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.
Moment – high-quality smartphone camera lenses
There’s definitely no shortage of detachable camera lenses for your smartphone. Kickstarter and Indiegogo have seen dozens of them come and go over the past few years, but Moment puts them all to shame. The team behind the project got its start making high-end lenses for 4K cinema, and now they’ve taken all that design and engineering expertise and applied it to smartphone lenses. With these badboys – which are currently compatible with iPhones, iPads, and Samsung Galaxy S2, 3, and 4 – you won’t get any image distortion, chromatic aberration, or blurring around the edges of your photos.
Teo – smart padlock
If people keep developing smart locks at such a feverish pace, physical keys may very well be obsolete in a couple years. In 2013 alone we saw the rise of a handful of smart door locks, a bevy of bike locks, and now padlocks are becoming smarter as well. Teo is the latest iteration of the smart lock concept. Much like other devices in this category, it communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth low energy, and will unlock whenever you come near it. Additionally, thanks to the lock’s companion app, you can send digital keys to friends and family and give them access to your secured items no matter where you are in the world.
BeatBuddy – guitar pedal drum machine
Think of BeatBuddy as a tabletop drum machine or a live drummer, but packed down into the familiar and convenient shape of a guitar pedal. Despite how awkward the pitch video is, the dude delivering it hits the nail on the head about how cumbersome and impractical other methods are. BeatBuddy aims to simplify the process, and just might be the hands-free drum machine guitar players have been waiting for. Set the tempo, and a pre-programmed beat starts up. Give it a tap, and you can transition to a chorus beat. Using an external footswitch you can also add flourishes like hand claps. The pedal ships with 200 ready-to-go beats on board, and you can also connect it to your computer and load it up with custom beats you’ve created yourself.
InAir – 3D augmented television
Personally, I’ve never really seen the point of 3D TV. In my experience, it doesn’t really enhance the viewing experience all that much – but if this new 3D augumented TV ever comes to fruition, I might be willing to reconsider. Here’s how it works: When activated in 3D mode, layers of Internet content will appear onscreen, positioned in front of the original frame, and can be dynamically manipulated by the viewer. These foreground layers of information appear to be holograms, that float in the air, allowing you to access other streams of information without completely interrupting whatever you’re watching.
Stabil i4 – robotic camera stabilizer
The difference between a good shot and a great shot is stability. The only problem, however, is that keeping a handheld shot stable when you’re moving around is ridiculously difficult – unless you’ve got the proper equipment. The Stabil i4 is a robotic 3-axis camera stabilizer that utilizes 3 brushless motors and a state-of-the-art customized microprocessor paired to a gyroscope to eliminate jerks and shakes in your footage. This results in buttery smooth video footage, no matter how crazy your shot gets. In comparison to other stabilizers on the market, it’s also relatively inexpensive.
