Rabbits from Hats : in 3D

Eric Melzer — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:58:09 +0000

Maybe it’s a God complex. Maybe it’s the biological imperative. Either way the need humans have to create seeps out of every type of person from entrepreneurs to artists. For Americans this need is amplified by an unquenchable thirst to improve things. Whatever the engine behind the drive, when a piece of tech arrives in our startup offices that opens our minds up to creation the way our own Sensus product does, our whole team gathers like town’s people around a meteorite in a B-Grade sci-fi film.

That new piece of tech is our Dimension Elite 3D printer. Watching a 3D printer create an object ‘out of thin air’ satisfies nearly every creative impulse humans have. It’s hard to believe it’s not magic. Even the first time watching the nauseatingly repetitive arm move back and forth as it lays down paper thin layers of resin is captivating. A century ago this would have been devilry.

The role a printer like this plays in a startup can’t be overstated. It saves money on prototyping, removes the pain of waiting for vendors to produce and ship prototype iterations and it empowers our team. It’s our in-house industrial designer’s new playground. The three step process of taking his thoughts, translating them onto a screen and out into a 3D reality in a day is now complete. This short path from thought-to-object means we have to keep a close watch on his confidence so it doesn’t reach God Complex level. Watching this machine in action, it’s easy to see how that could happen.

Click here to see a 15 second time lapse of an object being printed :

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Swipes. Camera. Traction.

Eric Melzer — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:31:50 +0000

Hearing Canopy CEO, Andrew Kamin-Lyndgaard say, “The only thing that separates me from the millions of people who think of great ideas is that I made a conscious decision to not leave mine at my kitchen table,’ seems to be a Team Canopy initiation rite.

Entrepreneurship starts with a spark— a scribble on a bedside book cover, a drawing on the back of an envelope, an idea in the shower. The million dollar dance; the thought of the realized American Dream is next. But it’s only tenacity that makes an idea into a physical shape and finds it a home in the retail world. Tenacity is the pickaxe that tackles the mountain-sized process of company and product creation. The sheer intensity of the process only comes to light when an entrepreneur is waist deep in the river crossing— but what a ride! The adrenaline-fueled fun and excitement lead entrepreneurs to great products and in the case of Canopy, a great company.

Spreading the word about our company and its products has taken our team from Shenzhen to Vegas and to Silicon Valley and beyond. Even the most exciting ideas need to be clearly communicated and Sensus is no exception. For our potential investors to understand the incredible value in what we’ve created we commissioned Minneapolis-based Blue 60 Pictures to help us communicate a concise message. Andrew Kamin-Lyndgaard has never been shy about shouting Canopy’s praises from the rooftops and coming from a TV production background he’s no stranger to getting things right in studio.

This gallery shows a day-in-the-life of Canopy as we prepare our message in an effort to give us even more traction with the investment community. We’re proud to show our CEO and Sensus’ app-enhancing swipe, tap and scroll tech in studio because like the globe trotting travel we’ve shared with you in previous posts, it’s all a long way from Andrew’s kitchen table.

Photos © Canopy 2013 by Eric Melzer

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Technology Fueled Creative

Eric Melzer — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:04:56 +0000

The 40,000 year old pigments that form Cantabria Spain’s cave paintings and the laptop driven algorithms that push San Francisco’s Bay Lights project share one thing in common: they represent cutting edge tech that form the boundaries of cultural expression. After a long day at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) last week, I stood watching a virtual school of fish swimming the expanse of the Bay Bridge cables via 25,000 LEDs. It struck me that every culture’s most advanced technology tools fuel avant-garde creativity.

GDC spilled over with examples of interactive media that meshed creativity and tech. The synthesis between these disparate worlds brings inspired results on a daily basis now as technology inserts itself ever more into our daily lives. By providing developers like Leo Villareal with a blank, pocketable canvas Andrew Kamin-Lyndgaard, Canopy’s CEO, created our flagship product Sensus in the spirit of improving peoples’ experiences with this onslaught of daily tech.

