD screens. In addition to improved resolution and clarity is a response time is said to be over 1,000 times faster then LED LCD. This would virtually eliminate blur even on fast moving images and will be much appreciated by gamers and cinephiles alike. The contrast is infinite and the viewing angle a full 180 degrees. In addition to better color resolution than any current TV technology, OLED can shut off pixels and so can achieve an absolute black. OLEDs are more efficient than even LED backlit LCD screens so the combination of superior performance with less energy consumption makes them an inherently superior technology that will likely make inroads relatively quickly.

Some key points that have laid the groundwork for this are a direct result of improvements in manufacturing that allow for lower production costs coupled with knowledge gleaned from the production of smaller OLED screens on handheld devices, digital cameras, and mobile phones over the past few years. It should be noted that Samsung and LG are both using somewhat different OLED technologies, Samsung having a somewhat more traditional Red, Green, and Blue sub-pixels while the LG uses exclusively white OLEDs which are overlaid with Red, Green, and Blue filters in addition to including a white sub-pixel.

As a direct result of both advances in manufacturing and the fact that there is less material cost in the creation of OLED screens by comparison to LCDs, we can expect the economies of scale and resulting price drops to come more dramatically over the next few years and we may well see pricing competitive with LED LCDs by 2015. We can expect both 55 inch OLED TV offerings by LG and Samsung to make a big splash this year with both Panasonic and Sony expected to follow suit by 2013. Although LED LCD TVs will be the dominant technology for years to come, we can expect an increasing market share initially at the higher end to gravitate to OLED.

LED Light Bulbs

One of the most notable late 1800′s inventions that has held on to the 21st century is the old fashioned incandescent light bulb. The key problem with old incandescent lighting is its sheer inefficiency which results in most of the energy being wasted in the form of heat as opposed to providing illumination.

The recent proliferation of CFLs, and their general improvement in light quality from where they were in the 90′s, has been a step in the right direction by providing the same amount of illumination for one quarter the amount of electricity expended. LED light bulbs go one step further in that their quality of light is generally acknowledged to be better, are dimmable, and will last significantly longer then CFL or incandescent lighting. In addition, they lack the trace amounts of Mercury CFLs contain making them more environmentally friendly. As a rule they tend to expend even less energy than current CFL bulbs and apparently will continue to become more efficient as high output LED light bulbs are further explored and brought to market.

The key downside here is price with the currently available 60 watt equivalent bulbs costing in the range of 30 to 50 dollars per bulb as of April of 2012. (The award winning Earth Day 60 watt LED light bulb was recently discounted to 50 dollars per bulb)

Once again with numerous retail and industrial clients willing to pay the large upfront costs of early adoption, we can soon expect economies of scale to come into play, precipitous price drops, and the $10 or even $5 price points to be reached in the next 2 to 3 years.

Electric Cars

Although the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt have been available since last year, this year (2012) may well be looked upon as year one for the electric car. Toyota, Ford, and Mitsubishi are entering the fray along with newer fledgling companies like Coda, Fisker Karma, and the luxury Model S by Tesla (our favorite). As has been often articulated, the key factor guiding the future of electric cars remains the cost and future development of the Lithium Ion battery. At present an electric car buyer faces having to pay an approximately 30% premium in price over a similarly sized and outfitted gas powered vehicle. This largely is the result of the Lithium Ion battery pack, which on average can cost between $12,000 to $15,000 (in effect, one third the cost of the car). The consensus of estimates regarding the steady price drop seems to point to a two thirds to three quarters price drop in Lithium Ion battery packs by the beginning of the next decade. When this happens we can expect pricing to fall in line with gas powered vehicles and in fact it has been pointed out that by the mid 2020′s electric vehicles may well be less in price by comparison to gas powered vehicles.

The infrastructure for charging is beginning to fall into place with level 2 and very recently level 3 direct current charging which can deliver a full charge in about a half an hour. This coupled with a steady and gradual improvement in Lithium Ion batteries (bigger cells and lighter casings are most immediately being explored) will result in steady incremental tweaking of the current technology which should result in gradual range of improvements over the next several years.

