SeaGlance is a small cardinal buoy that hangs on eight lines and moves with a real buoy, out at sea, right now.
See how it worksPick a wave buoy anywhere on the list: off the west coast of Ireland, in the North Atlantic, off California or Hawaii. SeaGlance fetches what that buoy is measuring and plays it back, so the little buoy on your desk heaves and rolls the way the sea is moving there.
A calm morning is a slow, gentle sway. A winter storm makes it lift and lean. It is quiet, it needs no screen time, and it is never the same twice.
Turn the knob to browse the list, press to choose. The display shows the buoy's name, position and the wave height there now.
Every half hour it fetches the latest measurements from public ocean data services: wave height, period and the direction the swell comes from.
Eight motors wind the lines in and out together, so the buoy rises, falls and tilts like the real one, within a few centimetres of travel.
Design in progress
All three models are in development. The pictures are design renders; colours, details and finishes may still change.
SeaGlance uses open data that national ocean services publish for everyone. Most buoys report summary values every half hour, and SeaGlance turns those into a natural, ever-changing motion. Buoys marked with a star send their actual measured movement, and SeaGlance replays it.
On first start the display shows a QR code. Scan it with your phone, or join the network SeaGlance-XXXX with the password shown. A set-up page opens (if not, go to 192.168.4.1). Pick your home network, type its password, and SeaGlance restarts on your Wi-Fi.
Press the knob to open the menu, choose Choose buoy, turn to browse and press to pick. The new buoy's data is fetched straight away.
In Settings › Night rest you set hours when the buoy comes to rest and the motors stay still. Set your Time zone first so the hours match your clock. Rest now stops it right away.
Choose Slack lines before you lift or carry SeaGlance. The motors switch off and the lines go loose. Press the knob to tighten them again.
Settings › Check for update looks for new software and installs it over Wi-Fi. Keep the power on until it restarts. If an update fails, the old software stays as it was.
Forget Wi-Fi clears the network so you can set up a new one. Factory reset clears all settings and starts the set-up again.
SeaGlance needs a USB-C charger of 20 W or more. A phone charger with less power can't move the motors. If you change chargers while it runs, unplug and plug in again.
That is usually the sea: a flat calm buoy rocks very little. Choose a buoy in open ocean, or check the wave height on the display. Movement is scaled to fit the frame, so big seas look lively but stay safe.
The first prototype runs and is moving with the sea. A mailing list for launch news is on its way: one short email when SeaGlance can be ordered, no more.
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