Tag: safety

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Home Safety

Burglar Blocker reinforces your windows against the bad guys

Home and small business security appears to have gotten a bit simpler and easier.

Burglar Blocker offers the typical homeowner and small business owner the opportunity to burglarproof home and office with locks that help to deter those who would sneak around the backdoor and windows with the intent to steal, destroy and possibly worse. The gadgets appear to be relatively easy to install, though installation will require a drill. It appears that all the other pieces necessary for installation are included. The lock also comes with a steel cover and key as an added security feature, and seems like it would work well alongside a security alarm system.

For burglars who are more rude and actually bash in windows or doors, more aggressive self-protection measures may be required – although communities in some countries may frown on such measures. For €17, backers can get two products with an expected delivery of December 2014.

Categories
Home

Hydroguard barrier seeks to foil the flood

SONY DSCLiving in a flood prone area can make a simple thunderstorm a pretty stressful experience. While sandbags are one option for protecting one’s home or business, Hydroguard is a mechanism that seems far easier to use and potentially more effective. The sliding barrier includes a unique sealing technology that is supposed to allow the flood water damage preventer to fit any doorframe within minutes, and it’s reusable. It’s not clear how many feet or meters the flood blocking gadget can keep out, but for £199 GBP, early bird backers get one product, with an expected delivery of March 2015. The expected retail is £249.

Categories
Automotive Kids/Babies

SafetyBib takes a low-tech approach to backseat baby reminding

SafetyBibThis idea was most likely borrowed from the handicapped placard. SafetyBib is designed with parents of small children in mind. It hangs from a vehicle’s rearview mirror to remind the driver that a sleeping baby is in the backseat. But even if mom or dad is so distracted that the SafetyBib gets missed by them, the other side is brightly colored so that the public can be alerted to check for a baby in the car. While this idea is nice in theory, it’s questionable as to whether the general public would notice much less take action even if they did happen to see the tag. This is a lower tech and more affordable method than the similar Babeep. Backers can test it out for themselves for $5 with an expected delivery of December 2014.

Categories
Cycling Lighting Nutrition/Hydration

Aqualight water bottle quenches need for bike path lighting safety, thirst

AquaLightCycling at night can be dangerous and it’s imperative to have forward- and back-facing lights for your ride. AquaLight is a water bottle with built-in lights. The back light is red and faces back while the forward light is white. Obviously, the bottle also holds water and sits in the beverage cage. The creators claim that the lights are bright enough for safety, but it’s hard to tell, especially since they sit so low in between the bike frame and wheels. In addition, not all bikes have beverage cages, so the light is impractical for bikes without this feature. Still, for interested backers, AquaLight will cost $40 with choice of color. This lit-up water bottle hopes to raise $17,000 on Kickstarter.

Categories
Home Video

ISense offers a live look into your home on demand

The Premise. Nobody can be home all the time to protect their belongings and house from potential burglars or other threats, but the new wave of smart home monitors can record video and keep an eye out for intruders, alerting owners of any break-ins through their smartphones.

The Product. ISense is one such system that offers this level of home protection in a way that offers peace of mind so long as a smartphone is kept handy. The cable-free system equipped with high definition camera can be set up anywhere and can offer a live feed at any time through the app or start recording video and send a notification any time that motion is detected. Each unit has over a year’s worth of battery life and communicate over Wi-Fi, 3G, or 4G. Each system also includes a Sync Module that allows the cameras to communicate with connected phones, as well as including onboard storage for recorded video in addition to cloud storage.

The Pitch. kaan tas put together a simple pitch for ISense highlighting the ease of setting up or customizing an ISense system and the level of monitoring the devices can provide on-demand from any location. For ISense to become a viable product, kaan tas wants to raise $40,000 AUD to fund production and fulfillment.

The Perks. Getting an ISense takes a pledge of $59 AUD, which includes the system with Sync Module and 16GB of video storage. The onboard storage can be doubled at the $66 AUD level, but both include cloud storage as well. Those that want to be among the first to use the product can get into the Beta program for $139 AUD, and getting multiple rooms set up with ISense is possible with plenty of tiers offering multiple cameras. All perks are shipping out in February 2015.

