Asking a product development firm whether you should hire a product development firm or build out your internal team can feel a bit like asking a barber if you should get a haircut, or asking the waiter if you should get dessert. But here’s a plot twist: most of the time, it may be the …
Mission to Market Share: When You Should (And Shouldn’t) Hire a Product Development Firm Read More »
Introduction So you’ve launched a new IoT product, perhaps using the IoT framework provided by AWS, Azure, or another major cloud provider, and your devices can now send and receive data from the cloud. Now, how do you process that data to get valuable insights, such as device health telemetry or user behavior tracking? There …
Building and Scaling IoT Projects Quickly with Serverless Applications Read More »
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re building low power electronics. There are so many different components and technologies to learn that it can be hard to know where to begin. Recently, a MistyWest client wanted to redesign their field-deployed IoT environmental monitor to a smaller, lighter, and more power-efficient package with longer battery life …
Choosing The Right Computing Device For A Low Power Sensor Application Read More »
Product development that is driven by design and technology, and not user experience, has led to the creation of products that failed miserably in the market. Google Glass, Oakley Thump, and Ring are all examples of wearables that were either unfashionable, not ergonomically designed, or breached user privacy – leading to commercial failure and embarrassment …
Designing a Successful Wearable Device Through User Research Read More »
If you’re developing an IoT device, odds are that you want it to do some valuable computations to solve an important problem. Maybe you want to deploy sensors in remote locations, develop a device that can perform data analytics to monitor a renewable energy source, or build a medical device that can use computer vision …
Edge Vs. Cloud Computing: Which Solution Is Better For Your Connected Device? Read More »
Companies starting design and development on new IoT products have often heard about how cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) can help deploy and rapidly scale their product. Because of this, one of the most frequently asked questions from MistyWest’s clients is “What cloud provider would you recommend we go …
Azure VS AWS: Selecting a Cloud Provider for your IoT Product Read More »
For any successful technology, the evolution process is the same: costs decrease, performance increases, and the ability to innovate compounds. At MistyWest, we believe that advances in cell phones, electrical vehicles, and 5G will lead to a revolution in embedded vision – and we’re currently partnering with Renesas Electronics to release a technology that benefits …
Embedded Vision: Trends in Batteries, Compute, and Connectivity Read More »
Looking to bridge the gap in meaningful connections due to 2 years of virtual social interactions, MistyWest cofounder Leigh Christie sought a new opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of the hardware and intelligent connected device community. Christie conceived the inaugural ‘Top 20 Leaders in Intelligent and Connected Devices’ awards, affectionately known as the Misties, to …
The Top 20 Leaders in Intelligent and Connected Devices Read More »
With the recent rise in computing power that smart edge devices require, the electrical power needs of such systems has increased immensely. This can be problematic for battery powered mobile solutions or IoT systems that are active around the clock, as batteries will drain quickly and require more charge cycles. For a wide variety of …
Enabling Low Power Computer Vision Applications with MistySOM Read More »
Aaron MacDonald is a senior mechanical engineer at MistyWest, well known on the team for his Squamish lifestyle that includes mountain biking, skiing, rock climbing, and camping adventures with his family. He also likes working on vehicles, like installing a suspension lift kit on his truck for a fun weekend project. While he’s been working …
Meet a Westie: Aaron MacDonald, Mechanical Engineer Read More »
When entering the connected device market, businesses are looking for IoT solutions that can keep costs manageable, scale effectively with business demands, and keep data secure. In particular, scaling effectively requires proper consideration for provisioning, configuration, monitoring, and analysis of the connected devices because making the wrong decisions early on can get costly later. Getting …
5 Reasons To Use An IoT Framework For Your Connected Devices Read More »
Although popular in the software industry for years, remote work was uncommon in hardware development until the start of the pandemic. Manufacturing physical products requires testing, debugging and iterative design, which often relies on specialized equipment and sufficient space. These factors have limited the growth of hybrid and remote work opportunities in hardware. So, how …
The smart-home space is currently — for lack of a better term — a bit of a mess. You see a neat new device that you want to add to your home, but you have to look carefully over the documentation to figure out where the device sits in the patchwork of compatibility between the …
It’s a tale as old as time – you build your hardware prototype design in CAD and everything fits perfectly, but when your parts arrive from the manufacturer, some parts are jamming and others are rattling around. What happened? Often, the underlying problem comes from how the mechanical connections between parts constrain how …
