Drones, electric shocks and Amigas: Ten Kickstarter and Indiegogo gems for October 2014
From mini drones to wearables that electrocute you when you're bad, these are the projects you should throw your money at
Crowdfunding sites are littered with dodgy ideas – petrol-powered toothbrush! Solar kettle! Unicorn detector! – but there are also plenty of treasures buried amongst the dregs.
It’s a big business, but more often than not it’s also a great way for independent creators to test the water when it comes to their ideas.
Put something online, see if enough people bite, and you know you can make your product without fear of losing your entire life’s savings. Whether it’s a cool drone, electronics kit, pet-tracker, or a wearable that gives you an electric shock if you don’t get your butt to the gym, there’s plenty of projects worthy of your cash.
We’ve rounded up ten interesting projects gasping for your money right now. Happy spending.
1. Bttn (from US$100)
Described by its creators as the “simplest internet user interface in the world,” bttn (pronounced ‘button’, unsurprisingly) is designed to make technology more accessible, fun and human. A bttn can be connected to the web via 3G or Wi-Fi and set to perform predefined tasks, such as sending messages, controlling smart home devices, or triggering IFTTT recipes.
This means it could be used to set your home up once you get back from work, as a means for a child to let parents know they’ve gotten home safely, or just tweet “I’ve got a bttn” every time you pound it with your fist.
2. Commodore Amiga: a visual ‘commpendium’ (from £10)
Following on from its successfully funded C64 predecessor, this tome focuses on the art and imagery within classic Commodore Amiga games and demos. It’s full of luscious pixel art and photography, along with short reviews and quotes from original Amiga developers like Dan Malone and Ron Gilbert.
Edited by Edge launch editor (and also Zzap!64 and Amiga Format alumni) Steve Jarratt, the book will comprise a minimum of 264 pages of Lemmings, SWOS, Speedball II and Turrican goodness, along with a whole lot more.
3. PlexiDrone (from US$700)
PlexiDrone is all about bringing drones to the masses through making the technology relatively affordable and very accessible. The kit fits in a backpack-sized ‘Plexi-pack’ and takes about a minute to snap together.
After that point, it’s controlled by your smartphone and can be ordered to follow the user via GPS. There are obvious applications for commerce and sports, but the creators seem especially keen on having drones inspire people to make films — building bridges through creativity rather than blowing them up.
4. Pavlok (from US$150)
You know you’re in for an interesting crowdsourcing video when a creator begins: “Now, I know that electric shocks sound crazy…” But this wearable, co-created by the guy who invented Lego Mindstorms, is more than about shocking (both figuratively and literally) — it aims to shift willpower in order to urge you on to better habits.
Despite the Indiegogo page being full of videos and words, precisely how Pavlok does this seems a bit vague, but it apparently includes punishing you through online shaming, fines, or allowing your friends to shock you from across the web. If that all sounds a bit much, Olive takes wearables in the opposite direction, aiming to help you beat stress (and all without electric shocks).
5. Canviz (from US$250)
Starting out with the idea of creating Harry Potter-style ‘living portraits’, the creators of Canviz ended up with a digital canvas. In essence, it’s ultimately a giant digital photo frame, but one that moves far beyond the typically small, plastic ones dotted around living rooms everywhere.
Instead, your outlay gets you a 22- or 40-inch wood-framed display, to which you can send content from your own collection or the Canviz gallery. This content can change at specific times, for example, showing weather and traffic information before you leave for work, and then looping your favourite art in the evenings. Namely: Cat in a Happy Meal Box, artist CrazyCatL4dy88.
6. CoinGuard (from US$45)
CoinGuard is a personal home security system based around motion. Place your CoinGuard on top of anything you’d like it to protect, and it’ll let you know if anything should be tampered with. The system comprises a coin-sized wireless sensor, a gateway to link to your home network, a cloud-based monitoring system, and an app.
Sadly, the developer omitted a laser to take the face off of any unwitting burglar, but we’re working on a homemade hack to rectify this problem.
7. SAM (from £45)
Billed as the ultimate electronics kit for inventors, artists and students, SAM feels very much part of that modern-day revival of old-school ‘getting your hands dirty’ hardware. However, it works on the basis of a family of building blocks that talk without wires, enabling you to consign the soldering iron and burnt fingers to a dark, dusty drawer.
The blocks include buttons, buzzers, lights, motors and servos, and have been roadtested with children and adults, to prove how quickly they can make ideas a reality — handy when you consider by 2020 there will be 50 billion web-enabled devices and plenty of opportunities for people who know what to do with them.
8. Pod (from US$160)
Pets go missing all the time. Pod’s creator last year lost Rango, his “best friend in the world and possibly the coolest cat on the planet”. Determined to prevent others going through the same experience, he fashioned the Pod. It’s a sleek, simple GPS tracker, which can be attached to a collar, enabling you to instantly locate a wandering cat or missing dog.
It’s fully waterproof, and also has the means to log your pet’s activity, in case you think Fido’s been taking in too many biscuits and lagging a bit on walkies.
9. Axent Wear Cat Ear Headphones (from US$150)
OK, we’ll be honest here: when we’re shopping for a new pair of headphones, certain things are never at the top of our list or, indeed, on our list at all; things like “fully functional cat-ear-shaped external speakers”, “bright LED accent lights”, and a microphone.
But here’s the Axent Wear, seemingly fresh in from a bonkers Anime. It was dreamed up by animators, who believe because music plays a big role in people’s lives, it would be “great to share that music with your friends and family”. If such digital caterwauling appeals to you, you can choose from a range of colours and even blow ten grand on the highest-end crazy custom headgear option.
10. Pi-Top Raspberry Pi laptop (from US$210)
Despite its name, Pi-Top isn’t a delicious basketball trainer/baked pastry hybrid.
Instead, it’s a Raspberry Pi-powered laptop kit, which has everything you need to forge your own notebook, including lessons on electronics, the ability to create Printed Circuit Boards and 3D print objects.
It comes with an injection-moulded case and 3D printing files too, letting you have the satisfaction of looking at a laptop and fondly whispering "I made this" to yourself.
READ MORE: These are the best smartphones in the world right now
Craig Grannell
Contributor 
