Roc Camera

My friend July recently released a new camera called Roc that takes verifiably unaltered photos.

Roc was designed and manufactured by a small team of three here in Northern California. They worked out of July's garage and spent the better part of the last year ironing out the manufacturing processes to ship their first batch.

I went to pick up my pre-ordered Roc a few weeks ago at their launch event in Pacifica. A group of us gathered in small seaside studio to hear about the team's journey and their hopes for what's next.

Why does Roc need to exist? Because when deepfakes are free to create, authenticity becomes priceless.

Roc uses cryptography and custom hardware to digitally sign each image produced by the camera. There are many use cases for this technology, and we spent some time discussing them: journalists can use the camera to document humanitarian crises; participants in a supply chain can prove their obligations were met; carbon companies can document the results of their real-world sensor readings. The list goes on.

We also talked about the technical nitty gritty. I spent about thirty minutes discussing the finer points of wire crimping with July's cofounders. When I asked to see the specific tool they had ordered, they brought it out as though it were a holy relic made of gold.

"This cost us $350", they confided. "It's the best investment we've ever made."

Working on a bootstrapped hardware project is a lesson in efficiency.