Month: December 2014

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Home Technology

The Remote Snow Plow and Blower gets the yearly snowpocalypse under control

Winter is a drag. If people aren’t sad from the darkness and cold winds howling outdoors, the constant snow storms will frustrate them on the mornings when their car is buried under several feet of snow. Having to wake up early in the morning and gear up only to dig out a driveway or a parked car makes most wish they had a robot to do it for them. Luckily, those desperate pleas were answered by the folks at SuperDroid Robots and have resulted in a monster of a solutions.

The company’s Remote Snow Plow and Snow Blower are two 3/16 thick welded aluminum tanks that run 4HP motors that treat snow in exactly the same way people feel towards it during those blustery winter mornings. RC controllers allow users to stay inside and wrapped up in cozy, warm blankets while the plow or the blower goes to town on the snow outside. No matter which way backers choose to deal with the snow outside, they can begin the day assured that their feet won’t completely freeze over even before their morning walk. An unassembled Snow Plow includes all of the components for self-assembly and goes for $5,700, while an unassembled Snow Blower goes for $6,200. A fully assembled Snow Plow or Blower goes for $7,200 or $8,500, respectively. All are expected to be shipped in October of 2015 provided the campaign reaches its $60,000 goal.

Both of the robots are terrifying in the best way possible, offering the possibility of complete snow annihilation from the comfort of one’s hot chocolate, but are incredibly heavy and pretty expensive. To fully prepare for the winter, a Snow Guard can be used to protect your car from overnight frost while a pair of Digitsoles can keep feet warm when socks won’t do. All this together would make anyone a rugged winter warrior.

Categories
Chargers/Batteries

Flat Attack charger lets waning phones assault its battery

It’s amazing how fast the charge on a phone can become depleted. And it’s not always easy to find a safe charging port when on the go. That’s why Flat Attack was created. This battery-operated charger only takes one AA battery, but provides 40-60 minutes of talk time, or four-six hours on standby. It charges smartphones, portable music players, and many other mobile gadgets. Since it’s roughly the size of a standard car key, it’s small enough to fit on car key ring or in a pocket or purse.

Having a personal charger at one’s fingertips seems like a great idea. But since batteries don’t last forever and this product may not get used on a regular basis, it might be nice if there were some sort of indicator to let users know when the battery is low so that it can be replaced before discovering that the battery in the personal charger is dead, too. Interested backers might also want to check out the Kodiak campaign. This campaign seeks to raise $30,000 AUD (~$25,300 USD) by December 23, 2014. For $23 AUD (~$19 USD), backers get one product with an expected delivery of February 2015.

Categories
Organization

360 Shelf brings a new twist to holding small items on a wall

Shelf space is key when it comes to trying to organize one’s living space, second only to a good floor plan. The 360 Shelf attempts to offer shelf space for the little things that clutter up life, but it appears that several of them would be needed to really be very useful. Users can choose from multiple angles for the shelf, or affix it so that it is level. The Beachwood shelf units come in four different finishes. Some instillation is required using a single screw for mounting.

It’s not clear what the measurements of the shelf actually are, but it appears to be fairly small, only holding 1-3 small, book-sized or tablet-sized items, depending on the items. Other interesting products designed to help with organizing the home that backers might like to check out include the Shelfie, Bench, and StaX to name a few where getting organized is concerned. This campaign seeks to raise $15,000 by December 23, 2014. Early bird backers get one shelf for $40 with an expected delivery of February 2015.

Categories
Health and Wellness Smartwatches/Bands

Embrace smartwatch watches out for epilepsy, other conditions

There are lots of smartphone apps out there that measure our health. When the necessary information is put in, the app interprets high levels of stress, not enough sleep or other detrimental health effects. The one huge flaw with this model, however, is that the app assumes the information it’s given is correct. It’s difficult for people to measure their own vital signs if they’re not doctors.

