TechCrunch
Kúla Deeper Is A Hardware Add-On For Your SLR That Lets You Create 3D Photos & Video
Iceland-based startup Kúla has devised a hardware extension for digital SLR cameras that lets you create 3D photos and videos. The 3D images are viewable (after converting them with its dedicated software) on a 3D TV or other stereoviewer. They can also be converted to anaglyphs and viewed using a retro pair of 3D viewer glasses if you want to pretend you’re living in the 1970s.
The hardware camera add-on, which is called Deeper, fixes over the SLR’s lens and adds a pair of mirrors either side that are used to capture the dual images required to create the 3D effect. Kúla says it’s generating a “hyper stereoscopic” 3D effect because the distance between the mirrors is greater than the distance between the human eye, which apparently results in a deeper 3D perspective. They’ve put sample images online if you want to test out their claims (and have some 3D glasses to hand and/or advanced eye-crossing skills).
3D remains a relatively niche technology vs the glorious 2D screen technologies we continually ogle on our phones, tablets, smartwatches, TVs etc etc. 3D TV adoption continues to be slow, meanwhile the 3D phones that came along in 2011 went away again in the blink of an eye, after it became apparent no one wanted to buy them. (It’s a slightly happier story for consoles, with Nintendo managing to carve out a market for its 3DS handheld console in Japan, forecasting sales of more than five million units this year.)
Part of the problem with 3D is it typically requires people to replace a perfectly good existing gadget before the end of its useful life. And while viewing 3D content might be of interest once in a while, it’s not necessarily enough of an urge to push an early upgrade. So Kúla’s take — of adding a 3D function to an existing 2D device — makes a lot of sense. However, it still remains to be seen whether there is enough of a 3D-content generation appetite to raise the €55,000 it’s asking for on Nordic crowdfunding site Karolinafund.com to bring Deeper to market.
If it gets funded, the Deeper add-on will apparently fit lenses of Ø77mm diameter by default. They are also offering Ø52, Ø62, Ø67 and Ø72 mm adapters. The cheapest pledge price to get the Deeper add-on is currently €59. Kúla says it’s hoping to be able to ship to backers in September, assuming its funding flies.
Couchbase Raises $25M To Further Develop NoSQL Database And Expand Into International Markets
NoSQL database company Couchbase has raised $25 million to build new enterprise features and expand primarily into India, China and South America. The Series D round was led by Adams Street Partners and joined by existing investors Accel Partners, Mayfield Fund, North Bridge Venture Partners, and Ignition Partners. To date, the company has raised $56 million.
Couchbase is the company behind the CouchDB open source project, The service is available in community and enterprise editions.
Like other NoSQL companies, Couchbase has had greater adoption as companies do more strategic evaluations. More enterprise providers are considering Couchbase for mission critical applications.
In its latest release, Couchbase added cross data center replication for customers that want to have the database technology available and synced from multiple data center locations. It also added new security features.
Couchbase CEO Bob Wiederhold said its differentiation comes with its minimal latency and throughput. He said most competitors run a caching tier separate from the database tier. Couchbase has combined the two layers into one. Memcached is embedded as part of Couchbase. It also has an efficient storage disc.
The technology does not have locking, an issue with competitor MongoDB. As a result of that, Wiederhold said performance slows down considerably.
Wiederhold said Couchbase scales on its peer-to-peer network and has an automated setup compared to other technologies such as Cassandra and MongoDB.
The requirements of web and mobile apps are changing. Three-tier architecture apps are being used by millions of simultaneous users. The apps have to operate at web scale. They are data centric and have to scale fast.
Couchbase technology is solid, world-class technology but it does not have the visibility of MongoDB, which recently received the endorsement of IBM. Wiederhold said Couchbase is not in a popularity game but striving to scale users.
Control Philips Hue From Your Mac's Menu Bar With New App For OS X
Philips Hue is a fun but expensive way to turn your at-home lighting into an interactive experience to pass your idle hours, but so far it’s been mostly controlled via smartphone. Chances are, you spend a good portion of your day at your computer, and it’s likely easier to control things from there. Enter Hue Menu, a new Mac menu bar app that gives you direct control over your Philips Hue light bulbs.
Philips opened up Hue’s API to third-party developers after recognizing there was a strong appetite already in the community for add-on software and programs. Hue Menu takes advantage of the company’s new efforts to reach out to the community by putting controls for brightness, on/off state of individual lights, color and more right where it’s readily available whenever you use your Mac. You can do things like change color based on Mac’s built-in color picker, add color presets, and even sample colors directly from photos stored on your Mac.
Upcoming features planned by Hue Menu developer Charles Aroutiounian include alarms and timer-based lighting settings, as well as geofencing and more. Like with the IFTTT hacks and other neat tricks built around Hue, this will likely have limited appeal, but it’s still a cool way your Mac can make life a bit more interesting if you’re a Hue/connected home fan.
Belly Gets $12.1 Million From NEA And Others In A Bid To Take Its Loyalty App To The Next Level
Dozens of customer loyalty apps have emerged over the past several years, looking to bring the relationships between brick-and-mortar shops and their customers from the times of paper punch cards into the digital era. But the space has thinned out lately, with several startups being acquired (or acqui-hired), and many others fading into oblivion.
It turns out that amidst all the changes in the landscape, the Chicago-based loyalty startup Belly is still kicking, and appears to be stronger than ever: It’s now active in a total of 6500 locations in 18 geographical markets across the country. Now, the company says, it has its eye on owning the loyalty market once and for all, and taking the “in-store experience” overall to the next level.
To help in that aim, Belly is announcing today it has secured $12.1 million in new funding from a cadre of big name venture and strategic investors.
The funding, which serves as the first tranche of a Series B (word is that more money may be on the way, but has yet to formally close) includes the participation of new investors New Enterprise Associates and DAG Ventures, existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Lightbank, and strategic investors Cisco Systems and 7-Ventures (a subsidiary of convenience store behemoth 7-Eleven.) This brings the total amount invested in Belly since its inception in 2011 to $28 million.
Belly founder and CEO Logan LaHive came by TechCrunch’s San Francisco headquarters this week to talk about the new funding and catch us up on the latest with the company and the plans for the future. We also had him give us a first-hand look at the app from both the perspective of the store and the customer. Check all that out in the video embedded above.
It’s interesting to see Belly in action, because it shows clear rewards for both the customer and the business. Data analysis is key for any business nowadays, and many small brick-and-mortar shops just don’t have the technology capabilities in-house to monitor their analytics themselves. And of course, customers love to get recognition and perks at the places they patronize regularly.
Of course, that’s been the promise of many of the loyalty apps that have emerged over the past several years. But it looks like Belly has been one that’s survived and thrived through the shakeout in part because it has paid special attention to details and the real, specific needs of local merchants. For instance, Belly provides businesses with all the tech hardware necessary to run its app (namely, iPads), the app is easily customizable, and it doesn’t hassle business owners with frequent manual updates. Also, on both the business and customer ends, the user interface design is really quite snappy.
Going forward, LaHive says the aim is to just take that traction and turn it up, by expanding geographical reach, focusing more on large enterprise customers, and the like. And all this is projected to bring growth at the bottom line, too: According to LaHive, the company, which currently has just over 100 staffers, is on track to be profitable without any further funding necessary.
That financial muscle will come in handy, since in the future Belly’s real competitors may not be other loyalty app startups as much as larger tech players such as Foursquare and Facebook who are clearly making moves in the space. But for now, Belly looks to be taking on the competition from a place of real strength.
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