Personal safety is always a concern, but being able to feel safe while discreetly alerting the authorities is a difficult balance to maintain. The SafeRing appears to be a normal ring accessory but is actually a powerful smartphone tool. With a miniature switch designed to avoid accidental triggering, the SafeRing can trigger the alarms on your phone and send GPS data to an emergency contact via text. It’s a low-key version of the Cuff line of Bluetooth-enabled safety jewelry. The ring can also be put to other non-emergency uses, such as locating a lost phone or activating a camera for a hands-free selfie. Backers can get a SafeRing in September 2014 for $35.
Tag: android
The Premise. As great as smartphones are, the frequency with which they alert users with notifications can be extremely distracting. Setting custom notifications can single out the truly important information, but can be time-consuming to set up and can be impolite in social situations.
The Product. The ORBneXt is an updated version of the Orb art piece/single-pixel notifier created by Ambient Devices in its early days. It’s a hand-held, easy to use accessory that can sync up with any phone wirelessly and display notification information through a series of ambient colors. The ORBneXt connects to a phone and its Wi-Fi network by resting on top of the device, and then , using a blinking-light sequence similar to the one used by Quirky’s smart devices, can be programmed through its app to monitor information like weather, sports scores, stocks, and more. That information can then be tied to colors (for example, turn red when the weather’s getting warmer), so that the displaying color carries with it information that matters to its user’s life. The ORBneXt is made with a stylish Japanese glass housing, and has an easily modifiable brain in addition to its flexible IFTTT-enabled app.
The Pitch. The creative minds at Ambient Lumonics Labs show off the ORBneXt inside and out with their campaign information. The video focuses on the everyday use of the device while the photos and text cover all the technical details and stress how easy the device is to customize for any need. A second video that demos the product does a better job of selling the device’s strengths for the end user. Advanced Lumonics Labs needs $12,000 to complete a market-ready product in order to apply for certifications.
The Perks. Backers looking to score an ORBneXt can have one by August for a pledge of $79. Anyone with one of the older Ambient ORB devices can retrofit it to function as an ORBneXt for $69, with self-installation. If that’s too long to wait, a prototype of the device is available in June for $500.
The Potential. The flexibility of the ORBneXt’s internal hardware and its app belie the simplicity of the information it can display. Unfortunately, without being able to acknowledge a notification and clear it or get more precise details without unlocking the phone and looking at the app, its effectiveness is limited. The device does look sharp at home on a desk or in the office, but the amount of time it saves is measured in small bursts of seconds, and might not be worth it for some. Like the original Ambient ORB, the ORBneXt’s appealing form is overshadowed by its lack of function.
The Premise. No matter how hard people try, it seems like once high school and university are complete, it’s hard to maintain the same level of friendship with people. As friends move away and professional and family lives become more prominent, keeping closely in touch with people grows more difficult.
The Product. The Feeling Skin is a case for iPhone 5 and 5S that aims to bring back that simple, honest level of communication by creating simple, easy-access notifications. The display light on the Feeling Skin glows either blue or red to show when friends are in a good or bad mood respectively. To display a mood, users record a video of their current location and situation and display a mood to it. For those that want to be proactive, a button is available at the bottom of the case to ping added friends to post their current mood. Additionally, the Feeling Skin acts as a battery pack for the iPhone, offering an additional 80% battery life.
The Pitch. The team at Twelve Monkeys Company are eager to show off how intuitive and easy using the Feeling Skin is to keep in touch with friends. The campaign explains something that isn’t addressed in the video — the Feeling Skin app is available on the major mobile platforms, but the skin itself is only available for iPhone 5 model phones at this point. Twelve Monkeys wants to raise $40,000 to complete tooling, testing, and mass production.
The Perks. Backers can get a Feeling Skin for just $49 as a limited deal. All rewards are expected to ship in July.
The Potential. The chances of the Feeling Skin finding a foothold in the mainstream market are pretty slim. At first, the idea of having a private little inner circle of great friends sharing videos and moments with each other sounds tempting, but like any social network, this one would inevitably be filled with people that sat in adjacent desks in homeroom. Having extra battery power is a nice add-on, because if it was just the mood network or the battery pack, there wouldn’t really be anything here worth buying. Everything this device does is pretty much already handled just fine, whether by phone call, text, Facebook, or Instagram. At least it allows users to charge an iPhone with a microUSB cable.
The Premise. The beauty of streaming music is that listeners can enjoy the music they love, no matter where they are. Transferring that access to an audio system worth listening to, on the other hand, often proves to be more difficult.
The Product. The Gramofon is designed to take all the accessibility of a Wi-Fi hotspot, and put that to use to stream music in the home or office. By using Facebook credentials instead of various wi-Fi passwords, it’s easy to use the Gramofon app to connect and start pumping music through any stereo equipment. Right now, the app supports Spotify natively, but there are many other streaming services expected to be added later. AllPlay technology, also supported by Musaic, provides compatibility with an emerging set of music sources.