Make Parts Fit Right the First Time with Exact Constraint Analysis Read More »
Despite women making up 50% of the global population, the women’s health technology industry (affectionately known as FemTech) experiences stigmatization of women’s health conditions and an underrepresentation of uterus-having individuals in studies. FemTech is projected to be worth $1.1 billion dollars in 2024, but that is a small share of a market that has seen …
5 Technologies Improving Women’s Health & Well-being Read More »
Kevin Lockwood–better known as Locky to help distinguish himself in a sea of Kevin-identifying Westies–is a Senior Firmware Engineer, our head wireless product designer and most recently, MistyWest’s CTO. His days are often divided between coffee(s), scrum meetings, 1:1’s with members of our Tech team, and attending critical sales calls with the Hustle team. A …
Meet a Westie: Kevin Lockwood, Firmware Engineer and Chief Technology Officer Read More »
Assistive technology can be broadly defined as any tools, software or materials that are developed for people to overcome challenges that result from variations in physical ability. Something as low tech as your prescription eyeglasses can be considered an assistive device, while higher tech would be a motorized wheelchair or a hearing aid. Perhaps most …
5 Innovative Assistive Technologies Making Our World More Accessible Read More »
It’s been a long pandemic. Industry-wide statistics indicate team morale and engagement are at all-time lows across most sectors and verticals. And it’s no surprise, with the transition to a fully remote workforce, the loss of brick-and-mortar cultures and general burnout & exhaustion across all company levels–most teams are not getting what they need to …
Sweet Retreats: Why Teambuilding Events Are Needed Now, More Than Ever Read More »
At a recent full-day of leadership training with the entire team, when Kristina Pearkes described herself as a competitive person by nature there was a collective chuckle across the room. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Kristina can easily be considered the reigning champion MistyWest’s weekly Agario matches, continuously making everyone tremble as the massive …
Meet a Westie: Kristina Pearkes, Firmware Engineer & Tech Lead Read More »
Sure, MistyWest might have 3 Kevins on the team, but while they share names, they each bring their own unique backgrounds and disciplines to work. Kevin Baillie (or Kevin B, as he’s known around the office) is a Mechatronics Engineer by trade and a Tech Lead at MistyWest. Like many Westies, the company’s mission of …
Meet a Westie: Kevin Baillie, Mechatronics Engineer Read More »
Mining’s role in the past and the future For thousands of years, humans have mined the Earth for minerals and metals that improve their everyday lives and allow for important cultural expression. Today, we continue to harvest materials from our planet to enable the transition to clean energy – and the demand for minerals and …
To my 20 year old self, You will soon be graduating university with biomedical engineering as your major. I’m happy to tell you that as I write to you today, on International Women in Engineering Day in 2021, you are a Project Manager for an engineering consultancy in Vancouver, Canada. You are leading a team …
A Letter To My Younger Self on International Women In Engineering Day Read More »
Madison is a bit of an enigma. A Westie OG formerly hailing from Vancouver Island, Madison’s been with MistyWest since the early days. Back when we were just a team of 12, she played a key role in managing payroll and expenses, invoicing clients, doing graphic design work, and helping establish core touchstones for the …
Meet A Westie: Madison Reid, Content Creator & Community Manager Read More »
Written in collaboration with Andreas Putz, Computer Scientist at MistyWest. Introduction Over the past decade, one of the hottest areas of innovation has been to apply machine learning to real-world applications. Google and Amazon are now using machine learning models to transcribe speech to text, interpret language, and analyze images and videos. However, to achieve …
“Technology. The cause of–and solution to–all of life’s problems.” – Homer Simpson While the above quote is not exactly what Homer said, it’s certainly applicable when we consider the incredible advancements technology has brought us in the last 150, or 50, or 10 years. Who now can imagine life without smartphones, let alone without electricity …
5 Novel Technologies Enabling a Healthier Planet Read More »
Why is agriculture such a big deal? Agriculture is one of the most negatively impactful industries accelerating climate change – and the only industry that truly has the ability to replenish itself and serve as a climate change reversal agent. The agricultural industry and the technical innovations developed in agri-tech will play a critical role …
Cultivating the Future of Agriculture & Technology Read More »
Since the start of the pandemic, MistyWest has hired 3 full-time employees who’ve had to adapt to a mostly-remote work environment and limited social interactions with the team, with no annual retreat or holiday dance party at the office. But Eric Ell, who joined the team in Feb 2021 as our new Senior Business Developer, …
Meet a Westie: Eric Ell, Senior Business Developer Read More »
