Category: Connected Objects

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Connected Objects

Buddy companion robot’s out to be your family’s best friend

editors-choiceThere’s a growing number of multi-function robots on crowdfunding sites. While some consumers may find a few of them, such as JIBO, too robot-like to warm up to, other consumers may find a few of them, including the Personal Robot, too creepy because of their attempts to seem human.

Buddy may avoid both of those problems because this new social robot that was designed to be a family companion is fairly cute. The robot’s face is featured on an integrated tablet and features two wide eyes and a small mouth that make it appear a  bit like a friendly cartoon character. Preliminary tests with the Institute for Children with Autism found that its kid-friendly appearance makes it a good companion for children with special needs, according to Buddy’s Indiegogo campaign.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Caruma captures your drive, watches your car when parked

The rise of dash cams to record potential incidents drives home how important ti is to protect cars and the people who drive them. Most of the connected car products today do a good job of capturing statistics about mileage and short stops, but there’s a lot behind the numbers.

Caruma is a connected car add-on that uses cellular, GPS and camera technologies to capture a car’s status whether it’s being driven or parked.  It mounts to either the windshield or dashboard. Like dash cams, it can record the road ahead, but also what’s going on inside the car. More significantly for anyone who has ever returned to find their car scraped, dented or towed, it can alert the owner via smartphone any time the cameras or its sensors detect any funny business such as another car backing into it or a tow truck approaching. An Indiegogo special price of $299 (a $100 discount off the expected retail price) will net backers a Caruma in April 2016. Caruma hopes to raise $100,000 in its flexible funding Indiegogo campaign by July 15th.

Caruma is very similar to LyfeLens, which is still accepting preorders. It has the same disc-based shape, two HD cameras, 4G hotspot feature, and remote alerts that allow the owner to peek into the car or its surroundings while away. It also shares the problem of staying charged and monitoring while the vehicle’s ignition for an extended time when the vehicle is turned off. One of Caruma’s nice additions is a panic button for emergencies. LyfeLens, however, is offering preorders at $199.

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Connected Objects Music

Xkey Air lets you stylishly make MIDI music on the go

The original Xkey keyboard by The CME Group is a MIDI-compliant keyboard that boasts a slim profile and strong aluminum finish, with its only issue being its reliance on a USB connection. Although its design has received positive reviews from both amateur and pro musicians alike, the questions remained: when would a wireless version be created?

For those who were waiting, the wait is now over: the Xkey Air is the Bluetooth LE-compatible version of the Xkey. The Xkey Air retains all the features that made the original so appreciated, and as such users can still expect either 25 or 37 real-sized keys that are velocity sensitive along with a suite of programmable buttons that control characteristics such as octave, modulation, pitch, and sustain. Wireless instruments have always had to contend with problems of latency and battery life and the Xkey Air does its best to address these through just a 7 ms latency and an advertised minimum of 10 hours of battery life.

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Connected Objects Imaging

Oko tries to reverse the digital picture frame no-go

The digital picture frame category was once hugely popular, but has sunk into a funk in recent years as photo sharing has gone mobile.

The makers of Oko are hoping to drum up renewed interest in the category by offering new features and focusing on social network interactivity. For example, Oko will let users follow hashtags and enable the device to display the best pictures and videos that are uploaded on social media networks. Features planned for the near future include voice control and, in a future version of Oko, cloud storage.

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Connected Objects Music

Back to the Backers: Mikme wireless recording microphone

After failing to reach its Kickstarter goal of raising $217,000 for the Mikme wireless recording microphone early this year, Mikme Audio is giving Indiegogo a try with a new campaign for the device. The company has, however, opted for a much more modest goal of raising $25,000 by July 26 this time.

patent-claimedMikme allows users to record quality audio with just the single touch of a button. The company has done some work above and beyond its Bluetooth connection to stream audio reliably to its iOS and Android companion app. Users can use the app to simply save, mix, edit and share their recordings and can mix up to eight tracks. The device comes with 8 GB of onboard memory, enabling up to 180 hours of recording. Other features include a gold-plated condenser capsule. Mikme will ship in November and cost $299 at retail.