The Pitch. With one of the more slickly-produced Kickstarter videos in recent memory, Fon CEO Martin Varsavsky and his team take viewers through Fon as a Wi-Fi hotspot company and how the idea of turning hotspots into music players led to the development of Gramofon. The entire campaign smacks of the same trendy, simple design that the device itself supports, and the confidence the developers have in the product will likely carry over to those supporting it. Gramofon needs $250,000 to start the party, increasing the number of support services, finalize the design, and go into production.
The Perks. Getting a Gramofon will take a pledge of $50 for black, or $60 for white. Both products are expected to arrive in July.
The Potential. Devices like these are starting to crop up, combining the ease of having thousands of songs streaming from any device with the enjoyment of sounds through proper audio output channels. The modern design is similar to the Aether Cone, but the Gramofon really only provides the phone connectivity – more pieces required, but a better sense of control. Also similar is Apple’s Airport Express, but this device only handles music instead of full network sharing like the Airport, although that device has become a bit more streaming-friendly with the launch of iTunes Radio. Fon is also promising backers will get full free access to their millions of hotspots by supporting the Gramofon, so that can be an added incentive to pledge. All in all, the Gramofon is an inexpensive option that offers the quirky benefit of joining into a Wi-Fi-sharing network further along in Europe, but those who want a device that does more won’t yet be satisfied with what this product has to offer.
The home sprinkler system is such a herculean labor to set up that usually once it’s in place, most people don’t bother adjusting it ever again. This can lead to wasted water where it isn’t needed and an increase in utility bills. The RainCommander is a wireless irrigation control system that can be used to schedule and control waterings more effectively. From any mobile device or tablet, sprinklers can be paused, turned on, and run en masse or just targeting a specific area of the lawn. The RainCommander will be available in May 2014 and will require a minimum pledge of $159 to get the base system.
The Premise. Part of the smart home dream has always been being able to talk with a place of residence and trust it to control climate, security, and sense problems. Of course, for as long as smart home technology has been developed, it’s been reaching toward this goal without ever getting there.
The Product. ALYT is an Android-powered hub that looks like the solution to these problems. By being an open platform operating on just about every imaginable form of wireless data, ALYT allows for voice and video recognition to control virtually any aspect of a home – as long as developers create an app for it. Compatible with iOS, Android, Bluetooth, NFC, Z-Wave, 3.5G and more, the flexibility of the ALYT system opens it up to all kinds of innovative development.
The Pitch. By all indications of the video introduction, there seems to be nothing the ALYT can’t handle. From protecting homes from floods to keeping an eye on the family pet while at the office, the flexibility of the ALYT is on display. For those that need a little more convincing, the campaign contains lots of details on how ALYT can be put to use for almost any home application. ALYT needs to raise $100,000 for production and certification, with stretch goals offering increased compatibility and other features.
The Perks. For developers that want to get started with ALYT as soon as possible, the $149 reward tier comes with a prototype PCB, wireless detector, wireless door sensor and a self-development kit to arrive in June of this year. Home users who simply want a functional ALYT without developing for it can get one in July for $199, and from there, more accessories are available at higher tiers depending on what owners want an ALYT for. A home security kit can be had for $299, a smart home functionality kit is $329, and a video surveillance kit is $479, all expected to ship in November. All reward tiers including a shipping fee of at least $15.
The Potential. ALYT is very high-concept, as it really seems to offer more as a platform than as a consumer-level device. Once the apps and the development get rolling, it would be easy to see how this hub would be a must for any smart home. For now, however, the ALYT is only as strong as its app base, and that may lead consumers to look elsewhere for their smart home hubs, whether it’s the popular Revolv or the similarly-designed Ninja Sphere.
Smartphones seem capable of nearly any mobile application these days. Still, sometimes they are limited by their hardware design and can wind up cumbersome instead of convenient. The ALLCOM ONE is a handheld device that can be clipped or held to enable push-to-talk walkie-talkie style communication through apps, and also function as a loudspeaker for calls or music. The ALLCOM ONE is durable, withstanding falls up to two meters, is dust-proof, and water-proof up to one meter in depth — a bit of overkill for consumers but great for public safety pros who may not need dedicated walkie-talkies. Backers who want to talk with one hand while leaving the smartphone pocketed or put away can get an ALLCOM ONE for $125 in October 2014.
The Premise. Home security and smart home features go hand in hand. Being able to control aspects of a home from a distance using a smartphone is something dozens of companies are trying to make a reality for users, but can that be upgraded to include live security features from anywhere?
The Product. Offering cloud-based, around the clock surveillance and home lighting control, the SherloQ system is designed for any house or business. The standalone camera can be mounted anywhere and accessed using any iOS or Android device to view and record live video from a distance. Additionally, the SherloQ system can be used to control lighting or other electrical appliances connected to its power strip.
