As promised, here is the first of 4 messages I will be posting this week.

1.
We carried out two separate crowdfunding campaigns at the same time,
one on Indiegogo (English) and one on Campfire (Japanese).
The Indiegogo campaign collected $16,215 (about 1,540,000 yen)
and the Campfire campaign collected about 560,000 yen ($5,867).
Although the total contributions exceeded that of our previous campaign on Kickstarter,
both campaigns unfortunately did not reach their respective target levels.

Tailly was my first experience with crowdfunding.
With the registration and screening process required, just creating campaigns on
both Kickstarter and Indiegogo was very difficult for me as a Japanese citizen living in Japan.
Adding to that difficulty was the fact that I do not speak English fluently.
And yet, thanks to the collaboration of many individuals, there was a huge global reaction to Tailly.
I am particularly grateful to Asia, Robert, Xavier and Mayumi who helped me with translation,
interview and other media requests and Facebook user feedback response.

I would like to suspend the Tailly project for the time being.
If I tried to force Tailly into commercialization with an insufficient budget,
I would be unable to conduct sufficient product development and testing,
and would end up delivering an inferior product to all of you.
That is because it would constitute a major risk for the factory and the distributor helping us manufacture and sell Tailly.

I have been in negotiations with trading companies concerning the initial manufacturing costs for Tailly.
Although the immediate prospects of those negotiations have been significantly clouded by the result of the Indiegogo campaign,
if I am fortunate enough to find a collaborator willing to make a large capital investment, I will relaunch the Tailly project.

I would like to draw a line here for the time being, and move on to our next project.
We at Kiluck Corp. intend to continue bringing new and interesting prototypes to the world.
Our efforts are now focused on delivering our next product which we hope you will find appealing.

Our Indiegogo campaign will be over in four days. Several of you have voiced concerns over the fact that the momentum of our funding efforts is not as good as we had hoped, so I would like to write a few lines by way of explanation.

In the event we do not reach our funding goal on Indiegogo, I do not plan on extending the campaign or attempting any further crowdfunding. Since I set it up as a “fixed funding campaign,” all contributions made will be refunded by Indiegogo in the event we do not reach our funding goal. Moreover, in such a case, Tailly will not be manufactured or shipped to the contributors. Therefore, if you are still hesitating whether or not to support Tailly, please contribute to the campaign now.

Some of you asked about what happened with the Kickstarter campaign. Since that campaign was not successful, all contributions were automatically refunded in full.

Tailly was introduced at “Zoom In! Saturday”, the morning news program in Japan.

(Q9) How quiet is tailly when in operation?

(A9) When the tail wags, the motor makes a squeaking sound.

(Q10) How long is this battery life?

(A10) Tailly works with 4 x AA batteries. This prototype works 8-12 hours continuously.

(Q11) how easily can you make your on tail for tailly? i really need a purple tail for the cosplay i want this for.

(A11) It is difficult for me to respond to individual requests concerning color and shape. We welcome user-driven DIY projects.

(Q12) Can this also be used as a lie detector? There is correlation between a person lying and higher heart rate.

(A12) ECG measurements at waist-level are not as accurate as those at chest-level, so Tailly is not accurate enough to serve as a genuine lie-detector device. That being said, it might be fun to use Tailly in place of a lie-detector device as a game at a party. The fact that it is not too accurate may actually be a good thing in that situation.

(Q13) Will you make the tail or the emotion logging app syncable with other brainwave sensing devices.

(A13) Although I am interested in projects of such a nature, it is too difficult for me right now to take care of anything other than Tailly. I wouldn’t be able to devote time to providing maintenance or ensuring the safe functioning of an application.

(Q14) Is Tailly same as shippo?

(A14) I also developed shippo, which reads your brainwaves, whereas Tailly reacts to your pulse.
A statement about shippo is provided on neurowear’s website at:
http://neurowear.com/project s_detail/shippo.html

(Q1) How large of a tail (length, width, weight) can the Tailly support and still work properly? I would love a longer one.

(A1) Since it is difficult to try all possible shapes, I cannot ensure safe performance with anything other than the standard provided tail.

(Q2) What’s the narrowest width a custom Tailly sleeve would be when attached? I have some friends wondering about how close to a cat tail it could be. They think the current version is a little fluffy and short.

(A2) The current width of the base is the narrowest possible at 12cm in circumference.

(Q3) Will there be other tail types available in future? Like cow’s tail or horse tail something?

(A3) My current priority is bringing Tailly to market, so I don’t have any concrete plans to sell other tail cover types right now. If we succeed in bringing Tailly to market, I think it would be nice to collaborate with other companies or have tie-ups to create limited edition tail covers. However, it’s difficult for me to respond to individual color or shape requests. We welcome user-driven DIY projects.

(Q4) Wagging is fine if you’re a dog-person, but with Necomimi cat ears, won’t it look like you’re angry?

(A4) Yes, I believe a cat wags its tail when it’s on alert or angry. Dogs wag their tails when they’re happy or react to something positive, so I designed Tailly in the image of a dog’s tail.

(Q5) I would like to know the waist size of these because I’d love to have one but I’m afraid it may not fit me.

(A5) The size of Tailly’s belt is adjustable up to a maximum size of 45 inches (115 centimeters).

(Q6) Is it water proof?

(A6) Tailly is not water proof.

(Q7) I want to know if the necomimi can be connect at the taily?

(A7) Since necomimi does not have an external communication feature, it cannot connect to Tailly. At one point, I did make a prototype Tailly that communicates and moves in conjunction with a necomimi, but that necomimi was a unit that I personally modified.

(Q8) How are you recording heart rate? Where are the sensors connected?

(A8) Tailly measures ECG signals via electrodes located on the inside surface of the belt and operates in response to the wearer’s heart rate (heartbeat interval).