Newt: Always On, Low Power Digital Assistant

"Not another display!!!!"

Wait - just hear me out.

I've been a practicing "maker" for the last 5 years. I don't make a lot of projects - however, the ones I make are pretty feature-rich. I've built some cool things like an automated cat feeder, a smart candle, and a compost making assistant.

However, the items that always get the most comments/likes/views are my displays. I made an Alexa-enabled smart display in 2015. Last year (2020), I made a Star Trek display. So, when I decided to make something that could possibly be manufactured and sold, a display made sense.

I'm not a hardware manufacturer, but I've worked as a technology consultant for the last 20+ years, so I decided to tackle this project like I would handle a large software implementation, which means:

• Understand the market (for price comparison, market gaps, and saturation)
• Start first with functional and non-functional requirements
• K.I.S.S. Design ("Keep It Simple, Stupid")
• Understand your buyer to keep manufacture price in line with expectations 
• Fail fast (learn as much as you can, with as little cost as possible, as fast as you can)
• Get real feedback from potential customers/end-users
• And finally - tell people about it ("If you built it, they will come" only works in the movies).

So, we'll see how things go!