Category: Connected Objects

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Automotive Connected Objects Imaging

Fenderhawk keeps an eye out for fender benders

Cars are all too often banged and scratched by other cars even when they are parked. It would be nice for drivers to know when such accidents happen –- and how they happened — when they’re not around.

patent-claimedFenderhawk does exactly that. It’s a smart license plate frame for the front and rear of a vehicle that features a full HD camera with a wide-angle lens, as well as a built-in accelerometer and flash storage. Fenderhawk is controlled via an app on Android and iOS mobile devices. It assists users while parking a car and continues recording video after leaving the vehicle.

If there is a collision, Fenderhawk sends the user video footage recorded on it immediately, according to its Kickstarter campaign. Fenderhawk ships in October at $199.99. Its makers hope to raise $450,000 by Dec. 24.

The device may certainly appeal to some drivers, but its functionality seems somewhat limited when compared to driving assistance devices like CarVi. Avoiding accidents while driving, after all, seems much more important than guarding against fender benders while parked and there’s nobody in the car.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Driver Watchdog’s dual cameras keep watch over your car inside and out for a fee

With the smart home space getting more crowded and connectivity coming to he vehicle, there’s been a growing number of driving assistant and monitoring devices that have sought crowdfunding in recent months.

Driver Watchdog is a wireless plug-and-play device featuring dual HD 175-degree panoramic cameras. The external camera records road conditions and accidents, while its internal camera monitors distracting behavior going on inside the car. The cameras record simultaneously and automatically stream data to the cloud for storage and review at a later time.

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Connected Objects Imaging

Pulse remote trigger may set photographers’ pulses racing

Remotely controlling a camera offers photographers significant benefits, but can sometimes be a complex and time-consuming process.

Pulse is the latest remote trigger designed to enable Bluetooth control of a camera from a smartphone. It can control up to three cameras at once and is designed for use with digital single-lens reflex and mirrorless cameras via a USB port. Because Pulse uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), it’s able to communicate wirelessly with the smartphone from up to 100 feet away after being attached to a camera. Pulse ships in April and its expected future retail price is $99, although early bird backers can get one now at pricing as low as $69. Its makers are looking to raise $50,000 by Dec. 11.

There have been similar products, including MaxStone. But while that earlier product was targeted at iPhone users, Pulse works with Android and iOS devices and operates in conjunction with an app for both those operating systems. On the negative side, Pulse is only compatible with a limited number of cameras, including many Canon and Nikon models, as well as the Panasonic GH4. Users of cameras from other manufacturers need not apply, at least for now.

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Connected Objects Music

Learn real guitar by playing air guitar using Kurv digital instruments

Learning a musical instrument is rarely an easy road. That difficulty forces many to give up prematurely, robbing them of the opportunity of every really learning a skill that can provide much future enjoyment. As analterantive, the company behind Kurv hopes that people starting of with its stringless digital instrument versus a real one will immediately enjoy making music and stick around long enough to start really playing.

It’s designed in two pieces. The Kurv itself fits around the hand like a glove and offers eight comfortable points that each finger can easily touch. Eight points for the eight notes in an octave, eight notes in a scale and eight chords in a key make it so that there’s variety when the user strums with the second part of the instrument, the pick. Kurv responds to how hard the pick is being strummed. But it also responds to gestures, like shaking and flicking, that shift octaves or creates a vibratto effects in either electric, acoustic or bass guitar modes. Together with the iOS app’s intelligent tutorials on hit songs that provide instant feedback, Kurv is a guitar and tutor all in one.

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Connected Objects

KUMO desktop assistant tries to make you feel less lonely, winds up talking a lot

The modern age isn’t all its cracked up to be. While there are pretty incredible technologies being created every single day, the majority of people’s daily work is done on a single desk with a computer, some tools, etc., leaving lots of people alone while they work.

