Author: Nicholas Echevarria

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Smart Home

Gidjit Beacons know their place in the smart home

Outfitting a home or apartment with connected technology seems like a good idea until the simple action of turning on a light means unlocking a smartphone, searching for the connected light’s specific app, launching it – you get the idea. Despite the noble intentions behind connected tech, a lot of them actually end up making what used to be simple tasks way more involved.

Team Gidjit thinks its Gidjit Beacons can help in this regard. Each beacon is a small, disc-like device that can be placed in any room and associated with whatever connected devices are present, like Nest thermostats, Philips Hue lightbulbs, or even Apple TVs. As users move from room to room and in closer proximity to different Gidjit Beacons, the Gidjit iOS app displays a constantly updated list of available devices and services that can be directly controlled, all without having to go on a wild goose hunt every time.

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Connected Objects Cycling

The FeelSpace belt pokes and prods you back home

Getting to a destination has never been easier with smart devices and their large, colorful screens capable of showing the exact way to a destination. While that’s a perfect solution when simply walking around, that’s not quite the case when it’s particularly sunny, there’s a lack of connectivity, or when riding a bike, easily becoming obtrusive to the activity at hand.

To address these navigational challenges, the team behind the FeelSpace belt took the information on the screen and found another way to communicate it: through directional vibrations on the belt itself. This means that vibrations on the belt go off whenever the wearer needs to change direction, making navigation effortless.

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Categories
Wearables

The Pebble Core wearale agent helps runners at a new clip

Crowdfunding darling Pebble, the company behind the first truly successful smartwatch, is back at it again. In refining its brand of practical design, the company recently debuted its next generation of devices. While the two smartwatches introduced, the Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2, were expected, a third device called the Pebble Core is the company’s attempt at an ultra-wearable that ends being surprisingly useful on a daily basis.

One of the biggest things about the Pebble Core is its tiny size, the result of it having been designed first and foremost as a workout companion. With it clipped to the collar of a shirt or at the end of a tank top, there’s no need for a bulky smartphone wrapped around the arm or waist. Without a smartphone, though, those who are active have to contend with being disconnected, a problem the Core solves with its built-in micro-SIM card reader. This allows it to connect via 3G in order to track pace and distance (in conjunction with its embedded GPS), stream music using Spotify, send emergency text messages, and interface with a wide array of fitness apps, from Google Fit to MapMyFitness.

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Categories
Robots/Drones Sports

Trainerbot could take your ping pong to Forrrest Gump levels

Ping pong is one of those sports that absolutely requires another person to play with. There are a lot of caveats to that, though: If both players are terrible, not much will happen in the way of actual ping pong. If skills levels are vastly different, not much will happen in the way of actual ping pong AND someone’s feelings will be hurt. As a result, it’s difficult to effectively practice playing ping pong.

The Trainerbot turns any table into a suitable location for some hardcore ping pong practice. Its lightweight design can hold 30 ping pong balls but still be tossed into a backpack. This robot has a lot of functionality, able to serve any type of shot (topspin, backspin, sidespin) anywhere on a table and adjust difficulty depending on a player’s skill level.

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Connected Objects Displays

SeeNote puts a connected sticky note on your wall

While most companies are busy trying to figure out how to get additional devices into your home, there a wide variety of tried-and-true inventions like the infamous sticky note that do their jobs exceptionally well. The team behind the SeeNote took it as inspiration in developing its always-on, connected version of the veritable yellow legend.

The SeeNote is an attractively styled 4.2 inch square with a polycarbonate body and matte finish that can stick anywhere using an integrated 3M Command strip for easy and damage-free mounting. Its 300 dpi E-paper multi-touch display communicates important information like calendar appointments commute delays, previously set reminder, or even messages from family and friends through email or the SeeNote app.

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Connected Objects Home

Noria makes air conditioning cool again

Air conditioners do wonders to help stave off the brutal heat of the summer months. They don’t do any favors for your back, though. For some reason, and for far too long, air conditioners have been heavy chunks of awkwardly shaped metal that practically required a body builder to install safely and without the risk of endangering anyone’s toes. (Or head, for that matter.)

