Friday 27 October 2017

eVscope | 100 times more powerful than a classical telescope


About this project

Many of us are curious to see the mysteries of the universe...

...Unfortunately, most objects are too faint to be seen in a normal telescope

Unistellar's eVscope

As Seen Through the eVscope

M51 "Whirlpool Galaxy" and M27 "Dumbbell Nebula"
What People are Saying About the eVscope

Awards & Recognition




So How Does This work ?


Unistellar’s Enhanced Vision is a patent-pending technology that is based on the accumulation of light over short periods of time using a low light sensor, as well as on our proprietary algorithms of image processing that run on an on-board calculation module. The resulting amplified image is projected at infinite focus into the eye of the observer with 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, creating a genuine and live experience of sky observation. Sensor settings and image processing parameters are automatically adjusted.

Autonomous Field Detection for a Smart Turn-key Telescope


The Autonomous Field Detection (AFD) software is a patent-pending high accuracy sky recognition and telescope orientation technology. It automatically detects stars in the field of view and identifies its pointing direction by a comparison with a 20 million star coordinates database. Coupled with magneto-accelerometers and with a motorized mount, AFD allows the eVscope to automatically align with celestial coordinates and accurately pinpoint and identify any object in the sky. Anytime, users can get contextual information on the pointed objects on their smartphone.
This comet could never have been spotted by a non-expert amateur without AFD
In Partnership with SETI Institute – eVscope Connects You to the Scientific Community


Campaign mode is developed in partnership with SETI Institute to allow every eVscope user to become a citizen scientist. In the case of an upcoming transient event (asteroid flyby, supernova, comets, transits of satellites,…), you will receive an observation request from scientists directly on your smartphone. Coordinates and instructions are wirelessly transferred to the eVscope, which will automatically point the astronomical event and connect the eVscope with a network of thousands of users all contributing to scientific research.


Here is how it works in practice:

Technical specs

The Portability of the eVscope


eVscope's Control App


Unistellar’s App, currently under development, enables you to wirelessly control the eVscope (Bluetooth or Wifi). It runs on Android, iOS, Windows, Mac or Linux. You can choose between beginner and expert mode. In beginner mode, everything is done automatically: after the automatic alignment procedure completes itself, simply choose an object and the telescope will point to it, you can then save pictures, record videos, or add contextual information. In expert mode everything can be set manually: choose the sky region for alignment, point manually anywhere in the sky, set the sensor sensitivity and exposure time, adjust noise reduction and gamma curve.



Note: For the sake of clarity, we didn't overlay our night filter on these views of the app. Night filter dims the light of the smartphone so your eye stays sensitive to the fainter lighting of the night and nightsky objects.
Unistellar Founders

Development Stage


The two patent-pending technologies at the heart of the eVscope are already working on our prototype: the Enhanced Vision software proved its power during this summer’s many demonstrations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. For instance, the Automated Field Detection software allowed us to readily pinpoint faint objects (Pluto, Comets) and display contextual information.

Presentation of the functional prototype we demonstrated this summer:


PLAY

Today, the hardware integration challenges of the final product design are also solved. We now need your support to start pre-series prototypes, beta testing, and finally, mass production and delivery. We will take advantage of this hardware industrial time to make our software more robust and user friendly, as well as to finish our simple-to-use smartphone-control app.
Evolution of the eVscope
Completion Timeline




Opening new Frontiers for Exploration, Entertainment, and Citizen Science


Unistellar also hopes to bring the wonders of astronomy back to city dwellers, most of whom have lost touch with the wonders of the night sky. Many more objects—most far, far more wondrous and beautiful than Pluto—are now well within viewing range of casual astronomers. Comets, extra-galactic supernovae, fast near-Earth asteroids, and much more —they’re out there every night, just above you in the sky, and they’re inviting you to have a look. Take them up on that invitation and your life will never be the same. 










Risks and challenges


The development of an innovative consumer product comes with inherent risks and challenges. In order to minimize them, our development was made of constant iterations between our lab and the field.

In our last stages of development, we committed ourselves to make our prototypes with components that are readily available in large amounts from suppliers. At the same time, we regularly demonstrated our advancements to put consumer feedback in the loop. This method culminated this summer when we embarked on a big demo tour on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Before asking for support on Kickstarter we solved all hardware integration challenges in our final product design and tested all key software functions.