Even barring any great or notable breakthrough in battery technology, we will see a steady improvement in the existing technology along with a more fully actualized infrastructure of charging stations which will make electrics more viable in the years to come.

All three of these technologies are making their debut at relatively high price points for the higher end consumer. Like all new technologies, prices will steadily fall as competition and economies of scale fall into place simultaneous to improvements in the actual technologies themselves. The tendency is for research, development, and refinements to accelerate when numerous products are brought to market and all three of these technologies will benefit as a direct result of this. In this light we can easily see OLED TVs and LED light bulbs that will be more energy efficient then today’s versions priced at a fraction of today’s cost within a few years. All one needs to look at is the dramatic drop in LCD and Plasma screens / laptops over the past decade to get an idea as to where these emerging technologies will be a decade from now. Albeit we may well be a number of years away from any of these technologies capturing a double digit market share in their respective fields they will be visible, well represented, and will soon be a part of our everyday lives.

Click To View Images:

Article Written By: David J. Mazovick

Among the spacecraft currently in development, SpaceX’s Dragon is unique in that it is the only craft to have actually flown in space. Founded by PayPal creator Elon Musk, the company made history last year when they became the first commercial company to successfully send a spacecraft into orbit, return the craft to earth, and retrieve it.

Currently, SpaceX is working towards perfecting an unmanned version of the Dragon capsule. Like a future manned craft, it consists of a reusable capsule section atop a trunk portion which is jettisoned during re-entry. It’s designed to fly atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and carry some 13,000 pounds of cargo into space. At the end of its mission, the Dragon splashes down in the ocean before being retrieved and prepped for reuse.

Though the unmanned version of the craft is the immediate focus of Dragon development, SpaceX is actively working towards producing a manned spacecraft. This variant would seat seven astronauts, four more than the existing Soyuz and the older Apollo spacecraft. In fact, Musk has boasted that the entire habitable portion of a Soyuz spacecraft could fit inside his Dragon capsule.

Unique to the crewed version is an integrated launch escape system. Such systems have been a key element of manned rocket travel, and would allow the crew to escape an aborted mission by using smaller rockets to carry the capsule safely away from a malfunctioning vehicle. In the Apollo missions, the launch abort system consisted of several rockets clustered around a spike at the tip of the rocket – a similar arrangement is planned for NASA’s Orion vehicle as well.

However, the Dragon capsule plans to integrate these emergency rockets into the design of the spacecraft itself with eight SuperDraco thrusters attached to the rear of the capsule. In this configuration the mission could be aborted at any stage from launch to orbit, but more importantly the boosters would allow the Dragon to land overland – and even on the surface of another planet.

In fact, an eventual Mars mission is a dearly held goal of SpaceX, as you can see in this video.

While Martian aspirations are a long way off, there are more immediate plans for the Dragon. For instance, it’s slated to make history again this year when it will become the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Though this will be an unmanned cargo mission, SpaceX has made it clear that a manned craft is just a few years behind.

While Elon Musk has dominated the headlines with SpaceX, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been quietly working with his commercial space company Blue Origin. Though both companies are fueled by Silicon Valley money, Blue Origin has taken a very different approach to space travel.

Currently, the company has worked on their suborbital New Shepard launch vehicle. While it has relatively modest goals, it is unique in that it takes off and lands vertically – a characteristic called vertical take off, vertical landing or VTVL. The origin of a VTVL spacecraft can be traced back to the DC-X, a suborbital craft developed by McDonnell Douglas.

The vertical orientation has several advantages, most importantly that the craft can be serviced and reused quickly. It also cuts down on the cost of retrieving the craft once its mission is complete.

Though New Shepard has had a few successful test flights, it will only give its occupants a brief taste of spaceflight. However, Blue Origin has aspirations beyond the sub-orbital edge of space. The company has already won two contracts from NASA to begin development of a launch escape system and a “biconic crew capsule”.

The eventual goal is that Blue Origin will adapt and expand its VTVL rocket technology to create a multistage launch vehicle to carry the crew capsule to space. Like the New Shepard, the first stage booster would detach, return to Earth, and land upright. Meanwhile, the crew vehicle would continue on its mission, eventually parachuting in for a landing over land.

