Author: Nicholas Echevarria

Categories
Cycling

Dual Drive Total Fitness bike lets you pedal with your hands

The idea of a bike has remained relatively unchanged, which is a testament to its utility. Even through the removal and addition of wheels, seats, and weight, it has always laid atop the foundation of foot powered pedals. Why is it that the pedal is so sacred, though? Hasn’t everyone wished they could pedal with their hands, t00? Apparently, inventor Ken Haan does and created the Dual Drive Total Fitness Bike to do so.

Born out of the sun and surf of Fort Lauderdale, the Dual Drive Total Fitness Bike not only has foot pedals but chain-less handlebar pedals as well. The inventor claims that the combination of both gives a rider a truly full-body workout by strengthening all major muscle groups. The bike isn’t all about toning those mirror muscles, though. By using your hands, 30% more power is added to your speed with the handlebar pedal, getting you to your destination faster.

As novel and imaginative as the Dual Drive Total Fitness Bike is, it wouldn’t work as much in an urban environment because it’s built to be a coasting bike. As such, its target audience is pretty limited. The bike is currently going for $499 if you’re local or $699 if it needs to be shipped, cheaper than the $999 MSRP. The $100,000 campaign promises backers their very own bike by December 2015.

Categories
Safety Smartwatches/Bands

Bluetooth iChild tracker monitors skin temperature to detect a snatching

With the ubiquity of smartphone use, child tracking solutions continue to surface. Some are hit or miss, but all are better than walking around with your child on a leash. The iChild is another product that promises to make keeping track of your little one easier. It comes in the form of a red or blue watch that pairs with a companion smartphone app and does exactly one thing only: every 10 seconds, the watch sends a ping to the smartphone with your child’s temperature.

How does that help? This ping of information does two things: receiving the information at all lets you know your child is within 50 feet of you, and also alerts you to abnormal temperatures as well so that you can head off that cold or fever. While the iChild is a novel idea, its premise is a little flimsy and does more to fuel worry than actually help you solve the problem of a lost child. With no GPS, it can hardly compete with the scores of other child safety wearables. In addition, even if you were to receive abnormal temperature readings, wouldn’t it be too late to do much of anything? The iChild’s one saving grace is its $40 price point, but even that is too much for a product that isn’t really useful in the long run. The campaign is aiming for a ridiculously high $1,000,000 funding goal.

Categories
Smart Home

Showering with Eva helps you save water

The topic of water in today’s world is an incredibly important one, yet doesn’t receive the kind of attention it deserves. Many parts of the world are experiencing the most debilitating water crises in recent history, slowly increasing the demand for water as time goes on. Perhaps most people don’t talk about it because they don’t feel like much can be done. For this reason, the creators giving you the chance to play your part with the Eva Smart Shower.

Eva connects to most standard shower heads and facilitates your showering experience, cutting down on water waste. An onboard temperature sensor cuts water flow when it’s reached your desired temperature, starting up again when you enter, and a motion sensor throttles water according to your distance from the shower head itself. A companion app interacts with the Eva, allowing you to set your desired temperature, manage shower length goals, and tracks overall water usage so that you can adjust your habits.

Becoming just a bit more eco-friendly requires information to make decisions and Eva provides. It’s a promising use of technology that should become widespread, even if its own manufacturing might negatively affect its positive effects. Eva is $149 and the Indiegogo campaign has a $50,000 goal.

Categories
Automotive Connected Objects

DRIVE drives smartphone interaction with your hands on the wheel

It may be the case that more recent models of cars have integrated smartphone connectivity, but usually they’ve done it in uninspired ways that don’t take in account the unique issues driving brings to the table. It isn’t like the only thing to do is stick a touchscreen and a dock in the middle of everything and call the job done. There are very particular design challenges that stem from the fact that we’re in two ton metal boxes with wheels. Because of this, safety is of upmost concern even if it doesn’t quite seem like it is.

