Reveal

Role

Founder and product direction

Timeline

2020–2024

Status

Development concluded

Starting with the computer

Reveal began with the idea of making a different kind of computer. We explored Raspberry Pi computers and displays, looking for a technical foundation we could build a product around.

One of those explorations was a modular I/O system. We sketched interchangeable units for USB, display connections, audio, and power, along with the sockets and board that would connect them. The drawings considered the module dimensions, how they would stay in place when a cable was pulled, and how the assembly would fit into an enclosure. CAD studies and a physical prototype gave that idea a form we could examine.

The peripheral and component systems were taking shape. We were making progress on how the pieces would connect and fit together, but we still needed a computing foundation that could support the complete system.

We soon ran into the limits of what was available to us. Raspberry Pi did not have the performance we needed for the desktop computer we imagined. We could not find an off-the-shelf system that met those needs, and developing our own was beyond what we could afford.

Linux was an obvious option to build on. But at the time, we weren't finding an open-source motherboard suited to the computer we wanted to make, or a distribution that felt like it had real pull beyond the Linux community.

That constraint led us toward smaller embedded devices. We explored smart-home and smart-product ideas, where a compact processor and wireless connectivity could give an object a useful new capability. The ambition to make computing take a different physical form continued through that work, but the immediate question became what we could actually build.

Smart products and Find My

Apple's Find My looked like an opening. There was a published specification, which we understood as a way for companies like ours to build on the platform. We began developing concepts for connected products around a compact hardware core, with ultra-wideband at the center of the experience.

Those early computer explorations led us to Reveal Core, a small compute module we could build connected products and experiences around. Find My would give it a first application, and that opportunity became the basis for most of the funding we raised.

We explored a card-like device, a concept for pairing a bag through an App Clip, and interfaces for finding an object. We wanted to connect an everyday product, its electronics, and the software someone would use with it into one experience.

As we pursued that direction, the difference between the specification and the access available to us became clear. At the time, Apple was not opening the approval path in the way we had expected. The ultra-wideband interaction we had designed around was not available to partners. We would not be able to deliver the experience we had conceptualized through Find My.

The economics created another obstacle. The smart-product direction needed an inexpensive unit, with AirTag setting a reference point for what people would expect to pay. Prospective partners would need hundreds of devices at an affordable cost to test the idea. Our first units would have cost more than $1,000 each. A small batch could not establish a credible path to the product they needed.

Computing across a physical space

We were still excited about ultra-wideband and the hardware we could develop around it. We began exploring what experiences that technology could support in a physical space, with museums and events becoming substantial directions for the work.

The scale of the idea changed again. An exhibition or event could be designed as a connected environment, with hardware and software working together across the space. The product included the infrastructure that made the experience possible and the tools someone would use to create it.

We went far into developing that system. There were multiple pieces of hardware, servers connecting them, and user interfaces for designing the experiences. The work had to address both the experience someone would encounter and the tools for the people creating it. A hardware design, a server, and an authoring interface were different parts of the same proposal.

The museum and event studies explored how computing could operate across a place, with the physical devices, connections, and software designed together. Developing an experience meant thinking about how those parts would work as a whole, from the system behind the installation to the interface used to give it behavior.

During Reveal, I began using the first version of ChatGPT and other early language-model tools to learn about hardware, a field that was new to me. I used them extensively, feeding in component datasheets and asking questions about the terminology and technical details. They were particularly useful for working through those documents and helping me get my bearings in an unfamiliar space.

Finding a path to production

The board design had been validated and routed, but we had yet to fabricate and test it. A small validation batch would be the first opportunity to find out whether the physical hardware worked as intended.

We had raised $200,000. Ordering that batch would have been a substantial bet, and it was only the first step in a much longer manufacturing process. Testing and revisions could require further batches, followed by runs of hundreds of units and eventually far larger volumes to reach an affordable unit cost. We did not have the funding to carry the hardware through that progression.

We held off on fabrication and continued developing applications that could justify the investment. A customer who wanted an experience and would pay for it could give the hardware a specific purpose and a way to fund its development.

Museum and event installations offered a different economic possibility. We imagined a new museum commissioning something like a $40,000 interactive installation. At that project scale, the electronics could be funded as part of a complete experience, alongside the software and integration. The hardware would have a specific job and a customer paying for the system around it.

We continued exploring those opportunities, but a suitable partner project did not come together, and the custom board never entered production.

What we developed

Reveal grew from computer and display concepts into connected products and interactive environments. Along the way, we developed hardware designs, physical prototypes, software, and tools for creating experiences across a space.

We worked back and forth between the electronics, the software, and the experience someone would have with them. Each direction gave those pieces a different job, whether configuring a computer's connections, finding an object, or shaping an exhibition. That exploration gave Reveal its form: computing designed around the objects people use and the places they share.