Though its spaceflight aspirations are still growing, Blue Origin has already shown its determination to make VTVL rocketry work. At the moment, they are the only company that has currently demonstrated the capability, though that might not last. Barely a year ago, SpaceX announced that it sought to construct a fully reusable, VTVL rocket system.

Though much of the attention surrounding America’s new spaceships has focused on the upstarts and the startups, the old guard is not being left out. Boeing, the company that worked on the ISS, the Space Shuttle, and the Apollo missions, has thrown its hat in as well. Their contribution, the CST 100, may one day carry astronauts to the ISS or to commercially built space stations.

Once complete, the CST 100 will be able to carry seven astronauts, and takes design inspiration from the original Apollo capsule. Unlike some of the other spacecraft, the CST 100 is fairly vehicle agnostic, and can be fitted to several different rockets – including SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The CST 100 is also meant to be reused up to 10 times, and can remain in orbit for 210 days.

Interestingly, the CST 100 was developed as part of a partnership between Boeing and Bigelow Aerospace. Though Boeing has received millions of dollars from NASA as part of the Commercial Crew Development program, the company has maintained that it needs a destination besides the ISS to make the program financially viable for Boeing. Enter Bigelow, who have been working to bring inflatable, commercially produced space stations to orbit.

The partnership seems to have done well for all parties, and someday soon, the CST 100 may be taking astronauts to the ISS or one of Bigelow’s proposed spaceports

Based on nothing more than appearances, the next wave of American spacecraft would seem to have forgotten all about the venerable Space Shuttle. Not so for the Sierra Nevada Corporation whose whimsically named Dream Chaser spaceplane looks like the Shuttle’s little brother.

Unlike the capsule spacecraft, the Dream Chaser uses a lifting body and is intended to land at any commercial airport. To get to space, the seven person crew would board the Dream Chaser atop an Atlas V rocket in an arrangement similar to the the X-20 Dyna-Soar. Upon the completion of its mission, the Dream Chaser will re-enter the atmosphere and glide to a landing.

Though similar to the Shuttle, the Dream Chaser has several key improvements. Firstly, its engines burn ethanol and not the volatile fuels used in the Shuttle, meaning that it can be safely approached immediately after landing. Secondly, though it uses similar tiles to protect the craft from the heat of re-entry, these tiles are grouped into larger clusters. While the shuttle required individual tiles to be replaced between missions, it’s faster to replace the larger clusters, allowing the the Dream Chaser to be reused with less down time between missions.

Though the Dream Chaser craft is certainly ambitious,and unique, it has already reached a high level of development. This past February, Sierra Nevada delivered their first flight structure to NASA for testing.

Though the commercial space industry has been a major focus for NASA and space exploration coverage, the space agency is hardly sitting idle. After the cancellation of the Constellation program, NASA has continued work on the retooled Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

While most of the commercial space endeavors have focused on low Earth orbit, Orion plans to go farther. Though it can, and probably will, service the International Space Station, it is designed for deep space missions – specifically to nearby asteroids and eventually Mars.

Like Apollo (and the CST 100 and the Dragon), Orion is a capsule craft. Two and a half times larger than the Apollo spacecraft, it is designed to carry four astronauts on extended missions up to six months away from Earth. It also features an “all glass” digital cockpit, derived from the Boeing 787 – a first for an American spacecraft. Like other forthcoming spacecraft, the Orion is also designed with reusability in mind.

In space, it does away with Apollo’s bulky fuel cells, and uses fan-like solar panels similar to the Phoenix Mars lander. This makes the expendable service module much smaller and the entire craft more maneuverable. As for creature comforts, the craft sports a camping-style toilet, “relief tubes”, and a waste water recycling system which can produce water for drinking as well as for coolant.

To date, the Orion is being tested for a planned unmanned mission atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket in 2014. By 2019, it should be flying manned aboard NASA’s new launch vehicle, the Space Launch System.

