At any given moment there are approximately a zillion different crowdfunding campaigns happening on the Web. Take a stroll through Kickstarter or IndieGoGo and you’ll find there’s no shortage of weird, ambitious, and downright stupid projects out there – far too many for any reasonable person to keep up with. But here at DT we are not reasonable people. We spend an inordinate amount of time poring through crowdfunding sites and product blogs in search of the next Oculus Rift or Pebble Watch, so we’re here to bring you a quick roundup of the best projects that are currently up and running.
Mogees – Music-making appcessory
Just the other week we came across this thing called Ototo that allows you to make just about anything into a musical instrument, and this week a similar device popped up. Mogees seeks to achieve the same result, but goes about doing it in an entirely different way. Instead of relying on electric triggers, Mogees attaches to any surface – the hood of your car, a coffee mug, or even the Golden Gate Bridge – and picks up vibrations. Then, using your smartphone as it’s brain, the device interprets those different vibrations and translates them in to different sounds. You can even tweak the type of noises you make with the accompanying app, so the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.
Looky Loo – Infant mesmerizer (for photography)
Pictures of your kids are priceless, but when they’re really young and cute, getting them to look at the camera while you shoot is nearly impossible. Babies up to a year old have wandering eyes and notoriously short attention spans, so professional baby photographer Allison Carenza set out to build something that’d snag their attention. After a few months trial and error and some help from her husband’s graphic design skills, Looky Loo was born. The device uses an array of blinking LEDs to attract the wandering gaze of infants and keep them transfixed – like a bug zapper, but less lethal. According to testimonials from Carenza’s clients, the lights work like a charm and keep kids transfixed for the duration of a shoot.
FlyFit – Fitness-tracking ankle bracelet
When you get down to it, Flyfit is really just a FitBit or Nike FuelBand that you wear on your ankle – but that gives it a number of distinct advantages. It’s packing as similar set of sensors, but is programmed to recognize various activities based on your leg movements, so it’s far better suited for activities like running, biking, and swimming – all of which wrist-borne fitness bands tend to have trouble with. The project launched just a few days ago and is already well on the way to achieving its $90,000 funding goal with time to spare. If you back the project now you can lock one down for just $99 bucks – a full $40 dollars cheaper than what it’ll retail for after the first production run. Check out our full article here.
TargetVision – Long-range spotting camera
If you’re a fan of long-range target shooting, you know how much of a pain it can be to figure out where you hit the target (if at all). More often than not, your best bet is to bring out a separate scope and a friend to play spotter, but TargetVision offers an alternative solution. It’s basically a rugged, long-range wireless camera designed for use on the shooting range. Just set it up about 10 or 20 feet away from your target and sync it with a tablet or laptop. After that, just walk back to your shooting spot, take a shot, and you’ll have a live, adjustable, close-up video feed to see where you’re hitting.
PrioVR – Motion-capture gaming suit
Already blasting past it’s initial $75k funding goal in just a few days, PrioVR is a full-body video game controller that makes an on-screen avatar move almost identically to the person wearing the motion capture suit. Using inertial sensors to track motion instead of camera-based technologies like Kinect, PrioVR allows players to move anywhere they want around the room. The sensors are placed at specific points on the human body in order to accurately capture movement of feet, legs, hips, harms, the chest, shoulders, and the head. Check out our full article here.