Cassandra Khaw is an entry-level audiophile, a street dancer, a person who writes about video games for a living, and someone who spends too much time on Twitter. More by Cassandra Khaw
Your eye can clearly see only a small part of your screen any any given time. The rest of your field of view is some measure of blurry—a smearing of color your brain pulls, along with the sharp central focus, into a coherent image. That makes it relatively simple to extend the perceived breadth of a scene on your TV screen or monitor. Woodenshark aims to capitalize on this with its Lightpack (funding through May 31), an inexpensive back lighting system that extends your visual experience beyond the borders of your box.
A series of ten RGB LEDs radiate outward from a light-striped black box affixed to the back of your screen. These strips splash a pool of light onto the surface behind, its tones relating directly to the images displayed on their respective edges of the screen. The setup bleeds whatever you’re viewing into your peripheral vision in a way that is, as far as the less acute outer regions of your eyes are concerned, nearly as good as an extended sharp display—or at least that’s the pitch. And according to Woodenshark, soft lighting reduces muscular strain related to pupil dilation to boot.
Amber covers Windows Phones,mobile tech, bags, apps and accessories, and loves all manner of gadgets. In her non-tech time she takes too many pictures of her cats, watches zombie movies, crochets, and plans out her next tattoos. More by Amber Bouman
It seems strange to think that only a few years ago there were no Fitbits, no Jawbones, no Larklife, no Nike+ Fuelbands. These days, almost everyone at the gym has a smart device wrapped around their wrist or clipped to their waistband to measure how far they’ve run or how many steps they’ve climbed.
But what if you’re not a runner? Or a cyclist, or a triathlete, or a dieter counting calories? Maybe you’re more into snowboarding. Or surfing, or skateboarding, or motorcross. Those are still sports; still activities that require a great deal of physical exertion and skill. Shouldn’t they count towards your fit tech gadget’s goals? NZN Labs thinks so—which is why it’s developed Lit (funding through May 17), an activity tracker that works for action sports.
Cassandra Khaw is an entry-level audiophile, a street dancer, a person who writes about video games for a living, and someone who spends too much time on Twitter. More by Cassandra Khaw
The kitchen is no stranger to technology these days. The most recent salvo in the onslaught of smart household appliances is Chef Sleeve’s Bluetooth Smart Food Scale (funding through May 31st), which offers measurement beyond mere weight.
The initial app design
Ostensibly, the Smart Food Scale acts as a regular kitchen scale. It weighs food while looking sleek and stylish. But it also ties to an iOS device via Bluetooth, beaming its measurements to the associated app. This app, provided you’ve informed it of what you’re weighing, then calculates a smattering of details based on USDA information. In addition to nutritional info, it’ll track cumulative totals as items are added to your meal, monitor your daily nutrient intake, and more. If you’re concerned about your health, watching your caloric intake, or simply curious about the fuel your chemical engine of a body is receiving, a little extra effort will yield the numbers you desire.
Cassandra Khaw is an entry-level audiophile, a street dancer, a person who writes about video games for a living, and someone who spends too much time on Twitter. More by Cassandra Khaw
In addition to housing a whopping 25 percent of the ocean’s species, coral reefs represent a great amount of economic prosperity. They protect shorelines by absorbing wave energy while feeding fishing and tourism industries. They’re also fragile, harmed by the very things they promote. Repair efforts exist, but consist largely of volunteer work and take oodles of human hours. So once again we ask ourselves: Why not build robots to do it for us? As it happens, that’s what the Coralbot (funding through May 27) is all about.
Repairing reefs typically involves transplanting live, healthy pieces of coral into the damaged areas. A team from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh intends its Coralbot machines to (eventually) be capable of performing the task themselves. The autonomous underwater robots will use swarm intelligence harmlessly navigate around coral, identify healthy animals, and transplanting bits and pieces to their appropriate places as they go. The Coralbots will either use an underwater epoxy, or ties and nets and concrete flower pots, to affix the transplanted coral.
Cassandra Khaw is an entry-level audiophile, a street dancer, a person who writes about video games for a living, and someone who spends too much time on Twitter. More by Cassandra Khaw
These days, gamers are a diverse bunch, comprising people from all walks of life—a message that Gaming in Color (funding through May 11) is hoping to drive home.
Described as a full-length feature documentary, Gaming in Color is an attempt to turn the spotlight on the triumphs and tribulations experienced by both women and members of the LGBT community as gamers and/or game developers. The would-be director wants to portray the struggles that non-stereotypical gamers have endured simply to be treated in an equal fashion—struggles that are still far from well documented.
