14 smart crowdfunding campaigns you may want to back this week

Every Friday, we’re taking a look at some of the smartest, most innovative projects that have caught our attention on Kickstarter and Indiegogo over the last seven days.  Widerun This bike trainer allows you to connect to VR headsets, from Oculus Rift to Samsung Gear VR, and bring the great outdoors inside. Widerun is currently seeking £30,000 on Kickstarter. ErgoDox EZ […]

Plant Friends is an AVR based plant environmental monitor system

These bamboo characters will become friends with your plants.  Have you ever wanted to know the exact moment that your precious plants get thirsty? A Maker by the name of Dickson Chow has created an environmental monitor system called Plant Friends that will tell you just that. The environment monitoring solution is comprised of two sub-systems: wireless sensor nodes […]

GE’s Brilliant Super Smoker is bringing the IoT to BBQ

What stands at 12-feet-tall, emits 300 gallons of smoke and provides a full weekend of BBQ deliciousness?  SXSW means many different things to many different people, but one thing it means to nearly everyone is barbecue. From briskets to ribs, Austin has it all. ​For three days, SXSW attendees had the chance to see, smell, and most importantly, taste barbecued food courtesy […]

HIRIS is “a wearable computer, for everyone”

HIRIS lets you control the devices around you with the flick of your wrist or wave of your hand.  When it comes to wearables, it seems as though a vast majority of them revolve around fitness tracking. You know, keeping tabs on things like heart rate, steps taken, distance walked, calories burned, among many others. While those features may be enough for […]

Video: Using your brain and visual stimuli to play music

This biotronic art installation creates a unique musical experience based on thoughts and emotion. What if moving your eyes from left-to-right or up-and-down could trigger lights, play music and control other devices? That’s what digital artist Fèlix Vinyals has set out to accomplish with his latest project entitled Torval. Well sort of, at least. In collaboration with EEG and BCI researcher Oscar […]

LoFi is a low-power, low-cost way to connect sensors to the Internet

LoFi is a small, affordable, auto-transmitting module that Makers can attach to any appliance or project. With the emergence of the Internet of Things, it’s only a matter of time before the walls of homes are adorned with smart gadgetry and nearly everything around us are laden with sensors. However, the price point of these devices keeps many out of reach for a […]

This wearable device turns ’twerking’ into its own instrument

Now this is a project Sir Mix-A-Lot will surely like.  The Booty Drum is a high-tech musical device that, unlike most instruments, isn’t operated by your hands, feet or head for that matter, but by your posterior. This idea is a collaboration between headphone brand AIAIAI, professional dancer Twerk Queen Louise, Branko from Portuguese electronic band Buraka Som Sistema and Dutch design company Owow. […]

Rocking out with a DIY Arduino synth guitar

Maker creates a slick synth guitar out of an old drum machine, ribbon potentiometers, a joystick shield and an Arduino.  Recently brought to our attention by our friends at Hackaday, a Maker by the name of “Gr4yhound” has devised a slick synth guitar comprised entirely from scratch using an old Yamaha DD-55 drum machine, some SoftPot ribbon potentiometers, a SparkFun joystick shield, […]

10 smart crowdfunding campaigns you may want to back this week

Every Friday, we’re taking a look at some of the smartest, most innovative projects that have caught our attention on Kickstarter and Indiegogo over the last seven days.  Qduino Mini This Arduino-compatible board features a built-in battery charger and fuel gauge. Qtechknow is currently seeking $12,500 on Kickstarter. Ringo This palm-sized, Arduino-based digital pet robot is packed with an accelerometer, gyrosocope, […]

Connect and control your IoT devices with the SmartEverything dev board

Arrow’s latest development board is optimized for Internet of Things connections. Arrow Electronics has launched an Atmel | SMART based development board packed with sensor options, communication interfaces and connection to the cloud for Internet of Things (IoT) designs. The board, which is aptly named SmartEverything, utilizes the SIGFOX global network cellular connectivity solution to enable access to the IoT. SmartEverything is […]