Kickstarter

Inventist, the creative mind behind such contraptions as the Solowheel and Hydroglider, is back with something it calls the Hovertrax. Unfortunately not the Marty McFly-like personal hover vessel the name implies, Hovertrax is more akin to a smaller, lighter Segway-like personal transporter. The small, hands-free device is designed to be both easy to carry and easy to use.  Read More

A good wool shirt is awesome, but would you wear one for 100 days straight without washing it? Kickstarter startup Wool & Prince claims that you can do exactly that with its buttondown shirts, which it handed out to 15 “wear testers” who wore them while engaging in such activities as backpacking in the Andes and dancing in "Tropical" NYC clubs. According to the makers, the shirts not only proved durable, but still looked – and smelled – fresh after over three months of straight wear.  Read More

RobotLabs has launched a KickStarter campaign to develop a robot lawnmower. Though that may not sound particularly new, the company claims other automated lawnmowers aren't true robots because they don't adhere to Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. In other words, they're not safe enough, RobotLabs claims. RobotLabs claims its SmartMow is different, shutting down almost instantaneously when people or animals get close.  Read More

In the last week, over 3,000 people on Kickstarter ignored the fact it's next to impossible to keep a houseplant alive and backed the now fully-funded "Glowing Plants: Natural Lighting with no Electricity" campaign. The funds will be used to build upon existing technology and create a transgenic plant that has a soft blue-green glow to act as an electricity-free nightlight. Backer rewards, each glowing, include an arabidopsis plant, a rose plant, and arabidopsis seeds. We check in as the Glowing Plants team heads towards their first stretch goal and look at how this project is part of a bigger trend in DIY biology. But be warned: this is not your grandma's seed catalog.  Read More

Los Angeles industrial designer and keen guitarist Mark Andersen says that close examination of playing patterns has revealed that the current knob/switch setup on most electric guitars results in "conflicting motion paths" when the player needs to tweak the tone or volume, or select a different pickup. His answer is to replace the pots and switches with a pair of touch panels on the pick guard, to convert your Strat-shaped axe into a Touchmark Guitar.  Read More

The way many of us consume food has changed dramatically in recent years, with family meals around a table less common than they once were. The Ripple is a response to this evolution in eating trends, combining a bowl and a plate, and adding a handle for good measure.  Read More

Project Piola is combining the ethos of fair trade and the French design flair to create shoes with organic rubber and cotton from Peru.  Read More

There are already plenty of telephoto lenses that you can add onto the lens port of your smartphone case, but Honolulu-based inventors Daniel Fujikake and Mac Nguyen have come up with an alternative. Their Snapzoom device is a universal adapter mount, that lets you use your existing binoculars to bring your smartphone closer to the action.  Read More

The latest LED lighting product to hit Kickstarter, Klauf Light Bars are semi-portable, low-cost LED strips which can be connected end-to-end more or less straight out of the box. They come in 6-inch and 12-inch (15 and 30 cm) lengths, which can be arranged as you like up to a length of 15 feet (or about 4.5 meters). They can either be slotted together directly or connected with cables, which is handy if you intend to install them under kitchen cabinets which extend around a corner (recommended), or make giant illuminating nunchaku (less so).  Read More