Author: Nicholas Echevarria

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Connected Objects Technology

LaserDock lets you beam your own laser light music show

The high of any music event is addictive simply because it’s so difficult to experience that same sort of joy outside of it. On one hand, this makes sense: a true venue built to properly express music is unique. Still, it doesn’t mean some of that feeling can’t be taken home.

The LaserDock is a low-cost laser projector designed to bring the trippy visuals of music clubs and festivals home. It comes with hundreds of built-in visualizers and laser shows that react to music in real-time, creating different patterns each and every time.

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Smart Home

VOME gives Siri a bunch of outlets around your home

It’s 2016 and the smart home “revolution” is well underway. Unfortunately, that revolution fizzled out as soon as it started. The problem isn’t a lack of devices — look anywhere online for connected home devices and discover a glut of dual-syllabled hubs and plugs for anything you may need — but rather a lack of standard tying them all together. This was the problem at the very beginning, and it continues to be a problem now.

Mark Van Der Spuy’s VOME home automation system tackles this problem by piggybacking off of iOS. Specifically, Siri and Apple’s foray into home automation with HomeKit. The VOME system itself is comprised of a 4-Way Control Unit that any dumb object can be plugged into, allowing anything from lamps to curtains to coffee machines to be controlled simply by issuing voice commands to Siri.

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Cell Phone Accessories Connected Objects

Avoid yodeling by keeping in touch with the BONX Grip instead

Many outdoor sports like biking, climbing, and rafting all have an inherent element of danger. And while effectively communicating helps groups of enthusiasts avoid disastrous situations, there’s been a glaring lack of easy-to-use communication systems for these outings.

Now there’s the BONX Grip, a rugged, hands-free Bluetooth earpiece designed to facilitate group chats in the name of increased safety while climbing cliffsides or shredding fresh mountain snow. The BONX Grip works in tandem with a companion app that sports a simple UI. With it, users can easily start a chat session, later using their voice alone to facilitate the voice chat. Large mute and volume buttons on the BONX Grip itself augment the earpiece’s functionality.

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Music

Isolate yourself in the ambience of reduced sound

Despite the best of intentions from earplug manufacturers, they’re doing it all wrong. Instead of products that block sound in a way that’s still enjoyable, they usually muffle sounds. While this might help with a significant other’s snoring (and then, not even by much), absorption like thi will result in distorted sound in the high and mid frequencies, and little to no reduction in bass frequencies. This imbalance is stressful and tiring.

patent-claimedAfter its first successful Kickstarter last year, Flare Audio set their eyes on what they say as an outdated piece of design. By replacing the traditional materials used for most earplugs (plastics, silicones, and foams) with a piece of aluminum or titanium, the company created the Isolate. The micro earplugs are tipped with a proprietary foam material that adjusts to a person’s ear canal for a snug fit, its metal core reaching deep within the canal. This allows the Isolate to block noise from entering the ears and attenuate all frequencies, essentially turning off the ears to direct noise.

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Food and Beverage

The Hypercool lets your brews chill in only a minute

The heat of the summer season means beaches, barbeques and lots of brews, something the crowdfunding world has always been cognizant of with projects like the Coolest Cooler and the Kreweser. But while these offerings meant easier ways to transport food and beverages along with extra features like USB chargers and wheels, none address the age old problem of warm drinks, aka the bane of a get-together.

patent-claimedThe HYPERCOOL portable cooler address this problem using the magic of physics. It can be filled up with water, frozen overnight, and then be used to rapidly cool cans or tall boys of one’s favorite beverage. How? Using an external motor that spins the can over that bed of ice. The friction cools the beverage in just 60 seconds; wait 30 more seconds and it’ll be ice cold.

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Connected Objects Luggage and Bags

The Modobag carry-on won’t ride into the sunset

The last time Backerjack covered the Modobag, a numerous luggage-turned-transportation projects had already failed before the team behind the Modobag LLC went out to attempt raising $160,000 in 2015. Unfortunately, that Kickstarter ended up being a dud, raising just $21,000 of its original goal.

