They say that only a person can have a soul. It may be so, but as for me, many devices also have a soul. And any, even the most technologically advanced and sophisticated device is worth nothing without the idea behind it. Now, when only a few days are left before the New Year holidays, Kickstarter is filled with just 'warm tube' projects.
The lampster
A real wizard is not at all one who can throw fireballs, open portals to otherworldly worlds, or can fly on a flying carpet. This is the one who can take an old cracked pumpkin and turn it into a carriage for Cinderella. And looking at what Radu & Andrew are doing, you understand that there was much more truth in this tale than fiction.
The creators of The Lampster say they made it from an ordinary car headlight, which they accidentally found near the garage door. At that time, they did not plan to go to Kickstarter with this idea at all and did not even think about mass production at all – rather, it was just a funny attempt to make a truly original and unusual lamp.
As a result, they got a small but extremely charismatic robot, which in the very first days won the sympathy of a huge number of people around the world.
The Lampster can be controlled using a special sensor on the robot's head. First of all, it is needed in order to select the type of lighting you need at the moment and adjust its brightness. The model with a color RGB lamp can also be controlled from the smartphone itself.
The number of available body colors is enormous. In addition to the base color, you can also choose a texture or a logo, and if this does not seem enough, then offer your own design option.
Lampster is one of those things that you fall in love with at first sight. Not everyone can combine stunning design, practical materials and all the necessary set of functions in one device, but Radu & Andrew did it.
Project page on Kickstarter
FLUXO
Externally, FLUXO may be inferior to the Lampster robot lamp, but the idea behind it is no less beautiful. From the point of view of the developers at Luke Roberts, it should be possible to control the lighting in the house with just a couple of gestures and one single lamp.
FLUXO will allow you not only to choose a comfortable color temperature or brightness of lighting, but also to choose which part of the room should be illuminated and how. All this can be done using a smartphone – just run a special application and paint over the desired area of the screen with your finger. The brighter the paint on the screen, the brighter the corresponding corner of the room will be illuminated.
So that you do not have to mess around with the selection of the optimal lighting scheme every time, you can save several sets of settings and switch between them literally in one click. In addition, the FLUXO has a presence sensor – this lamp can independently turn on when a person enters the room and turn off when no one is.
I don’t know how all this will work in practice, but the description turns out to be a real lamp of the future.
Project page on Kickstarter
PINE A64
The idea of miniature computers assembled on a single board is by no means new. There are already a lot of such devices, one of the most famous examples is the Raspberry Pi.
Despite its impressive specifications and a very nice price (about $ 15), the PINE A64 shouldn't have attracted much public attention. Just think, another incomprehensible 'piece of iron', but who needs them? In fact, everything turned out exactly the opposite.
Perhaps because this is a project of Daniel Kottke, one of the first engineers Apple and an old friend of Steve Jobs. This man had a hand in most of the prototypes of the Macintosh at one time and always knew that a real computer is much more than pieces of iron put together.
Design is not what a device looks like. This is how it works. For Daniel Kottke, the PINE A64 is not just a super-cheap computer, but a project he is truly proud of. And for the 15 thousand contributors who supported it, this is not so much a pile of iron as many amazing opportunities.
From a technical point of view, it is a compact but efficient solution with a number of additional modules and components. The heart of the computer is a 64-bit quad-core ARM A53 processor with a frequency of 1.2 GHz. Graphics Accelerator – MALI-400 MP2.
It initially has all the necessary ports, from USB to Ethernet. Special versions Android and Linux are available for it from the very beginning. It consumes even less energy than a conventional incandescent light bulb. If you want, you can connect almost anything to it, from a camera module and battery to a joystick or Wi-Fi module. And all this splendor is available to anyone.
From PINE A64, as if from plasticine, you can sculpt almost anything you want. It can turn into a game console (fortunately, there is no shortage of games on Android) and into a miniature PC, and into a 'smart' TV and a bunch of other things. The only limitation is the owner's imagination.
Project page on Kickstarter
nOb
There are things you can just read about. And there are those that need to be looked at. nOb belongs to the latter – what sounds pretty silly in words looks very cool in the official video.
In short, we are talking about a controller with which you can control almost everything. Scroll through the list of photos, adjust the equalizer, select shades of colors, rotate 3D models, and so on. A kind of analogue of a standard mouse, which in some cases will be really more convenient.
Although the main thing here is not so much practical use as the appearance of the controller. Made of wood and metal, the device will be a great gift for all steampunk lovers.
Project page on Kickstarter
PowerUp FPV
This is not the first Kickstarter launch for developers. A couple of years ago, they presented their first project to the public – a set that allows you to turn any paper airplane into a radio-controlled one. At first glance, quite a simple idea, very many people liked it – every adult must have a child who perfectly remembers how great it was to design and launch paper airplanes.
This time, they decided to go even further and equip him with a special camera that allows him to stream in first person. The broadcasting range will be just under 100 meters (300 feet), the maximum speed of the device is 32 km / h, and the model can still be controlled from a smartphone.
The main feature of Powerup FPV is the support of virtual reality glasses, which will make every flight truly unforgettable. However, no one bothers to simply record video or take pictures.
They say that Shai Goitein took on the first project by arguing with a friend's desire, practically not believing in success. Now everything is different – being a pilot himself, Shai Goitein knows perfectly well that flying is very cool. For him, the PowerUp FPV project is not just a fun toy, but an opportunity to share the feeling of flying with those who have never taken off the ground in their life.
As for me – the idea is just great.
Project page on Kickstarter
