This personal wire delivers the news you want in real-time

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The Pound Nine Wire is real-time newswire that sits on your desk, continually streaming headlines from your content sources.

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Do you like to know what’s going on while at work, but hate reaching for your phone or having to open a new browser? So did Brad Warezak. That’s why he and his team at Pound Nine have come up with a solution to this all-too-common conundrum.

The Pound Nine Wire is a Wi-Fi-enabled, battery-operated device that conveniently sits on your desk, allowing you to keep your phone in your pocket and Internet tabs closed at all times. The tabletop-friendly gadget will continually stream up-to-the-minute information from your preset list of sites. This can be anything from the day’s breaking news, to shopping deals, to social media updates, to stock quotes, to sports scores to the latest Hollywood gossip. You  even add your own compatible RSS feeds.

How it works is pretty straightforward: First, you select from a menu of sources on the Pound Nine website via your PC or smartphone. The updates are then aggregated and streamed to your device in real-time. It’s as simple as that! Just glance at your own personal newswire to stay informed while you stay focused on the task at hand.

And should you want to know more information about a particular update that scrolls on by, the Pound Nine Wire provides you with quick access to additional content. By pressing the ‘notify’ button on top of the device, you’ll instantly receive a notification message on your phone via its accompanying mobile app.

Based on an ATxmega256A3U, the unit is equipped with a Wi-Fi module for connectivity, a 3.2” color touchscreen for a display and a lithium-ion battery for power. It can also be plugged into any standard wall outlet. Although the electronics in the current prototype are housed within a 3D-printed enclosure, the final product that ships to backers will be comprised of injection molded plastic. Measuring only three inches tall and four inches wide, the Pound Nine Wire will be a welcomed novelty to any desk, table or nightstand.

Want one of your own? Head over to its Kickstarter campaign, where the Pound Nine team is seeking $40,000. Delivery is expected to get underway in May 2016.

Eco lets you control any smart home device from a single app

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What the universal remote did for audio and video equipment, Eco wants to do for home automation.

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With aspirations of making tomorrow’s home not only smart but energy efficient, one Newport Beach-based startup has developed a new automation system designed with your family’s best interests in mind. Using its patent-pending technology and the Amazon Echo engine, Eco Automation believes its latest product line will finally offer you a seamless way to control all of your smart devices from a single app or through Jarvis-like voice commands.

Impressively, Eco’s energy efficient home automation system incorporates all of today’s most popular technologies into one small package, helping reduce power consumption and consolidating control in one place. Just like a universal remote for your audio and video equipment, Eco wants to be the all-in-one controller for all things home automation by making connecting to and managing any kind of gadgetry a breeze. Using its Eco Touch Display, users can simply scan the barcode of any device or sensor to quickly add them to the system in seconds.

The platform itself is comprised of several units. These include a Technology Bridge, an Eco Energy Meter, Eco Smart MultiSensor Switches,  Eco Smart MultiSensors and Eco Door/Window Sensors.

Eco’s universal bridge supports nine different protocols, such as Z-Wave, Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, providing you the largest range of product combinations and automation possibilities. What’s more, an expansion slot inside makes the system essentially future-proof, giving you with ability to add a new protocol whenever necessary.

Eco is also incredibly easy to setup. Mount your wireless Smart MultiSensors throughout the house, link Eco to your network and download its accompanying app. With your smartphone, you can now tap for quick access to commands and automation scenes, create new rules or edit synced gadgets, among countless other things. You can even assign a digital key to any of your contacts and grant them temporary access to your home or office.

Next, the Eco Eco Energy Meter lets you closely monitor real-time power consumption and solar production down to the microsecond. These power reads, combined with the Eco Intelligent Energy Conservation Engine, help you identify areas that you could be saving more energy in your home.

Meanwhile, Eco Smart MultiSensor Switches allow you to toggle your lights and power outlets. Not only can it be changed from a multi-level dimmer to an on/off switch with the push of a button, it features built-in voice commands as well.