Modobag LLC is back at it again with its Modobag rideable carry-on luggage, this time opting to focus its crowdfunding efforts on a flexible Indiegogo campaign instead. Despite the lukewarm reception the last time around, the product is receiving a much warmer welcome this time. That’s not surprising: At its core, the Modobag is a compelling offering, which is why it’s still pretty much the same bag the team offered last year. It still combines a roomy 2000 cubic inches of interior space with a motor within that can achieve a top speed of eight miles hours per hour with a range of about six miles. (This isn’t Fast and Furious, folks.)

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Connected Objects Imaging

Find Dory (in Ultra HD) with the Octospot 4K diving camera

editors-choiceWhile action cameras like the GoPro are more popular than ever, none of them address the particular challenges divers experience. Factors like pressure, temperature, and quality require equipment that balance toughness with quality.
The ideal diving camera is versatile, durable, easy-to-use, and able to generate high-quality stills and video. The Octospot does all of this and more. The cylindrical device is made of anodized aluminum and polycarbonate for a sturdy design that doesn’t require an external casing like other action cameras. This allows divers to get to a max depth of 656 feet without any adverse effect on the product. While they dive, the Octospot constantly monitors depth, temperature, and pressure data, displaying it all on the device’s 0.5″ OLED display for quick reference or overlaying that information later over the 12 MP stills and 4K-caliber video divers can review and easily share using the Octospot iOS/Android app. 

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Connected Objects Sleep

This smart pillow has you covered from A to Zeeq

Both the quality and amount of sleep people get are directly correlated with their quality of life. Despite that common knowledge, most Americans report not getting sufficient sleep because they engage in the bad habit of snoozing their alarms, or they suffer from snoring. Snoozing an alarm starts a new sleep cycle that can’t be completed, and snoring shaves two to four hours of restorative sleep each night.

Inventor Warren Bell and Miguel Marrero are approaching the problem of sleep with their Zeeq smart pillow. This smart pillow works with a companion app used to activate the pillow every night. Before going, users set an alarm and answers some optional questions about their day on the app itself. Zeeq’s eight internal speakers can stream music from services like Apple Music and Spotify (that only the person can hear — not their partner) to help guide them to slumberland. While they’re sleeping, Zeeq gently vibrates when its built-in microphone detects snoring to encourage a change in position, all while analyzing sleep patterns throughout the night with its three-axis gyroscope.

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Fashion Luggage and Bags Music

The LiLu Smart Bag makes you the light of the party

The fashion of EDM culture is as unique as the music it produces, with festivals packed to the gills with attendees flaunting some of the most vibrant, colorful, and standout outfits you’ll ever see. It makes sense: the point of most of these festivals is to be happy and friendly — and make an impact while doing so.

While there are plenty of ways to do so, there aren’t many stronger than the LiLu Smart Bag. This slim purse sports a flexible LED panel that reacts in real time to music that’s playing, making it a perfect companion for any EDM festival. An internal pocket in the purse itself is great for keys and other small accessories, while beside sits a micro-USB slot to charge the LiLu’s 10-hour battery.

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Chargers/Batteries

The ATILIUM power bank keeps you charged up all day with dope design

Getting through the modern work day means having enough juice powering the connected devices needed to get from point A to point B. Because of this, there’s no worse feeling than seeing a battery indicator turn red as it begs for more power. People usually carry around charging cables and power banks to mitigate the problem, but in the end, no one really wants to do either.

Inspired by his childhood in Brooklyn, New York during the Golden Age of Hip Hop, Louis W. Colon III’s ATILIUM is an effortless blend of nostalgia and practicality. Immediately, the power bank’s slim design draws attention because it was made to resemble a pager, a cultural icon immortalized in countless songs, movies, TV shows and literature from the decade. By combining this design with a 4400mAh battery, the pager is resurrected for a more modern purpose.

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