Slideshow

In Pictures: 15 hot Kickstarter tech campaigns

16 Photos Mark Gibbs (Network World)

Here is a collection of some of the most intriguing and potentially valuable Kickstarter tech projects people are trying to launch

  • I know Kickstarter wants to be seen as a crowdfunding platform for the broadest range of projects, but I have little interest in backing a hairball collection in Scotland or a book on the manhole covers of Bombay, worthy though those projects might be. Nope, I just want to see the tech advances. So here is a collection of some of the most intriguing and potentially valuable Kickstarter tech projects people are trying to launch. If there’s a project I missed, drop me a note at mgibbs@gibbs.com or post something in comments and we’ll consider it the next time around.

  • Trinity - The Portable Wind Turbine Power Station Concept: Trinity is a portable wind turbine that charges any USB device like your smart phone or tablet and folds together into a 12-inch cylinder. Quite brilliant and invaluable for serious outdoors people. Goal: $50,000 Prospect: Already surpassed goal

  • Legion Meter - Charge your smartphone 92% faster Concept: A USB multimeter with integrated OLED display designed to accelerate your smartphone or tablet's charge speed up to 92% faster. Goal: $10,000 Prospect: Already surpassed goal

  • World's smallest Solar Charger Concept: Charge your iPhone battery 100% with just 2 hours of sunlight. Goal: $30,000 Prospect: Already surpassed goal.

  • Easy Drone - the first modular plug-and-fly aerial solution Concept: EasyDrone is an advanced, modular quadcopter designed for videographers who need quick, easy, and affordable aerial shots. It is easy to quick setup without tools. EasyDrone has wireless video, on screen display, telemetry, gimbal control, and camera power built in as standard features. Goal: $20,000 Prospect: Will probably be funded.

  • The Joy of Bootstrap Concept: Bootstrap is a framework that makes front-end web development faster and easier. A couple of guys at Twitter invented it and later made it open source. Other people have joined and it is now in it's third major release. Bootstrap is good for people of all skill levels, devices of all shapes, and projects of all sizes. But there aren't really many good books out there to help you learn if you're new to it...at all. Amazon has just 12 books on the topic of bootstrap, as contrasted with 585 books about PHP. Goal: $3,500 Prospect: Already surpassed goal.

  • SCiO: Your Sixth Sense. A Pocket Molecular Sensor For All Concept: SCiO is a tiny spectrometer and allows you to get instant relevant information about the chemical make-up of just about anything around you, sent directly to your smartphone. When you get your SCiO out of the box you’ll be able to analyze food, plants and medications. For example, you will be able to: get nutritional facts about different kinds of food: salad dressings, sauces, fruits, cheeses, and much more; see how ripe an Avocado is, through the peel!; find out the quality of your cooking oil. Goal: $200,000 Prospect: Already surpassed goal (by 10 times!).

  • MBLOK - One memory for all devices. Always by your side. Concept: Personal storage (256GB) with encryption accessible via Bluetooth or USB connector with a 300-hour battery. Goal: $120,000 Prospect: Will probably be funded.

  • CENTR: Interactive Panoramic Video in the Palm of Your Hand Concept: CENTR captures 360-degree panoramic video in real-time on a camera that fits in the palm of your hand. With decades of experience working on cameras at Apple, the CENTR team knows what it takes to bring beautiful design and groundbreaking technology together in one product. Goal: $900,000 Prospect: Probably won’t be funded.

  • Voltset - World's Smartest Multimeter for Smart Devices Concept: Voltset is a module that plugs into a smartphone via a USB connection turning it into a smart multimeter, a must-have tool for every DIY, tinkerer or hardware hacker. Goal: $58,888 Prospect: Will probably be funded.

  • Phenox: intelligent, interactive and programmable drone Concept: Phenox is an intelligent, interactive and programmable quadcopter roughly the size of your hand. With onboard front-camera, bottom-camera and microphone, Phenox interacts with your voice and movement. There is no need to use controllers anymore. You have only to call and put out your hand to make interaction. For example, using OpenCV to detect your hand, you can interact with Phenox like walking a dog in the air and Julius (an open-source engine for voice recognition) is used for voice recognition. Goal: $5,000 Prospect: Already surpassed goal.

  • Mr Beam - a Portable Laser Cutter and Engraver Kit Concept: Mr Beam is an open source DIY laser cutter and engraver kit for paper, wood, plastic and other materials. The motivation for Mr Beam was to maximize the working area while keeping costs to a minimum. In addition, the developers wanted to make it portable, easy to build, and simple to use. Goal: $45,000 Prospect: Already surpassed goal.

  • Bright Pi - Bright White & IR Camera Light for Raspberry Pi Concept: The Bright Pi is a breakout/add on board for the Raspberry Pi (can be used with other I2C devices too such as Arduino) which adds both visible bright white light and infrared illumination to the Raspberry Pi for use with the Raspberry Pi camera module, the Pi NoIR camera module, or for any other project which requires bright LEDs! Goal: $1,500 Prospect: Already surpassed goal.

  • TechFreeR Head-Fi: A 3-in-1 Portable DAC Headphone Amplifier Concept: The TechFreeR Head-Fi is a 3-in-1 portable battery pack and a high-end headphone amplifier which is built with Texas Instruments chips – digital-to-analog convertor & DirectPath amplifier, that transforms your iOS devices into a mobile hi-fi system for stunning audiophile-grade audio. This tiny device only weighs 150 grams and it has a maximum sample rate/resolution 96 kHz/24 bits, S/N ratio >100dB and output power at 2x130mW. And of course, it is a protective yet stylish bumper case that does a great job of protecting your iPhone 5/5S. It is designed for specifically for iOS devices with MFi approval. Goal: $35,000 Prospect: Probably won’t be funded.

  • Makesmith CNC - The Most Affordable Desktop CNC Router Concept: The most affordable Desktop CNC Router: Using off-the-shelf parts to put CNC technology into the hands of engineers and hobbyists. Goal: $10,000 Prospect: Already surpassed goal.

  • PicDevUSB PicDevUSB Concept: PicDevUSB is a USB enabled PIC microcontroller development board that can be directly programmed with its on board USB (without needing external programmer) and is complete tiny yet powerful PIC microcontroller development board. Goal: $1,000 Prospect: Already surpassed goal.

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