Kickstarter’s technology category is alive and well. Many of the current and recently trending projects in the media are in this category, and I’ve scoured Kickstarter to find some products coming from successful Kickstarter campaigns that you can still back in return for some awesome rewards! Each of these projects has something unique and interesting to offer to a wide variety of consumers everywhere and technology savvy individuals in particular.
Note: My personal favorite is #5!
1. Earin – The Worlds Smallest Wireless Earbuds
Creator: earin
Amount Funded: £892,978
Funding Period: June 13 – July 23 (40 days)
The Earin is a pair of wireless earphones, “for music lovers – and music lovers only.” The project’s founders, including Olle Lindén, wanted to bring people the experience of listening to music without any hassle – no bells, whistles, or flashy features – just simple, amazing sounding music. The world’s first wireless earphones are able to use Bluetooth to connect to your smartphone.
One of the first things I thought about when I came across this project was how easy they would be to lose, but turns out they come with a little capsule for storage! This capsule also charges the devices, which are long lasting and energy efficient.
2. LiquidOff: The Magical, Self-Cleaning, Water Repelling Spray
Creator: Aken Technologies, LLC
Amount Funded: $178,777
Funding Period: Jun 16 – July 19 (33 days)
Never mind just waterproofing your winter boots – now you can waterproof just about anything and save yourself a ton of money and hassle! While I’ve seen similar results to the ones shown in this video (with a product for boots), LiquidOff is stain resistant and has been designed specially to work on many surfaces including fabric.
It also stands out from the competition because is free of harmful chemicals and solvents, does not show, and can extend the use of many of your belongings. Yet another product courtesy of Kickstarter to help make our lives as effortless as possible.
3. SYNEK – Any beer tapped fresh on your counter
Creator: Steve Young
Amount Funded: $580,438
Funding Period: Jun 24 – Jul 24 (30 days)
SYNEK is a draft system that is essentially a KEURIG for beer. With a machine about the size and weight of a toaster, individuals can fill up the patent pending bag with any type of beer they want and serve it cold and perfectly pressurized from anywhere that has an outlet! This project has received a lot of media coverage, and one of the big positives is the reduced cost of beer from saving on the cost of putting it in bottles or cans.
Another plus is you get beer fresh from the tap and it lasts a lot longer than regular packaging. I can only imagine the joy of beer lovers everywhere when they discover that the SYNEK can bring the great experience of their favorite beer on tap right to their homes and at the push of a button!
4. Novi Security
Creator: Novi Security, Inc.
Amount Funded: $137,416
Funding Period: June 24 – July 24 (29 days)
Novi Security is attempting to change the home security industry by bringing consumers a device that you only have to buy once, does not include any long term contracts, is portable, and installs easily. The workers at Novi Security asked individuals what they wanted from their home security system, from which they came up with some of its main features which include: a high definition night vision camera, smoke detector, battery operator monitor, and can connect to several users’ smartphones.
The device helps avoid false alarms getting through to police by automatically taking a picture when it detects something and sending it to your smart phone, from which you can decide what action to take. The device can also learn your habits and adapt its responses based on your routine.
5. SplatterTec Shirt by PRISMATIK: Cold-activated color change.
Creator: Glenn Small + PRISMATIK
Amount Funded: $36,988
Funding Period: June 18 – July 21 (32 days)
The SplatterTec Shirt is a line of t-shirts that change color when cold, and change back when warm. Unlike many other color-changing products on the market, the SplatterTec Shirt by PRISMATIK is not activated by cold rather than warmth and has a more intense color change. The goal of this project is to bring more color to our lives and to encourage people of all ages to engage in outdoor play and exploration.
6. Nanoleaf Bloom: The first bulb that dims without a dimmer
Creator: Gimmy Chu, Tom Rodinger, Christian Yan
Amount Funded: $76,071
Funding Period: July 14 – September 12 (60 days)
From the creators of another recently successful Kickstarter project, NanoLight – The world’s most energy efficient light bulb, comes the Nanoleaf Bloom. The Nanoleaf Bloom was created to help further the cause of reducing the global energy consumption, and is the first light bulb that dims without a dimmer. Instead it uses a regular on/off switch with a microprocessor.
All you need to do is flip the switch up and down until you reach the desired brightness. A few other features that are included in the design are the use of non-toxic materials, non-flickering, high quality light with a long lifespan.
7. NudeAudio Super-M
Creator: Peter Riering-Czekalla
Amount Funded: $146,895
Funding Period: July 16 – August 15 (30 days)
The NudeAudio Super-M is a wireless Bluetooth speaker with an 8 hour battery. The device is small enough to fit in your pocket, and is water and sand proof (worry-free music on the beach!). In order to deliver the durability and cost efficiency needed to produce a wireless speaker to stand out from the crowd, the team behind this project decided to focus on keeping it small and simple. With many good reviews from the media and prominent individuals in the music industry, this looks like a another product that many music enthusiasts will love.
Conclusion
This list shows us that there is a wide range of projects in the technology category that are finding success using Kickstarter’s crowdfunding model. While many of these projects are making use of new technology and making improvements to old devices, others are taking advantage of new technology in creative ways and to help make life easier. As we can see from taking a look at these products energy efficiency, safety, and non-toxic designs are also popular and recurrent themes in the projects that dominate in the technology category.