In the past, Russian and American spacecraft have dominated the space above the Earth. Recently, European, Chinese, and other craft have begun to create an international presence in space, but most manned missions are still dominated by only a few types of craft

While the rise of commercial spacecraft will return the United States to space in the near term, it will also greatly diversify the number of spacecraft in use. For the first time in human history, humanity will have a variety of paths to space, bringing us closer to the eventual dream espoused by many of these upstart companies: Fast, cheap, safe access to the final frontier.

Click To View Images:

How did the idea for GoPro originally come about?

I’d had the idea for a wearable camera kicking around in my head since the late ’90s, but I first really started developing the idea back in 2002 while on surf trip in Australia with a couple of friends. We were living out of a Toyota van, putting in about 5,000 miles surfing the East, South and West Coasts. I was spending most of my time in the water, sharing amazing moments and waves with my friends. I was also shooting photos (this was pre-YouTube!) from the beach, but from that distance my shots weren’t doing the surf or my friends justice. Some of the most intense and memorable moments in cranking surf were just that, memories. I’d kill for some GoPro footage of that trip! Ironically, that trip is what fired me up to come home and finally start GoPro to create “the invisible camera”, a wearable camera so convenient that you forget you’ve got it on.

At that time, unless you were a pro surfer, there was no one out in the water to capture a photo of you. That’s how I came up with the name GoPro. Most surfers, at some point, wish they could “go pro”. My friends and I wanted to go pro just so we could get some footage of us surfing; it was that difficult. So I figured at least a few surfers would be down with the concept of a wearable camera. Thankfully, I was half right.

A funny note: our customer service department is headed up by Ruben Ducheyne, one of my travel buddies from the trip. For several years, if you worked at GoPro it was because you went to UCSD with me or were related to me, so we’re a tight crew at GoPro. All new hires feel like family thanks to the atmosphere that’s existed since the beginning. It’s unreal to see your close friends at work everyday and the progress in incredible as everyone works their boots off thanks to the “family” vibe.

When thinking back about the first time this product idea came to mind, what one memory stands out?

Every time one of us would get a sick barrel, we’d say to each other: “Agghh! If only we had a camera!” Every surfer knows that feeling! But for sure, I’ve got a couple of photos from early prototypes that convinced me the concept of a “HERO” camera, a camera that helps you capture footage that makes you feel like a HERO, was a good idea. A backhand snap at HT’s in the Mentawais that my then girlfriend Jill, now wife, shot while kicking back out on her body board is one of them. Money photo shot by my girlfriend on the paddle back out – priceless.

The memory that probably sticks out the most is when GoPro started to be successful enough to go racing, and I strapped our Digital HERO wrist camera onto the roll bar of a race car. The footage was so good and the camera looked so appropriate on the roll bar that it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I thought immediately, “We’ve got to make it so you can mount this camera everywhere…” and that was when we transitioned from being simply a wrist camera company, to the world leader in wearable and gear mountable cameras. I guess I can thank that race car for the idea.

How did you raise money to start the company?
Bead and shell belts. No jokes!

After Australia, I flew to Indonesia to surf Bali, the Mentawais, Sumatra and West Java, traveling with Jill who was always pushing us further than I’d have gone alone. Every surfer should be so lucky to have a woman more hardcore than he is! One day Jill comes back to our place in Bali wearing this insanely cool bead and shell belt. Hardcore can be fashionable, too, apparently. Knowing prices in Bali, I asked how much, or how little, she paid for it. After my jaw hit the floor, we paid a visit to the belt maker, ordered 600 more and 2 months later the belts were done and all my boards were broken. We left Bali for California where my ’74 VW Westfalia awaited along with a mission to sell as many belts as we could in 2 months, before summer ended. We sold most of them and then I moved back into my parent’s place with enough money to launch GoPro.

I thought it’d take two months to roll out our first product; it took two years.

Was there anything similar on the market at the time?