The Potential. The wireless setup, long battery life, and notification of any detected motion make ISense a great choice for any consumer looking to add a simple, effective home monitoring system. What ISense offers in simplicity, it lacks in subtlety. The bright LED on the front that is used when the camera is on makes it so that if set up in a place that can be stepped around or crawled under, the system could be moved by any intruders, still detecting motion as it’s set down, but not offering any identifying information. Take that big light off of the front, and there could be something that belongs in any home here. At the same time, the feature set is pretty much identical to existing options like Blink, albeit with a larger focus on video quality. The combination of the glaring light and the lack of distinction might make ISense a forgettable chapter in home security video.

Categories
Aquatics Safety

Send sharks scurrying with the Sharkstopper

Sharkstopper

In places like South Africa, Mexico, and Hawaii, the pleasant experience of basking in the sun and surf is made unpleasant by the fear of shark attacks. The Sharkstopper wants to ensure open-water safety with an acoustically-based ankle device that repels sharks with the cries of their natural predator, the killer whale. The company eventually aims to market this technology to the commercial fishing industry to prevent the unnecessary deaths of sharks attracted by the big catches made by fishing rigs. For now, beach bums can protect themselves with their own in January 2015 for a cool $225, with the project’s creator looking to raise $48,000 by the end of the campaign.

Categories
Sensors/IoT

Heat Seek turns up the the heat up on lazy landlords

The Premise. Although New York City winters can’t compare to those further up the eastern seaboard, they still pack quite a punch. For those with poorly heated apartments, they can be downright brutal. Although avenues exist with which to report heating violations, they are often too unreliable to truly make a difference — literally leaving people out in the cold.

The Product. The team behind Heat Seek is proposing a tech-centric solution to reduce the inefficiency. The initiative uses a set of connected devices relaying temperature information back to a central hub in an Internet-connected apartment. (Only one hub is needed, reducing the barrier of entry for those without a connection.) All this information is then sent to a server where it can be accessed by tenants, advocates, and lawyers using a Web app.

The company hopes this information will allow timely resolutions to violations. Tenants coming home to a toasty apartment are not the only beneficiaries, though: Heatseek NYC wants to partner with responsible landlords to help them stay compliant by figuring out how best to avoid heat loss, maximize heating efficiency, and potentially save thousands. (How many responsible landlords there are in NYC remains to be seen.)

The Pitch. Their Kickstarter campaign has a lot going for it. Its simple and clear video tells the real story of a current NYC resident living in an improperly heated apartment. By telling her story and showing how the company’s sensors would help, the video presents a compelling issue and a solid call-to-action. Although the team is looking for $10,000 to begin manufacturing, it is ideally seeking $50,000 by campaign’s end to put 1,000 sensors in the hands of New Yorkers who need it most.

The Perks. You can gift a temperature hub for a New Yorker in need for $30, or pay $60 to do the same and receive one yourself. Conversely, you can gift a hub while receiving one yourself with a backing of $120 or more.  No matter what option you choose, every perk has an estimated delivery date of February 2015.

The Potential. Any serious attempt to revamp bureaucracy can be messy (here’s looking at you, health.gov.), but Heat Seek NYC’s solution to a persistent problem is simple, elegant, and easily applicable to a wide range of situations. Heat Seek has attracted a lot of attention via a back of a string of wins in app competitions However, it faces a long journey in the real world if it seeks to become a standard in New York or beyond.

Categories
Food and Beverage Safety

Slip Me Not keeps spikers, creepers away

Slip Me NotThis item may be the dream of every father and mother of a teenage or college-age daughter. Slip Me Not is an interesting device that makes drink spikers keep their naughty little deeds to themselves. The product is made of a clear, adhesive film that fits over the top of various sized glasses, keeping anything nefarious away from the beverage. A straw can be inserted if preferred, or simply poke a hole in the same area. Seems like clear plastic wrap could function in much the same way as this product if one always pours their own drink, but attending a party with plastic wrap tucked under one’s arm might look a bit strange. For $10 AUD backers get two packs of products and an expected delivery of February 2015.

