Category Archives: species of the moment

Hardshell Labs 2018 Update

Hardshell Labs 2018 Update

  2018 was a busy year for Hardshell Labs. In this short video Tim Shields describes several of our projects and shows you a few of the tools we have in development for conservation: drones of various sorts for various missions; a semi-autonomous rover for tortoise surveys; a remotely controlled laser for bird repulsion (especially… Continue reading »

Smithsonian Online

Recently Mike Austin and Tim Shields of Hardshell Labs, Inc. were interviewed for an article by Smithsonian Online’s Samantha Schipani. She was particularly interested in our ideas for conservation games involving internet players. Of course, the emphasis was on desert tortoises but our view is that the progress we are making toward the goal of… Continue reading »

Hardshell Labs’ Techno-tortoise™ Episode 2: The Tool

The story of this episode is the rapid advance of technology in the service of conservation. In a short space of time the Techno-tortoise™ went from an intriguing idea through an initial “low resolution” version printed on a low end machine at Haines High in Alaska to a state of the art, highly realistic model… Continue reading »

Hardshell Labs’ Techno-tortoise™ Episode 1: The Problem

Hardshell Labs’ Techno-tortoise™  Episode 1: The Problem

Here is the first in a four part series of short videos about the Techno-tortoise™, Hardshell’s 3D printed tortoise model. Tortoises are under assault from ever increasing numbers of ravens. The young reptiles are essentially defenseless for their first 5-7 years. For all that time they must somehow avoid being spotted (and eaten) by the… Continue reading »

Autodesk + Hardshell Labs + Tortoises

The brilliant, kind, talented and beautiful animal lover Tatjana Dzambazova led her October 2015 Be3Dimensional presentation with Hardshell’s collaboration on our (revolutionary-to-biologists) Techno-Tort™. I just found out she lead her B3D presentation with us, and I’m especially honored. The conference at which she presented was the first ever B3D conference! Her presentation is titled, “Rip Fix Burn |… Continue reading »

Won’t They Be Afraid?

Won’t They Be Afraid?

 A natural concern for people new to the idea of tortoises sharing the desert with Hardshell’s rovers is for the reaction of the tortoises to these foreign entities. Many people have asked, “Won’t the tortoises be afraid?” I have spent hundreds of days following tortoises around, recording their behavior at close quarters. It is pretty… Continue reading »

Lady’s Choice

A Tale of Sex and Combat Some stories just don’t fit into a 350-500 word blog post format. Nature can’t be shoehorned into soundbites. I will be posting these stories periodically, and providing a link here for those of you who want to take a deeper look into the lives of tortoises, my history with… Continue reading »