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Show HN: I made a Smart Calendar – E-Paper Based, Useful AI, Firmware Access
Hi HN!
My name is Harsh and I've made a Smart Calendar that lives on your desk and syncs with your favorite calendar and task apps. Inku was created to do three things: Be useful, be smart, and be joyful - and that's it. It's mostly a passive device meant to be in your work/home space and not whine for your attention. It started out as a personal project but eventually ended up doing a small alpha test after interest from friends and people on the internet - we’ve now gone all out with a crowdfunding campaign.
The Inku Smart Calendar:
Uses Spectra 6 spec E-Paper
Connects to the major calendar/todo app providers
Has AI summaries
Has a bit of a personality
I personally hate having to pull out my phone for mundane things like knowing my schedule for the day and it's even more annoying when (even w/ the notifications) - i still end up missing things. Inku was made because i've loved using paper/pen/whiteboards my whole life but the manual upkeep - as life has gotten busier - has become harder.
This is without the screen strain headaches as well. I have a core belief/aspiration for information to be ambient and around us without locked away behind glass rectangles. One major wave of this is happening via AR/VR - but i personally prefer the not strapping it to my face way of going about it (No hate, I own an Oculus haha).
Inku has no notifications, no speakers and only updates once or twice an hour (only if there's something on your schedule). That said…
I know the design won't work for everyone - it’s definitely not…minimalist - and that there's plenty Inku could be improving on other aspects.
Disclaimer: But what if it's vaporware…it is Kickstarter.
Indeed, valid skepticism - we actually already have done a fully functional alpha test with about 5 people, i primarily made it for myself but ended up making a few more when i found that people were interested in having their own - you can find some of the context in my twitter threads. This is more of a productionizing push rather than an Idea. That said there is always a risk w/ Kickstarter products not shipping.
We also plan to open up the firmware in case people would like to make use of their own endpoints/flash their own firmware + open up integrations code on the server for the community to create their own data sources.
I hope that Inku may be interesting for some of the people here! Feel free to ask any questions - i'll be responding!
You can find most information on the Kickstarter.
Also, Our feature requests and roadmap are public - you can add/comment/upvote on them here: https://inkboard.canny.io/inku-feature-requests https://inkboard.canny.io/inku-feature-requests
Thank you for your time and attention!
- JuliaSz 2y agoLove this, I’m so distracted when I look at my phone to check important things like my calendar. This seems like a useful thing to have on the kitchen counter, kind of like the old days with a paper calendar. What level of detail can you see per day?
- garshythoel 2y agoHey there! The idea was 100% to find a middle ground b/w a paper calendar and a phone app. It gives you a pre-day overview in the morning to give you a sense of how busy your day is and then throughout the day it'll use the calendar invite and contextual information (how busy you are, attendees, invite description) on an hour by hour basis. You can see visual examples on the linked page
- vhiremath4 2y agoThis is cool. What’s the stack?
- garshythoel 2y agoThanks! Hardware: ESP32 module w/ OTA firmware updates Mobile App: Expo/React-Native Server: NextJS AI: OpenAI/Llama We're a JS(or i guess a TS) shop atm for speed of iteration but should be swithcing out parts for better performance overtime