Category: Connected Objects

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Automotive Connected Objects

FenSens sensor protects your fender

Many accidents occur when parking a vehicle, often because it is hard to see exactly how much space one has when backing up into a spot. Parking sensors significantly cut down on such accidents, but the vast majority of cars don’t have them and they can be too costly for many consumers to afford.

patent-claimedFenSens is an affordable wireless, connected and sensor-based parking assistance system that works in conjunction with an app for Android and iOS mobile devices. The patent-pending device gets attached to a vehicle’s front or rear license plate frame and is easy to install in less than five minutes. FenSens enables uses to see (through a visual display), hear (through beeps), and feel (via vibration) any near-by objects in a driver’s blind spots from the convenience of a mobile phone screen. An alarm buzzer sounds if FenSens is tampered with and the device will allow users to register it with specific phones, making it useless for unverified mobile devices.

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Connected Objects

The mighty Vaultek employs Bluetooth to keep valuables safe

To protect what matters most, many people resort to big, bulky safes that weigh a ton and employ analog methods of entry that are usually pretty time consuming. But these days, connected devices are all the rage — so why not a safe?

That’s the question the team behind the Bluetooth-connected Vaultek safe asked, and the result was a lightweight, carbon-steel unibody safe outfitted with anti-pry bars, protected hinges, and anti-impact latches for maximum protection. With the Vaultek, users have multiple ways to access their valuables: a five-digit numeric keypad, a biometric fingerprint scanner, or by using its companion smartphone app for a remote unlock.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Frizon HUD guides your car with a transparent screen, responds to gestures and speech

Heads-up displays (HUDs) tend to be better than traditional GPS devices because HUDs allow users to keep their eyes straight on the road in front of them while getting navigation and other useful information. A HUD display pops up directly in front of the driver, over the windshield, but doesn’t block the driver’s ability to see the road.

Frizon is a HUD with a transparent, Active Matrix OLED (AMOLED) screen. It auto starts with the car engine and responds to hand gestures and through speech recognition to control the radio, answer the phone and perform other car functions. Users can see all the car’s gauges on the screen without having to look away to the dashboard.

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Connected Objects Kids/Babies Toys

Wordee uses light to help budding wordsmiths master lingo

Technology has never been more prevalent than it is now, especially for the children who, at younger and younger ages, are exposed to more and more of it. But instead of subscribing to the idea that technology ultimately harms childhood development, Tokyo-based JellyWare Inc. wants to embrace it instead with Wordee.

Wordee is an educationally-minded robot that, put simply, draws with light. This unique hook is made possible through Wordee’s use of LEDs that blink in certain patterns that are absorbed by a phosphorescent sheet. This allows the device to “print” out words and phrases that persist for a few seconds before fading away.

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Connected Objects

Weighitz smart scales let you weigh it — whatever it is

The only scale that a lot of consumers own is the one they keep in their bathroom to weigh themselves. However, the clunky design of such scales pretty much makes them useless for weighing anything else –- like food, a pet, mail or a piece of luggage to avoid paying a fee at the airport.

Weighitz are small, modular smart scales designed to accurately weigh pretty much anything in the home, or even certain things outside the home like letters and luggage. It’s water resistant, and its low power consumption and high capacity batteries combine so users rarely have to recharge. When required, the scale can be plugged into the included micro USB charging cable and attached to a computer or wall socket. An indicator will light up when it’s charged.

Weighitz ships in December at future pricing of $25 each or $70 for three. But Indiegogo backers have been able to get Weighitz for pledges starting at $18 for one and $50 for $50. Its makers seek about $32,000 by August 22nd.

This is a handy product, but obviously there are many similar products, including GeniScale, that have come first. The modular design and smart functionality of Weighitz, however, gives it an edge over at least some rival devices. When combined, a set of Weighitz can weigh heavier or more oddly shaped objects. The scale outputs info to the companion smartphone app for unspecified operating systems. When using more than one Weighitz, the app will combine the readings from all the scales into one reading.

 

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Connected Objects Pets

PlayDate lets you play with your pets even when you’re apart

Cats and dogs love to play, but pet owners can’t always be home to do that with them because of other commitments, including work and travel.

PlayDate is a remote-controlled ball toy that engages dogs and cats, and records HD video of them playing with it. The pet owner controls the interactive camera remotely from anywhere, via an app on Android and iOS mobile devices. Pet owners can hear their pets through a microphone in the ball and also speak to the pets through a speaker in the ball.

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Connected Objects

The Like-o-Meter gives Facebook updates the thumbs up

By now, Facebook has become a part of normal, everyday life for 1.7 billion people and businesses around the world, a testament to the company’s original vision of connecting the globe. Still, people who use Facebook fall into two camps: those for whom it plays a very cursory role, and those for whom Facebook is an essential part of their social and professional lives.

For the latter, the idea of more wholly integrating the Facebook experience into their real-world isn’t one that scares them, which is why the Like-o-Meter is a campaign that would appeal to them. It brings the well-known ‘Like’ icon into the real-world, wirelessly connecting to a user’s Facebook account and physically moving its high-quality plastic thumb to signal a fresh like.

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Connected Objects Technology

LaserDock lets you beam your own laser light music show

The high of any music event is addictive simply because it’s so difficult to experience that same sort of joy outside of it. On one hand, this makes sense: a true venue built to properly express music is unique. Still, it doesn’t mean some of that feeling can’t be taken home.

The LaserDock is a low-cost laser projector designed to bring the trippy visuals of music clubs and festivals home. It comes with hundreds of built-in visualizers and laser shows that react to music in real-time, creating different patterns each and every time.

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Cell Phone Accessories Connected Objects

Avoid yodeling by keeping in touch with the BONX Grip instead

Many outdoor sports like biking, climbing, and rafting all have an inherent element of danger. And while effectively communicating helps groups of enthusiasts avoid disastrous situations, there’s been a glaring lack of easy-to-use communication systems for these outings.

Now there’s the BONX Grip, a rugged, hands-free Bluetooth earpiece designed to facilitate group chats in the name of increased safety while climbing cliffsides or shredding fresh mountain snow. The BONX Grip works in tandem with a companion app that sports a simple UI. With it, users can easily start a chat session, later using their voice alone to facilitate the voice chat. Large mute and volume buttons on the BONX Grip itself augment the earpiece’s functionality.

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Connected Objects Television

Lightpack 2 lets your TV bask in the afterglow of ambient lighting

Ambient backlighting can add another level of immersion to one’s experience while watching a movie or playing a video game on the TV.

patent-claimedLightpack 2 is an HDMI pass through kit that provides ambient backlighting for TVs. It follows the Lightpack lighting system that the same manufacturer, Wooden Shark, successfully received funding for on Kickstarter in 2013. The big difference between the two products is that the earlier device was designed for computer monitors.

The new product has four HDMI inputs to connect all of one’s media devices, including game consoles, to the TV. Lightpack 2 controls an LED strip that contours to the back of a TV and can also include a Pixel accessory, a wireless LED-based lighting module that is placed on the wall or elsewhere. Lightpack 2 uses patented algorithms to process the input video signal. All that is required for setup are a power source and an HDMI connection. Lightpack 2 can also be used as an intelligent lighting system even when the TV is off. Mood lighting can be set with the companion Lightpack app for Android and iOS devices.

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