srlake

Comes from the latest Startup Genome report: "Its startup density is second only to Silicon Valley and a full 50% higher than its closest follower. How can such a small city compete against cities 10 to 30 times their size such as Rio, Atlanta and Rome?"

http://blog.compass.co/waterloo-the-david-vs-goliath-of-star...

Will add the citation to the Medium post as well.

It's been a few years since studying in this area, but one approach we used to use for modelling and control of manipulators (mostly industrial robotic arms) was Screw Theory.

Here's a recent paper using one of these approaches: http://www.intechopen.com/books/international_journal_of_adv...

One approach that could be used for a system like Big Dog would be a feed-forward control loop with kinematic/dynamic modelling of the robot. These approaches use knowledge of the system dynamics to predict the output based on changing inputs or disturbances.

The eye is not focusing on that depth. The light coming out of the lens or LCD would be collimated / diffracted to form an image on the retina that appears to originate from a specific distance (or in this case, many different distances, multiplexed together).

Just like with Google Glass, where the image appears to be at a distance and your eyes do not focus on the actual screen.

What were you hoping to do with the raw EMG data?

Exact same hardware. Difference is software only.

Hi there - good chance we're either getting blocked by a spam filter or have an incorrect email. We've been sending out some kind of email roughly every 4-6 weeks. If you send us a note at thalmic @ thalmic.com we should be able to get that sorted out.

I'm one of the co-founders at Thalmic (Myo).

We get the request for raw muscle data quite often, and are trying to find a way to handle it better in the future. The reason we don't provide it now actually has nothing to do with money (we do have a small number of research groups that pay for this, engineering support, and other services, but it represents a tiny fraction of a percent of revenue).

The reason is actually two-fold:

1. User Experience - Unfortunately you're probably the exception, in that it sounds like you may be able to build a great experience using the raw data. The reality we've found is that it requires a deep machine learning and statistical analysis background to do much useful with the data, considering the need to account for a wide variety of variations in data intra and inter person. What we're trying to prevent is developers attempting to create "custom" gestures improperly (e.g. if (myo.sensor1 > 67% && myo.sensor2 > 30%){output = Rock_On}), which will not work reliably on the population, in different orientations, etc., then the user has a bad experience, and blames the device hardware.

2. Battery Life - Streaming raw data uses much much more power than when we process the data on the device, and recognize gestures directly on-board.

We are considering options to provide this data in some way, as there are certainly good uses in some applications, such as Tennis analysis.

You could quite easily do everything the Smash device does, plus additional information on grip strength, using a Myo armband. It's all about the software!

As a startup-founder (Thalmic, YC w13), I wholeheartedly disagree with the viewpoint of the author here.

Is the pressure high, and the chance of success low? Certainly.

Was the expected value of taking a Google salary rather than the risk-weighted value of starting a company higher? Again, yes.

But the missing piece here is that sometimes it's not about the money, the perks, the hours. I love doing what I'm doing today, regardless of all of the above. My two co-founders here would say the same. We get to choose exactly who we want to work with, what we want to work on, and get a real shot at having an impact on people's lives all over the world, through the products we create.

If we didn't have entrepreneurs taking this irrational leap, we wouldn't have the Google's of the world to employ those who choose the other path.

D-wave is a great example of a company in the class described. Founded in 1999, they didn't ship their first quantum computer until 2011. However, they were able to show progress along the way, solving sub-challenges and as a result were able to raise many rounds of funding before ever shipping a product. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-Wave_Systems

Most startups aren't paying significant taxes in the first year, anyways, since there will be no profits.

Just a quick thank you to Katherine Hague of Shoplocket for putting together the interview. Her team has a great sense of design and has been a huge supporter of hardware startups and kick starter projects in particular.

She tells me that she has a great lineup of other founders for the upcoming installments. Looking forward to it!

Smart guys. Good move. Hell of a great advertising and deal flow move for $25k * X deals per year they do.

The biggest reason, I hear, is that Steve is more than a little bit loony.

With 200 RIM engineers we'll be sure to have delays and problems ;)

Joking, of course...

We're evaluating this - haven't announced either way yet. There are a few reason we wouldn't - namely power usage if we have to transmit that data over BT.

This is also a bit different from Kickstarter - we're not actually taking any money up front. But it's a tool to show and estimate demand, and get potential user feedback before a product is fully manufactured and ready to ship. This way we'll be able to work with thousands of developers early on before the units ship.

We did get rejected from Hyperdrive. It was pretty early on, however - last Spring.

Exactly. We were hoping someone would pickup the reference!

The math behind this is actually rather complex. Heavy duty machine learning and statistical analysis.

That's one of the advantages of the MYO: You arm can be at your side, on your lap, an arm rest, etc. It doesn't need to be seen by a camera.

Thanks, just took it out!

I'd put forward another downside of angel groups, from the prospective of an entrepreneur:

Collusion - whether intentional or not.

The mere fact that you're meeting all, or a large percentage, of the possible investors for your round at the same time, and they all know each-other, the greater the chance they will be able to dictate terms and the entrepreneur may have little negotiating power. If one group (as may be the case in Dayton, OH - I have no idea) makes up a large percentage of local investors, look out!

I'm impressed that he doesn't hesitate to call out the NY Times. Musk clearly doesn't care about politics or tiptoeing around sensitive issues.

I'm a Canadian and in the current batch. There are lots of alum from Waterloo and some from Toronto.

You don't need a visa as a Canadian to visit the US for 3 months for business purposes, such as meeting with "prominent investors and advisors" ;)

Congrats guys. What an awesome product.

Quadrocopters FTW.

If you're going through mainstream distribution, even at large volumes, at least 30-35% between the retailer and distributor is expected for electronics. More for other classes of goods. If the value proposition is really to handle distribution and fulfillment 35% could be attractive to small businesses that are below volumes for mainstream distribution.

I'd buy one... if only it were actually available here in the US.

Being brilliant doesn't disqualify someone from being brilliant.