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This 360-Degree, 4K Video Camera isn't Getting Kickstarted (Video)
This is something that caught Tim Lord's eye as he cruised the 2014 Bay Area Maker Faire: A 360 4K-resolution video camera. It's not out yet for retail sale, but if you look at the Centrcam website you can see a number of videos their cameras have shot, including some high-motion ones that they say, truthfully, are excellent to watch full-screen. The people who came up with this aren't college students who have never done any professional design work. Rather, they're "the same team that engineered and built the Apple iPhone cameras." So it's no wonder they have made something pretty cool that has already been used to make videos for Fox Sports, National Geographic, and the U.S. Army, among others. Their Kickstarter blurb is pretty cool, too. It is one of the most detailed ones we've ever seen. It's sad that they only got $607,628 of their $900,000 funding goal, considering all the work they've put into their product, along with the great presentation. They didn't know this would happen at the time this video was shot at the Maker Faire; their Kickstarter time window didn't close until four days ago. But there are other ways to fund a startup, and we hope they manage find one -- because we would eventually like to get our hands on one of their cameras and test it for ourselves, possibly with a little help from some of the Bradenton Riverwalk Skatepark regulars. (Alternate Video Link)
Good work, now we can be disappointed, too.
If you're going to post stories about a Kickstarter, do it BEFORE THEY END. It's pointless to post after the Kickstarter has ended. Given the way the Editorial cycle works on Slashdot, you should probably post at least a week before they end, so the story shows up at least a couple of days before it's too late to do anything about it. I had never heard of this Kickstarter until this story, and I suspect I'm not the only person in this boat.
I read the internet for the articles.
including some high-motion ones that they say, truthfully, are excellent to watch full-screen.
Which are the "high-motion" ones? I'd hope that would mean upwards of 50fps. Did you just mean "lots of things moving around"?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Am I missing an obvious need for full 360 panorama cameras? Maybe some small businesses or tourist destinations would want one to stream a panorama of their location on a website or something. But what would the general populous do with it that justifies a $250 price tag? Maybe use it as a home security cam?
Also, why is it a bad thing that a Kickstarter like this failed? The team invested a relatively small sum of money to find out if there was a wider market for their product and as it turns out, there isn't. That's far better than the other option of paying (most likely more than what Kickstarter cost them) for market studies and then still having to find investors (or lenders) to front the costs of a full production run.
Knowledge Brings Fear
Looks better, works simpler, uses a sane resolution....
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bublcam/bublcam-360o-camera-technology-for-everyone
They are well into stretch goals...
i think hes serious but you're missing his point.
I don't like kickstarter, because in the end, your funding is to purchase /something/ be it a product, a service, a unique bauble or something special the kickstarter folks can provide you. you are not buying shares, you are simply helping provide the market for a companies to-be-delivered-in-the-future project.
not reaching a goal is not necessarily a failure to fund, more like proving that the market never really existed. publicity failure can be a reason, but in the end, a kickstarter is not an investment mechanism, it's a futures-market for product.
Right. The OP was saying that Rockethub and Indiegogo have options that can allow a project to be partially funded instead of an all or nothing. In those cases someone who has pledged an amount and is expecting something in return may never receive it. So while the project may be happy to at least get partial funding, the pledgers may be unhappy. But of course that's always a risk with any type of kickstarter-like project where things don't pan out.
If you need to make 10,000 widgets to reach a price point in manufacturing, but you only get 2/3 funded for instance, you likely aren't going to be able to produce 2/3 of the 10,000 widgets. You may only be able to produce half as the per piece price can start to increase dramatically the few and fewer you make and buy individual components for.