I’m going to be posting my progress regularly here on the Sparrowscope Blog, and you can also sign up for email updates, but this post will tell you what I’ve been up to until now.
Business
I’ve created a business, set up a tax account, opened accounts with various suppliers, got a logo… I even made this website that you’re reading right now. It’s all important, but not very glamorous. I thought I’d mention it anyway.
Prototyping
I’ve built some prototypes, and made improvements based on my results. I’m trying to accomplish a few goals here:
- Improve durability
- Reduce setup complexity
- Make the rig more stable
The first Sparrowscope prototype, used for measuring platform motion with the iPod's sensors and taking straight-down photos to test exposure/blur.
This means I’m not only trying out different features, but I also am making slight variations to the design while measuring performance. I’m definitely geeking out with this project—for example, here’s a plot showing how the rig twists in all three axes.
I want to reduce the magnitude and the frequencies of these vibrations, so that pictures and video from the Sparrowscope will be as stable as possible.
I’ve recently started on a major change to the way the Sparrowscope works, and if my experiments continue to be promising, I’ll have something exciting to show you all soon.