Inventor Melissa Thompson's Journey To Engineer The Practical Thoughts Of Her Imagination
Melissa Thompson was working as part of a safety crew on the Charles River in Boston, when she noticed something peculiar about the long precession of rowers racing by her station.
"The number of people who collide with bridges is just astronomical," Thompson said.
Every time a rower in the Head of the Charles Regatta race slammed into the bridge, she would launch the rescue boat to haul the rower to safety. It was … a reactive strategy.
"I was sitting in the boat, and I said why doesn't someone put cameras on these boats? Because, you know, rowers row backward,” she said.
That spark of inspiration was like many others Thompson, a native of Schenectady, N.Y., has had in her lifetime. A good idea that would take effort to bring to fruition – an idea that would briefly illuminate the possibilities of her future, and then ultimately spin into darkness.
"Over the years I have come up with a lot of whacky ideas and never followed up with any of them," said Thompson, who has lived in New Hampshire for more than three decades.
But something was different this time. As Thompson sat on that safety boat, and saw rowers slam into that bridge again and again, her whacky idea seemed to gain significance. For the first time, she was ready to go for it.
Before working in the safety boat on the Charles River, Thompson had been a big time corporate consultant who helped companies get new products approved by the FDA. But in 2011, she was unemployed and looking for a new opportunity.
She decided to make her whacky idea a reality. She pulled in an engineer friend and they hacked together the very first prototype of the camera-screen concept that she had imagined – but not quite.
"We jerry-rigged it with some AA batteries and duct tape," Thompson said of her prototype. "It was literally the worst thing you’ve ever seen - I still have the original in my museum now.”
It would take three years and about $1 million to turn that prototype into a camera system that rowers – and others -- would actually want to use. Along the way Thompson made some first-timer mistakes, she admits, and yet today her business is on the way up and she continues to reach new markets.
For instance, while Thompson had rowers in mind when she first started hacking together her prototype, she soon found that her camera set worked in many other situations. Some folks have put the camera in their horse trailer so they can monitor what their equine friends are up to at 70 mph over the highway. These cameras have been installed on farm silos, on a crop duster, on tractors and on ferries.
Some RVers have used the camera system as a back-up camera or to watch the interior of a trailer while traveling.
"The biggest challenge was how darn long it took to get a design done - to get the electronics done - and not knowing that in addition to all of these things you have to do, you also have to go through FCC and all the electrical standards," Thompson said, “- and every country has different specs you have to meet if you want to ship products into those different countries."
The camera creates a wireless network to transfer all the data to the 5 inch HD handset. The device is basically waterproof and has a radio range of 1/3 of a mile. Three packages are available for sale – all of them costing $499.
The Cruz kit is aimed at the rowers who inspired the product in the first place. With a narrower viewing angle, the camera is made to see obstacles in the same general direction that the boat is moving. The kit includes the sunlight-readable monitor, the camera, a flush mount, a rail mount, two antennas, two chargers, and one cleaning cloth.
The journey kit has all the same accessories, but it is meant for attaching to trailers, airplanes, bars, or any “other application where clear visualization can help prevent collisions and provide safety monitoring.”
The journey kit wide angle is exactly what it sounds like – the kit with a wide-angle camera. All the cameras have 4-8 hours of battery power and are water resistant and build to a rugged specification for an outdoor lifestyle.
The company has sold close to 1,800 units since October 2014 - which is when they first started selling. Thompson said they have logged more sales every month in 2016 than they had in any quarter of 2015, so business is picking up steam.
"The phrase we are using - it is so versatile you can use it literally anywhere," Thompson said.
The idea that sparked this journey while she sat on the bay has taken her into a whole new direction, and she now stands at the helm of a very serious business. Thompson spends much of her time crisscrossing the country, renting booth space at tradeshows to sell her wares. Whatever the challenges of life and business may be, and whatever direction she is looking, Thompson is sure to see the obstacles in her way.
David Irvin
A graduate with a Masters Of Science from the University Of North Texas, David has written on many beats including crime and business for such outlets as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Montgomery Advertiser & USA. He enjoys RVing and surfing the Internet.
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