The team behind the KUMO hope their cup-sized little robot will be enough of a companion throughout the day to eliminate desk loneliness. Its different parts — a camera, microphone, LCD screen, speaker, battery, Wi-Fi module, and USB port — are all encased in a vaguely charming and eternally smiling plastic ghost body. With these parts, it can connect to social platforms and messenger apps like Facebook, Line, and WhatsApp and read out messages to users. In its Greeting mode, it can serve as a desktop assistant by recording messages left by others and pushing it to users’ smartphones while they’re away. In Security mode, KUMO turns into a desktop guardian by taking images and videos of moving objects scheming on valuables and pushing those out, too.

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Connected Objects Home Organization

TrackR atlas pinpoints your last items in any room of the house

The bedrock of crowdfunding platforms, tracking devices, continues to be peddled on each of them, wth newer versions on the same idea every year. Campaign creators have stuck Bluetooth antennas into small plastic shells and created connected devices solely for the purpose of finding objects since day, and there’s no end. Apparently, everyone is pretty terrible about keeping an eye on their things.

The TrackR atlas‘ forte is in the home, using a network of Bluetooth connected, plug-in devices called atlas’ together to map every room. By attaching slim, metallic tags called TrackR Bravos embedded with Bluetooth technology to important objects, the TrackR atlas system unifies other, more simplistic tracking solutions—partly because it also works with those other third-party solutions, too. With the companion or iOS app, users can simply ask where something is and receive a room-specific answer, ring lost items remotely, and receive push notifications when objects enter or leave the room to always stay on top of things.

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Connected Objects Imaging

Shockwave action cam surprises with features including live streaming

The action camera category keeps growing as new players attempt to compete against the popular GoPro.

Shockwave is a wearable action cam that can stream live video on the Internet via Wi-Fi or 4G service, meaning it will transmit data whether the user is indoors or outdoors. It can easily be installed on the surface of any object through solutions including a tripod, unmanned aerial vehicle suspension or its sport camera wearable mounting design, according to the Indiegogo campaign.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Light your ride up with the XKChrome connected light kit

It’s easy to spot a souped-up car enthusiast: in traffic. Just look for a car that looks like its straight out of Need for Speed or a Fast and Furious movie. Considering the kinds of under-the-hood and aesthetic upgrades these cars have, it’s no wonder their owners are always on the look out for something that can make them stick out.

The team behind the XKChrome is hoping to illuminate the undersides and interiors of cars and motorcycles everywhere with the smartphone-connected lighting kit. Users will be spoiled for choice with XKChrome’s 16 million color palette that can be customized for various occasions, even syncing to music playing for a spectacle of a light show.

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Connected Objects Fitness

Skulpt Chisel helps body sculpting by monitoring fat

Having a device that can accurately measure one’s body fat can go a long way towards achieving fitness goals.

Skulpt Chisel is a device about the size of a typical smartphone that has 12 sensors on its back that can be used to measure 24 body muscles just by pressing it up against those muscles. It sends a tiny current past the subcutaneous fat and through the muscle fibers, picking up thousands of data points per second, according to its Indiegogo campaign. The technology then evaluates the flow of that current to accurately measure the fat percentage per muscle, and rate that muscle’s fitness.

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Connected Objects Sleep Smart Home

Beddi connected smart alarm conducts restful sleep and productive mornings

The very first thing everyone reaches for in the morning is their smartphone. While possibly a symptom of a collective digital addiction, there are quite a few good reasons people do, the most important being to shut off an alarm. But most smartphones wake us up so abruptly and while there are apps out there to make the transition from sleep to wakefulness more pleasant, pushing a screen into one’s face first thing in the morning isn’t the most relaxing way to start the day.

The Beddi intelligent alarm clock is an app-enabled device that sits bedside to facilitate better sleep and a more peaceful, more productive start to the day. Before going to sleep, the Bose-like unit’s two USB ports (one rapid charging port and one normal port) makes it easy to charge devices. Before bed,, the LED mood light turns off automatically, and its Bluetooth speaker can play soothing sounds like white noise or ambient ocean sounds to help

In the morning, the device’s natural sunrise simulator slowly fills the room with a soft glow to help awaken users more naturally a few minutes before the alarm goes off. And when the dreaded moment does come, the alarm that’s heard isn’t a screeching fire truck but rather favored playlists courtesy of Spotify integration.

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