Disposable waterproof cameras were the only option at the time, and you had to be willing to pull the rubber band wrist strap around your neck and paddle around with it like Flava Flav. It was horrible, and 9 times out of 10 you either missed the shot, whacked yourself in the head, ripped your hair out when it got pinched in the rubber band, or you’d lose the camera altogether. I thought I was inventing the most important innovation in surfing while sewing together the first prototype GoPro wrist straps with a sewing machine I’d borrowed from my mom. An inverter rigged to the VW’s battery powered the sewer while we camped and sold off those belts. It was a good life!

How has the product evolved from the original concept?

We have had a few big technology jumps. The jump from a 35mm film camera to silent, 10 second digital videos was big! Then came the jump to the 3 megapixel camera that sported an SD card slot and sound. Quantum leap! Next came the 170 degree wide angle lens that really put us on the map. It was like having your own IMAX camera. The effect of that wide angle lens was unreal. That combined with the mounting system that allows the camera to be worn and mounted in all the ways GoPro is now famous for. Our most recent big step is of course the launch of our HD HERO camera, broadcast quality HD for everyday use. It still blows me away how good this camera is, and that’s what makes working at GoPro so fun. We’re all just a bunch of stoked groms, playing with our own products, just as stoked as everyone else. More stoked, maybe!

You can see a video of the GoPro camera in action below.

Do you still have and/or use your first leash-rigged prototypes?

For sure. I definitely hold onto our old prototypes. I call them the “GoPro Heritage Foundation” anytime I want to watch Jill roll her eyes. Works every time.

GoPro’s initial customer base was surf and paddle-surf participants. In what order did new market segments come about?

With a bit of successful sales came auto racing, something I’ve always wanted to do. That led to the idea for mounting the camera on everything from cars to helmets to ski poles to surfboards. I think it went auto, then moto, then general outdoor sports, and then ironically back to surf once we felt the product was ready to be mounted on a surfboard. That’s the most punishing environment of all…the surfboard. Well, that and a race car redlining at 13,000 rpm and blasting away for 3 hours. R&D at GoPro is a good time.

When was it clear the company had strong enough traction to succeed?

To me, we had it made when we sold $2,000 of the 35mm film HERO camera to a Japanese distributor at our first ASR trade show in 2004. We were done, on the golden road… the big time. Two thousand dollars at our first trade show? Cash it in, boom. The biggest challenge was trying to look like more than a one person company, which GoPro was at the time.

In truth, GoPro’s been profitable since day one and it never occurred to me we wouldn’t be successful. Sometimes not having a clue can be your biggest asset as an entrepreneur. Invincibility is a good thing.

Where is GoPro seeing its strongest growth right now?

All of our vertical action sports markets are doing well. And thanks to our broadcast quality HD HERO camera, we’re seeing the professional production companies in film and TV buying our cameras as well. Some of your favorite shows on Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Fuel.TV and even LucasFilm are using GoPro in their productions.

GoPro is a ton of fun for this reason. Everyone, for one reason or another, wants to GoPro in their own way. We give many thanks for this.

Can you give us a behind-the-scenes look at the commercialization process of the new HD cam?

I’ve got to thank our customers for that one. Their own videos and word of mouth stoke is doing more to promote GoPro than we ever could. GoPro is now in the hands of the people, and the people say good things.

Are GoPro products compatible with products from other manufacturers?

The HD HERO is compatible with both PC and Mac, and you can connect it directly to any standard definition or HD TV. You don’t even need to own a computer to use the HD HERO camera, which makes it the perfect camera for traveling as you can plug it into any TV to watch your footage.

Now GoPro is the best “action” camera on the market, with HD capabilities, a 170-degree wide angle lens, and it only weighs 5 ounces. That said, what’s the next step for GoPro?

We’re addicted to innovation and as long as people want to document themselves and their friends getting rad, we’ll be making cameras and accessories that make that easy to do. A new innovation we’re proud of is the Wearable 3D™ system we’re developing. You can take two HD HEROs and combine them in a single housing, plus some GoPro magic, to shoot 3D HD video. This will be released later this year and is mind blowing.

One of our goals is to make the products many of us wish companies would make, but for one reason or another don’t. We’re all a bunch of kids on the inside, so we just try to bring out the “wow” in everyone. It’s working so far.