In order to give it the true Tony Stark effect, Eco employs Amazon’s voice engine. This enables you to talk directly to the system via the Eco Touch Remote, the Eco Smart Switch, or by just using an Amazon Echo’s speaker.

“Because of Eco’s cross platform abilities, the possibilities are almost unlimited and will only be subject to your minds imagination. Eco has all the basic’s right out of the box such as home security with streaming video capabilities that can be monitored for your safety 24/7, real-time energy usage, individual room or location lighting control, comfort with HVAC control and ease of access with door lock control,” its creators write.

Among the many things Eco can do are notify you when a guest approaches your front door by flashing a light, sending a message to your phone as a loved arrives home, offer a friendly reminder to take out trash as you head out, and even give off the impression of a lived-in home while away.

Sound like the home automation system for you? Head over to its Indiegogo campaign, where the team is currently seeking $100,000. Delivery is slated for April 2016.

 

This cute owl is the extra set of eyes you need at home

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Ulo is an owl-shaped security camera that communicates through eye expressions.

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Surveillance cameras can be obvious eye sores to put around your house. If you wanted to monitor your home, you had to get over the aesthetics of security devices. Now, there’s a new way to keep an eye out, without putting a damper on your interior tastes.

The brainchild of French designer Vivien Muller, Ulo is changing the home surveillance game. While it may look like nothing more than a toy owl, this Internet-connected gadget is much more. Ulo is equipped with a two-way mirror beak housing a hidden camera and motion sensors, and is interactive with customizable LCD eyes.

Ulo comes to life when you tap it on the head, and can be controlled from your Android or iOS device, or web interface. A webpage and mobile app allows you to personalize eye color, shape and size to match any decor and taste. No logos or icons are displayed on the screens, but you instantly know what Ulo has in mind. Unlike any other surveillance camera, this owl unit communicates through eye expressions making it life-like. For example, if you want to take a picture, Ulo blinks. Its eyes also follow movements and squints when you’re watching its live-stream. Ulo’s eyes will even look tired when the battery is low, alerting you to charge it.

When you’re not at home, double tapping on Ulo’s forehead will activate its Alert Mode, which records any movement and sends an animated GIF to you via email. Plus, it can live-stream directly to your phone or webpage with 1080p HD video and audio. Ulo acts as the extra set of eyes to check what’s going on when you’re away. What’s more impressive is that it has infrared night vision and is waterproof, making Ulo an effective and versatile way of surveillance, inside and outside the house.

This adorable, high-tech owl features a Wi-Fi module, an orientation sensor, a Li-Po rechargeable battery, a mono microphone, and speaker. Ulo comes with adhesive neodymium magnets for easy attachment, as well as a micro-USB cable for recharging.

Want your own personal surveillance bird? Then fly over to Muller and his team’s Kickstarter page, where they’ve already reached over a million dollars in funding. The first batch of Ulos are expected to ship by November 2016.

Maker converts his TIE Fighter toy into a flying drone

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Can you ever get sick of Star Wars projects? Didn’t think so.

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Just in time for December 18th’s release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, one Maker has successfully converted his Hasbro First Order TIE Fighter into a fully-functional, flying quadcopter.

Impressively, Imgur user “woodpiece” was able to accomplish this feat with only a few tweaks. The Star Wars enthusiast threw a couple of rotor arms onto the toy and cut out a slot on the radiator for the propellors. The rest of the modification process involved disassembling the device and installing a quad motor attached to 3D-printed mounts. The Maker glued the wings to the main body, while ensuring that all the wires remained inside the frame through its existing holes.

All the electronics were able to fit comfortably, with no additional cosmetic enhancements necessary. The brains of the operation is a Flip MWC Flight 1.5 Controller (ATmega328) which sits at the base of the cockpit, along with the motor controllers and battery.

As awesome as this all may sound, you have to see it in all its glory as it soars through the sky. The end result was a remote-controlled unit with rotors on both front and back of the wing panels. You can find a step-by-step breakdown of the Maker’s build here.

