If you haven't already, may I suggest you look on this site at the Name That Plant forum and the one/s for weeds and pests. Those who post answers there are already game-engaged. Having a tool that enables quick and accurate identification of mystery plants seems to be associated with a certain sort of mindset. I'm personally not sure whether this can be passed on to the general public. If I had one - it would have to be robust, water and dirt proof, solar powered, and linked to databases that range from the sub alpine to the tropics (please look at the zones part of the user ID to see what I mean). The databases would need to span indigenous flora, pest plants for the area, exotic introductions. (Or useful subsets, initially.) Various online sites already have the foundations for this - here, with Hortiplex, Dave's Garden, Floridata, Pacific Bulb Society etc. If this is a serious tool, then make it for serious users - including those perennial pests - botanists, who are forever changing perfectly good species names(!), growers and breeders, plus the nice folk at Bio-security and parks & reserves rangers and volunteers, and botanical gardens such as Kew. If you want to make a 'fun' toy for a small segment of possible users then that's a very different marketing exercise.

'A couple of years' I note there is just a brief mention in their latest financial report. Below is a link to a somewhat more informative article than all the stale press releases. (extracted quotes below) "..It turned out, however, to house an R&D company with some very clever people and technology, including a linear compressor , a compressor that uses gas bearings, creating very little friction and, therefore, energy savings..... Project designer and assistant engineer for the new compressor technology, Gordon Otte, believes it is testament to the strength of that design philosophy that Embraco dropped its own linear compressor design to embrace Fisher & Paykel's technology..... When the company revealed the technology last September, he admits he was surprised to realise just how long it had taken to develop. "It did take a long time, but that was because there was a lot to invent," he says of the project, which is protected by at least 15 basic patents. " Here is a link that might be useful: How Fisher Paykel took on the World

I am so glad, Sue, I know everyone will enjoy it! Funny you mention the cost. When I first embarked on this, I was thinking it will be a big impact present where the gift is our time not the cost. Yikes, even with the 50% off, each book was $200 OMG. I didn't really expect that, but after all the work putting it together, I wasn't going to go back and trim. I may regret making them so large, 11x14, but I know i usually like photos to be bigger. I also fell for that very pricey for that "lay flat" upgrade that allow you to do those "centerfold" shots. Heck, i actually fell for every type of upgrade they offered, including a storage box. And then I have the engraved USBs and those boxes. But oh they will be so pretty. I actually went with this one because I liked the idea of putting a photo with it. They also have them in navy, grey, and Tiffany blue. I was upset that I had to switch my product to Shutterfly, but I have to give them a big shout out. They have added so many features to their books, and so many options for designing them. Plus, they still had my photos on there from 2005, though I had not done business w them in years. In some cases, they were photos i did not find anywhere else in my files. Whew. One of the best parts of making the book was doing the captions, and adding in things like scans of their footprints, their baby announcements, etc. I also commissioned DH to write a letter to each of them talking about the day they were born and their first few years. He did a wonderful job, brought tears to my eyes and made me laugh, too. We finished yesterday. Finally. Annie - love that tree! we do have a few photo ornaments, but a whole tree! Fab Running - Even from book 1 to book 3 i got better at it and fancier. There are soooooo many options and embellishments and features. And if you have the right dates on your photos, the autofill feature is a great start. Enjoy!

Hello, For my GCSE Design, Technology and Engineering coursework which I'm currently working on, I have decided to combine my interests birdwatching and engineering and create a technologically complex birdbox for detecting the presence of and recording nesting birds. However, in order to complete this task, I need to gather market research to inform my design decisions. As a result, I have created a short survey and would really appreciate it if you guys could help me out be taking a couple of minutes to fill it in. The survey is linked hereand the questions are all quite simple so it won't take too long. Thanks for your help! Ted