Blender was integral to the entire project, from doing concept designs, to making the final ID (to be modified/finalized by the mechanical engineers) , to doing final renders for the packaging, and actually making the packaging itself.
I used Inskscape to do the packaging design, but did test renders of it in Blender to see how it would look. And ultimately I did a render / photoshop of the packaging to test variations of it with consumers. (see below)
Just wanted to let the Blender community know, and also ask for support. If you think our product is cool, please back our project, or share the link with others.
I’ll be happy to do a post with more detail about our process, if there is interest… after our campaign is done
Unfortunately Kickstarter has a strict policy against renders, but here are some so you can see:
I don’t understand the product. Why is it so big? And why is there a huge speaker if the point is to block sound and calls to make you sleep?
And if the main selling point is blocking incoming calls via an app, why not just distribute that app? What’s the point of the hardware if what you want is a sort of ‘no not disturb’ mode?
Good questions. IRL it’s 4" x 5" , so not really all that large for an alarm clock. It is meant to supplement a phone that you use as an alarm clock, so your alarm can be louder (if you want), and to offer real buttons to use with the phone - so you can have a real snooze button instead of something on-screen. Sounds a bit pointless but in practice it’s much nicer and more user-friendly.
The most unique feature is the ‘do not disturb’ function, so we focus on it a lot. There is even a dedicated button on the dock. But, it would work without the app, you’re right - just not as conveniently. It also communicates with the dock so it turns off this mode automatically when you remove the phone, so you don’t accidentally mute your calls as you go about your day.
I hope that makes sense. If you are 100% happy with app-based alarm clocks, admittedly the product is not for you! But, we did think through the features to make sure they work well as, say, an enhanced alarm clock. It’s meant to make your phone as good as a really nice “real” alarm clock.
Nice product. I totally understand the point of the not disturb function. If I don’t have to switch to fly-mode or similar every day to not get notified by every mail during night, but instead just put the phone in the docking station as a small go to sleep routine…
Does it also charge the phone?
Rechi, yep, it charges the phone! Thanks for the feedback. The main idea behind this was for it to be the “best possible” alarm clock. Although we could not add every feature we imagined, it does everything you want an alarm clock to do, plus it has the do-not-disturb functionality. Which is more than most alarm clocks.
