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Comment by jcjray | Hacker News Reader

Nth Degree Technologies invented this product. http://www.nthdegreetech.com/

Here is one relevant patent: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8846457.html

Here is an album of various pictures taken earlier this fall (2014), and also just a minute ago with two pieces I had around the house: http://imgur.com/a/nBB5r

The technology is several things: it is real, it is sufficiently bright to stand up to daylight conditions, and it is mass-producible. It has raised interest from various industry sectors.

Lastly, this technology is not the work of Rohinni. They bought some pieces from Nth Degree, and what their business plan is, who knows. They did not invent it, legally cannot produce it, and it is doubtful they have the the technical knowhow to do so anyway.

In short, Rohinni is taking credit for a product they did not make.

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> Lastly, this technology is not the work of Rohinni. They bought some pieces from Nth Degree, and what their business plan is, who knows. They did not invent it, legally cannot produce it, and it is doubtful they have the the technical knowhow to do so anyway.

Well, these seem like some pretty definite claims that should be easy to back up with evidence?

I'd say they are rather extraordinary claims, given the differences between the Nth Degree prototypes and the Rohinni prototype shown on the website.

Nth Degree's product honestly looks far more plausible, given its unusual characteristics (speckled luminance distribution, blue cast, restriction to clearly separated strips). It's considerably harder to find Rohinni's compromise-free prototype credible, with its consistent, diffuse, apparently-broad-spectrum light. But that just makes it even harder to believe an accusation that they ordered a few Nth Degree strips and went to town with them.

I've only seen pictures, but it seems plausible to be able to take Nth degree strips and add some kind of thin diffusion film over the surface, to remove the speckled look. Certain materials can also absorb blue and re-radiate multi-spectrum light.

Plenty of companies sell a product where the technology is licensed from another vendor and the manufacturer of record applies some design, QA, and marketing to it. Foxconn manufactures Apple computers, all of the celebrity endorsed perfumes come from the same few manufacturers, lots of phone companies source entire models from ODMs, etc.

Rohinni has a strictly better marketing campaign and more compelling webpage, and only requires a single email to get in touch. Your website is hard to navigate and asks for too much information to get in touch.

Neither company has a "Buy product now!" button.

The tie goes to Rohinni (even if their team photo looks kind of try-hard).

I know this is discouraging to hear, but I'm certain that you aren't the first company to ponder flat lighting on paper--moreover, your product appears to have a cool light pattern that doesn't actually match the use case of "I need a flat even diffuse lighting that doesn't look like a predator blood spray".

Those photos are wicked cool and very beautiful in their way too (reminds me of a star field). Thanks for sharing.

"Rohini" is the Indian name of a constellation, so you're not the first to make the connection :)

let's talk

How do you know that Nth Degree Technologies is one and the same as Rohinni? Searching and reading through all the articles I was not able to establish any link between the two companies.

He seems to be asserting that they are _not_ the same entity.

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