A spacesuit, a pocket TV and a 3D Printer. What do these three things have in common? They’re all part of this week’s crowdfunding round-up and every bit of cool. While many Kickstarter project revolve around the arts and film industry, we like to feature the tech finds that are making Kickstarter a perfect place to get your idea off the ground and provide a little inspiration to boot. Here’s what we came across this week.
Final Frontier Design’s 3G Space Suit
Private spacefaring is here – just make sure you pack the right spacesuit. Final Frontier Design of Brooklyn, NY (a hot-bed of Spaceflight research, it seems) is working on their vision of a ‘lightweight, inexpensive, and highly functional space suit to the new space industry.’ Wow – forget space food – this is actually something I’d buy. Oh, the whole suit costs 10K. Expensive, but not a whole lot for the likes of Richard Branson or Peter Theil. For smaller donations, your perk includes patches, Tshirts, helmets and something called the Valsalva device (for plugging your nose to clear your ears.) I can’t wait for the “Kickstart my Space Program”. Its only a matter of time! At the time of writing, FFD’s campaign was sitting at 5,553 of its 20K goal. July 15th is the deadline. Get in on it!
Pocket TV: Make your dumb TV smarter
A pocket computer! Genius! This small, USB key-like device plugs into the HDMI slot on a regular TV. Use apps, watch Youtube, play Angry Birds, do presentations, browse the web, etc. The entire experience is controlled by an air remote – a tiny keyboard complete with gyroscope to allow for Wii-like gesture control of the mouse. Very legit! One of these devices goes for $110. You have until July 9th to lock in your purchase.
The Vision 3D Printer
Now this, is one of the sexier 3D printers I’ve seen. The Vision 3D Printer is made from laser-cut acrylic and backlit by LED strips that make it part-printer, part-cocktail bar. The design: simple. The assembly: Easy like IKEA. The goods: cubic foot of print-tastic bed space! The price: $750. Although it’s ‘just another 3D printer’, if you want something that looks almost artistic, yet strapped for cash and don’t want to buy and build a Reprap, go with the Vision. You have until June 28th at 2:20 am EDT to make it happen!
