Look at Glowforge who has had weapons grade intellect focused on computer vision for quite a while now and are still looking for refinement.
In their rush to emulate Glowforge, wouldn’t surprise me if FS reach exceeded their grasp.
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I have fallen victim to “they can do it it can’t be THAT hard” mentality often enough to buy into this
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I agree. I think they underestimated the issue. Its not a trivial problem to solve. Before you even get into distortion of the images, you have the tolerance stack up between the head, camera, XY gantry, and limit switches. Then you have to map the image you get to the physical machine, which isn’t trivial. Throw image distortion into the mix, and you can have a huge problem.
My bet is they are having an issue with both software (mapping image to XY, image distortion) and hardware (tighter control on the tolerances).
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Is it bad and wrong that my initial response to the news of their delay is something along the lines of “Neener neener!”?
I’m not a 
cheerleader. Certainly a supporter who is rooting for them, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to their mistakes. By the same token, I don’t hate FS (if the Muse comes out first and proves to be of good quality, I may have to consider it) … but all things being equal, I’m not impressed with the aggressive and overt way that FS made a play for GF’s customer base when delays were announced. With that said, this delay strikes me as an amusing bit of instant karma.
Neener neener, FS. Try again.
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No one was coerced into cancelling their order. The same way no one was forced to order a Glowforge.
I won’t argue that showing pictures of stacks of boxes can be misleading, but we had announcements come out at the last hour indicating issues shipping too. One might want to make similar arguments about the marketing video showcasing functionality and making it look like it was ready for prime time. Certainly it was implied given the first 3 month deadline to start shipping.
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I really doubt anyone on this forum jumped ship to the Muse because of that CES video. Maybe looked at it with interest, but pulled the trigger, no.
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OK, maybe coerced isn’t the right word. But the point remains that they specifically targeted Glowforge customers (with sales material and incentives if you can prove you cancelled a Glowforge order.)
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I don’t think I read about anyone on this forum cancelling and ordering Muses, but several folks on the Facebook group have.
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I can’t wait to hear of their experiences!
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And we have seen that from GF - they didn’t say the boxes were filled with GFs or that they were ready to ship, just posted the pic of all the boxes…likewise pics of a ton of GFs lined up in a row 
The selective display of “capability” swings both ways.
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I agree. We, as the end consumers, need to be able to discern the hype from the reality. It’s not easy…
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Feel free to join the group and follow along: https://www.facebook.com/groups/905784596166200/
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I think we could go back and forth on this until the sun goes down. The bottom line is – decide what you want and order it. They are different – from what they do (or will do) to their price. So – if you like what the GF is going to do and you like what all the beta users and pre-releasers are showing us, get a GF. If you like the Muse and what it advertises it will do, get a Muse. If you have the where withal and are so inclined, get one of each. 
Who tried to trick who, or mislead who, or paint a picture rosier than it was as far as delivery dates – it is a moot point and merely an exercise in stories we have made (since we are not insiders at either company, we don’t “know” anything).
Me – I’m happy right here. I like how the GF is shaping up, I like how they communicate and share with us, I like the pictures and videos of what is being made, I like this forum and the community it is building. I’m patient and willing to wait.
When I was little, you had to wait to make a phone call until the party-line was clear; you had to eat 10 or more boxes of cereal to have enough box tops to snail mail in and get the toy; and my Mom collected green stamps with every week’s groceries to save enough to get a mixer. Waiting for something amazing is half the fun… 
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Thank you, sir – 4 for 4.
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They just released (4 hours ago) a tutorial on how to use the camera feature:
so the focus is not auto - you do use a “billet” that is about 1/4 inch off your material and lower the head to it.
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Wow that felt low budget and awkward.
Also I have to say the “9 pictures that were stiched together seamlessly” don’t look very seemless. I guess it’s good enough to position, but that’s all it pretty much does.
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That was interesting.
I thought so at first, but upon closer inspection, it appears it’s just the lighting/shadows that are uneven. The edges of the laptop appear to align pretty well.
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Yeah, I’m calling shenanigans on that. The laptop edges align too smoothly. The only way they did that automatically in software is if they had everything set up for the exact height and placement of the macbook. They don’t appear to have any sort of depth sensor on the head, so if you put something of a different thickness in there I don’t think the edges would line up.
I’ll believe that their camera alignment system works as advertised when I see unbiased video reviews posted. Considering Glowforge has a serious head start on them and they still haven’t nailed it, I’m not optimistic.
Still feels like they took a hobby laser they already had in development, saw the Glowforge video, and slapped a camera on it so they can say “me too!”
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