[h/t Daily Dot via Toyland]

Hands full? KickSoul lets you answer calls with your feet

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KickSoul is an embedded insole that maps natural feet movements into inputs for digital devices.

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Have you ever tried to answer a call, respond to a text or look something up on your phone when your hands are full? Thanks to a team of MIT Media Lab researchers, you can try using your feet instead. Introducing KickSoul — an insole that simply slips inside of your shoe and enables you to wirelessly control your mobile devices and appliances with a flick of your foot.

“Most of [today’s] devices have visual interfaces that rely on hand gestures and touch interaction, as they are easy and natural for us. However, there are occasions when our hands are busy or it is not acceptable to make use of them, preventing us from interacting with our devices,” the group led by Xavier Benavides writes.

To bring their idea to life, the Media Lab crew sewed several electronic components onto a spongy insole. These included an accelerometer and a gyroscope to track motion, an ATmega328 to help collect data and a Bluetooth module for wireless communication. The six-axis IMU registers the movements and transmits them to the MCU. From there, the information is analyzed by a special algorithm and relayed to an accompanying mobile app.

The system supports two types of interactions: pushing an imaginary object away with your foot and pulling one closer. The idea is that, with just these two simple foot movements, you can scroll, zoom in and out on a document, turn on a light, accept or reject a phone call, and save or delete a file. Whenever either gesture is detected, KickSoul will search for the nearest compatible device and determine which one the user wants to operate.

“Most of these interactions are short in time and not very complex. As a consequence, feet become a suitable substitute or complement to hands, as they tend to be free when our hands are not,” the researchers conclude.

Intrigued? Check out the project’s official paper here, and see it in action below.

ShiftWear lets you customize your sneakers from your phone

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ShiftWear is putting app-controlled e-paper displays on your shoes.

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It seems like everything these days is becoming smarter, and that doesn’t exclude our shoes. While the idea of customized sneakers is a far cry from new, one New York-based startup has decided to take another step into the future. How, you ask? By creating footwear that can display personalized, moving images on its sides. (And you thought your LA Lights were cool!)

If you think about it, shopping for shoes is quite the wallet-draining hobby. But what if instead of filling your closet with countless pairs of kicks, you only need one that could change its appearance at the press of a button? This may soon be a reality thanks to ShiftWear.

ShiftWear enables you to control the design of your sneaks from your smartphone, adjusting them as you go from work to the gym to a night out on the town. From simple black and white patterns to complex graphics and animations, you can create the shoe of your liking right in the palm of your hand using its accompanying mobile app.

“The app you use to program new designs on your shoes is the same app that will connect you to a marketplace with the freshest designs from artists all over the world,” the ShiftWear team writes. “Buy their designs right from the app, and they’ll show up on your shoes in seconds.”

Their first model, the Classic, may look like just any other sneaker but that’s where you’re mistaken. Available in low, mid and high top form, each pair is actually wrapped with a flexible, high-definition e-paper display that allows you to show off your individual style and match whatever outfit or occasion. ShiftWear syncs with your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, so you can swap out designs at any time.

Since the idea here is to save you closet space and money, ShiftWear is built for frequent use. Its soles are coated with Kevlar fiber to withstand the typical wear and tear of traditional footwear, and since they’re waterproof (up to 16 feet), they can be washed whenever necessary.

The stylish accessory can also be charged in one of two ways: either with every step you take or wirelessly when you’re not moving. If you choose a static image, which will probably get boring after awhile, you won’t even have to refuel it at all since it won’t be consuming power. What’s more, ShiftWear syncs with your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, so you can swap out designs at any time.

So, are you ready to slip your feet into a pair of ShiftWear? Then head over to its Indiegogo campaign, where David Coelho and his collaborators are currently seeking $25,000. Although there’s no estimated delivery or guarantee that the team will pull this off, the futuristic concept of ever-changing kicks may be just as sweet as Marty McFly’s self-tying laces.

EasyJet staff to sport new smart LED-laden uniforms

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Wearable tech, you are now ready for takeoff.

