Author: Arthur Tufeau

Categories
Wearables

Here earbuds let you tune how you hear the world

In the beginning there was the volume control, and it was good — so good in fact that it launched an infinite number of ways to tune and distort audio. But there was always a catch. The audio had to be playing through some kind of device, whether it be a transistor radio, CD player or iPhone.

But now, for the first time, people will be able to apply some of the same adjustments they’ve made to recorded audio to real-life audio via Here Active Listening earbuds. Somewhat of an equalizer for the real world, the Heres use a digital signal processor to allow you to not only tune people out, but change their bass and treble settings as well as a host of other options. The app comes equipped with a number of settings to take into account prolonged aural unpleasantness such as a baby crying or a being in a plane.

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Categories
Connected Objects Nutrition/Hydration

HidrateMe smart water bottle glows when you need more hydration

Water is essential to life, but it can sometimes be difficult to keep track of how much you’ve had, how much you need, and when to drink more.

The HidrateMe bottle uses a sensor and Bluetooth to communicate with a smartphone app about how much water to drink and when to drink it. The company’s CEO, identified as Nadya, explains that the team put together the initial Arduino prototype in less than three days. The product has come a long way since then, though, and now includes a refined sculptured look as well as a ripple near the spout.

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Categories
Input Smart Home

Nuimo dials up a gesture-sensing disc that can control anything in the smart home

editors-choiceWith the number of apps for it slowly increasing, the smartwatch has a shot at supplanting — or at least complementing — the smartphone as the control point for the connected world. But smartwatches aren’t really communal objects around the home and navigating them can often be laborious.

Nuimo seeks to address those issues. The simple control disc, available in a black or silver-white combination supports four main modes of interaction. Users can click them, rotate them, swipe their surface, or perform gestures above their surface. The last three gestures support multiple directions. The campaign video shows Nuimo responding to a music volume command by having the user raise her hand above the surface of the device.

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Categories
Connected Objects Input

Phree lets you scribble on any surface, saves notes to your phone

editors-choiceWhat do Texas and mobile device interfaces have in common? Everything’s bigger there. Touch screens such as those in nearly every smartphone and tablet today set a new bar for ease of use. But their fingertip friendliness came at the price of precision compared to the mouse, which could pinpoint things on the screen.

patent-claimedPhree, however, takes a fresh approach to the idea of a pointing device for smartphones. Unlike other smart pens that work directly on the surface of the smartphone or on paper, Phree allows scribbling on virtually any surface and sends its output to the screen and is compatible with existing pen-aware applications.

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Categories
Cell Phone Accessories

EVOL sees no evil in creating a modular phone case

They may be called smartphones, but — unlike we humans — they can’t really improve based on what they’ve learned. The capabilities they’re born with are the capabilities with which they’re discarded, at least when it comes to their hardware.

That said, the iPhone may soon be able to tap into a range of performance-enhancing modules thanks to the design of EVOL, a case that can accommodate up to four rectangular add-ons. This resulting design looks somewhat like a metallic Hershey bar. EVOL modules include the expected battery and flash memory as well as a more powerful camera flash and some specialty lens modules such as fisheye and wide-angle. EVOL touts its slim form factor and integrated charging with the iPhone. As such, it’s come out with a dock that can charge both the modules an phones as well as the Apple Watch. Money is the root of all EVOL. The company seeks $50,000 by June 23rd,  A standard bundle available in black or white is $69 with an expected delivery of July.

As the world waits for the likes of Project Ara, crowdfunding campaigns are attempting to bring the benefits of the modular phone to existing popular models. EVOL is notable for its relatively slim profile that attempts to preserve the iPhone’s form factor even with modules attached. However, as with Nexpaq, it faces many obstacles in trying to build out a third-party selection of modules.

 

Categories
Imaging Smart Home

Remocam looks over a human family, controls its own device family

Once upon a time, the idea of a camera ready to capture anything in a home would have sounded like something out of 1984, But the past few years have seen no shortage of connected indoor security cameras that allow for surveillance of those unwelcome in a home or ways to check up on those who are welcome.

