Talelight is the world’s first-ever electronic bumper sticker that lets you share your social mode right on your vehicle.
This project will only be funded if at least $75,000 is pledged by .
We love social media – sharing our favorite news, photos, thoughts, updates. Checking into places, checking out what’s going on with friends and family. Getting support for new businesses, fundraising and our favorite causes. But you have to be in front of your computer or mobile device to do it. So one day, we thought – what if we could bring social to the road? Why not use our cars to share, too?
Talelight is the world’s first-ever electronic bumper sticker that lets you share your social mode right on your vehicle. The Talelight display unit is electronic, so you can manage it with your mobile device.
We’ve built a Talelight Sticker Store where you can browse and buy stickers in categories like sports, nature, parenting, and art and schedule them to display or change when you want, on your schedule. Plus, you can create your very own bumper sticker and keep it for yourself – or sell it in the Sticker Store! Just create and upload your ‘bumper stickers’ to the Talelight website – as many as you like.
Talelight easily mounts on your trunk lid with an adhesive backing that sticks to your vehicle without damaging the paint – totally do-it-yourself. Your bumper provides extra protection for the display unit, too.
Simply route the 15' USB cable (included) into the car and plug it into one of your car's USB ports or a 12-volt cigarette lighter to USB port adaptor. Talelight is low power, so it will not run down your car battery. Once your car has been idle or stationary for a period of time, Talelight simply turns itself off.
Choose your stickers: Our Sticker Store will have hundreds of stickers ready to purchase and download on our launch date later this Summer. You can set your stickers to rotate on your schedule, changing as often as every 15 minutes — or even choose specific times and dates to fit your own schedule.
Create your own stickers: Got something to say? Create a bumper sticker using your own software – then simply upload your message in JPEG format and you’re ready to use it just for yourself or add your sticker to the Sticker Store and sell it. We have simple templates you can use to get started.
Being on the road is tough. Long commutes. Carpools. Traffic. Now with Talelight, you can make driving fun again by sharing your ‘mode’ and being social – on the road, in the parking lot, in the garage, in your driveway, at the game, concert or fundraiser – literally everywhere you go. And you can share your news, updates and thoughts with more people than ever before.
Best of all, we’ve made it easy to change your bumper stickers as often as you update your social status. Rotate your favorite stickers throughout the day, by season, by event…whenever, wherever!
The electronic display is what makes Talelight different than any other product on the market. You’ll have more freedom of expression because you can feature one sticker, five, or ten – and program them to change as often as every 15 minutes.
Hardened against all environmental conditions, whether you live in Arizona or Minnesota. We’re talking tested torrential downpours; ice and salt exposure; display prevents water ingress to protect the electronics – even pot holes!
What’s really cool about Talelight is that you can create your own bumper stickers – keep them to display for yourself OR sell your creations in our Talelights Sticker Store. The Sticker Store makes buying stickers as easy as buying music online – and with stickers starting at just $1.29, it’s an inexpensive way to be social everywhere you go!
Download, Display and Manage Your Stickers.
The Talelight website and app (available for iOS and Android) give you the tools you need to manage your bumper stickers on and off the road:
Got a way with words and visuals? Want to support a cause or special interest, raise awareness or generate business? Talelight lets you do all of that and more.
Your sticker creations are encrypted, so only the buyers who purchase them can display them. (Breathe a big sigh of relief for artists and creative folks tired of their work being shared illegally. That always bothered us, too.)
All stickers are run through an approval process for licensing or copyright infringement and to ensure that content is socially responsible.
You and your Talelight will make beautiful poetry together - but first we need your support! Pledge today to help us bring the Talelight to market later this summer at a reasonable price point of $149.99. We have 75 prototypes in hand and are going through beta-testing now – but we need your help to complete the development, create a library of cool stickers and enhance Talelight features. With your help we can bring the Talelight to market in plenty of time for the fall election.
Help us help you be more social on the road – and be one of the first to share your mode on the road with an electronic bumper sticker from the future!
Given where we are in the project we are pretty confident we will be able to deliver the units in the September time frame. We have a number of environmental tests to perform over the coming two months which could undercover a problem that could delay our launch. We will also need to receive FCC certification prior to shipping.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterTalelight is attached to your vehicle with tough adhesives that are designed specifically for outdoor applications. The same adhesive is used with GoPro cameras. This adhesive is tough enough to withstand extreme temperatures, potholes, and makes it difficult for a thief to remove easily. Keep in mind, however, that the value of a Talelight display for a thief is essentially zero. Each Talelight unit has an encryption algorithm, so unless a thief has your unique user name and password, which is required for registering your device, they cannot change, add or modify any images on the device – negating any benefit of having a Talelight and limiting potential ‘resale’ value on the street.
One option to further deter theft is to mount the Talelight inside of your vehicle, for example, on the rear window. This installation may result in reduced display brightness due to the extra layer of glass. We are currently developing mounting brackets that make it easy to “clip” your Talelight on and off of your car quickly and easily.
Our primary goal is to replace a printed bumper sticker with an electronic one and so we are not trying to be any more noticeable than the bumper sticker you may have on your car today. The Talelight is configured to only emit enough light so that it is viewable from the typical distances that you can see a standard sticker. Talelight does not compete with other lights on the back of your vehicle. Talelight sticker images do not flash or contain moving images; Talelight simply displays content the same way that an old-fashioned bumper sticker does – except Talelight is electronic. We really are not any more distracting than anything else on the road but this is a new product so; federal, state and local laws may vary.
We looked extensively at solar power early on in the project and determined that it was not practical to use for three reasons:
• In order for the Talelight display to be seen in all lighting conditions, we had to procure a custom LCD display that operates at high power during times of bright sunlight. In order for us to guarantee a reasonable display time, we would need a very large battery which is both expensive and cumbersome. The battery would need to be much larger than on say, an iPAD. Reliably charging a battery of this size with solar power is difficult at best.
• For the unit to be seen by other drivers, we need to mount the device vertically on the car. For solar collectors to be efficient, they must point towards the sun, which mean they should be mounted horizontally. We would need a separate solar panel connected by a wire to the Talelight display, which again would make installation more difficult and cumbersome.
• Batteries of the type used in common electrical products do not charge below freezing. This would mean a large part of the country would not have working units in the winter – and no mode on the road for you.
These three reasons are why we decided to use a much more reliable power supply: the car. We understand that routing a cable into the car and to a USB or cigarette lighter is not ideal, but in our testing installation, this process typically took less than five to ten minutes and it only needs to be done once. Satellite radio after-market kits have required users to perform a similar process with the antenna cable.