The Pitch. The SherloQ campaign feels a bit rushed, or at the very least, carelessly translated. The reward tiers overlap a bit but can be unclear exactly what they provide, and the video and photos contain some stock shoddy clip art-level production values. The official product website is much easier to use and comprehend, and is recommended for those that are interested in learning about the SherloQ. Photar AG, the company behind SherloQ, needs $100,000 to make a larger initial production as the company expands to the United States.
The Perks. For $99, backers can get a stand-alone SherloQ camera with wide angle lens, motion detector, microphone, siren, and more, in August 2014. Other add-ons are available including a wi-fi doorbell and night vision capabilities for those concerned with uninvited late night visitors.
The Potential. SherloQ is a good idea, but not an innovative one. The live streaming video aspect of smart home apps is being explored by nearly every company pushing the technology, and so the system feels like another competitor rather than a game-changer. It’s certainly something that many homeowners would like to have, but those with the money to spare will probably opt for more all-inclusive systems. The only for-sure must-have feature here is the ability to record surveillance video, which could be helpful with insurance companies or in court.
The Premise. As the Internet of Things continues to grow and expand, it seems like no object or appliance is safe from connectivity. Now this trend is spreading into the bathroom with personal care products designed to give users helpful feedback and data.
The Product. The Kolibree is an electric toothbrush equipped with an accelerometer, gyrometer, and magnetometer in order to tell its users how well they are brushing their teeth. This data can be sent to any iOS or Android device for tracking, brushing history, and advice on how to brush better. From there, the Kolibree is being designed to enhance the brushing experience with social sharing, dentist interaction, and games designed to keep brushing effective while also making it fun.
The Pitch. The Kolibree team show off their latest prototypes of the app and the device itself, complete with dentist approval. While a smart toothbrush may sound excessive to some, the campaign materials do a good job of explaining how a connected brush can be the next big advancement in oral hygiene. Kolibree needs $70,000 to get certified and begin mass production of the brushes, as well as get the developer kits in the hands of those that can push the most out of this tiny device.
The Perks. A Kolibree with a replacement brush head will be available in October to backers who pledge at least $99. Those who want more brush heads and a choice in color will opt for the $149 tier, and developers can get early SDK access before the device launches for $199. The startup is reaching out to the professional crowd, too. Dentists can get some extra software with their Kolibree for $299, and patients who want to interact with the Kolibree and their dentist can beta test the interactive features for $399. Finally, creative brushers can design their own Kolibree for $1,200.
The Potential. In contrast to the Grush designed for children, the Kolibree is a more sophisticated device, made for users of all ages while still gamifying dental hygiene to keep children interested. The social aspects might be too much information for some, but being able to directly upload brushing statistics to dentists will finally give patients something to point to when grilled about their habits. In any case, Kolibree should prepare to brush up on competing with the big boys of brushing.
The Premise. Homeowners constantly have to ask themselves questions about the state they left things in. Is the oven on? Is the front door locked? Did I close the garage door when I left? Now with a combination of some hardware and an app, that last question is a question no longer.
The Product. Open-Me is a sonar sensor that can be placed on a garage door that hooks up to a home Wi-Fi network. By checking the app, users can determine if their garage door is open by even as little as a foot, and open or close it remotely. Additionally, using GPS, the app can be adjusted to open automatically when the synced phone or tablet is within a user-determined distance, and close automatically once that device travels outside of that range.
The Pitch. In a rather light and humorous video, Open-Me focuses mainly on the peace of mind aspects of the app, whether it’s making sure that the home is closed up securely or being able to let children or maintenance workers in without having to personally head home. The preorder site is very clean and contains all the pertinent data anybody could need before making a decision to pledge money. The project wants to raise around $50,000 to incorporate, create an iOS version, and begin producing the hardware.
The Perks. The Open-Me app can be pre-ordered for $79 and expected to release some time In the Fall of this year. For those that don’t want to wait, a beta version is available for $499, and at the highest $999 tier, among the many perks and the beta device comes a lifetime free service guarantee.
The Potential. For local usage, there isn’t a lot that this device does that a regular garage door opener, particularly one with a keypad panel, doesn’t do already and Internet-connected openers have been shown for some time. However, there’s something to be said about having a garage door that opens upon arrival providing a kind of welcoming feel as well as knowing when it’s partially open. Additionally, being able to open and close a garage door remotely has its uses, as demonstrated by the product video. Some might find it handy to save a couple seconds. Motorcycle owners like the product’s inventor will certainly enjoy the added convenience. Others probably won’t worry about it. There have already been a few attempts (like lift) to supplant the traditional garage door opener with a smartphone, but maybe Open-Me will be the one to add enough features to catch on.