When planning a day around appointment notifications, there doesn’t appear to be a middle ground. Pop-up alerts or alarms either seem to happen too early to be significant and are quickly closed, or so late that the only option is to stop everything and run out the door. The Smart O’Clock combines the display of a standard wall or desk clock with Bluetooth Low Energy and electronic ink to solve this problem. Using a standard analog clock face with an extra segmented ring, the Smart O’Clock syncs up to any calendar app on iOS or Android phones and blacks out segments of the day that are already spoken for with activities. The approach seems more useful than the e-ink-based aclock. Smart O’Clock will arrive to customers who pledge at least $69 in July 2014.
Author: Michael Radon
Personal safety is always a concern, but being able to feel safe while discreetly alerting the authorities is a difficult balance to maintain. The SafeRing appears to be a normal ring accessory but is actually a powerful smartphone tool. With a miniature switch designed to avoid accidental triggering, the SafeRing can trigger the alarms on your phone and send GPS data to an emergency contact via text. It’s a low-key version of the Cuff line of Bluetooth-enabled safety jewelry. The ring can also be put to other non-emergency uses, such as locating a lost phone or activating a camera for a hands-free selfie. Backers can get a SafeRing in September 2014 for $35.
The Premise. As great as smartphones are, the frequency with which they alert users with notifications can be extremely distracting. Setting custom notifications can single out the truly important information, but can be time-consuming to set up and can be impolite in social situations.
The Product. The ORBneXt is an updated version of the Orb art piece/single-pixel notifier created by Ambient Devices in its early days. It’s a hand-held, easy to use accessory that can sync up with any phone wirelessly and display notification information through a series of ambient colors. The ORBneXt connects to a phone and its Wi-Fi network by resting on top of the device, and then , using a blinking-light sequence similar to the one used by Quirky’s smart devices, can be programmed through its app to monitor information like weather, sports scores, stocks, and more. That information can then be tied to colors (for example, turn red when the weather’s getting warmer), so that the displaying color carries with it information that matters to its user’s life. The ORBneXt is made with a stylish Japanese glass housing, and has an easily modifiable brain in addition to its flexible IFTTT-enabled app.
The Pitch. The creative minds at Ambient Lumonics Labs show off the ORBneXt inside and out with their campaign information. The video focuses on the everyday use of the device while the photos and text cover all the technical details and stress how easy the device is to customize for any need. A second video that demos the product does a better job of selling the device’s strengths for the end user. Advanced Lumonics Labs needs $12,000 to complete a market-ready product in order to apply for certifications.
The Perks. Backers looking to score an ORBneXt can have one by August for a pledge of $79. Anyone with one of the older Ambient ORB devices can retrofit it to function as an ORBneXt for $69, with self-installation. If that’s too long to wait, a prototype of the device is available in June for $500.
The Potential. The flexibility of the ORBneXt’s internal hardware and its app belie the simplicity of the information it can display. Unfortunately, without being able to acknowledge a notification and clear it or get more precise details without unlocking the phone and looking at the app, its effectiveness is limited. The device does look sharp at home on a desk or in the office, but the amount of time it saves is measured in small bursts of seconds, and might not be worth it for some. Like the original Ambient ORB, the ORBneXt’s appealing form is overshadowed by its lack of function.
The Premise. No matter how hard people try, it seems like once high school and university are complete, it’s hard to maintain the same level of friendship with people. As friends move away and professional and family lives become more prominent, keeping closely in touch with people grows more difficult.
The Product. The Feeling Skin is a case for iPhone 5 and 5S that aims to bring back that simple, honest level of communication by creating simple, easy-access notifications. The display light on the Feeling Skin glows either blue or red to show when friends are in a good or bad mood respectively. To display a mood, users record a video of their current location and situation and display a mood to it. For those that want to be proactive, a button is available at the bottom of the case to ping added friends to post their current mood. Additionally, the Feeling Skin acts as a battery pack for the iPhone, offering an additional 80% battery life.
The Pitch. The team at Twelve Monkeys Company are eager to show off how intuitive and easy using the Feeling Skin is to keep in touch with friends. The campaign explains something that isn’t addressed in the video — the Feeling Skin app is available on the major mobile platforms, but the skin itself is only available for iPhone 5 model phones at this point. Twelve Monkeys wants to raise $40,000 to complete tooling, testing, and mass production.
The Perks. Backers can get a Feeling Skin for just $49 as a limited deal. All rewards are expected to ship in July.
The Potential. The chances of the Feeling Skin finding a foothold in the mainstream market are pretty slim. At first, the idea of having a private little inner circle of great friends sharing videos and moments with each other sounds tempting, but like any social network, this one would inevitably be filled with people that sat in adjacent desks in homeroom. Having extra battery power is a nice add-on, because if it was just the mood network or the battery pack, there wouldn’t really be anything here worth buying. Everything this device does is pretty much already handled just fine, whether by phone call, text, Facebook, or Instagram. At least it allows users to charge an iPhone with a microUSB cable.
The Premise. The beauty of streaming music is that listeners can enjoy the music they love, no matter where they are. Transferring that access to an audio system worth listening to, on the other hand, often proves to be more difficult.
