[HH] CES: TechCrunch Hardware Battlefield

[Tom Metro]

At CES TechCrunch ran a "Hardware Battlefield" where 11 hardware
startups (most running crowdfunding campaigns) got to pitch their
products to a panel of judges. They put together a playlist of all their
Hardware Battlefield videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE

Among the more interesting entrants are:

The Pocket Drone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyvfu23eMOQ&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=3

A 3-rotor drone where the rotor blades and the 3 arms fold up so you can
fit the drone into a pocket. (They specify a "cargo pants pocket", so
not exactly tiny, but probably smaller than anything else with the same
lift capability.) It has enough power to carry a GoPro camera, run for
20-minutes, and includes built-in flight intelligence and GPS
navigation. The expected price is $500.


Modbot Robot Building
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U9LwsphEjY&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=6

A modular robot building kit consisting of cylindrical servos (with
integrated driver and position sensor), tubes, and connectors. They
pitch it as if you can build "anything" with it, but clearly it is aimed
at building articulated arms. They supply open source drivers for
Arduino and other open hardware platforms.


CubeSensor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEjiANh6nVY&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=9

These are small, stylish boxes about 1.5" square that contain a bunch of
sensors, such as light, sound, temperature, humidity, barometric
pressure, and air quality (detects volatile compounds). They're intended
to measure environmental conditions that have the most impact people.
They have some sort of mesh networking built-in and I think bridge to
WiFi for accessing the sensor data. They also have a built-in
multi-color LED to give an overall assessment of the environmental quality.

While you can capture lots of data from them, it's less clear whether
that will lead to many compelling applications. One suggested use is
that they can predict your chance of catching the flu in a monitored
area, as they capture all the attributes needed to go into a prediction
formula for that (temperature, humidity, occupancy density). The
founders wife says she uses then to tell her when it is time to air out
the house. It seems more likely they'll end up as a niche product used
by indoor air quality consultants to monitor office buildings.

I believe the price on these was $300 for a 3-pack. CubeSensor won the
Hardware Battlefield competition.


Driblet Water Usage Monitor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isCKuSrPZFk&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=8

I've seen some water flow measuring devices that attach non-invasively
to an existing pipe, but this one requires plumbing in a sensor
(internally uses an impeller). On the upside, it generates power from
the water flow, and thus doesn't need a power source. It captures flow
and temperature and makes it available via WiFi. They have an app that
asks you about your household size (number of people, etc.) and then
will recommend a target water usage to hit in order to achieve
conservation. They envision multiple sensors being used to monitor
showers, sinks, and irrigation, rather than one unit for an entire
house. (That also means for locations where you have hot and cold, you
either need to use two devices, or plumb it in after the mixing occurs.
A future version might be integrated into a shower head.) It is expected
to sell for $80.



Also...

Fin's Gesture Control (A ring you wear on a finger that detects gestures
and communicates with a device via Bluetooth.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvq6gOKkow8&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=4

The Urb-E Scooter (A fold-up electric scooter to get you the last mile
of your commute from the bus or train to your office.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keSgqmID0SQ&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLHRxVckaE8daod0OJat8CMWIFtgLQUHwR

LiveMap Motorcycle Heads Up Display (GPS navigation you attach to a
helmet; the prototype looks like they mounted a small square of
plexiglas in the rider's line of vision, and aimed a pico projector at
it; production version will have everything integrated into a helmet
selling for $1500; also includes Bluetooth headset and video recording
capability.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUV5rwzm5kI&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=13

Health2Sync (An adapter that interfaces to a bunch of glucose meters and
converts the digital output from the meters into an analog audio signal
that then gets fed into the audio-in jack of an iPhone so the data can
be tracked and shared with health professionals; seems very lame that 4+
years after the introduction of the smartphone that we still have no
universal interface for peripherals and have to resort to hacks like this.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j83BSoowEIo&list=PLHRxVckaE8dYkZrZ4uDT3EdYuZaMY1bxE&index=12

 -Tom