There have always been fantastic projects on Kickstarter from 3D pens and molecular scanners to robots and modular phones. Funny, but often completely useless in practice. Gradually, the balance is shifting towards more practical things, the task of which is not to shock the imagination, but simply to help in everyday affairs.
G-RO
Many people like to travel light. Whether on tourist trips or on business trips, they try to take one bag with them with the necessary minimum of things. And recently, almost half of this “minimum” is made up of technology: laptops, tablets, cameras, phones, external batteries and others.
The problem is that, on the one hand, such a bag should be as convenient as possible (light and durable, with a long retractable handle and stable wheels, different compartments for equipment, and so on), and on the other, as compact as possible, because it should be taken to the luggage compartment or I don't want to leave it in the storage room. Technique should always be at hand, otherwise it is of little use.
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The employees of Shalgi Design Studio were tired of eternal compromises and decided to take this matter into their own hands. This is how the G-RO was born – the ideal travel bag.
The developers themselves call it nothing less than revolutionary, although in fact there is nothing incredible in it. But this is not necessary here, because a normal bag needs artificial intelligence or a built-in navigator no more than a dog's fifth leg. It is much more important that the developers paid a lot of attention to much more mundane things – the number of compartments, materials, wheel size and design, center of gravity and other boring moments. The G-RO was originally designed for the needs of 21st century travelers, and this is its main advantage.
The wheels run great on almost any surface, from steps and paving stones to snowy roads and grass. Thanks to the large diameter, it was possible to find the ideal center of gravity; during transport, even a bag full to the top will feel surprisingly light. At the same time, due to their small thickness, the wheels 'eat up' a minimum of useful space. The telescopic handle increases several times, and its maximum size is larger than that of standard bags. The bag has several compartments and pockets, including for a tablet and laptop. A removable electronic module will allow you to track the location of your luggage and comfortably charge any equipment using a 23,000 mAh battery with multiple USB ports. The top of the bag has a retractable laptop docking station, so you can use it as a desktop as well.
G-RO is not a revolution, it is evolution. But this is the case when attention to detail is more important than crazy ideas.
Project page on Kickstarter
Ravean
Roughly the same can be said about another project – the Ravean heated jacket. This is far from the first attempt at a heated jacket or sweatshirt; if you look a little, then you can order something similar from China right now. But such things are not very popular.
The Ravean Team developers believe that the problem is not in the idea itself, but in its elaboration and quality of execution. And we honestly tried not to step on the old rake, making such clothes that would be nice to wear ourselves.
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Firstly, a lot of attention was paid to the jacket itself. Several different women's and men's models are offered at once to choose from, all of them are made of light but durable and practical material, suitable for different weather, are not afraid of rain and snow, have several convenient pockets, and so on.
Secondly, we thought over the heating system. You can not only select the level of heat, but also indicate for which part of the body to turn on the heating. Batteries will be of two types at once – light and compact (up to 7 hours of operation) and more solid (up to 10 hours and slightly more features).
In a set with a jacket, you can also buy gloves, they are also heated. Moreover, it is stated that it will be possible to work with any touch screen directly in them. And if the phone runs out of charge, then you can charge it directly in your pocket from the battery of the jacket itself, which is also a definite plus.
In total, we are again facing not so much an attempt to jump over our heads and make a revolution, but to bring an existing idea to mind. The question will be about the price – although for the first investors the cost of the kit was less than $ 100, in the future the price of the jacket may rise to $ 250. And this is a fundamentally different conversation and a completely different price category.
Project page on Kickstarter
Pulse
The next project aims to make life easier for photographers. The authors of Pulse are Kickstarter veterans who have launched four projects so far. This time they decided to develop the simplest, most convenient one. beautiful and functional way to remotely control Canon and Nikon cameras.
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Pulse allows you to control the camera using a regular smartphone. This will help not only to take a perfectly clear frame, but also to get a truly unique picture, record a combined video simultaneously from three different cameras, shoot professional Timelapse video and much more. Separately, I note that this is not just a one-button application, but full-fledged camera control, including all possible picture settings.
The developers assure that they have studied all the current offers on the market and are confident that in terms of the totality of their characteristics, their solutions are much better. Whether it is true or not – I will not undertake to judge, I am very far from professional photography and I have never been particularly interested in such things.
Project page on Kickstarter
SmartEgg
In general, unnecessary difficulties with the management of equipment are the scourge of our time. There is one remote control for the TV, the second for the DVD player, and the third for the air conditioner … All the time you have to look for something, click something and switch something. We are used to considering this the norm and have almost ceased to notice, but all this is not good enough. And then it will only get worse, because all sorts of robotic vacuum cleaners, smart sockets and remote-controlled lamps are gradually gaining popularity now. And all this zoo of devices will also need to be managed from time to time.
AICO Tech believes that a single device is enough to control all home electronics. It is called SmartEgg and looks like an ordinary egg. At first glance, there is nothing special about it, nowadays you will not surprise anyone with a universal replacement for infrared remotes, such a function is even in ordinary smartphones. There is nothing to say about electronics with support Bluetooth, here the phone is generally out of competition.
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But if you take a closer look at SmartEgg, you realize that everything is not so simple. The device has enough cleverly thought-out 'chips' that really justify the 'Smart' prefix.
For example, you can take the same viewing of films. Place SmartEgg on the coffee table and the TV will automatically turn on as soon as you sit in the chair. If your phone rings during the movie, the TV sound will automatically mute until you finish talking. And if you decide to go to the kitchen to pour yourself some coffee, the film will be immediately paused until you come back.
Another example is the management of smart electronics. If, of course, you have it. When you decide to go to bed, just put your smartphone on the table near the bed – all the extra light in the apartment will turn off automatically. And for the time of awakening, you can program something else, for example – turning on a toaster or a kettle (they themselves will not need special 'brains', a remote-controlled outlet is enough).
There is nothing supernatural in SmartEgg's capabilities, but it's nice that the idea of a 'smart' home is gradually becoming something real. The technique begins to work as needed and when needed without any human intervention. And if you need to configure something or turn it on manually, you can do it just by taking your smartphone out of your pocket.
Project page on Kickstarter
Gest
And yet, in our time, it is still very common to make compromises. Many necessary and correct things exist so far only on paper, but in practice they do not really work.
Ideally, not only household appliances, but even computers should be able to be controlled without any peripheral devices. But if in all sorts of fantastic films and games all sorts of three-dimensional holographic interfaces and gesture control are already in full swing, then in reality everything is much worse with this. There is voice input on smartphones, there are TVs with gesture recognition, there are projection touchpads, there are game controllers like Kinect – but this still works with a bunch of reservations and is far from everywhere. It is not yet possible to simply start 'typing' text on the table surface, to stop the video by showing the computer a fist or to control the cursor by dragging your finger across the table. Even if purely theoretically, nothing is impossible in this for a very long time.
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Gest offers a compromise solution – a device of the same name worn on the arm. The set of sensors in such a 'glove' is sensitive enough to recognize the movements of each finger. And this allows you to do a lot of interesting things … or someday it will.
For example, in the video below, one of the device developers shows how you can create a new melody in the music editor using only gestures.
And here he controls a flying drone with one wave of his hand
And here – he types without any keyboard. True, for this he needed two Gest at once, and without the auto-correction system it would have been difficult.
All this is not as impressive as what science fiction writers dream about. But it is available today. True, in order for this idea to really make sense, one of the large companies should be interested in it, the forces of a tiny startup will clearly not be enough here.
Project page on Kickstarter
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