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Progress report #30

21 July 2025  <- Previous

New Input Labs staff member

Maria Bortnichenko joined Input Labs for a temporary assignment as Strategy & Business developer, over the next few months she will help us analyzing the market, and how our devices align with it.

Additionally, she will explore partnerships with other companies, and potential investors.

Please join us in welcoming her to the team!.

Kapybara development is happening

After careful consideration of the applicants, we selected 10 testers with disabilities, along with an additional 10+ testers without disabilities (mostly self-supported testers). The number of testers is significantly smaller than that for the testing phase of Alpakka, so we hope this allows for closer follow-up of the individual cases.

We prioritized testers with limb difference / amputation, neuromuscular disorders (dystrophy, sclerosis, palsy), or musculoskeletal disorders (arthritis, carpal syndrome, strain injury).

Most of the testers with disabilities have already participated in 1-on-1 introductory meeting, so we got an initial understanding of their current setups and requirements.

From the 3 potential controller shapes (see previous post), we decided to start experimenting with a symmetrical shape. We did a few iterations with different sizes and button placements, and printed a several non-functional mockups made with recycled PLA bio-plastic.

Placeholder components
Buttons arrangement
Non-functional mockups
Grip ext. + finger strap

Layout so far (not final)

Top

Thumb finger
  • 2 mini-thumbsticks (second thumbstick might act as dpad or 8-directional).
  • 4 select buttons.
  • Scrollwheel.

Front

Index finger
  • 6 bumper buttons.
  • Touch surface.
  • Big home button (so the thumb is free for profile switching and home shortcuts).

Front

Middle finger
  • 2 triggers (can be used simultaneously or individually).

Grip

Ring and pinky fingers / Palm
  • Optional mini finger-strap.
  • Optional grip extension (for bigger hands).

Soon we will distribute these non-functional mockups among testers to get early feedback. The most tricky aspects of the design we want to check with them are:

  • Size and ergonomics of the controller.
  • Button placement and angle of operation.
  • Grip extension for bigger hands (see picture above).
  • Finger-strap / full-strap.

We will adjust future mockups/prototypes based on the feedback from our testers, and maybe try other shapes and layouts.

1.1.0 update for Alpakka firmware and Ctrl app

It started as a small compilation of hotfixes after the v1 release, but ended up being a significant update with many fixes, quality of life improvements, and some minor new features.

Links and full changelogs:

TL;DR:

  • More stable wireless.
  • More stable gyro.
  • New LED animations for low-battery and pairing.
  • Hold home 5 seconds for power off.
  • Global thumbstick smoothing option (adjustable in Ctrl app).
  • Thumbstick saturation limit increased to 200%.
  • Ctrl app PWA: Offline support, and full OS integration as an app.
  • Mouse sensitivity as DPI.
  • Dongle protocol sync automatically with controller.
  • Many firmware and app stability improvements.
  • Many app UI tweaks.

Thanks for the support! 🤍
- MMM (Marcos, Maria, and Michael)