Luckily for RISE Devices, their new DRIVE shows that they have safety on the mind. Along with deftly handling phone calls with its three mics, DRIVE reads out notifications and messages and allows the user to respond utilizing their own voice when it’s convenient. Two infrared beams shoot out of the device and a flick with both hands interrupts them, giving you an easy and unobtrusive way to activate DRIVE. Because of how it works, there aren’t buttons not any janky voice recognition or commands to get in the way. Its companion app facilitates the use of most messaging services and platforms like iOS, Android, and Windows, and since it connects via Bluetooth LE, other uses like music control are possible.

This device is both elegant and simple, but for that you’ll have to pay. As much as it gets done, it could use a few more bells and whistles as it has lots of potential. The product has an estimated delivery date of July 2015 and is currently going for $149, shooting up to more than $199 after the campaign’s end. For DRVINE, $88,000 is the goal to launch it into production.

Categories
Smartwatches/Bands

What the hex? Comb720 neatly organizes your smartwatch notifications

All these new fancy smartwatches have forgotten one little thing: their ease of use! Sure, us techies will be able to grasp all the different taps and gestures to get the most out of our new devices but watches are not just technology. Watches are much more widespread than that, and if companies want to capture the average watch user, they’ll need to do more to simplify the interactions with our wearable technology. The Comb720 is trying to do that by being a smartwatch that utilizes seven tessellated, hexagonal tiles that include e-mail, fitness, and messages.

This 7th grade inventor, Davis Barrow, hopes that since these tiles never move, users will quickly become accustomed to where they are, therefore more quickly able to obtain information compared to most other competing smartwatches. The Comb720 comes in a leather-banded, bronze-bodies version, while the active version sports a carbon fiber construction and a durable paracord band, both compatible with iOS and Android. The Comb720 currently costs $250 with a delivery date of February 2015. Its campaign goal is $5,000.

Categories
Connected Objects Health and Wellness

Memo Box reminds those who forget to take their meds

Taking medicine consistently and on time can seem pretty easy, but even after a few days most people will start changing times or forgetting altogether. For the elderly and those close to them, most medicine has to be taken for the rest of their lives so the risk of forgetting is compounded. The seven day pill box is the classic tool to manage this all but its design has remained firmly rooted in the past.

TinyLogics has designed Memo Box to be the 21st century version of the seven day pill box. This connected medicine box not only reminds users to take their medication, but will also alert others in your circle to whether or not they have and does so all without a ridiculous amount of tech. The Memo Box is simple in that it only uses a sensor tracking when it is opened as the basis to remind users of missed doses and prevent double dosage. Such little technology doesn’t get in the way of its smarts, though. Intelligent reminders leave users alone when they’re on schedule, while the Memo Box itself learns from a user’s habits and shifts dosing schedules according to its record of openings. It’ll even cry for help when left behind by sending users a message! A Memo Box is currently sporting a special backer price of £28 (~$45) with an estimated delivery date of May 2015. The campaign has a funding goal of £30,000 (~$47,000).

The Memo Box is versatile in that in can hold pills, other smaller medicine boxes, and even inhalers if you get the premium version. It’s attractive in its simplicity and stretch goals tease other colors like navy and pink. A similar product is the Amiko which is wearable and includes much more tech at a predictably higher price point. Any tech at all can confound someone unfamiliar with it so as much as Memo Box does does to innovate in this space, accessibility will remain key and will ultimately be the deciding factor. With their simplicity, they’re heading in the right direction.

Categories
Toys

Sit-n-Skate weds skateboard with street luge for low riders

The depths of boredom breed some of the most innovative and imaginative ideas. Just think back to all those evenings in your childhood where new games and ridiculous forms of transport using supermarket carts and whatever else you could find were created and played. That’s probably how the Sit-n-Skate was created, the oddly-shaped contraption that’s a Frankenstein melding of a skateboard and a seat that you can sit on. As much as it would seem cumbersome of an idea, the Sit-n-skate still retains a certain ease of use as it acts like a longboard, so you can pick up speed, slow down, and stop on a whim.

Unfortunately, it’s pretty awkward to have to use your legs to pick up speed and although the inventor states adults can use it, it’s difficult to imagine how so. In any case, the demand has to be there for a product so superfluous to experience success and with enough unnecessary Chinese manufacturing in action these days, we don’t need another uninteresting product. The Sit-n-Skate will be at backer’s doors by August 2015 for $79. The campaign is looking for $79,000 in funding.