We also analyzed the remaining work with different industry experts in software and hardware as well as with our components suppliers, and together we came to the conclusion that the tasks to come were standard industrialization tasks.

These industrialization tasks are made following documented methods, best practices and standards that good engineers and industry experts are used to following (like choosing the right suppliers, building stock for relevant components, etc...). This allowed us to draw the Completion Timeline we advertise.

VIE FIT - The Softest, Custom-fit, True Wireless Earphones

About this project



















Ordinary true wireless earphones are often too big to fit comfortably into your ear. Not only are they bulky looking, sticking out from your ear, they irritate some parts of the ear after long periods of use. Poorly fitting earphones leak sound and result in poor audio quality. They even just fall off when you are exercising.





VIE FIT is the world’s softest, custom-fitting, true wireless earphone, not only the ear tip but the whole housing touching your skin is made from ultra-flexible, low resistance, antibacterial, durable silicon so it seamlessly conforms to your ears' shape.

Vie Fit’s 360 rotating speaker system is omnidirectional and moves naturally to fit the angle of your ear delivering optimal sound directly to your eardrum. When combined with the gapless fit, you can enjoy the superior sound quality of the 8mm neodymium dynamic speaker.

It's the true wireless earphone perfected.























VIE FIT is the world’s softest, custom-fitting, true wireless earphone. Not only the ear tip, but the whole housing touching your skin is made from ultra-flexible, low resistance, antibacterial, durable silicon so it can seamlessly conform to your ears' shape.
Everyone's ears are different. Ordinary true wireless earphones are often too big to fit comfortably into your ear, hurting some parts of your ear after long periods of use. Poorly fitting earphones just fall off when you are exercising.
The VIE FIT's "Soft Shell” structure changes shape according to your ear and custom-fits softly and securely, so you can wear the earphones for long periods of time without stress or pain.











Most earphones have a one size fits all assumption. We don’t expect you to fit to our product. We want our product to fit to you. That's why we replaced the traditional fixed angle speaker assembly with a flexible one.
Vie Fit’s articulating speaker is omnidirectional and moves naturally to fit the angle of your ear delivering optimal sound directly to your eardrum. The gapless fit allows you to experience the full power of Vie Fit’s high quality 8mm neodymium dynamic speakers while efficiently eliminating outside noise.


 VIE FIT uses powerful 8mm dynamic speakers that produce excellent sound with a frequency response tuned for powerful, deep lows, clear instrumentals, and crisp vocals. Enjoy how they truly sound like with the gapless fit.





Hearing loss is one of the most common illnesses around the world. The damage depends on how long you are exposed to high volume sounds. VIE FIT’s no gap fit provides the highly efficient noise reduction. Therefore, you can keep the volume level down while you are enjoying your music which limits the risk of hearing loss.


Vie Fit is highly water resistant, rated at IPX5, so you can sweat or even dance in the rain.


Some earphone users can experience ear infections after long-term or heavy usage. Vie Fit is made from FDA and EPA approved antibacterial silicon to protect your earphones from any harmful bacteria after longer periods of use.








Many true wireless earphones have connectivity problems. The most common reason is poor antenna deployment. When the antenna is buried in the housing and deep inside the ear, the signal gets disrupted. Vie Fit avoids this common problem by optimally placing the antenna on the outer edge of the housing where it can receive the best signal.
The 200-degree ellipse design antenna allows for a greater signal reception while keeping you smart looking without sticking out of your ear.





VIE FIT comes with 4.5 hours of continuous listening time and 33 hours of playback with the included charging case. 



Whether you’re at home or out and about, background noise can make having a clear conversation difficult. Qualcomm's® cVc™ ambient noise cancellation technology provides the highest quality advanced audio enhancements and noise suppression. You get uncompromised call quality with your Vie Fit earphones.





After the initial pairing, Vie Fit will automatically connect to your phone as soon as you turn it on.








Tap to play and pause music or to take a call and hang up.


Learn more about our 1st Project  "VIE SHAIR : The Pain Free, Sociable Headphones"