900 webcams just arrived, and we are in the midst of final assembly for the 974 Desktop Spectrometry Kits ($35 reward; the remaining webcams should be here soon). What's more, the night before last, all of our foldable mini-spectrometers shipped out from Portland, OR. We expect to ship the first 900 desktop kits tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience -- we're doing our best to assure that these arrive before Christmas, and we think for US buyers that should work out. For international orders, it's harder to tell.

Final instructions for the Desktop Spectrometry Kit

We've also posted a PDF of the final assembly instructions for the "DSK", which is shipping in each kit: http://publiclaboratory.org/notes/warren/12-13-2012/instructions-desktop-spectrometry-kit-backpack-design-sketches

It can also be used to build your own, assuming you can find a webcam that will fit in a given spectrometer box, and that you cut your own imaging slit (not hard!).

Spectral Workbench updates + iOS and Android

If you've used Spectral Workbench recently, you may have noticed the frenetic pace of changes over the past week. Wholly revised interfaces such as the above front-page screenshot, as well as a vastly improved (but still in-progress) mobile interface for the site have accompanied bugfixes and other revisions.

One big improvement is that on mobile devices without the live video API our mobile site has made use of, we are automatically directing users to upload an image of a spectrum, and prompting them to do so with their native camera app. Until more mobile browsers support the MediaStream webcam API (as Opera Mobile does), this will allow anyone on Android or iOS 6+ to use the mobile webapp. We are also taking the first steps in developing a native iOS app to enable live capture, but we've found the native camera app technique to work fairly well.

Read more: http://publiclaboratory.org/notes/warren/12-13-2012/massive-updates-spectral-workbench

Now accepting preorders

Finally, we are accepting preorders for a February shipment of post-Kickstarter Desktop Spectrometry Kits. We are setting the final retail price at $40 each. Reserve one now!

http://shop.breadpig.com/products/desktop-spectrometry-kit http://shop.breadpig.com/products/mini-fold-up-spectrometer

Design sketches for the mobile spectrometer attachment

One more thing! We're starting to move on the $65 mobile spectrometers -- the rigid plastic version of the paper one we just shipped. Check out the sketches and as always, get involved at PublicLaboratory.org!