Free validation

A short, free, bounded validation on your own frames, with the acceptance threshold agreed before any data is taken. It is the first step; the paid step after it is the design partnership.

Why this exists

We do not claim measurement accuracy. Absolute height accuracy, per-pixel uncertainty and repeatability ship as not-yet-established in our own reports, and traceability is flagged false, because no physical target has been measured against an independent reference on a rig we do not own.

The validation is how that changes. It produces the artifact we do not yet have — your frames, your independent reference measurement, and our reconstruction, all three committed. You are helping create the evidence, and the evidence belongs to the record either way.

What you provide

1. Roughly 20 frames from your own rig. Not a curated best-case set — a representative one.
2. One independent reference measurement of the same target, from an instrument or method you already trust. This is the part that makes it a validation rather than a demonstration. Without it there is nothing to compare a reconstruction against.
3. Your optical parameters — illumination wavelength and the pixel pitch at the plane your sensor actually sampled.

If you cannot produce an independent reference measurement inside the validation window, say so early. We would rather postpone than run a validation that cannot produce a comparison.

What we do

1. Scoping call. We agree the target, the frame count (at most about 20), one rig configuration, and the reference measurement. We also agree the acceptance threshold — what result would count as a pass — and we fix it here, in writing, before any of your data has been seen. A threshold chosen after seeing the data is not a threshold.
2. Reconstruction. Your frames through the same API anyone else uses. No special build, no hand-tuning that you could not reproduce yourself.
3. Comparison and report. Our reconstruction set against your reference measurement, with the outcome stated against the threshold agreed in step 1 — including when the outcome is a miss.

What you get

• Every reconstruction, with its provenance record and content-addressed report ID.
• A comparison against your reference measurement, reported against the pre-agreed threshold.
• A result whose input, settings and software you can check yourself, and publish if you want to.

If the validation misses its threshold, the report says so. That is the point of setting the threshold first, and we would rather hand you a committed negative result than a flattering one you cannot reproduce.

Timeline

10 business days from the day your frames, parameters and reference measurement are complete. Long poles are almost always on the input side, not ours.

What it costs, and its bounds

Nothing. In exchange it is bounded: about 20 frames, one rig configuration, one independent reference measurement, 10 business days. It includes no hardware, no custom code and no NDA-scoped work; those belong to the paid step.

We also agree, in writing and before any data, what happens if the threshold is met: the next step is the $10,000 / 90-day design partnership, with a decision date and a named signer. If the threshold is missed, the report says so and nothing else is owed.

Data handling

Your frames are used for the validation and for nothing else. If you require an NDA, it is signed before any frame is transferred — not at contract stage, not afterwards.

Raw uploads are not retained unless you opt in, and you can delete your results at any time (see data retention). Validation data handling is agreed explicitly at scoping, in writing, including how long anything is kept and what happens to it at the end. Retention is policy-driven and class-keyed, and unclassified records route to a named owner rather than defaulting silently.

Getting started

Have ready: what you are measuring, what your reference measurement is, and whether you can produce both inside the window. That is the whole qualifying conversation.