Category: Connected Objects

Categories
Connected Objects Sleep

Guidy lucid dream mask aids those choosing better snoozing

Lucid dreaming fascinates anyone who finds out about it, but once they realize how difficult it can be to induce, many quickly lose that interest. The creators of the Guidy don’t think it has to be so difficult. The product is a smart sleep mask equipped with Bluetooth connectivity, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope to detect REM-cycles with 100% accuracy. When it does, it sends you gentle, light-based reminders so that you can notice you’re dreaming. Once that’s done, your fantasies of running as fast as the Flash or living your life as Indiana Jones can finally be experienced. The creators are just hoping their €47,000 funding goal isn’t one, too. Get your hands on one for €80.

As novel as this product may seem, there have already been a few examples of lucid dreaming masks. One, called the DreamNet, is an alternative that utilizes an EEG and also syncs up with smartphones, but saves the data gained into a database filled with other dreamers using the same product. Remee is the cheapest alternative and also providing customizable LED reminders. Guidy combines the accuracy of the former with the customizable nature of the latter for their version of the lucid dreaming sleep mask, making it a product to look out for.

Categories
Connected Objects Music

mBox turns Bluetooth speakers into a Sonos competitor

With their ease of use and portability, Bluetooth speakers are all the rage these days. If you try to take the same utility into the home, you quickly find that isn’t the case. Before, wires all over your home tied your speakers down. Now, there are wireless multi-room systems that lock you into proprietary technology so that companies can squeeze as much money as they can out of you. The mBox is looking to liberate music lovers from this predicament by offering a Bluetooth music hub capable of receiving audio and sending it out to up to six separate Bluetooth speakers of any kind.

If you happen to have enough Bluetooth speakers in your house, the mBox mini turns any speakers into one, making sure you’re never without. The versatility this product provides by opening up the multi-room setup is unmatched. This is a killer provided it can produce audio worthy of listening to and for $195, it better. The project’s creator is looking for $40,000AUD by the end of his 30 day campaign.

Categories
Connected Objects Safety

Haven is a brace on Earth to complement your deadbolt

Smart locks may have made a splash and added convenience to many people’s home lives, but the fact still remains that they rely on deadbolts to protect your home. It has been proven that deadbolts are an outdated form of protection because with enough force, the blunt end of a hammer and a bump key, or just simply a credit card, those who want access to your home will most certainly get it.

HAVEN is a smart lock that works by being installed at the base of a door and using the house’s own frame as the deterrent rather than a deadlock. Being made from glass reinforced nylon, aluminum and steel allows for far more protection versus other deadlock-dependent solutions, with a door in the campaign shown withstanding brute force kicks, sledgehammers and axes. When excessive force is recognized, HAVEN can turn on other connected parts of your home through Nest and Apple HomeKit compatibility and send alerts to mobile devices in response. When there isn’t trouble brewing, the product’s wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity allow users to digitally share keys and either locally or remotely lock their doors using their iOS or Android smartphone. Lost your phone? An online access portal can help you maintain access of your home. The people behind the HAVEN Smart Lock are looking for $150,00o to make their goal a reality, with significant stretch goals which include an A/C power add-on and wearable gesture support, to entice would-be backers. Interested people can protect their home by pledging $249 or more.

HAVEN is an shot in the arm for the smart lock market. Its robustness in protecting the home along with its connectivity and control options make its involved installation easier to bear. Other smart locks, like the August and the Goji, emphasize the social aspect rather actually protecting the home — HAVEN tells them to put their money where their mouths are.

Categories
Connected Objects Cycling

Bikers make sure those trailing them get the message with 8rlicht

For years, cyclists have sought out ways to make themselves safer on the road because the lights most bikes come equipped with just don’t cut it. They’re extremely small and only work when light is shone on them, limiting their overall usability and putting riders in undue danger when riding at night.

8Rlicht is a smart taillight with 140 LEDs on a rather large display that ensures your ride will never be safer. The product reacts to sudden braking, lighting up to alert drivers behind you — a powerful feature. In addition, show off customizable patterns and text on that display using the companion smartphone apps compatible on iOS or Android. In addition, the unit’s onboard Bluetooth connectivity and many sensors allows it some other tricks as well.

With Bluetooth, OTA updates are possible so that you can update software capable of tracking calories or setting up competitions between you and friends, as well as alerting you when the bike is being stolen. And when you’re wandering back to your bike and have no clue where it is, 8Rlicht lights up to your presence provided you also have your smartphone with you. The asking price of €49 is stellar but the funding goal of €200,000will be a stretch for this connected taillight

The product is no slouch on features but certainly has room for more, despite the folks behind the product not saying much about that. And with this dangling off the back of your bike, it makes a prime target for thieves.

