Microcontrollers and other electronics components have been getting smaller and cheaper. A company called Ynvisible proves that these parts can be made much thinner as well. The company recently launched a Kickstarter fundraiser for Printoo, a set of modular electronics that are paper-thin and flexible.
Ynvisible partnered with other electronics manufacturers to create an open source Arduino-compatible platform. The company has skinny versions of everything from a microcontroller board to a battery.
Aside from finalizing the design of its flexible boards and lining up suppliers, it looks like the company has finished much of the work even before they set up the fundraiser.
Pledge at least $45 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Printoo kit as a reward; higher pledges have more robust kits as rewards.
Google has been showing off its Project Ara modular smartphone in a lot more detail over the past few days, likely because it’s also hosting a developer conference for the device this week. Ara uses interchangeable modules to deliver a smartphone that can be whatever a user wants it to be, complete with first- and third-party components including sensors, cameras, radio antennas and more.… Read More
Google is taking its Ara modular smartphone platform increasingly seriously, and now in interviews with Time it has revealed that it aims to sell a simple version of the phone for as little as $50.
A watch is an opportunity to show something about yourself, and San Francisco-based Modify, a three-year-old startup offering custom-designed products, wants to make it easy for anyone to upload images of their choosing to make their own custom-designed, modular watch faces. They’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to help them raise cash for their Modify Watches project, which will also… Read More
When you live in a closet-sized city apartment, it’s no fun to cook in a teeny, tiny cramped kitchen. But a kitchen completely hidden behind lovely wood cabinets when not in use? That’s kind of ingenious.
A few months ago we checked out an iPhone case that had several add-ons with different functions. The Pivothead SMART glasses have a very similar feature. The glasses have two microUSB ports – one at the end of each temple – from which you can attach small accessories called Smart Mods.
Unlike Google Glass, which has a heads up display to present detailed visual information, Pivothead SMART uses LED guides to display notifications and other basic data. That’s because the glasses are not really designed to be wearable personal computers like Glass. Instead, they’re taking on wearable cameras like the GoPro (though to some extent Google Glass falls into that bucket as well). For starters, it has a camera with an 8mp Sony CMOS sensor that can record 1080p video at 30fps. It has still, burst and time-lapse modes and auto, fixed and macro focus presets.
By default, the Pivothead SMART has 16GB storage and a battery good for an hour of continuous video recording. Here’s where the Smart Mods come in.
The Fuel Mod is a battery pack that adds more power to the glasses, equivalent to two more hours of continuous video recording. The Live Mod adds a MicroSD slot, but that’s actually just a bonus feature of the add-on. The main feature of Live Mod is that it allows the glasses to stream full HD video via Wi-Fi to a desktop computer, mobile device or to the web.
Even though Pivothead wants to be the next GoPro, its Air Mod has the potential to make it more versatile. The Air Mod add-on has the same features as the Live Mod add-on – i.e. streaming and a MicroSD slot – but it’s also much more than that. It’s actually a tiny, display-less Android device, with a dual-core 1.3GHz ARM A7 CPU, WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS and a host of sensors.
The idea is for developers to make apps that will run on the Air Mod, which will in turn enhance the functionality of the glasses. The video above showed a couple of concept apps for the Air Mod, such as a boarding pass scanner and an app that can analyze street signs.
Pledge at least $229 (USD) on Indiegogo to get a pair of Pivothead SMART glasses without any Smart Mods. You’ll need to pledge at least $409 to get the glasses and all three Smart Mods. The Smart Mods are also available as separate rewards. The Air Mod will – like any mobile device – live and die by its app ecosystem, but at least it’s an optional purchase. The glasses are still quite useful on their own.
Overall this seems to be a really promising device, but its makers need to find a way to explain its features to everyday consumers if they really want it to take off like GoPro cameras.
The ol’ keyboard and mouse combo have proven nearly as versatile as personal computers themselves, but there are still cases when a more responsive or intuitive physical interface is needed. For example, many musicians today use MIDI controllers and sequencers. Palette aims to be that alternative interface to computers, and one that adapts to your needs.
Palette is a nearly infinitely expandable control interface. It has a power module that connects to computers via USB and control modules – buttons, knobs and sliders – that connect to the power module and to each other. Each module has two RGB LEDs that shine through its perimeter, and you’ll be able to customize the way those LEDs light up. Speaking of customization, the power module also has an OLED screen that displays the profile you’re currently using for your setup.
When it launches, Palette will support only OS X and a few programs – the Adobe Creative Suite, DJ software like Ableton and Traktor plus a few “basic web apps” – but its inventors are working on an SDK so that developers can make their programs compatible with Palette. That will be crucial to the success of this system. And if Palette does take off, we can expect more modules to come out, such as joysticks, jog dials and more. I think this has the potential to be revolutionary. It can help not just professionals but non-techies and perhaps even disable people as well.
Pledge at least $89 (CAD) (~$84 USD) on Kickstarter to get a four module Palette kit as a reward. Higher pledges get you more control modules, and there’s even a reward tier for modules with wooden cases. I’d love for Palette to be compatible with mobile devices. Imagine playing a light DJ set using only your tablet and your Palette setup, or playing Spaceteam with real controls.
If you hang around here much, you know we love our LEGO, and we also have an affinity for DIY robotics. A company called Atoms has announced its modular robotics building kits are now available to purchase. You can buy these kits as individual blocks serving different purposes such as Bluetooth connectivity and more. The most interesting products offered are a couple of robot kits that come with everything you need to build complete ‘bots.
Atoms calls these two kits Quarks, specifically they are the Bunsen set and the Pascal set. Bunsen is the blue robot with the two green wheels. The kit sells for $79.99 and includes a light sensor, a control knob, a battery, a splitter, a motor, and an audio recorder. The robot kit is designed to be buildable by children ages six and up as well as adults. The kit also includes required wires and six challenge cards.
The other kit is Pascal, a smartphone-controlled, Wall-E-like little yellow robot with tank treads on each side. This kit includes a number of pieces such as a light sensor, Bluetooth, a pair of medium motors, and more. The Pascal kit costs $119.
One of the coolest things about Atoms is that they’re designed to snap together not just with other Atoms blocks, but with LEGO bricks.
If you order now, delivery is estimated by December 20 so your kids could still have a robotic Christmas.
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Google has been showing off its Project Ara modular smartphone in a lot more detail over the past few days, likely because it’s also hosting a developer conference for the device this week. Ara uses interchangeable modules to deliver a smartphone that can be whatever a user wants it to be, complete with first- and third-party components including sensors, cameras, radio antennas and more.… 
