Drones are our modern days kites. On a clear day, you can see any number of them whizzing around at the nearby park with kids and adults alike on the ground controlling them. They easily maintain interest and have slowly become more and more accepted, even if most of the time they can be bulky and pretty unwieldy. The folks at Anura want to make it easy to have some flight with you anytime with their Anura drone. It’s only slightly larger than a full size smartphone and weighs in at only 4oz, making it extremely portable to the point that you can place it in your pocket. Instead of a huge remote control, all users need is an iOS/Android phone to stream live images or video with its builtin Wi-Fi, and take advantage of features like one click auto-land and return home for easier use. Unfortunately, your fun will be limited to about 15 minute unless you’re carrying around a few interchangeable batteries, which kind of defeats the purpose. In any case, the Anura drone can be had by April 2015 for $195. The company has achieved their funding goal of $100,000.
Category: Connected Objects
Taking music from portable players and phones to cars and home audio systems usually requires specific hardware or lots of messy, tangled cables.
Cubund is a simple USB device that plugs into a car or home audio system’s USB port and receives high-quality Bluetooth audio streams from phones, laptops, or tablets. It allows for complete control using the remotes or onboard controls of the larger device. This allows for quick installation and even faster access to music when moving from public to private areas or from the home to car and vice versa.
Cubund can also handle incoming or outgoing calls from a phone and push them through to the car’s audio or home stereo, allowing for safer, hands-free communication even in the middle of blasting the volume on a favorite song. An additional USB port is added to Cubund to allow the charging of other devices. Cubund needs $20,000 for materials, assembly, and licenses, and can be purchased for delivery in February for $89.
The right kind of equipment or settings handles pretty much everything Cubund does already, but in lieu of buying new phones, new audio equipment, or even a new car, this is a simple, cheap way to bring older equipment into the present.
It’s interesting to see the types of emotions we harbor towards the vehicles in our lives. We silently appreciate their hard and diligent work taking us where we need to go everyday until the day comes where they breaks down, where we then proceed to generate a maelstrom of foul language and intense hatred for forcing us to spend ridiculous sums of money to fix them.
Although having a car is heavy financial responsibility, with the Drivebot it doesn’t have to be so expensive. Billed as a Fitbit for your car, the Bluetooth-enabled dongle connects to your car’s On-Board Diagnostic II port and continuously monitors problems in their earliest stages before they become worse, ballooning in cost. It also helps by reminding you of maintenance requirements and analyzing your driving patterns to save you time, gas, and money. Onboard flash storage stores two months of trip data which can be exported as documents to claim taxes on, tacking on the savings. For $75, the Drivebot can be yours in February of 2015. The campaign is attempting to reach a $35,000 goal.
The concept of luggage for all the travel we do hasn’t really enjoyed a major upgrade for the 21st century. With the idea that everything we own shouldn’t just fulfill one need but instead address every concern by utilizing technology, a piece of luggage that serves as just a bag is, frankly, very dated. The Bluesmart connected carry-on is a refreshing new take on what luggage can be and is a step in the right direction on the process of streamlining travel itself.
Bluesmart Technologies has created their product with a Bluetooth antenna that connects it to an iOS or Android smartphone, with smartwatch integration coming soon. With Bluesmart, gone are the days you pay extra fees for overweight luggage with its built-in digital scale. Locks and keys are no longer necessary to protect our valuables, either — it does so itself with an option to either automatically lock when you aren’t near using a proximity sensor, or remotely lock and unlock the carry-on with a companion app. The dread that comes along with losing luggage is also addressed with GPS, allowing you track to track the bag wherever it is in the world.
Easy access to electronics comes in the form of a compartment at the front of the carry-on where you can also charge up to two devices at once, ensuring you’ll breeze through security. All this is housed in a three layer polycarbonate construction that sports waterproof zippers to protect all this coolness. At the moment, the only option for a Bluesmart is a personalized version with custom engraving for $295, about $200 off the final retail price with delivery in August 2015. The campaign has absolutely demolished its funding goal of $50,000.