Categories
Connected Objects Displays

SmarTock reinvents the clock as a giant widget for your wall

Once computers and smartphones began surfing the Internet, streaming videos, playing games and also telling the time as a bonus, the wall clock and the wristwatch became obsolete in a hurry.

SmarTock is a wall clock for the 21st century. With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, apps for weather, wallpapers, calendars, and more, SmarTock is designed to provide the convenience and aesthetic of having a wall clock into a package that better fits modern times. Using an LCD display with 1080p resolution, SmarTock will be an appealing, modern addition to any home. Inventor Josh Cotton has set a financing goal of $99,000 to begin mass production. Buyers interested in a SmarTock can grab theirs for $179 to ship out in May 2015.

The idea here is solid enough, though whether this does enough to compete with the “smart” accessories is debatable. Compounding this problem is a lack of information or demonstration on the product’s campaign: the internals are explained, some questions are answered, but instead of more concrete details, too much space is spent on sample wallpaper ideas. This could be an idea with merit behind it, but only time will tell if there’s enough concrete work here to result in a competitive product.

 

Categories
Connected Objects Fitness

Yoga SmartMat provides guidance to make you a perfect poser

Yoga is all about balance. Unfortunately, our bodies are alarmingly lopsided. A pose that we can do perfectly on one side of our bodies is surprisingly difficult on the other side. Yoga teachers are constantly adjusting their students to maintain balance in their poses. The SmartMat does the exact same thing. By connecting with your tablet or smartphone via Bluetooth, the SmartMat collects data about your posture, balance and alignment to assist you with becoming a yogi master. It first adjusts your alignment, telling you, for example, to move your right foot forward. Then, it tells you to shift your weight so there is equal pressure on both sides of the body, a very important aspect of yoga. The app lets you monitor your progress over time and even gives you new yoga moves to try out. Powered by battery, this mat boasts up to six hours of life. For a mat and the Android/iOS compatible app, backers will have to shell out $347, $100 less than the retail price, for estimated delivery in September 2015. SmartMat is hoping to raise $110,000 during its campaign on Indiegogo.

By all accounts, SmartMat looks like a super cool way to get your yoga on. Most fitness monitoring devices focus on higher impact sports, like the runScribe. SmartMat, while expensive, provides a ton of useful information since the entire mat is collecting data from the entire body, pretty cool. Looking like a traditional yoga mat and made out of most of the same materials, it’s a little concerning how long this mat will last. Some mats wear out over time, but with such an expensive investment, it’ll be important for SmartMat to prove its functional longevity. Also, it’s only water and sweat resistant and not proof. Big sweaters and hot yoga practitioners will have to protect the SmartMat with an extra towel. Still, this super cool product is a great tool for yoga enthusiasts looking to perfect their practice.

Categories
Cell Phone Accessories Connected Objects

Salt locks your phone when you get up to grab some condiments

The seemingly innocuous act of unlocking our devices is suddenly not so when we lose almost three days a year doing just that. Most people have caught on to this, disabling their security as a result, leaving them vulnerable should they lose it. The choice between not having a lock screen or enjoying instant access to our devices is a tough one, but many opt for the latter out of sheer convenience.

SALT is a durable plastic card embedded with Bluetooth technology allowing users to enjoy the best of both worlds. As long as the user is within 10 feet the card, it will let you access your Android or iOS device instantly. The second you’re out range, the phone locks: either the entire phone or certain apps in response, protecting you in the unfortunate scenario of losing it or having someone rummage through your personal texts and e-mails.

If the opposite occurs and you lose the wallet or purse the card was in, the SALT app can help you locate it instead. With a custom battery estimated to last for over a year, users can enjoy keyless entry to their devices while still maintaining a high level of security. Although the company behind SALT has already hit their funding goal of $50,000, interested parties can grab themselves their very own with just a $15 pledge.

There aren’t very many solutions to this small yet time-consuming problem. SALT is one of the first that manages to be more versatile than just a card in your pocket. Many people are obviously interested, but one wonders if this could have worked without a battery to avoid the inevitable purchase of another. They’ve also admitted the possibility of the iOS version eventually lacking its star feature by blocking out an entire smartphone eco-system in the process. Solving these two issues will propel this from a maybe to easy impulse purchase territory.

Categories
Connected Objects Fitness

Glyder is a smartphone-connected exercise product for the deskbound

The Premise. Sitting is as harmful to our health as smoking is. Or so they say. Either way, it’s difficult for office workers to get the exercise they need in order to stay healthy. Some have the chance to take a walk at lunchtime, but busier bees are chained to their desks all day.