Embrace cuts out the guesswork. This smartwatch monitors health and then relays that information to an accompanying app so that the data it provides is accurate. Embrace looks at sleep patterns, heart rate, stress levels and is especially adept at helping those with epilepsy. For parents or spouses who have loved ones with epilepsy, they too can wear an Embrace. When a seizure starts, the information is given to the app which will then alert designated caregivers that help is needed.

Embrace comes in different colors and two sizes: large for adults and small for kids. Best of all, the campaign is matching each smartwatch purchased 1:1. That means that for every Embrace given to a backer, one will be given to a child in need with epilepsy. The body of the watch is medical grade, but the band is Italian leather, secured with a magnet.

This smartwatch takes the very idea of a smartwatch even further. Most focus on receiving texts or e-mails or even monitoring run times. Embrace serves a bigger purpose by monitoring help and has the potential to save lives. Other than the fact that the magnet may not be the best securing method for a watch, Embrace sets itself apart from other frivolous smartwatches. Backers can have their very own for a donation of $189 for delivery in July 2015. Embrace hopes to raise $100,000 on Indiegogo.

Categories
Fitness Wearables

Arki walking coach tracks steps, coaches posture

Having good posture gets more and more important as time wears on. The older we get, the harder it is to straighten up, resulting in pain and injury.

Arki is a wearable band that monitors your posture while you walk. It learns habits, like walking and texting, and tracks these movements into an accompanying smartphone app via Bluetooth LE. By measuring arm swing speed, rotation angle relative to gravity, vibrations from feet and other data, Arki can tell whether you need to having better walking habits like taking measured steps, standing up straight and bending the arms and will let you know when to do this with a vibration.

Arki has several other features like using your walk as a passcode and compatibility with smart thermostats. All in all, walking is an important activity that we engage in, but like any other activity it has the potential of being done wrong. It’s nice to see a product that gives feedback for something so common that it is often forgotten. One will cost backers $149 with estimated delivery in April 2015. Arki is looking to raise $100,000 on Kickstarter.

Categories
Winter Sports

AXS Snoogee Board combines sledding and snowboarding for thrilling ride

Sledding is a snowy winter favorite for kids and adults alike. There are lots of different kinds of sleds out there from those that offer large capacities to those who claim speed.

The AXS Snoogee Board takes the traditional sled model and updates it with the utility of a snowboard. This double-tiered sled has a small straight board on the bottom and a wider board on top to lie on top of. The rider lays on top with their head facing down the mountain. AXS is built in such a way that the rider has maximum steering and stopping control. With a low center of gravity, the risk of injury is reduced upon falling off the sled.

Obviously the first question with this product is safety. However, the creators have addressed this issue in their campaign with a video and testimonials that they let their kids use the sled too. One will cost backers a whopping $700 AUD (~$580 USD) with estimated delivery for July 2015, perfect for the Australian wintertime. AXS is hoping to raise $220,000 AUD (~$181,700 USD) on Kickstarter.

Categories
Safety

ImageLock offers a little graphic safety

Trying to remember the combination on a new lock or trying to open one that has been sitting around for a while can make for difficulty in remembering the combination – especially if one has multiple locks. Image Lock offers a traditional combination lock with graphics rather than numbers.  Another alternative to a numerical combination is WordLock since words are often easier to remember than random numbers. Both products are made of steel, though WordLock may be more suitable for outdoor use. WordLock makes up to 1000,000 words, whereas ImageLock seems like it may be more limited in creating a secure combination.

ImageLock may also be great for small children who don’t read very well yet since pictures are used for the lock. Other locks in which backers may have an interest include Salt and Iron Brick Case. This campaign seeks to raise $3,000 by December 21, 2014. For $11, backers get one product with an expected delivery of January 2015.

Categories
Personal Transportation

Streamline your daily schlep with Haul-a-Day lightweight cargo bike

Biking has experienced a renaissance over the last decade and really taken hold as the primary mode of transportation in cities across the United States. Unfortunately, the market has skewed towards performance bikes and cruisers that offer effective transportation but without the carrying capacity people would need to be able to use it exclusively. Cargo bikes are available for those who are looking for that utility, but they’re heavy and have strong riders in mind.