The Bluesmart is a solid, well-thought piece of technology. It eliminates some of the many hassles of traveling and finally gives some power back to the traveler. It doesn’t hurt that it’s also pretty stylish, although looks can’t hide the obvious privacy concerns something like this presents. Convenience and a sheer cool factor will probably win at the end of the day, though.
Any trained medical professional will agree on how very important it is to take essential medication on a timely and consistent basis. If it isn’t, there could be severe consequences for the person who needs it. With that as the central idea, the folks behind the Amiko have created a wearable device that acts as a personal medication assistant, connecting to a wide range of inhalers to help make sure medication is being taken correctly and on time.
The product comes as a small but attractive leaf-shaped attachment that clips on to a wide range of inhalers. Onboard MEM sensors are highly tuned to track when the inhaler is loaded, how it is positioned pre-delivery, and upon actual delivery. These values are all combined to create an accurate and thorough view of dosage trends and can even be used to create reports for physicians to use in their treatments.
Perhaps its most valuable capability, however, is the ability to be connected to smartphones and tablets to alert users and family about upcoming or missed doses, keeping everyone in the loop. If that person happens to be technologically averse, the company’s Amiko Hub ($79) allows non-smartphone users to still receive alerts from the product itself, family members, or caretakers. Amiko’s early bird special is currently going for $39 with a $10 premium on it when those supplies run out, with an expected delivery date of March 2015. The folks behind Amiko are looking for an infusion of $50,000.
Amiko is a very promising device not in just what it does, but in how it uses the cloud and the various connectivity options it has to make a process that can be potentially life-threatening so much less stressful. It extends wearables to a market that needs it beyond the fitness enthusiast.
Music is something everyone can enjoy privately, but all it takes is the right lighting to make it perfect for any party.
PLAYBULB color is another combination smart lightbulb and wireless speaker, offering multiple configurations of light shows, a spectrum of colors, and thumping sound to turn any room into a party room. Using Bluetooth 4.0, PLAYBULB color supports modern iOS and Android devices firmwares, and can also update its own firmware to allow for new features.
With a range of 30 feet, PLAYBULB color streams music from any smartphone or tablet and can change color on the fly or even every time a phone has been shaken, to create personal choreographed light shows. The PLAYBULB color can also be set up in any E26 or E27 lamp to stream ambient light and music for sleeping or as a wake-up alarm. Developer MIPOW only needs $10,000 to bring these bulbs to shelves, and backers can install one for $49 in January.
PLAYBULB color is neither the most innovative product on the market nor the most practical, as colored light often does very little illumination. That being said, it’s a great addition to any dorm room, bedroom, or any room where ambience is key.
On any given day, there are a myriad of things that can and will stress you out, but what’s most important is how you deal with it. Drinking a calming tea, yoga, breathing exercises — there are a variety of ways to decompress when you need to. For inventor Frank Cohen, the colors, lights, and rhythms of a lava lamp helped him after particularly draining days. After so many years, he now feels the humble lava lamp deserves an appropriately modern upgrade.
Waves is the modern lava lamp that comes in the form of a Bluetooth speaker within a slim box that can sit desk-side or be mounted onto a wall. Thin diffusion filters stand atop the unit, allowing pre-programmed light shows to do everything from brightening up a space to soothing someone who may be feeling weary after a long day. The inexpensive diffusion filters are also easily cuttable, giving more artistic types the room to explore whatever designs might interest them.
The product is also incredibly social. Along with being able to sync up to most popular social networks and act as a push notification hub instead your buzzing phone, each Waves unit can talk to each other. This communication between five, ten, or even fifty units can facilitate light shows with all of them participating and gives the product the versatility to be used in ways that haven’t even been thought of yet. Fortunately, new ideas will be in abundance as Waves is supporting a strong communal aspect where members can create sell their own filter designs and share light shows, with the option of earning royalties on our show. Control everything with a Web app or your iOS or Android device. Two Waves are going for $149 and are to be delivered by December 2014. To do that, the campaign is looking for $10,000 in funding.
For now, Waves must be hard-wired which severely limits its aesthetic appeal. But, all in all, Waves is an imaginative product that will make a great conversation piece in any environment. Its open-nature also stands out as a great entryway to technology and its use of the Processing language will ensure it more converts. A product like this is only limited by how much interest there is in it, so only time will tell if this can be what Frank Cohen wants it to be.
