Field notes
What we are learning, written down.
Notes on angle, ergonomics and the habits behind precise work — from the people building The Align.
The Counter on Our Site Is Real, Which Is a Problem
Our batch counter reads from the order system. Because manufactured scarcity is so common, a real number is indistinguishable from a fake one.
The Tools a Three-Person Team Actually Needs
We built our own order system instead of buying one. What we built, what we deliberately did not, and where that decision will break.
What We Publish for Machines
Structured data, llms.txt, and a plain-text copy of everything we say. What each is for, and why we treat them as claims rather than metadata.
Our Articles Were Invisible to Half the Internet
We shipped an articles system that fetched its content with JavaScript. To anything that does not run JavaScript, every article was a blank page.
Sharing a Name With a Much Bigger Company
Search for our product in a dental context and you get someone else. What we did about it, what we deliberately did not do, and what actually works when the name is already taken.
This Site Sets No Cookies and Runs No Analytics
We collect nothing about visitors. Not as a privacy stance for its own sake, but because for a team this size, not holding data is the only protection we can actually guarantee.
Cash on Delivery, and What It Costs Us
We take payment when the courier arrives and collect no card details anywhere. That is a deliberate choice with real costs attached.
Keeping the Screen From Slowing the Sensor
Drawing a frame and reading a sensor must not share an execution path. Why we separated them, and what goes subtly wrong before you do.
What Fits on a 128-Pixel Screen
Designing for a 128 by 128 display is not a scaled-down version of designing for a phone. It is a different problem, and a more useful brief.
Setting the Reference: What "Zero" Means on The Align
The Align measures from a point you choose, not from anything it works out on its own. That distinction decides how the whole device behaves.
What We Do Not Claim, and Why We Removed a Number
We published a performance figure we could not substantiate, and we have taken it down. What happened, what we changed so it cannot happen again, and what has to exist before it comes back.
Choosing a Deviation Limit: What the Number Actually Controls
The Align asks for one number before you start: how far the handpiece may drift before it says something. What that number controls, and how to think about picking one.
Developing a Real-Time Dental Handpiece Angle Guidance Device
What we learned building an IMU-based angle-guidance device for a dental handpiece: why sensor fusion is unavoidable, what calibration actually fixes, and why the feedback channel mattered more than the filter.
Designing Feedback for the Moment You Cannot Look
A screen is useless at exactly the moment the user most needs it. That single observation shaped the whole feedback design: three channels, each for a different kind of attention.
Why We Build in Batches of Twenty
Every Align is built as part of a numbered production run rather than shipped from stock. Why that is, and what it costs us as well as what it buys.
Everything On One Button: Interface Design Under Physical Constraint
The Align has a single button because every additional control is another thing to press wrongly while holding something sharp. What one button has to carry, and what that costs.