GoPro’s mother ship, the Volkswagen Westfalia van in which you made prototypes out of back in the day, was stolen at a tradeshow. Any luck finding the van that started it all? Has it been incorporated in any marketing materials?

All I’ve got is the key. She was stolen with a full tank of gas and a new paint job. At least she was pretty when she left me… I hope she’s doing well.

What’s the strangest story you’ve heard about people using your product?

All I can say is it involved Lake Tahoe, a bath tub, and a bunch of people having a good time. The rest is up for grabs.

Does Bear Grylls from Man vs. Wild use GoPro?

Wow, I hope so. If anyone knows him tell him to give me a call. I’ll hook him up. I know Discovery Channel uses our cameras on the Deadliest Catch, but I don’t know about Bear and Man vs. Wild. Tell him I say hi. I’d be stoked to meet him.

On a more serious note, does the camera require any specific software for uploads, or is it pretty universal?

No special software needed. It’s as simple as uploading any video to YouTube or Vimeo, etc.

How many people work at GoPro headquarters?

I’d tell you but it’d be outdated by the time you get this up on the web. We’re growing very quickly, which is a big thrill for everyone here at our world headquarters in the sprawling metropolis of Half Moon Bay.

Is the staff pretty evenly distributed through product design & development, sales, marketing, etc.?

We’ve been primarily an engineering related company, but over the past couple of years we’ve focused more on sales than prior, to catch up with demand for our products. We’re a product company first and foremost. Our success comes from focusing on building the best possible products and people beating down our door for the products we make. The sales team likes that, makes it easy for them! “If you build it, they will come,” has been true at GoPro, but of course our focus on sales in the last couple of years is paying off in spades, too.

With this successful and revolutionary product out on the market, what will be the next departments to hire?

We’re always looking for passionate engineers, sales people, and marketers. If you love what you do, you tend to do it well. There’s much history yet to be made at GoPro, and we need all the smart, motivated people we can find.

Click To View Images:

The first idea that came to mind was using a simple, geometric pattern. From there, we started exploring how to perforate our Snap Case with different shapes, scales and pattern densities, pushing the limits of what is possible to manufacture.

We start the tooling process with large blocks of steel and machine out the negative shape of our case to make a hollow form that is later injected with polycarbonate material. Because of the all-over perforated design, the tooling process is very intricate and takes a relatively long period of time. Individual steel pins with varying degrees of curvature for each hole create the perforated design.

Once the tool is cut, it is then textured and finished. Following this stage of tooling, we shoot the first test shots in plastic, which help us to further debug and finalize the tool as well as the injection settings to create the perfect molded part for the production run.

Injection molding makes it relatively easy to perforate a pattern in one direction, but for the Perforated Snap Case, we were challenged with wrapping a pattern evenly onto a surface that contains multiple directions and very thin wall sections. Our goal was to keep the perforated pattern aligned regardless of the angle from which it is viewed. Because of the curves of the case, it became rather challenging to determine the best way to mold it.

For the injection molding process, we use hardened steel tools that are the negative (or hollow) form of our case. These are necessary for the mold injection of plastic that creates the positive case form.

Thin steel pins within the tool create the intricate perforated pattern of the case. When in production, injection-molded plastic flows under high pressure and temperature in between the pins. The challenge is to find the perfect balance—the pins cannot be too small, since that would cause them to break under high pressure; and the spacing cannot be too dense, as material needs to flow through the mold easily and evenly.

Since the perforated pattern runs throughout the case, multiple complicated tool actions are required to achieve a consistent pattern.

Click To View Images:

The finished Piranha hasn’t departed greatly from the prototype. It’s still made of Arovex, Zyvex’s proprietary “nano-enhanced” carbon fiber, a lightweight material that promised significant efficiency gains over boats made from fiberglass or aluminum. But with the production model built Zyvex has coughed up some numbers to support the claims. Most significant of these is that its 54-foot craft has demonstrated a fuel consumption of 12 U.S. gallons (45.4 liters) per hour at a cruising speed of 24 knots (44 km/h). This, Zyvex claims, constitutes a 75-percent fuel saving compared to a “traditional” boat consuming 50 U.S. gallons (189 liters) per hour, allowing ten times the range. That’s a claim almost as bold as it is hazy (what’s a traditional boat?), and in lieu of any precise figure on range, it’s worth repeating the claims made about the prototype: an 8,000-pound boat capable of carrying a 15,000-pound payload a distance of 2,500 miles (4,000 km).