Toddlers and small children are notorious for refusing to go to sleep. Even when they can barely keep their eyes open, they insist on staying up, unwilling to miss any action. Babysleep is a clock designed for these types of kids, teaching them when it’s time to go to sleep and wake up. Looking like a little wooden birdhouse, the product has a sun and moon on it. When the sun is lit, it tells the child that they should be getting up. When the moon is lit, it’s time to go to bed. Parents have several options in controlling Babysleep. They can either set times from the product itself, from a computer or even use an accompanying app. Times can be adjusted easily for nap time, traveling or sleepovers. Brightness of the lights as well as colors can also be customized.
The campaign included testimonials from parents claiming that Babysleep has become a fun nightly ritual for their child. It also goes into the detrimental effects of the often erratic sleep patters of terrible two-year-olds. Other children’s alarm clocks focus on different goals, such as the Onaroo Alarm Clock. This product urges kids to stay in bed longer so that their parents can sleep. Babysleep focuses more on the child’s well-being than the parent’s. Backers can donate £99 (~$160) for this Italian product. Babysleep is looking to raise £50,000 (~$80,600) on Kickstarter.
These days, children in classrooms are probably scratching their heads wondering why anyone even bothers teaching handwriting anymore. It seems as if with all the ways that we can communicate digitally, the pen and paper method of writing is painfully obsolete. Sometimes, that handwritten touch is required.
The Equil Smartpen 2 functions exactly the way consumers expect from smart pens that digitize sketches and handwriting. What makes it different is that unlike Livescribe which requires special paper, Equil can work on any paper surface. Additionally, it uses real ink while recording and transmitting all the differences in both motion and pressure to digitize a completely accurate duplicate. The end result is that the writing process is not altered in the slightest and the digital version has all of the necessary detail and nuance that makes it ideal for sharing. With a different tip, the Equil Smartpen 2 also works as a stylus that can provide precise control on tablets or other pen-enabled devices. Equil needs $50,000 to put this smart pen upgrade out into the hands of users. The Equil Smartpen 2 is shipping out in October, and backers can start writing for $109.
The number of people who can actually put a smart pen to its full use is pretty much limited to graphic designers and other creative types, especially considering the number of pen-enabled tablets that continues to grow. Still, for those who prefer to have tangible notes that they can keep will appreciate having their notes in both in the cloud and in their hands. As an upgrade alone, there may not be enough to lure casual Equil Smartpen users, but for graphic designers and enterprising, note-selling college students, the relatively low price may be worth signing the check.
Streaming audio wirelessly may seem like an old concept, but in terms of audio fidelity, convenience, and uniform functionality across multiple devices, the technology is only really starting to blossom. With options like Play-Fi and AllPlay beginning to come into their own, devices like the Sonos are starting to set the standard in home audio.
The Core is a similar multiroom audio solution that takes into consideration how technology has grown around it and how to interact with it rather than alongside. With Wi-fi functionality, NFC phone syncing with the tap of the device, and even Bluetooth gesture control, the Core is loaded with features. It can also handle answering phone calls in any room as easily as it handles streaming music, and can be used to charge devices using its 12-hour battery and USB port.
In terms of audio, Core delivers a uniform acoustic bubble in its space, giving depth and presence to the sounds without the use of multiple speakers in a room. Like Bose and other high-quality home audio products, Core sets out to do more with one speaker than many audio systems can do with two or more. Mass Fidelity, the company responsible for the creation of Core are looking to raise $48,000 to amp up their tooling department to be able to handle the extra load of creating the Core. The Core costs $389 to pick up, but for those who want a little more bass, they’ve added a wireless subwoofer to the package as well for $229. Products will begin shipping out in March.
What’s great about the Core is not only does it offer clear, sharp audio that fills any space, but it does so with a space-saving design and comes loaded with convenient features. Audiophiles will be quick to notice and praise the power of this speaker. In terms of an actual user experience, Core seems far, far more convenient than many of its competitors when it comes to syncing devices with and using the product.