Leo Villareal’s Bay Lights exhibit stands as another high water mark in the field of site-specific public art installation. His use of technology in his exhibit expands the way we view the relationship between art and tech. Thinking of the Bay Bridge cables as an electric canvas was the leap that drove his vision. I suspect that his prehistoric shaman counter part in Spain felt the same human urge to say something lasting as he looked at a cave ceiling and translated his vision with ochre, hematite, charcoal and manganese oxide pigments – the best tech his era had to offer.

Photography © Canopy 2013 by Eric Melzer

View a timelapse sequence of the project:

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Canopy’s Official SDK Launch at GDC 2013

Eric Melzer — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:18:16 +0000

If bridges, bays, cable cars, and Alcatraz form San Francisco’s iconic physical bones, the rivers of binary code pouring out of Silicon Valley form its thoughts. The Game Developer’s Conference (or GDC) is a celebration of the incredible code and visual design anatomy of these virtual ideas. Blinking, buzzing, exploding worlds and practical utilities expand ideas of ourselves through interface. Everyone becomes a 12 year old in these worlds of color and character – ultimately GDC is a conference that celebrates play.

Canopy knows that physical interface with the web’s parallel universe is based on touch. Sensus, our flagship product, gives GDC’s core audience – developers – more dimensions to play in. If a screen was a sheet of paper, we’ve made it a cube. The official release of our Software Development Kit (SDK) at GDC 2013 gives developers a bigger playground.

With Muir Woods and Stinson Beach a short drive from downtown, San Franciscans know the power of bridges to transport them to new places. The interface of hand to steering wheel and rubber to road define the experience. Canopy’s notion of a bridge starts with touch and through tap, swipe and gesture you travel. We can’t wait to see what roads developers build for the drive.

Photography and video © Canopy 2013 by Eric Melzer

Click here to see Canopy’s GDC video

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A Floor of Marbles – The Great Furniture Race

Eric Melzer — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 15:43:16 +0000

Working at a startup is like standing on a floor covered with marbles. It’s better to run, slide and be comfortable in motion than to think that settling into a comfortable corporate stasis will lend itself to good balance. More big changes came last week in the form of two new key hires in engineering and marketing. In prep our team took on the extra task of furnishing their offices so they could hit the ground running.

Ikea probably furnishes most startups like ours – not Le Corbusier but frugal and functional. As everyone knows, the worst part about Ikea furniture is the confused sea of pegs, allen wrenches and diagrams that come with head-scratching assembly- no surprise that everyone looked extra busy when the boxes showed up.

Our CEO spotted the dodging going on and decided to lay out a challenge : a build off. A $20 prize to the one who could build fastest. Our industrial designer jumped on board. Our marketing coordinator threw down the gauntlet – game on. 5 minutes 43 seconds later two new bookcases were built. We were rooting for the underdog marketing coordinator but of course the industrial designer won. Taunting, gloating and twenty bucks richer he went back to Solidworks. Marketing is plotting a vengeful redemption.

Photography © Canopy 2013 by Eric Melzer

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The Wind Of Ingenuity

Eric Melzer — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:46:13 +0000

Toxic floor-sealer fumes seeped up from the offices below Canopy last week during a remodel. We opened the windows to air out and the wind proceeded to swing the CEO’s office door shut… with the door locked and the keys inside. Need is an ingenuity springboard and we had one that brought with it the added benefit of revealing team strengths.

The most analog member of Canopy’s staff first went old school and tried to force a piece of flexible plastic in between the door jamb and the lock at the door strike which failed. He then spotted a vent above the door which he unscrewed and pulled out of the wall. He took a piece of twine, hung a 4” diameter rubber ring he found to the end, got on a ladder and dropped it down to try to hook the door handle, pulling it up and open. The problem came in this all happening blind. It was nearly impossible to tell when the loop was near or around the handle.

In walked a tech-inspired answer from another one of our staff who suggested that we use two iPhones to Facetime a live visual of the loop so we could tell when it close to the handle. His iPhone 5 was thin enough (nice work Apple) to slide under the door while another team member held another iPhone to show when the rubber ring was positioned right. The handle was hooked and the the door open in a short five minutes. In corporate speak it was a ‘team building exercise.’ For us it was just a fun challenge and a validation that we can think on our feet.