Categories
Smart Home

Lock-Bot stores, releases keys for renters, AirBnB guests

Sites like HomeAway and AirBnB have facilitated the growing popularity of property rental, making it easier for owners to put their spaces up for rent and for travelers to have lots of choice pretty much anywhere they go. As progressive as these sites and the values they promote are, some aspects of the process aren’t and owners are always on the lookout for solutions to the many unique problems this new economy creates.

When you’re not in, the biggest hassle is safely getting keys to renters when you’re already gone. Think of the Lock-Bot as your own personal desk attendant for your property so you won’t have to worry again. The Wi-Fi connected lock box provides a secure place to for an owner to leave RFID-attached keys for incoming renters with mobile web access, and sends text messages alerts to both parties with check-in and check-out information. You can feel confident knowing that different codes can be set for different users so that no two codes will be alike. The company advises to mount the Lock-Bot onto a wall and its hardened aluminum construction will make sure it stays there all without you having to pay subscription fees. The device is powered by either AC or battery power, so that means users are out of luck if there’s a Wi-Fi or power outage.

The company does mention that they’re working on a four character manual switch, though, but it seems like that should’ve been baked into the original plans. The Lock-Bot comes in at $79 with an estimated delivery date of May 2015. The campaign is aiming for a goal of $100,000.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories Wearables

Tiny Ditto phone accessory alerts with good vibrations

Sadly, a roundtable of friends at a restaurant staring at their screens instead of at one other is a common sight to see. Critics point to scenarios like this as an example social deterioration, but Simple Matters likes to think they have a solution that’s both simple and elegant. Called Ditto, the device is billed as the anti-gadget that will get eyes away from screens so that people can focus more on real life and all the interactions that enrich it. By pairing the device using Bluetooth LE to a smartphone or tablet, users can customize who or what is important enough to reach them and doing so eliminates those pesky ghost vibrations that are felt every so often. It can be discretely placed anywhere from undergarments to the small pocket of a pair of jeans as its small, pebble-like shape comes complete with a built-in clip, so users will always be sure to feel the Ditto and the important events associated with it.

Ditto’s minimalist aesthetic fits a wide variety of lifestyles and can come in handy for those who truly want to separate themselves from the many screens in our lives. The similar Amiloom aims to get people away from their phones by connecting friends with an app, but Ditto really goes for the root of the problem by blocking intrusive notifications. Simple Matters is looking for $100,000 for this noble effort. If they succeed, backers can expect the $29 device to be at their door in March of 2015.

Categories
Connected Objects Television

Puck plucks all your remote controls, controls your TV setup with your smartphone

Remote controls should be considered litter with the way so many of them end up all over our living rooms. Constantly evolving home entertainment setups force us to have three to five different ones, confusing us every time we just want to turn on the TV or pop in a Blu-Ray. Since when did merely entertaining ourselves become so confusing?

That’s the question the people behind the PUCK have asked, and their solution comes in the form of a tiny attachment that acts a bridge between any component of an entertainment system and a smartphone or tablet. Once attached, its companion app will allow you to control every aspect of your entertainment system from up to 100 feet away and through walls, thanks to Bluetooth LE. Create shortcuts and make turning on your TV, lowering the volume, and starting up your Blu-Ray player a one tap process. Puck also makes channel listings searchable, and learns which ones are your favorite for easier access and with a three year battery life, there’ll be a lot to learn. The campaign is currently going for $50,000. It should attract a fair amount of attention with its lean $25 price.

Similar products now on the market have been introduced without much fanfare, probably because of the inflated price point for what essentially is simple tech. Logitech’s $99 Harmony Hub does everything a Puck can do with the addition of Wi-Fi functionality too, but does so without Harmony Smart Remote Compatibility. Another one on the market is the Griffin Beacon which rings up at a paltry $10, but the price reflects its quality: it runs on batteries, constantly needs to be coupled with your smartphone, and the software has been reviewed to be a joke. If Puck’s software can be consistent and smooth, it’ll be able to undercut competition without much issue.