The Product. The Gramofon is designed to take all the accessibility of a Wi-Fi hotspot, and put that to use to stream music in the home or office. By using Facebook credentials instead of various wi-Fi passwords, it’s easy to use the Gramofon app to connect and start pumping music through any stereo equipment. Right now, the app supports Spotify natively, but there are many other streaming services expected to be added later. AllPlay technology, also supported by Musaic, provides compatibility with an emerging set of music sources.
The Pitch. With one of the more slickly-produced Kickstarter videos in recent memory, Fon CEO Martin Varsavsky and his team take viewers through Fon as a Wi-Fi hotspot company and how the idea of turning hotspots into music players led to the development of Gramofon. The entire campaign smacks of the same trendy, simple design that the device itself supports, and the confidence the developers have in the product will likely carry over to those supporting it. Gramofon needs $250,000 to start the party, increasing the number of support services, finalize the design, and go into production.
The Perks. Getting a Gramofon will take a pledge of $50 for black, or $60 for white. Both products are expected to arrive in July.
The Potential. Devices like these are starting to crop up, combining the ease of having thousands of songs streaming from any device with the enjoyment of sounds through proper audio output channels. The modern design is similar to the Aether Cone, but the Gramofon really only provides the phone connectivity – more pieces required, but a better sense of control. Also similar is Apple’s Airport Express, but this device only handles music instead of full network sharing like the Airport, although that device has become a bit more streaming-friendly with the launch of iTunes Radio. Fon is also promising backers will get full free access to their millions of hotspots by supporting the Gramofon, so that can be an added incentive to pledge. All in all, the Gramofon is an inexpensive option that offers the quirky benefit of joining into a Wi-Fi-sharing network further along in Europe, but those who want a device that does more won’t yet be satisfied with what this product has to offer.
No matter how well it brings the room together, the alarm clock tends to be one of the most unpopular devices in the home. Ranging from the simple and classic to more modern inventive takes, the alarm clock really only needs to be successful in one way. With wireless Bluetooth synchronization with phones and a Kindle-style e-ink display visible in all levels of light, the aclock is a technologically modern take on the alarm clock that works in conjunction with a phone. In the process it doesn’t really do anything a phone can’t already, but provides a nice, external display. The aclock is currently available for pre-order.
The war on sitting is in full effect, as research has shown that standing throughout the day is better for disease prevention and workplace productivity. Of course, being able to transition from standing to sitting at a desk is rarely both simple and cost-efffective, only recently being realized with products like the Stir Kinetic Desk. The StandDesk is looking to change that with its simple automatic adjustments and ergonomic design. The StandDesk boasts a strength of 225 lbs. at any height, and convenient allowances for both device cables and surge protectors. The StandDesk can be a part of any home or office in September 2014, and the standard kit starts at $399.
The Premise. The downside to upgrading a home’s lighting system to something more advanced than a simple on/off switch is learning how to make use of the new control panel that comes with it. Adding functionality without overcomplicating things is a constant struggle for any design.
The Product. While it may look like a children’s toy from the future, the m!Qbe is really a lighting control system designed to make the most of modern lighting and its features. By programming different settings into the faces of the cube, changing light distribution, color, and brightness is as simple as setting a different side of the m!Qbe face up. Certain faces are also motion-enabled, allowing users to twist the cube to adjust colors or dim lights, and indecisive owners can even shake the cube to randomly generate a lighting option. The m!Qbe is open-source, allowing designers to develop applications for the device beyond lighting.
The Pitch. Positioned in the video as a solution that even the designers’ grandma can use, the m!Qbe product demonstration is equal parts simple and confusing at first. Once it becomes clear that users design their own preferences to the different symbols on the faces of the cube, making use of the device proves to be that much easier. The flexibility of the luminaires is on display with the variety of options shown in the video that can be changed on the fly with a simple roll of the m!Qbe. m!Qbe designers Blue Asterisk UG want €120,000 to finish streamlining the device and moving into the testing and production phases.
The Perks. An m!Qbe control is available for pledges of €125, available in October 2014. Add-ons are plentiful, with wi-fi for an extra €15, an extra charger for €25, and an extra base for the luminaires for €95. The complete set can be shipped out for those that contribute €235, with higher tiers including more components.
The Potential. The m!Qbe is very modern in its design, turning a complicated light panel into a simple handheld cube. While it’s open-platform design makes it flexible to tackle any kind of appliance or home ambience system, a simple app could do the same thing. The m!Qbe is a home novelty at best, something that could be replaced by a more intuitive system.
The home sprinkler system is such a herculean labor to set up that usually once it’s in place, most people don’t bother adjusting it ever again. This can lead to wasted water where it isn’t needed and an increase in utility bills. The RainCommander is a wireless irrigation control system that can be used to schedule and control waterings more effectively. From any mobile device or tablet, sprinklers can be paused, turned on, and run en masse or just targeting a specific area of the lawn. The RainCommander will be available in May 2014 and will require a minimum pledge of $159 to get the base system.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the world with over 13 million cases each year. People know how to engage in heart-smart diets and behaviors, but sometimes that isn’t enough to protect oneself from a cardiac episode. The LifeKeeper is more than just a heart rate monitor, sending vitals to a user’s smartphone and assessing the data to determine if there are any health risks at that present time. LifeKeeper collects data through questions, activity tracking, sleep analysis, and creates a profile which can be viewed or that will trigger an alert in a potentially health-hazardous scenario. A LifeKeeper can be had with a pledge of $199, complete with sensors and the app, arriving in December 2014.