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The Tech Frontier: CES 2013 and Beyond

Eric Melzer — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:53:48 +0000

Whirring slots, brushes with famous tech-media personalities, boozy, smoking gamblers, and even an underwhelming nod from Tim Tebow in a bad workout outfit are shrinking images in Canopy’s rearview mirror. The overwhelming barrage of global media attention Sensus received in Las Vegas at CES 2013 has been replaced by a continuous flow of follow-up interviews and email blasts. CES put us on the international press map again but attention hasn’t seduced us into thinking the work is done.

The leather-faced settlers who toughed their way west followed a great notion. A hundred-and-fifty years later the tech has changed from bent wooden wheels and anvil-hammered hubs to wires and wifi but following a notion, a gut driven entrepreneurial sense that something new can be created, hasn’t. Possibility is a powerful drug. A nod to any in the past who made it even as far as Vegas. Many tired miles lie ahead of Canopy in this startup landscape that echoes the wild west but this company’s energetic push won’t stop at Vegas. Our team is all-in. We need to take our notion all the way to the Pacific.

Photography © Canopy 2013 by Eric Melzer

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Canopy Announces Sensus at CES 2013

Eric Melzer — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 08:14:50 +0000

The Champagne has crashed against the hull. We turned the lights up on our 20×20 iLounge booth on Tuesday morning at the Consumer Electronics Show, CES 2013 in Vegas, celebrating Sensus, the world’s first touch sensitive case. A tsunami of global media attention poured out over print, broadcast and internet sources praising Sensus functionality. We stand humbled at the overwhelming response.

iPhone cases at CES are as ubiquitous as sand on a beach. Dunes of every conceivable color, texture and adrenaline protective enclosure put one attendee’s title ‘case wasteland,’ right on the mark. Attendees, press, and developers commented over and over that it was a relief for them to see Sensus. Canopy introduced a truly expansive innovation in this Nevada desert of commodity plastic.

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Canopy Preps Sensus for Desert Debut at CES 2013

Eric Melzer — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 08:37:33 +0000

Watching Canopy’s army of eleven prepare for the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show(CES), a visitor might think something extraordinary, like lighting an entire desert valley with 15,000 miles of multi-colored Vegas neon, is about to go down. Equal parts imagination, resourcefulness and attention to detail make the tubes of a production of this size glow – and glow it must, to stand out in the overstimulated sea of beeping and flashing that make up the 37 football fields of consumer tech exhibited at CES.

For us CES ultimately isn’t about checklists, boxes of swag, or impressing the media. It’s about launching simple tech ideas that change cultures. It’s about entrepreneurial eyes that spot where things are, where they’re headed and where to stand to get the best picture when the elements that drive innovation and change converge.

A favorite Chinese proverb states “A peasant must sit a long time on a hillside with his mouth open before a roast duck will fly in it.” Canopy’s talented cast that, character for character would give Cirque Du Soleil a run for its money, isn’t a crew that waits for reward. We forged Sensus, our flagship product with heart and teamwork. We have every confidence that this little addition to the tech world that fits easily into the front pocket of your favorite jeans will add a big brand of color and light to the electric desert landscape.

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A Blur of Incredible Technology

Ian Spinelli — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:18:01 +0000

Last week Canopy showcased its new technology, Sensus, to the elite group of attendees and fellow exhibitors at Defrag and Blur at the Omni Hotel and Resort in Broomfield, CO. Technology leaders are excited over the opportunities Sensus brings to the mobile market.

With over 400 attendees, Defrag and Blur host some of the greatest minds in technology. There was a resounding “finally!” from business devs, CTOs, and founders alike as they wrapped their heads around what amazing implications this technology brings to the mobile space.

Companies and technology pioneers were impressed with our implementation of touch-capacitive sensors, and excited to see how it brings a new era of accessories to the mobile technology market.

Canopy’s next stop will be CES, where we will present our Sensus technology to the world. See you there!

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