Intelligent connected device development firm MistyWest has decided the best way to align with its purpose of enabling a healthier planet and bringing prosperity to all humankind is by focusing all of its resources on manufacturing skimboards. “After months of analysis of future trends in technology and social development, it became clear that …
Written by Justin Lam, former Westie. This past January, MistyWest hosted a Vancouver Hardware Meetup webinar on the future of IoT on the cloud, where I spoke on a panel with fellow experts and innovators in IoT. MistyWest cofounder Leigh Christie, lawyer and member of AIOT Canada Edona Vila, CEO of Wearable X Billie Whitehouse, …
Has your business spent time and money developing a hardware product that failed at the commercialization stage because it didn’t meet customer expectations? Have you wondered at what point in product development you lost sight of the user story? A design thinking methodology can help to address these common issues that product development teams face. …
Josh is a very special Westie. Like most of us, he wears a few different hats, and originally joined the team as an Engagement Manager (MistyWest’s version of account reps) back in the fall of 2018. Coming from an Engineering Physics background in Ottawa, he specialized in power displays and later in applications for consumer …
Meet a Westie: Josh D’Souza, Hybrid Project & Engagement Manager Read More »
It’s the year 2021, and women only account for 15 to 20 percent of the tech workforce in British Columbia. Why is this? Research suggests that influence from families, role models and cultural stereotypes impact women’s decisions to pursue education–and later, careers–in STEM. The existing lack of representation of women and BIPOC folks in high …
Dan is a multi-talented business developer with a hand in quite a few pies at MistyWest! A dual Canadian/US citizen, Dan originally hails from Portland, Oregon, and landed in Vancouver as a UBC Engineering student in 2010. While at UBC, Dan founded the UBC Lacrosse team and helped build it into an officially recognized sports …
Written by Justin Lam, former Westie. Introduction Data in healthcare is becoming increasingly prominent, with many companies focusing on data insights as a primary value driver. With new IoT developments and technologies, physicians can close the gap between in-office observations and a detailed, complete picture of a patient’s health. Examples of data-driven solutions around preventative …
From Idea to IRB: Proving Out Data-Intensive Medical Devices Read More »
What is Hardware Prototyping? When MistyWest was approached by VodaSafe prior to developing the AquaEye, founder Carlyn Loncaric had a proof-of-concept (POC) and a goal: to develop a life-saving piece of technology that can quickly scan underwater to locate drowning victims. Through iterative prototyping, our engineering team was able to develop a hand-held device that …
Written by Justin Lam, former Westie. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices have seen exponential growth over the past 5 years, and companies are constantly adding greater functionality to stay connected (such as adding machine learning to low power devices). When it comes to battery-powered IoT devices like wearables, battery life will make-or-break your product for …
Low Power Optimizations for a Bluetooth Connected Wearable Read More »
Originally hailing from Kelowna, BC, Maria joins us as a 4th-year coop student from UBC Engineering, where she specializes in Engineering Physics. Her love of engineering initially emerged while studying biological research and micro-fluids in high school, but gradually evolved an aptitude for things slightly techy-er. She’s performed embedded systems testing and UI programming on …
Written by Justin Lam, former Westie. The Internet of Things (IoT) has seen extensive growth in the past few years, and the number of connected devices is projected to amount to 21.5 billion units worldwide by 2025. Choosing the right IoT platform to connect your devices is no easy task, and weighing the advantages and …
Azure Vs AWS: Which IoT Framework Is Right For You? Read More »
Introduction Recently, MistyWest hosted a webinar on the Dark Side of Technology where we talked about the ethical implications society is currently facing as new technologies are developed. The conversation touched on issues like data sovereignty, (un)biased machine learning, and the increase in civilian/private access to technology previously only available to the military. …
Introduction Leveraging ML Components to Unlock Powerful Low Power Applications Motion Sensors, or Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), in wearable connected devices have long been able to internally detect limited human interactions (such as tapping) and in some cases, very specific orientations (such as a wrist tilt) while using low power consumption. Detecting complex motions, like …
Do you want to have a positive global impact through your work but don’t know exactly how? Positive impact has always been part of the MistyWest DNA. We went from having roots in sustainable technology development, and have grown to tackle new technology problems; from computer vision systems that optimize agriculture processes, to IoT devices …
As I write this from my home office during quarantine, I am reflecting on what has become the new normal. I don’t think many of us thought we’d live to see a day where massive, global layoffs occur and nearly every single country would close its borders, restrict domestic travel, and order us all to …