Categories
Automotive Cell Phone Accessories Safety

Buoy protects loved ones from texting temptation in the car

The Premise. Texting and driving is a scourge affecting us all. Few drivers haven’t been tempted by the opportunity to compose a text or check e-mail while sitting at an intersection or navigating down a road, despite increasing technological and legislative attempts to curb such dangerous behavior. Admirable as these attempts have been, they haven’t addressed the fundamental root of the problem: the phone being in the driver’s hands at all.

The Product. Buoy, a sleek dock that mounts to the dashboard of your vehicle, is looking to confront that problem head-on. Using a patented system of proximity sensors, either within a newly manufactured car or an already functioning car with a built in docking station, The product can always detect when the driver’s cell phone is in the car. After a set amount of time, an alarm sounds accompanied by a flashing light to urge the driver to place their phone back in its designated position in the dock. By applying the idea of using behavioral cues similar to seat belt alarms to influence driver actions, DNJ Innovations is looking to position itself as a necessity rather than just an option to major car manufacturers.

The Pitch. Their campaign video not only shows off the 3D-printed Buoy prototype, but the final retail model in all its sleek glory, too. It also clearly explains everything from the legal issues DNJ Innovations had in mind when constructing Buoy to its ultimate goal of getting it into every car manufactured. Their 50 day campaign funding goal of $110,000 will support a full scale production run in the immediate future.

The Perks. The expected retail price for Buoy will be $149.99, but the various perks DNJ Innovations is offering cuts that price down. There’s an early bird special that nets you a Buoy in black for $95 and another, more general perk that does the same for $115. You can choose a different colored Buoy for $125, with bulk options of five or 10 Buoys for $500 and $850. The ultimate perk at $10,000 grants you the opportunity to both meet and talk business with the developers.

The Potential. DNJ Innovations has hit the nail on the head with this idea by approaching it with the kind of thinking that makes the idea itself seem completely obvious after you’ve heard it. In an industry trending heavily towards voice control in the car as a solution to using cell phones while driving, DNJ Innovations has taken a step back to take a look at the problem from fresh angles with Buoy as its result. Both the level of safety Buoy provides along with its relative simplicity should prove extremely attractive to major car manufacturers, as there’s no worry about the potential licensing and/or software issues other, more complicated systems present.

Categories
Safety Smart Home

NOVI portable security system eases burdens of safety, high expense

The Premise. Modern security systems promise innovation and quick response, but can be too complex in the way they work. In addition, they’re expensive and not portable, leaving renters and office owners at risk. 

The Product. NOVI is a portable security system. With three features, this small device looks like a typical smoke detector and attaches to the ceiling. It has an HD camera, motion sensor, siren and smoke detector. Information is sent to an app on one’s smartphone if there is any activity. This allows the user to see exactly what is going on at their home at any time. NOVI is also a learning device, keeping track of typical habits so it knows when to arm itself if the user has forgotten to do so. The app asks for a response when an image is sent including call the police, ignore, or request another image.

The Pitch. The campaign video goes through the downside of working with typical security companies and the upside of NOVI. Scary statistics about the false alarm rate common with regular security companies and the costs associated with that permeate the rest of the campaign. NOVI’s creators also really emphasize that their product requires one payment instead of bothersome monthly fees and contracts. NOVI needs to raise $80,000 for a successful run on Kickstarter.

The Perks. Early birds will receive one sensor and the base station for $149, regularly priced at $199. Higher tiers offer more sensors, great for larger apartments, homes or for landlords who’d like to equip the apartments that they lease. Estimated delivery is set for January 2015.

The Potential. Portable home security systems do exist on the market, but not all take the same approach as NOVI. The Tattletale alarm works remotely as well, but costs $500. Similarly, the SimpliSafe alarm system is portable and connects to one’s cell phone, but the company charges a monthly rate for each added feature. NOVI truly is simple and refined. While it could have more features like a carbon monoxide detector, NOVI’s genius lies in its affordability making it the best option for safety for home owners and especially apartment renters.