It’s obvious that in creating air conditioning units for the average apartment dweller or small home owner, ergonomics and design weren’t taken into account. Noria’s laser focus on their many problems completely reinvigorates the idea. The result? A lightweight, attractive air conditioning unit that weighs in at just 30 pounds and is 40% slimmer than the average model, letting users keep their view even when installed. Still, it’s no pushover in the cooldown game: at 5,000 BTUs, it can effectively cool a 160 square foot room without leaving pockets of warm air like others.

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

The ADAFlow massages aches and pains away

As much as current societal norms dictate, humans were not at all designed to sit still for extended periods of time, whether on long road trips, on cramped flights, or in the office for most of the day. This sort of sedentary lifestyle causes stiffness, soreness, and health issues in both the short and the long term.

One of the best things one can do in this situation is simply move, but that’s not always possible. ADAFlow wants to be the go-to alternative. It looks and acts like an inflatable cuff a doctor uses to measure blood pressure, but instead promotes blood circulation by generating waves of pressure that massage the upper or lower leg. The intensity and interval of the waves can be set right on the device itself, and is rechargeable so batteries need not be hassled with.  $119 can get achey, sore backers relief in the form of the ADAFlow, due to be shipped March 2017. The ADAFlow campaign is looking for $65,000 by June 23, 2016.

ADAFlow is perfect for office chair-bound employees, older individuals, and even athletes. It’s also great for recovering patients who can’t move due to a sickness or surgery, which is unsurprisingly the direction the team behind ADAFlow wants to eventually take. Still, what should be an integrated feature in Bluetooth compatibility and control is inexplicably linked to a rather lofty stretch goal — despite it being prominently advertised.

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Connected Objects Kids/Babies

Miraffe connected playmate puts a digital portal in the hands of kids

For little ones, the world is full of mystery, prompting their torrent of questions from the moment they can start forming them. For parents, this is a wonderful moment. Knowing that they’re responsible for educating their children is a huge responsibility made easier with the internet. For the most part, it’s better if a child discovers everything on their own. The Miraffe is a clever compromise between the two.

Since a child can’t just log on to Google or Wikipedia and seek out the information they need, the Miraffe acts as an intermediary. It can recognize objects in the world and give children information on it along with simply being a toy with which to entertain with. It’s essentially a Wi-Fi enabled, 4″ HD screen with a quad-core 1.3GHz processors, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, and a 5 MP camera.

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Categories
Personal Transportation

MovPak hybrid backpack/skateboard takes on the daily grind

Despite its novel premise that combined a bookbag with a skateboard, the original MovPak Kickstarter campaign failed to secure enough funding for production, halting the dream of a more mobile commute for its team. Two years, a few tweaks, improvements, and a move to Indiegogo later, the improved MovPak is back for a second round.

In terms of the basic idea, the MovPak hasn’t changed drastically. The sizable, 17-pound book bag still hides a retractable electric skateboard within that uses a brushless motor powered by a lithium-ion battery for movement. Together, users can remotely control MovPak to achieve speeds of up to 20mph for a 10-mile range per charge.

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Categories
Health and Wellness

Breathe portable air purifier keeps an ion irritants

Those with allergies live their entire lives constantly fighting off the torrent of discomfort that comes with being sensitive to everything from pet dander to dust to pollen. It can be so devastating as to interfere with the enjoyment of daily activities, something people without allergies wouldn’t understand.

Their suffering just goes to show how essential clean air is living an enjoyable, healthy life. With more and more of the world’s air becoming increasingly polluted, everyone, no matter if they’re allergic or otherwise, is affected. The state of the world air’s quality makes products like Breathe so much more important, a wearable air purifier designed it to eliminate odors, pet dander, dust, pollen, and PM 2.5 particles from a 32-foot radius space from its location — a tall claim considering the product’s minuscule size.

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