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To celebrate its 20th year in operation, European airline EasyJet recently unveiled a first-of-its kind uniform for both cabin crew and aircraft engineers. Not only does the new getup boast a futuristic look, it incorporates wearable technology to enhance communication and passenger safety procedures. (Bet now you’ll pay attention!)

Unlike other airlines who simply continue to adapt to the latest trends in fashion, EasyJet has decided to take it up a notch. The next-gen uniforms, which were designed in collaboration with London-based fashion house CuteCircuit, are equipped with several LEDs for increased visibility and built-in microphones so that engineers, crew and pilots can all talk to one another.

The cabin crew outfits feature LEDs on the shoulders and hems to provide additional lighting in the event of an emergency, and on the jacket lapels to display important information like flight numbers and destinations (in case you forget where you’re going?).

Meanwhile, the engineers’ jackets will come with light-up hoods and sleeves that illuminate work areas and keep both hands free for aircraft inspections and maintenance, along with reflective laser-cut decorations to aid visibility on the air field and built-in video cameras for remote diagnose of technical issues. Aside from that, the garment will be embedded with an air quality sensor and barometer to help monitor work environments and create a map of air quality in different cities.

If CuteCircuit sounds familiar, that’s because you may recall the wearable tech pioneers from some of their previous work which includes LED-laden dresses for celebs like Katy Perry and Nicole Scherzinger as well as tshirtOS — the world’s first programmable t-shirt.

EasyJet will begin a pilot (no pun intend) of the uniforms early next year.

Optimizing crop irrigation with Arduino

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To optimize crop yield, this group of Makers developed an Arduino-based irrigation system that uses sensors and a weather station.

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As part of a recent hackathon in Madrid, one team of Makers created a grid system to optimize crop field irrigation through an array of soil moisture sensors and a weather station.

Crop Squares (inspired by alien crop circles) was initially conceived as a way to make the irrigation process both sustainable and efficient by continuously reading and sending sensor data. However, the ultimate goal is that that one day, the system can implemented in developing countries and rural areas with scarce resources.

For its prototype, the group employed an Arduino Pro Mini (ATmega328) along with moisture sensors in potted plants to detect moisture levels, and a Raspberry Pi was used to garner weather data for the area under surveillance. Meanwhile, data was wirelessly transmitted through an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. As a way to show off its automated potential, an Arduino Leonardo (ATmega32U4) was tasked with reading another moisture probe and activating a servo motor that pushed up a water bottle to perform the irrigation process, whenever levels dipped below a predefined threshold.

The project features a graphical touchscreen user interface running Dizmo software that shows a map of the field along with collected sensor measurements. Rectangles assigned to each soil sensor change their colors (green, yellow and red) depending on moisture levels. According to its creators, the display could even share weather station results for that area in real-time.

On the backend, the Makers compiled Node.js runtime and installed the Node-RED workflow tool to deliver sensor information via the IBM Bluemix IoTF MQTT Broker. They also wrote Python scripts based on Adafruit’s libraries to read data from the weather station sensors and broadcast them through MQTT.

Intrigued? Check out their entire project here.

This wearable device lets you feel virtual reality

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Impacto is an Arduino-driven device designed to render the haptic sensation of hitting and being hit in virtual reality.

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Virtual reality has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, and is poised to become the next big thing in gaming. Even with major brands like Oculus and Samsung helping lead the charge to a more immersive experience, there’s still one thing missing though: haptic feedback. In other words, being able to feel what is happening as if you’re actually there inside the augmented world.

That may soon change, however, thanks to researchers from Hasso Plattner Institute’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab. The team has developed working prototypes of a device they call Impacto, which is capable of rendering the sensation of hitting and being hit through tactile and electrical muscle simulation.

Impacto is integrated into a wireless band that can be worn around the arm, leg or foot of a virtual reality user, and when combined with a VR headset and custom software, simulates contact on the wearer so that they can actually touch virtual objects or feel if they’ve been struck.