With its single button devoted to recording, the device remains a good option for consumers looking for a simple, high-quaity microphone that offloads all the user interface to an app for easy editing and sharing.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Vinli brings apps, cellular connections to your ride

There have been several onboard diagnostics (OBD) devices for cars introduced already. Some have focused on a single main function. In the case of GoFar, for example, it was fuel efficiency.

Vinli seems a bit more ambitious, coming with a wide range of apps. It’s an OBD-II device that’s been designed to quickly transform any older vehicle into a smart car. The device adds Wi-Fi to a vehicle using T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network, allowing the car to always be connected. Like other OBD-II devices, its maker is stressing how easy it is to set up, saying it takes only seconds to connect it to a car’s data port located under the dashboard. Drivers can then use the connection to stream media and send data.

 

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Connected Objects Food and Beverage

Yecup will keep ye drink warm, notifieth ye smartphone

Show of hands: who’s felt like a fool returning to a cup of cool coffee or tea after forgetting it was made in the first place? Pretty much all of us.

The Yecup is Bluetooth-connected tumbler that can either keep warm or boil up to 10oz of liquid, seeks to avoid such a sad scenario. An iOS or Android app is available to set the preferred mode, check the temperature of the drink, and send smartphone notifications when it’s ready. The Yecup concerns itself with more than just liquids, though. By using its built-in 6000mAh battery, users can power other devices, like smartphones. And when that smartphone is charged up, the Yecup’s selfie button will help satisfy those narcissistic, yet satisfyingly quenched, tendencies. A Yecup will set backers back $80, with an expected ship date of November 2015. The team behind Yecup is hoping to raise $40,000 by July 20th, 2015.

While mugs capable of keeping drinks warm exist, they require a constant source of energy and thus need to be plugged in. They don’t, however, boil drinks like the Yecup and its most similar rival, the Hey Joe Coffee Mug, do. The former features its own battery for external devices, a selfie button, and a dedicated app; the latter can brew its own tea and coffee. The choice comes down to each consumer’s specific needs, as both products are extremely handy.

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Connected Objects

The Messenger is the gift that keeps on regifting

Deciding on a gift is always a difficult decision no matter how close two people may be, but once the gift is decided on, bought, and subsequently given, the process is done and over.

With its Messenger, Nomadic Gifts is looking to extend the life of the process for years to come.  Inspired by the intrepid carrier pigeons of yesteryear, the Messenger is a small porcelain bird with a hole in its middle that can hold a rolled up, hand-written message. It comes encased in a lustrous bamboo box that doubles as a stand on which to place the messenger, but Nomadic Gifts doesn’t want it to be left and forgotten like other gifts. To do so, the company encourages recipients to hold onto the Messenger until another occasion for a gift comes up, at which point every recipient becomes a gifter again.

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Accents Connected Objects

SmartMirror, SmartMirror on the wall tells you who’s the most informed of them all

Humans are a vain species, spending upwards of two weeks a year prettying themselves up in front of mirrors. The SmartMirror is looking to give people the option of making that time more informative and entertaining.

The 15 pound, 1920×1080 edge to edge LCD not only serves as a mirror but also serves up the time and date, calendar appointments, weather, news, Twitter mentions, sports scores, data from other connected products in the home, or even cat facts if the user is so inclined.  And with its embedded Raspberry Pi B+ and Wi-Fi connectivity, widget possibilities are limited only by what people end up developing for it.

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Connected Objects Cooking

June smart oven cooks for you all months of the year

Cooking at home can be the ticket to lower dining costs and better health metrics, but many people have a limited culinary repertoire and sometimes even less skill. Indeed, cooling remains one of the few arts that can help sustain us or at least allow us to better enjoy  a critical component of life.

June is a countertop convection oven that can cook a wide range of foods via a number of techniques. including roasting, toasting and broiling.Among the tech components that differentiate it from similar looking devices are a 5″ touchscreen on its front and a n HD camera that can relay video to a smartphone, providing easy answers to the perennial question, “What’s cooking?” Its smartphone app can also show the progress of a cooking task graphically.

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