How do you balance the complex social and environmental needs of a new hire during a time as uncertain and prone to alienation as COVID-19? What happens when that time you should be attempting to integrate, include and enculturate a new hire is simultaneously one where you’re being instructed (or forced) to isolate, distance and …
Monday signalled a turning point in the conversation on COVID-19. New measures to fight the spread of the virus have been announced throughout the world impacting all of us. Canada has closed its borders, Washington is shutting all non-essential businesses, and our clients in the Bay Area are beginning a 3-week shelter-in-place period. MistyWest remains …
Written by Phil Tsao, former Westie. Introduction Last week, we brought you the first part of our Dyson Airwrap series where we looked at the surface of this achievement in product development, and then used it to deliver a bomb makeover for Ryan Walker. By now you’re probably familiar with what the Dyson Airwrap …
This is the first of a two part series on the Dyson Airwrap. Part II features our technical teardown. Origin Story If you’ve ever used a hand dryer in a public washroom, you’re probably familiar with Dyson. Famously known for their vacuums that defied the standard expectations for vacuum cleaners in the 1990s–featuring dual-cyclone …
Written by Phil Tsao, former Westie. Introduction In our 3D Printing series, we brought you an Introduction to 3D Printing, a Guide to FDM, SLA and SLS, and a Guide to the Exotic. As a tailpiece to this series, we’ve compiled a guide to emerging tech and cool trends within the 3D printing and additive …
Written by Phil Tsao, former Westie. Introduction In this series, we’ve covered the history and growing popularity of 3D Printing and the various types of technologies available on the affordable scale that garage tinkerers or smaller businesses can use in-house. We’ve now arrived at Exotics and Metals, consisting of more expensive options that are usually …
Cowritten by Madison Reid and Oleha Riden At MistyWest, our foundation is rooted in sustainable design – our first projects were designing electric vehicles and fuel cells for hybrid vehicles. As the company has evolved over the years, we’ve worked on smart IoT monitoring, ubiquitous air quality sensing systems, off-grid appliances for developing countries, and …
In Part One of this blog series we talked a bit about the foundations of Holacracy as an organizational structure and how we deal with and utilize tensions as a thermometer of sorts. Innovative environments are steeped in conflict, and the successful ones learn how to leverage conflict to drive teams to deeper understandings of …
Written by Phil Tsao, former Westie. Introduction When we left off Part 1, we had just taken a look at the recent history of 3D printing technologies, and requested quotes from various vendors on a custom part to compare pricing for different technologies, and had introduced a chart that identifies the different materials available in …
Colleagues, partners, clients, and friends – After a decade at MistyWest, the time has come for me to leave my day to day roles ahead of my move with my family to Australia. It is with very mixed emotions that I say those words. On one hand, I’m excited to start a new life surrounded …
Written by Phil Tsao, former Westie. About Phil I have been 3D printing for years and was an early adopter into the industry with Printrbot. Through my career, I’ve gained a wide array of hands-on prototyping and manufacturing experience ranging from 3D printing to machining, and now own two filament printers as well as a …
San Francisco Design Week is a week-long, multi-event festival in the Bay area that showcases creativity, innovation and intersections of many different industries.We work with many great teams in the Bay Area, so SFDW has been on our event roster for the past 4 years, and during 2018’s Design Week studio crawl we even partnered …
In January 2019, MistyWest embarked on a quest to reimagine the way we structure our company, our teams and individual roles within the organization. We did this with the help of a new model of organizational management called Holacracy, and the patient training of mastermind Karim Bishay of Living Orgs (who we highly recommend, by …
Written by Phil Tsao, former Westie. Introduction MistyWest’s mechanical and physics team recently put their skills to the test on a fluid dynamics project that required a low cracking pressure check valve designed to withstand harsh outdoor conditions, and allow passive draining of water. During research, we came across a family of elastomer check valves …
Written by Ryan Walker, former MistyWest employee. Proof of work is the traditional method of forming consensus on a distributed network; it relies on an arbitrary set of decentralized nodes which are all solving similar hashing puzzles. Unfortunately, PoW has a non negligible carbon footprint and as a response, researchers have been building alternate consensus …
Written by Angela May We had the recent opportunity to tear down a Sensirion SPS30 Particle Matter Sensor. This was an exciting opportunity for us, as we have experience developing particle sensors, and we haven’t seen air quality sensors in such a tight form factor. The device boasts “superior accuracy” in an “ultra-slim package”, and …