To demonstrate the system, the team selected various VR sports games, including boxing and soccer. All the examples employed an Impacto for haptic feedback, an Oculus Rift for visuals and a Kinect for tracking. While boxing, the user sported the gadget around the bicep along wit  an additional solenoid unit mounted to the back of the hand. This allowed the participant to actually experience the impact of jabs, blows and blocks from the virtual opponent. In the other use case, the Impacto was thrown around the user’s calves enabling him to juggle an imaginary soccer ball with his foot.

“The key idea that allows the small Impacto device to simulate a strong hit is that it decomposes the stimulus. It renders the tactile aspect of being hit by tapping the skin using a solenoid; it adds impulse to the hit by thrusting the user’s arm backwards using electrical muscle stimulation. Both technologies are small enough for wearable use,” the team of Pedro Lopes, Alexandra Ion and Patrick Baudisch explained in their research paper.

As for its hardware, Impacto is equipped with an Arduino Pro Micro (ATmega32U4), a Bluetooth module, an EMS unit, a solenoid, electrodes and batteries. The MCU and EMS are both powered through a 9V regulator, while the solenoid is driven directly from the 22.2V battery. Optionally, the solenoid power can be regulated down to 20V via another adjustable voltage regulator.

Intrigued? Watch the project in action below, or read all about it in its official paper here.

FUSAR Mohawk is like the Swiss Army knife of smart helmets

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FUSAR Mohawk can make any helmet smart, enabling you to capture photos and videos, track your rides, talk to your friends, call for help, and more.

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Thanks to the Internet of Things, your helmet won’t only keep your head protected, it will soon keep you connected as you hit the road or slopes as well. Geared towards the action sport enthusiast, the Mohawk is an HD camera, activity tracker, walkie-talkie, GPS unit, music player, black box and emergency alert system all rolled into one wearable package.

Currently live on Indiegogo, Mohawk is an aerodynamic, add-on device that gives your ordinary helmet superpowers. It is equipped with an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a gyroscope, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and GPS, along with a 2350 mAh battery that provides up to four hours of use. What’s more, a separate handlebar and wrist-mounted remote control enables you to easily interface with Mohawk, while multi-color LEDs offers constant feedback.

“Mohawk is designed to be low-profile when mounted to your helmet. It is hinged at the rear and has a unique pre-load spring that keeps it flush against the surface at all times. This allows it to contour to different helmet shapes and also helps stabilize the device during use. It uses standard action camera style mounts, so installation is a breeze,” the FUSAR crew explains.

As for its camera, the Mohawk lets you capture 12MP photos and shoot 1080p video at 30 or 60 FPS with the touch of its remote. Simply short press the button on the Bluetooth controller (BRC) to snap a photo, or long press to begin recording high-def video. In either case, the footage is instantly synced and relayed to your smartphone via its accompanying app. Press two buttons on your BRC to save the last 15 seconds of action and share it in real-time to your social media channels using its HotShot feature — even if you weren’t recording.

What’s more, Mohawk pairs with your smartphone to enable push-to-talk, walkie-talkie-like communication over any distance for up to 12 friends and companion riders. Onboard sensors make it possible to track your activity, giving you real-time data right at your fingertips. Full Bluetooth streaming ensures that listening to music, taking calls or listening to navigation instructions are seamless, too.

Perhaps one of its most notable capabilities, however, is the Mohawk’s advanced crash detection and alert system that will automatically send out an SMS to first responders and your predefined set of contacts in the event of an emergency. In the event of an accident, a text message and an email will be transmitted alongside a map and GPS coordinates. Simultaneously, its black box function will store the last 15 seconds of video, audio, speed, direction of travel and other telemetry leading up to the incident, helping riders and authorities know what really happened.

Ready to make your ‘dumb’ hemet smart? Head over to its Indiegogo campaign, where FUSAR has already well surpassed its goal of $100,000. The app, Bluetooth headset and handlebar remote are expected to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2016, while the Mohawk itself will be available in the third quarter.