CrowdGadget is a wrap of the latest crowd-funded gadgets and tech concepts that have caught our attention. We have rounded up five technologies that have the potential to disrupt their respective industries, by presenting ideas which are either affordable or innovative, or both.
Cubo AI – A baby monitor powered by AI
For new parents, baby monitors are becoming a necessity, especially as the price of these monitors drop. Start-up Cubo AI aims to change how these traditional monitors work by telling parents what their babies are doing through the use of AI. It says it is a smart baby monitor with a proactive warning system that features five smart features:
1. Covered face and rollover alert
Cubo AI says it has partnered with a paediatrician to develop a face detection and absence technology to alert to covered face events in real time. Through the mobile app, it alerts the parent if their baby’s face is covered by items or if they’ve rolled over and haven’t rolled back.
2. Danger zone alert
Even with safety fences, babies tend to find inventive ways to get where they aren’t supposed to be. The danger zone alert protects the baby beyond the crib and warns the parent if it is entering a restricted zone.
3. Cry detection alert
This is where its face detective algorithms are put to work. The AI monitor can detect a pre-cry, a few seconds before the baby starts to cry, and lets parents know that their baby is about to cry.
4. HD night vision
Cubo AI has implemented a Sony HD night vision lens into the device. The startup claims that this lens technology is better than most other traditional night vision baby monitors.
5. Automatic photo capture
Doubling up as a cute moment camera, the Cubo AI can take a picture of the baby at its cutest moment, based on its machine-learned library of what cute baby pictures look like.
Additional features include a temperature and humidity sensor, and two-way audio features.
To order and back the smart baby monitor on Indiegogo, click here.
Click here to read about wireless earphones hidden within a smartwatch, an app that allows doctors to translate in the 11 official languages, a trash bin that replaces its bags, and a device that helps teach music.
Wearbuds – A wearable with concealed wireless earphones
Having a smartwatch and wireless earphones is now possible in one form factor. Wearbuds can deliver wireless stereo from a smartwatch that frees its users from inconvenient charging, easy-to-lose earphones, and large charging cases.
The earphones come with Bluetooth 5, a Qualcomm audio chipset, and graphene-augmented drivers, which ensure the kind of sound one would expect from much larger wired headphones.
With Wearbuds, the charging case is on the user’s wrist. This means users can charge the earphones while jogging, cycling, or hiking, and not worry about a charging case falling out of their pockets. When one wants to listen to music, there’s no need to dig around in a pocket or backpack; the buds are on one’s wrist.
The earphones come with passive noise cancellation by using skin-friendly silicone, which can increase comfort of the in-ear seal. The same silicone is used on the wristband. The side of the earphones can be tapped to adjust the volume, change tracks, play or pause, or to use Google Assistant or Siri.
The earphones are impressive, but so is the wearable itself: it has a heart rate sensor and a pedometer for workout tracking. It also calculates calories burned, along with a sleep tracking functionality.
This syncs to its proprietary app, which is available on Android and iOS.
To order and back the wearable-earphone combo on Kickstarter, click here.
Click here to read about an app that allows doctors to translate in the 11 official languages, a trash bin that replaces its bags, and a device that helps teach music.
AwezaMed – A multilingual African communication tool
With 11 official languages, language barriers exist in every aspect of South African society. As a result, many struggle to access essential services like healthcare.
Following the success of its education pilot, Aweza turned its focus to the healthcare sector. In February 2018, it formally launched a research and development process in collaboration with a team of human language technology researchers at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to explore and develop a technology-based solution for this problem.
Focusing on the provision of women’s health, the result – called AwezaMed – is now piloting at eight different clinics and hospitals across South Africa, with provincial-level endorsement.
It is geared specifically towards assisting medical practitioners to navigate cross-lingual patient consultations in key areas of women’s health, such as maternity care, STI diagnosis and counseling and history-taking.
The app incorporates the speech-to-speech translation pipeline developed by the CSIR, which allows for South African language speech recognition, translation of text from one language to another, and the synthesis of that speech into audio. Each of these components of the speech-to-speech pipeline will be implemented into the app across three stages of piloting.
To order and back the translation app on Indiegogo, click here.
Click here to read about a trash bin that replaces its bags, and a device that helps teach music.
Townew – The trash bin that wraps itself up and replaces its own bags
Taking out the trash is one of those things that can either be simple or, if the trash is old, very unpleasant. Startup Knectek Labs aims to make this a little more pleasant, with its Townnew smart trash can.
The main feature of the smart trash can is its automatic bag sealing. When a user holds a button on the bin for three seconds, the built-in thermoplastic sealing technology seals the trash bag inside to help prevent spilling or exposure to any bad odour.
The self-seal is designed to be moisture- and water-resistant, ensuring that the sealer itself doesn’t make the outside of the bag smell like the contents of the bin. It also ensures the sealer can seal the bag properly, and that it doesn’t become too overloaded.
One doesn’t need to touch the bin’s lid to open it. Users can swipe below the lid to open and close. It has a timer to close the lid a few seconds after it opens, but it also has a lid open mode for when the user wants it to stay open.
It comes with a proprietary ring bag system, which is 100% recyclable. Each refill ring contains 25 trash bags and lasts approximately one month. The refills are available on most e-commerce sites, such as Amazon US, CA, EU marketplaces, Newegg and its official website: hellotownew.com.
To order and back the smart trash bin on Indiegogo, click here.
Click here to read about a device that helps teach music.
Lumi – A different way to learn and play music
Playing a musical instrument is no longer exclusively for those with years of practice. Lumi allows more people to play and jam along to hit songs. It achieves this with an illuminated keyboard and interactive app. Users learn how to play by light and colour on the device.
The keyboard device links to a companion app, which helps users learn how to play the keyboard. This app allows for several views, from sheet music to a Guitar Hero style, so users can choose the playing method with which they’re comfortable.
The keys that should be pressed light up and, with 10 800 millicandela of light distributed from each key, the keyboard is playable in bright, outdoor situations.
The keys are also weighted, making it feel more like a real piano. The key travels 92% of the plunge distance of a grand piano key, with a custom size optimised for the average human hand.
The Lumi device is also expandable, with the ability to snap units together to create a bigger keyboard. This allows for more complicated songs to be learned for more advanced users.
At 600g, it’s light enough to carry around and it’s smaller than most laptops, and can fit into a backpack or laptop bag.
To order and back the keyboard on Kickstarter, click here.