And greater range is, in military terms, the prime advantage of fuel economy. “So far, the Navy and its suppliers have been choosing to build USVs from rubber, aluminum, or fiberglass – all safe, but dated, choices,” says Zyvex in a statement. “If the U.S. Air Force and the Royal Air Force can control attack aircraft flying over Afghanistan from cubicles in Nevada, there is little reason why the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard cannot accomplish many of their missions with a fully remotely operated patrol vessel.” Though a long-range USV would require a ground crew, Zyvex claims that there is no need for it to be tied down to any specific location or launch platform.

The Piranha concept will not be the only one of Zyvex Marine’s Arovex-fashioned watercraft for long. The company has announced two new “platforms” based on the Piranha, the LRV-11 and the LRV-17 – both of which will be offered in manned and unmanned configurations, though there’s no word yet on what these models are for, or what they will look like.

But a clue comes in the shape of the company’s PR bluster. Zyvex is positioning its ultra-modern boats for a new era of naval supremacy, in which huge fleets of colossal ships are not only prohibitively expensive but also undesirable. In a world in which (it claims) the main marine threat is posed by piracy, gun-runners and water-borne terrorism, fast and nimble is what counts. Perhaps for this reason (and maybe for some good PR), Zyvex suggests that the obvious role for an unmanned, long-range USV is as a convoy escort. But it also points out that one of its USVs could be used for stealthy strike attacks, loitering “silently for days or even weeks,” before launching Hellfire missiles or Mark 54 torpedoes. Perhaps less controversial is the potential for such a boat for minesweeping purposes.

Zyvex points out that many missions still require direct human intervention, but the idea is that vehicles derived from the Piranha concept have the speed and range to buy the time required for a manned ship to arrive on the scene. Though one may object to the extension of unmanned, remote-controlled warfare from the battlefields of Afghanistan to the seas off the Horn of Africa, this is precisely what Zyvex hopes to see. “With the Army and Air Force planning to have more than 800 Warrior, Predator, Reaper, and Global Hawk long-range UAVs by 2020, why should the Navy and Coast Guard not have at least as many long-range USVs?

Source: Zyvex Marine
Article Written by: James Holloway

You can see a video of the Piranha concept in action below.

Click To View Images:

TEAMS Design is hosting yet another kick-ass party. This time it coincides with the IDSA Midwest Conference which is in Chicago this year, but they’ve opened their doors to the design community at large – not just the conference attendees.

It’s on Friday, April 13, so cast aside your friggatriskaidekaphobia and join TEAMS Chicago at their West Town studio for drinks, conversation, and an inside glimpse into one of the world’s leading Industrial Design firms.

They expect between 300-400 guests, so I’m sure we’ll see plenty of intense fights on the all-metal Foosball table and taste battles on the Cool Wall. Purdue University’s industrial design graduating class will also exhibit their work.

When / Where

1812 W. Hubbard Street
Chicago, IL 60622

Friday, April, 13
7:30 PM – 11:00 PM

Click To View Images:

Piezoelectric foil was developed in the early 1990s when German engineer Paul Mirow was working on Europe’s Hermes spacecraft. Mirow and his team were looking to map the pressure distribution on the wings as Hermes returned to Earth’s atmosphere without adding any drag to the wings, so they turned to the super-thin foil, which serves as a sensor by converting physical effects like vibration and pressure into tiny electric pulses.

Space foil is roughly one-third as thick as a human hair, which means that it can be glued to the surface of a car without changing the structure of the vehicle. When the car crashes during a crash test, the foil moves with the bent or dented metal instead of being destroyed by the impact. Using piezoelectric foil enables VW to know what’s happening, when it’s happening, and exactly where it’s happening during a crash test — data that could ultimately help save lives.

Article Written By: Mark Boyer