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Connected Objects Nutrition/Hydration

Chew your way to a healthier bod with this connected Spün

editors-choiceBecoming healthier need not be an exercise in extreme dieting, crazy weight loss supplements, and obsessive exercise despite what many people mistakenly think. While a dash of exercise a few times a week will definitely help, the biggest key to better health is simply eating better. And as it turns out, eating better is probably the hardest thing to consistently do well for most.

Manually keeping on top of everything eaten throughout the day is usually what turns most people off to the benefits of doing so. Spün, the connected calorie counting utensils, automatically does all the heavy lifting to leave users alone with their delicious meals. Spün works with its companion app to identify food being through a picture of the plate taken by the user. The app then communicates with Spün to keep track of both how much and how fast the meal is being eaten.

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Categories
Connected Objects Personal Transportation

Monimoto keeps a connected digital eye on your motorcycle

Motorcycle security systems are usually pretty expensive and require professional installation to install. While it’s probably a good idea for a motorcycle owner to have one installed, most don’t due to how cumbersome it can be to install and maintain them.

The Monimoto smart motorcycle alarm system takes all the wires and professionals out of the equation. Anyone can install the thin black tube using its packaged plastic strips, and all that’s needed to maintain it is a 2G/3G sim card in combination with two CR123 batteries for two years of battery life. With that much longevity, users won’t have to worry about it dying, important for an alarm system.

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Categories
Automotive Imaging

Drive Guardian guards against falling asleep at the wheel

editors-choiceDistracted driving continues to pose a major safety hazard to the public and few types of distracted driving are as dangerous as falling asleep at the wheel.

Drive Guardian is a safety alert system with a driver-facing camera that detects drowsiness. After setting it up and turning on a vehicle’s engine, the camera monitors drivers’ eyes and pupils in real-time and, using sophisticated algorithms, the device alerts driver by displaying LED indicator lights and sounding audio warnings whenever they are drowsy or distracted.

Drive Guardian ships in July at $249. But early bird Indiegogo backers can get one for a pledge starting at $169. Its makers hope to raise $50,000 by April 21.

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Categories
Music

RippleBuds out to send ripples through earbuds market with noise-blocking technology

Bluetooth earbuds are enormously handy for both listening to music and conducting hands-free phone conversations. But it’s often hard to hear the music or people talking on the phone due to all the outside noise that often can’t be avoided.

patent-claimedRippleBuds are noise-blocking Bluetooth earbuds with a built-in microphone that solves that dilemma. Its makers have replaced the mouthpiece found in most headsets with a microphone that fits invisibly inside the ear. Most of the patents its makers have for the product cover its core technologies that reduces echo and howling sounds when the speaker and microphone are placed closely together inside the earbuds.

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Categories
Health and Wellness Technology

Nervana earbuds makes any tune feel-good music

As the old saying goes, music can soothe the savage beast. Certainly, at the very least, the right music can relax listeners and make them happy.

Nervana takes that concept a step further. It’s a nerve stimulator with patent-pending earbuds that syncs to music and releases natural chemicals in the human body that generate pleasure. Nervana generates a gentle electrical signal that is transmitted to the surface of the left earbud on what looks like a standard earbud assembly.

When the left earbud is placed in the left ear and the Nervana generator is turned on, the electrical signal beats to whatever music is being experienced by the user, whether supplied to the generator through a user’s phone or through the environment, such as in a concert hall.  The electrical signal stimulates the body’s vagus nerve, which could result in the release of neurotransmitters, the body’s natural feel-good messengers.

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Categories
Kids/Babies Maker/Development Robots/Drones

Codeybot drives a programmable wedge right into your adoring heart

The past ten years or so have seen a huge push towards STEM subjects in the United States to shore up the youth for a future society dominated by computer programming and robotics. But no matter how important the programming skills are, children w care about the future implications of learning them unless it’s fun to learn first.

Enter the Codeybot, another crowdfunded little robot designed to engage children in the fundamentals of coding from the creators of the Makeblock. What’s immediately noticeable is how its LED panel and extremely appealing, wedge-shaped single-wheel design serve to grasp the usually fleeting attention spans of children. To maintain it, children program Codeybot with an iPad app using the mBlocky language. (Sorry Android users.)

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Categories
Smart Home

The Ezcontrol hub speaks your smart home’s language

With most dwellings boasting a wide variety of devices and home fixtures that communicate in different ways, outfitting a home with connectivity can be a messy affair. Since the dawn of the IoT movement, smart hubs have sprung up offering to standardize the hassle — some more successfully than others.

One that seems to have the right idea is Ezcontrol. While it isn’t an entirely new idea, its dedication to a simple premise — a smart hub that communicates using Wi-Fi, infrared, and RF waves — makes it a low-cost, straightforward solution. Being that most items in the home communicate with one of those three standards, everything from the connected fridge to the air conditioner to the garage door can all be controlled using a single companion app preloaded with compatibility with over 5,000 devices.

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Categories
Health and Wellness Wearables

Backbone supports you in the quest for better posture

It’s incredible to think that for every 15° of forward neck tilt, as much as 10-20 pounds of pressure is placed on the spine, neck, and back. This is not only a detriment to posture and overall well being, but puts people one step closer to looking like Quasimodo — a fate no one wants.

With bad posture so commonplace, it’s no surprise more and more crowdfunding campaigns are addressing the issue head on. The latest to do so is the Backbone, a pair of connected shoulder straps that not physically supports better posture but also reminds users to straighten up through notifications and vibrations.

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Categories
Sports Toys

FOOOTY is a folding ball that’s a real kick

As people get older, the opportunities for play get fewer and farther in between. It’s a shame, too, because along with exercise and diet, engaging in unstructured or structured play has shown to be highly beneficial for health.

For that reason, inventor Jean-Pierre Raes labored in making something that would allow spontaneous play anywhere. The result was the FOOOTY system, a system of flat construction elements that come together using an easy-click system to create a variety of balls. The finished ball is rugged and waterproof, able to take kicks without going flat — perfect for that impromptu game of hackey sack.

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Categories
Personal Transportation

CycleBoard carves out a middle ground in e-scooters

Usually, the more time passes in the crowdfunding world, the smaller the e-scooter offerings become. It makes sense: it’s hard to turn down the temptation to back an e-scooter that’s both smaller and lighter than previous incarnations, even if they’re not as accessible to more people due to that very same reason. Instead of blindly chasing a smaller, lighter, slimmer design, founder Phillip LaBonty went the other way with CycleBoard. The result is a three-wheeled electric scooter with far more appeal to many more types of people.

The most obvious thing about the CycleBoard is its construction: it uses aircraft-grade aluminum, features three shock absorbing tires — two up front and one in the back — and 8.5-inch swappable riding decks. Together, these elements come together to make the 42lb. scooter a much sturdier, confidence-inducing ride for everyone in the family. What makes it really stand out is how it’s controlled with a collapsible handle combining balance and steering into one.

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