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 no shortage of weird, useless, and downright stupid projects out there — alongside some real gems. We’ve cut through the fidget spinners and janky iPhone cases to round up the most unusual, ambitious, and exciting new crowdfunding projects out there this week. Keep in mind that any crowdfunding project — even those with the best intentions — can fail, so do your homework before cutting a check for the gadget of your dreams.
June 23
It can be hard for adults who’ve never played instruments before to get into it. Whether you don’t have the time or money for lessons, or simply feel weird about taking lessons as an adult, getting started can be daunting. The Lumi keyboard offers a modern way to learn to play piano on your own. The keys actually light up to indicate which ones you should play at any given moment, and the accompanying app lets you select familiar songs to play, with the notes on screen sliding down toward the instrument a la Guitar Hero. You can also view the songs in the form of sheet music. The keyboard itself is small enough to take on the go, but if you want the full grand piano experience you can connect multiple Lumi models to form ever longer keyboards. We loved previous Kickstarter success Fret Zealot, which used lights to teach users guitar, and the Lumikeyboard looks like a wonderful take on the idea for aspiring piano players.
The Nintendo Switch is cool and all, but what if there was a handheld console that included the tools to build your own games? That’s what the creators of 32blit are offering: A retro-style handheld console that people can develop their own games for. 32blit’s developers are including a trove of assets for users to play with. Including sprites, sound effects, and music tracks, as well as tutorials for various aspects of game development like collision detection or lighting effects. It looks like a perfect console for those with a fondness for the days of the Nintendo/Sega console wars, and if it develops a good community, who knows what games might come out of it?
As the impact of climate change becomes more severe, people are looking for ways to live greener. The sun is a great source of clean energy, but for many people, the thought of installing solar panels on their roofs — if they even own said roof — is enough to give a headache. The people at Grouphug want to make solar energy accessible for anyone who wants it, even if they’re living in a sardine can apartment with only one window. Housed in a humble wooden frame, the solar panel hangs easily in a window, harvesting the sun’s light and conveying it, via USB port, to gadgets such as phones, tablets, etc. It takes an estimated 8 to 10 hours to fully charge, and Grouphug claims that a full battery can charge an iPhone twice.
If you look out at the ocean on any given day, you may see a vast expanse of gorgeous, wine-dark water. What you might not see, however, is the microplastics beneath the surface. A disturbing amount of the world’s plastic ends up in the ocean, broken down into tiny particles known as microplastics. These particles can end up in the bodies of marine life that eat them, and this is a problem not just for aquatic organisms, but for people who rely on them for food. For those who want to study microplastics in their area, Public Lab has a solution: BabyLegs, a DIY research trawl that allows users to comb their local waters for microplastics. Comprising simple ingredients — including baby tights and soda bottles, among other things — it’s a clever tool for studying ocean pollution, suited for students or researchers who want to investigate the water around them.
Pens are useful for drawing art; what’s cool about Magnetips is that the pens themselves can be art, too. Magnetips has already had a successful campaign for a previous model of magnetic pen, and now its creators are back, this time offering gel pens (in 20 different colors), with 0.7mm tips that are good for writing or drawing. That’s fine if you’re looking for a typical pen, but what makes Magnetips unique is that they contain powerful magnets that make these writing utensils fun toys for playing around with. Whether you want to fidget with one or assemble a bunch of them into a weird contraption, these pens are a nifty addition to any artist’s arsenal.