Since 2014, MistyWest has been taking in co-ops for work terms. While we would describe the energy around the office to be pretty youthful in general, having students around can give us fresh perspectives on the work that we are creating, reminding us why we wanted to pursue engineering and design in the first place. …
As MistyWest continues to blossom into a consultancy of flowering sales and marketing initiatives, the variety of events that we send Westies to in an effort to water the seeds of partnership also continues to grow. This was our second SXSW, and this year we sent Oleha Riden, Rebecca Apostoli, Dave MacLeod, Dan Millar and …
SXSW is a festival that is truly centered at the intersection of technology and culture. Although MistyWest is primarily a technology company, we believe music is a key part of a shared global culture that we all participate in, regardless of industry. In the lead up to SXSW Interactive, we look forward to checking out …
Written by Senzeni Mpofu, former Westie CES is undoubtedly the capstone event for us at MistyWest. This is the one time in the year that our network of global clients, partners, vendors and suppliers congregates in one city for a week of learning, networking and (let’s admit it) partying. As is tradition, we brought together …
CES always seems to hit us like a fever dream; the bright lights of the Vegas strip, the deafening noise of the conference centre, the fast-paced rush of trying to see as much as possible on never-enough sleep–it comes and goes in the blink of an eye. And then we find ourselves groggy, bodies aching, …
This post originally appeared on Isobar’s ‘The Squeeze‘. Every year at CES, the first place I visit is Eureka Park. Typically, it’s the best combination of optimistic technology, naive startups, audacious inventors, and freaky gadgets that barely make sense. If you want to see what CES 2023 is going to look like, go to Eureka …
Have you ever had an interaction with a piece of technology- be it hardware, software or even a basic household tool, and been struck by the ease or simplicity with which it helped you accomplish your goal? Every day we interact with good design and in most cases we’re not even aware because the experience …
This is the first time a team from MistyWest will be attending the annual South By Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, TX. Every year thousands of technology companies, start-ups, speakers and superfans converge in the southern Texas town to pitch products, share ideas and network. We’re so excited to be sending down four Westies to …
This year MistyWest was pleased to send a team of seven Westies to our third Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. While the harsh desert climate offered up torrential rain, flash floods and power outages–our team successfully battled trials of a different variety: formidable crowds, sensory overload and the Nerd Flu. While the #CESsomale hashtag …
Written by Justin Lam, former Westie. Disclaimer: Light therapy is one method of easing seasonal affective disorder (SAD); some people swear by it whereas others remain unaffected. This blog post does not intend to refute the effectiveness of light therapy, but rather to dig deeper into the technology behind these light therapy lamps to better educate …
Written by Ryan Walker, former MistyWest employee. As you learned in the first part of our RoboSteve series, we are building a Machine Learning and Machine Vision platform inspired by our office dog Steve. There’s only one thing biological Steve loves more than food, and that’s playing with his girlfriend Miso. In order to emulate …
Written by Senzeni Mpofu As a team, we are pretty comfortable developing products that can withstand even the most extreme of environmental conditions. We have made electronics for use in extremely dusty conditions. We tackled innovation for prolonged exposure to subzero temperatures – both in the Arctic and on ski slopes. We have even contributed …
A few weeks back, a handful of brave Westies began a quest to build a robot dog. When this concept was pitched, it was widely regarded as some animatronic dog covered in servos that would walk around – in reality, it’s a Machine Learning and Machine Vision platform. The goals of the project are to …
Written by Senzeni Mpofu, former Westie Way back in June 2016, MistyWest acquired a super-neat thing called the HTC Vive, which is somewhat old news now but was the coolest kid on the block virtual-reality-wise at the time and we thought that was pretty peachy. Many wows were had, and the Westies rejoiced as we …
Written by Div Gill, Engineering Physicist EIT and former Westie Introduction to LiDAR The term LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging; technically speaking, LiDAR covers a broad range of sensors that use electromagnetic radiation in the visible, and infrared and UV bands to detect distances to objects, and its modern use refers to …
Written by Justin Girard, former Westie Classification of Handwritten Numbers When trying to get a grasp on how machine learning (ML) works, it is often useful to experiment with existing ML problems. One popular starting point is the MNIST database (Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology), a collection of image scans of handwritten …
Written by Justin Lam, former Westie. Virtual reality pushes the envelope of bleeding edge technology, allowing us to explore and experience worlds beyond our mortal imaginations. It gives us immersion in another dimension, providing an unprecedented medium for communication and story telling. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then virtual reality must be …