Remocam looks a bit like a levitating black golf ball. It includes night vision capabilities, takes a unique approach to the security cam market, going beyond watching to doing. Some of this is handled by the camera itself, which includes a speaker for, say, singing your baby to sleep remotely  But to take full advantage of the system, users will need to buy in to the company’s eclectic collection of smart home gadgets that include mainstream outlet adapters and bulbs, but also an automatic pet feeder called RemoPet. The latter is at least aggressively priced. The company seeks $50,000 in its Indiegogo Flexible Funding campaign. The basic Remocam is $199, a $50 discount off the expected retail price.

Remocam represents a middle ground between simple cameras and cameras loaded with home security sensors such as the Oomi Hub. That system also works with its own family of devices, but can also tap in to any Z-Wave device. Both systems have a great opportunity to take advantage of a larger family of devices in the connected home.

Categories
Connected Objects Cooking Health and Wellness

Connected compact GeniScale can weigh yams, yachts and you

Scales can come in handy for all sorts of tasks from weighing luggage to avoid extra fees to weighing portions to avoid extra pounds.  Because of their various tolerances, scales proliferate. There are body scales, food scales, postal scales and others.

GeniScale seeks to be the one scale to rule them all, or at least one set of scales to rule them all. The compact device, which looks a bit like an Apple TV, can be used to weigh smaller things out of the box. Weighing a person, though, requires either a good sense of balance or combining multiple GeniScales under each foot. Indeed, it’s through this combining that the tiny GeniScales can weigh very heavy or awkward things.

GeniScale has a companion app with which it communicates via Bluetooth; it  can be used to set up conditions. For example, one can be alerted when the weight of a couch changes to detect when a pet has jumped on it. The company is seeking to raise $120,0000 on Kickstarter. GeniScales are priced at $89 plus shipping and are due to ship in July

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Categories
Smartwatches/Bands

Watcher watch watches what warrants watching

Consumers are still trying to figure out exactly what the relationship will be between the smartphone and the smartwatch. However, one popular task that smartwatches can help us with is sensing more about our environment.

In the case of Watcher, that might include things that are in danger of possibly leaving one’s environment. The smartwatch has a number of features common to smartwaatches — an e-paper display like the first Pebble, notifications from a smartphone, and basic step counting. However,  Watcher can also track up to five objects in its proximity via a low-power RF system. These might include a wallet, kids, pets or keys.

A thermometer add-on is also available for, say, monitoring a baby’s temperature. Watcher also can track how long it’s been next to another Watcher for something it calls “sweet time.” It’s a feature similar to the main reason for another recent Kickstarter watch, Serendip.

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Categories
Augmented Reality Connected Objects

ARBot can appear as a tank or race car, makes augmented reality a ball

From ANKI Drive to quadricopters, humans love guiding robots around for enjoyment, especially from their smartphones and tablets. The shapes and features of these machines, however, are often defined by their physical form, which can curtail the imagination factor in paying with them.ARBot

That limitation may be greatly reduced by the likes of ARBot. A spherical robot with a groove in its center that follows the trail of Sphero, ARBot can be controlled by a tablet. However, a companion app allows the ARBot to appear as a race car, tank, or just about anything else. Different kinds of games can take advantage of its different appearances inside the app. Up to 60 ARBots can engage in a battle royale. The battery lasts between 1.5 and 3 hours.

ARBot seeks to raise $30,000 by June 19th. A standard ARBot costs $119 and should be available by January 16th. A special carbon edition si also available for 10 times that amount.

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Categories
Furniture

Leano props you up, covers your butt anyplace you want to sit

Summer concerts, picnics and just reading in a field are all great activities that provide a few choices for enjoyment. One can drag along a big beach chair or camping chair or bring a small blanket and seek out a tree or something else to lean on for support.

A cross between a mat and a chair, Leano is about as minimal a seat as one can develop. It fits easily in a backpacknd weighs almost nothing. The entire constriction is a long sheet of fabric (which appears to be about 80″ long) draping off a rod and two 19″ long stakes that prop up one end. The fabric protects the backside and legs from grass, dirt or sand while the poles prop up the back.

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