The Product. Glyder is a fitness device that lives underneath your office desk. Resembling a digital scale, it has two pedals on either side where your feet go and comes in red, gray or black. The motion is similar to that of an elliptical machine. A large digital screen on top shows the calories you’ve burned, the strides you’ve taken and how close you are to your daily exercise goal. This data can be stored and set with an accompanying smartphone app. The app stores your workout history and also allows you to adjust the resistance of Glyder and compete with other Glyder users.

The Pitch. Glyder’s campaign video shows an office worker trying and failing to workout at the office. There’s also a funny part where the Glyder user makes less noise while exercising than her coworker sitting in a rocking chair. The rest of the campaign goes through Glyder’s various features along with helpful gifs of the pedal width being adjusted as well as the product in use. This under-the-table fitness device hopes to raise $75,000 on Kickstarter.

The Perks. Early gliders can enjoy the Glyder for $99 at a regular price of $139. The top tier of $10,000 offers backers a trip to China to tour Glyder’s factories. Estimated delivery is currently set for January 2015.

The Potential. As with any office workout tool, there’s always the risk of looking unprofessional as your legs mysteriously gyrate under your desk. We’ve seen several of these types of products at Backerjack like Tao and Cubii, both of which stress at-desk workouts. Like Cubii, Glyder emphasizes that elliptical motion, but does so in a sleeker manner at a fraction of the cost. While it’s unclear how beneficial a Glyder workout really is, the price and lure of activity at the office may be irresistible for antsy executives.

Categories
Connected Objects Cooking

Ricewise is the connected rice cooker of your sushi-making dreams

Most everyone can agree that there’s really nothing like a freshly cooked, warm bowl of rice. Unfortunately, with our lives as rushed as they are, we sometimes can’t find the time to clean and cook the rice, leaving us to confide in the powers of a rice cooker. A staple in many kitchens for over 50 years, rice cookers are always useful, but haven’t really caught up to our modern age quite yet.

Enter Ricewise, the connected rice cooker you send a text to. You don’t send it to have a chat, though: a text message starts the process of cooking rice stored in its three kilogram chamber. With the capacity to also hold five liters of water, Ricewise can cook rice for up to 18 people without having to add anything else, leaving you to worry about everything else. If it is low on either rice or water, it will also remind you to refill it too. Interested backers will have to possibly consider charging for meals: the Ricewise’s campaign price is $492, saving $457 off the final retail price. If enough people can stomach that price without seeing a prototype, the company’s $25,000 goal should be piece of rice cake.

Categories
Automotive Connected Objects

Bluetooth tire pressure management system lets you know when your tires are low

The Premise. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, under-inflated tires are at the root of some of the most common issues related to fuel efficiency and safety while driving. If a tire remains under-inflated at just 1 psi over its lifetime, its tread life decreases by about 800 miles, and for every 2.96 psi of under-inflation, fuel efficiency is reduced by 1%. With 26% of all passenger cars on the road under-inflated by at least 25%, that’s a lot of miles of tread life and liters of gasoline needlessly wasted. These factors also contribute to the almost 80,000 crashes that occur annually in the US due to flat tires or blowouts — some fatal.

The Product. The team behind the FOBO Tire wants to bring tire pressure management systems, or TPMS’s, into the modern age. Theirs is an iOS/Android compatible, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy enabled system that always keeps a user informed about the tire pressure of their vehicle, with an in-car unit as well to use in the absence of a smartphone. Integration with smartphones allows for a tiered alert system, theft detection for the system, the ability to share the FOBO Tire’s information with friends and family, and even monitor up to 20 different cars. There’s also a separated edition for two and three-wheeled vehicles called the FOBO Bike up for grabs.

The Pitch. The video featured on the campaign is professional, chock full of information, and really demonstrates just how useful the FOBO Tire can be, going as far as to show how quick and painless installation is and introducing potential backers to the team itself. The product’s many features are clearly laid out in text form, with large, clear pictures to back them up.

The Perks. A single set of FOBO Tire will run you $90, which includes four sensors and one in-car unit, saving backers $59 off the $149 retail price. Similarly, the FOBO Bike can be had for $65, shaving $25 off the $90 retail price. The option for more sets of FOBO Tires or Bikes are also available, at price points ranging from $110 to $1050.

The Potential. Making pretty much any current dumb product idea smart immediately adds utility to it, so the combination of a TPMS with the smartphones that drive our lives is one of those no-brainers that takes some time to think up. As tire pressure is a very real and serious concern, its applicability to pretty much every driver will ensure this product becomes some sort of success. It improves on products like the TireMinder with its ease of installation, use, and the many benefits that come from smartphone integration, making this product many will be on the look out for.