Bike Friday’s Haul-a-Day is a reimagined type of cargo bike, one that can carry anywhere from 200 to 300 pounds while still being adjustable to fit riders 4’6″ to 6’4″ tall. The bike weighs in at 32 pounds, a light weight that aids its agility and allows any type of rider to effectively carry around anything they’d need, including other family members! The team at Bike Friday wants to empower anybody to live a bike-focused lifestyle with a variety of attachments that can change its utility based on a user’s needs, and their $45,000 campaign is looking to add other rider-friendly capabilities like electric assist. The standard eight gear Haul-a-Day goes for $999 while the deluxe, 24 gear version goes for $1,699, both of which are expected to be delivered in July 2015.

The Haul-a-Day improves on competing cargo bikes by offering something much lighter and versatile. Its premium price is justified as it’s meant to be used as a daily vehicle, but one problem Bike Friday doesn’t address is inclement weather, one of the last big issues for those who want to do so. In any case, the team address lots of other, more pertinent problems so their Haul-a-Day warrants support.

Categories
Smart Home

Channel your inner Joaquin Phoenix with Cubic AI assistant

Movies like “Iron Man” and “Her” have posited the idea of digital AIs that exist beyond the borders of their physical confines. They present a conception of technology where we could command these systems to do things for us, whether it be to set up a room to the user’s liking to simply ordering some pizza. With each passing year, what was once incredibly far-fetched technology has become more and more commonplace, and the team behind the Cubic has stuffed it all in a box and mix it in with lots of smarts.

The Cubic is a humble looking, Wi-Fi enabled box that houses a personal AI bursting with intelligence and charm. Its multi-topic conversational system allows users to naturally respond to jokes, news, text messages, and phone calls. From the current weather and traffic time in the morning, keeping users up-to-date with emails and news throughout the day, or preparing a user’s home by controlling connected home automation devices on their way back, Cubic is incredibly versatile and presented to be effortless to use.

The device boasts a 25ft range of voice recognition at home but Cubic doesn’t end when users leave: a wearable Power Badge takes Cubic with you so that users can constantly stay informed and have total control over apps like Dropbox and Facebook with or without headphones. It can also learn: Cubic will adapt to a user’s humor, and users can teach Cubic to critique movies and even differentiate types of liquors. The $195 Cubic is expected to be delivered by November 2015 provided the campaign reaches its $100,000 goal.

The Cubic bears a more than passing resemblance to Ubi and Amazon’s Echo, but is looking to provide more than a home-based, voice-controlled device but rather an AI assistant that can be of help all day. It’s hard to believe the Cubic works as well as it’s being presented, though, as many companies have been trying to nail down voice recognition for years and still have trouble recognizing basic phrases. Cubic is promising in theory, so it would be a shame if the team behind it dropped the ball.

Categories
Aquatics

Trekkayak blows up your wilderness water transportation

When doing some of that extreme wilderness hiking in the great outdoors, a good boat or kayak is important, but inconvenient to carry around. A kayak that’s lightweight, durable and especially portable can mean the difference between conquering that raging river verses having to find a way around it.

The demand for kayaks that can either be easily assembled without tools or are inflatable is growing among outdoor enthusiasts. And the creators of Trekkayak are working to get their product paddling along in a market that is gaining some momentum. This inflatable kayak is designed to fit in a backpack when not in use, and is small, light, and durable as a tent at about 6.5 pounds. The product has two hulls and a two-layer design, as well as a detachable trampolin that’s above the waterline to help keep users remain dry and warm when using the product in cold water. The maximum weight that this kayak can hold is not clearly indicated.

This product seems to have been designed with the more experienced in mind given the choice to use Cordura fabric for the hull and light thermoplastics for the bladder, but these things also add greatly to the lightweight aspect of the product. Backers may also want to check out the Folbot kayak campaign, as well as the All Terrain Cover, and Funnell campaigns. This campaign seeks to raise kr70,000 ($11,600). For kr223 ($37), backers get one product with an expected delivery of March 2015.